My car washing process - please critique and make suggestions

[audia4guy]

Here`s my car washing process. I do it in two

steps.

STEP 1:

I ALWAYS WASH MY WHEELS AND WHEEL WELLS FIRST. USE AN

OLDER WASH MIT FOR THIS STEP.

1) Fill up 2 buckets of warm soapy water. Any good

name brand car soap is fine.

2) Give the wheels and wheel wells a good blast of

water.

3) Spray wheel wells liberally with Simple Green to

loosen up any gunk.

4) Go over one wheel well at a time, rinsing your wash

mit as you to. Then do your wheels and tires.

5) I like to apply a coat of Zaino to my wheels every

month or so. In between washes,,, Eagle 1`s "wax as

you dry" works nicely. It really makes getting brake

dust off wheels easy.

*** Completely dump out buckets and make sure they are

clean. Washing the wheels and wheel wells typically is

much dirtier than washing your entire car,, so this is

why I do this in two steps.

6) Go inside and drink a beer.

STEP 2:

1) Fill up 2 new buckets of warm soapy water. Any good

name brand car soap is fine.

2) Take nozzle off of hose and completely drench the

car.

3) Put nozzle back on car and set to "Center or

Stream" (I do have a fancy nozzle with a bunch of

settings) to spray off as much dirt as possible that

might be standing on the paint. I like a pretty strong

stream of water to blast the paint down. **A pressure

washer would be awesome,,, I`m just too lazy to hook

it up and have it run constantly.

4) Starting from the top of the car, wring out your

wash mit 3-4 times on the top of the car letting warm

soapy water run all over the roof of your car.

5) Make a pass or two on the roof and rinse in your

rinse bucket. Repeat if necessary.

6) Once you have cleaned your roof, get out your hose

and drench the car.

****Continue to do this on your entire car, doing one

panel at a time. I like to wring out a full soapy wash

mit on every panel to help "loosen" up any dirt that

might be there. Depending upon how dirty the car is,

it doesn`t hurt anything to wash each panel twice.

On the first pass with your wash mit, use very little

pressure so you`re not pushing any dirt into the

paint. On your second pass after a rinse, feel free to

apply a little more pressure to make sure you`re

getting off any dirt.****

8) On my final rinse, I take off my nozzle and let the

hose run fully on my car to make sure there isn`t any

soap lingering.

---------- THIS IS JUST MY WASHING TECHNIQUE. Drying

is another topic all together. :)

[AlexRuiz]

Good technique. You mention a lot of good point:



- I also noticed that wheels first work better. However, sometimes I leave them for last (lazyness or time constraints) because if I start with them I take too long.

- 2 passes per panel is good, specially for dirty stuff.

- Wringing out soap into the paint help to loosen dirt.

- Trying to take out as mush dirt as you can with the hose before washing.

- However, the point I like the most is this: Go inside and drink a beer. How about 2 beers?





Alex



PS. Welcome to the forums

[Bill D]

When you see me posting on a wash thread you know there`s going to be mention of a foam gun;) :o



I`d highly suggest one, makes the wash process more fool proof and even easier. Cons, well you are running your water through it all the time and it`s not too cheap of tool that is a PITA to buy even online :(

[audia4guy]

I`m wondering how much more useful a foam gun would be than squeezing out a few full washmit`s of soapy water over a panel would be. I like to get it nice and soapy, make a pass or two, rinse mit, get it soapy again and then repeat on every panel. I guess I need to "see" how a foam gun would be better. Any links or pix of one in action?

[Bill D]

Somewhere here as well as on Detail City on one of the threads on foam guns there are pics. You can`t maintain a constant, cleaning ,lubricating stream of soap by squeezing the water over the panel. I really wish you could otherwise I wouldn`t have bought the gun. But for hard paint like Audi clear, it`s extremely important to me to minimize the risk of marring of anyt kind as much as I can.



I will admit it is a rather extreme way to go about washing but sometimes maintaining an extremely detailed appearance just calls for extreme measures to keep it that way :D ;)

[audia4guy]

I`m right there with ya, Bill... Nothings too extreme when it comes to my Audi.. Here`s a couple pix of it,,

http://public.fotki.com/thecoolestguyalive/my_avant/

[VictoryRed]

What kind of foam gun do you use bill D?

[Bill D]

Mine`s made by Gilmour. Check out the threads on foam guns, lots of good info in them :up

[imported_mirrorfinishman]

Sounds like a good process.



Have you ever given any thought to washing the wheels and wheel wells at the end of the process?

[Bill D]

I always clean theundercarriage,wells and wheels before the finish

[Accumulator]

Mirrorfinishman- Guess it just depends on the environment the vehicle is used in. Around here the wheelwells accumulate all kinds of abrasive stuff (lots of gravel, etc.) and some really nasty dirt. The sort of stuff that you don`t want to get on an otherwise clean car. By doing the dirty bits first you eliminate the possiblility of having to redo the "nice panels" if you get some wheelwell grunge on them.



Also, when I spray out the wheelwells and undercarriage, a lot of water (and dirt that the water carries along) always comes out of body panel seams. Between the quarter panel and rear bumper cover, for instance. Again, it`s a matter of having to redo areas; I only want to deal with them once so I use a sequence that doesn`t require redundancy.



audia4guy- Sounds like you`ve put a lot of thought into the wash process :xyxthumbs



A few suggestions if I may- I`d quit using the Simple Green and use something a more all-finish-friendly. Simple Green has discolored metal items, including "fogging" the finish on clearcoated wheels. I use EFHI instead, diluted a bit. I also find small BHBs handy for cleaning out the nooks and crannies in wheelwells/undercarriages/etc.



Your method of wringing out the mitt to soap up the panel first is good, it`s similar to the "pre-soak" we do with the foamguns.



If you don`t want to try the foamgun, try filling the mitt with soap solution and letting it seep out while you go over the panel (hold the cuff part of the mitt shut and let it gently swing against the panel with only the ends of the nap touching the paint), especially during the first passes. Provides better lubrication/flushing of the surface and less pressure against the dirt.



As Bill D said, with Audi clear it`s smart to avoid marring as best you can. It`s nice to not have to polish vehicles all the time; once a year is plenty for me and I don`t mind doing it less than that ;)

[Intercooled]

Audi4guy,

You mentioned cleaning the wheels first and then applying Zaino to the tires. Do you apply your Z before you wash the rest of the car?

[audia4guy]

Hey Fellas, Sorry it took me so long to reply. I was out of town for the weekend.



mirrorfinishman - I have always done the wheel wells and wheels/tires first. That`s always the dirtiest part of the car and usually the most work. I don`t think there`s necessarily "wrong" with switching up the order. That`s just the way I do things.



Accumulator - About the Simple Green; I ONLY use that on the undercarriage and wheel wells. I won`t use that on the wheels or any painted surface. Great advice on everything else!!!



Intercooled - I usually apply a quick coat of Z2 every two weeks to the wheels after my complete drying process is done. ( I assume you didn`t mean the tires, I usually use Eagle One Tire Wet on the tires)

[audia4guy]

By the way, This group is AWESOME.... I can`t believe it took me so long to start posting here.