How`s my technique

Here is what I`m doing for the paint.

Maintenance wash-
1. fill one small bucket with ph neutral soap and water with a second empty one next to it
2. Rinse with low pressure pressure washer
3. Foam cannon a small section, dip a clean wash mit into the bucket and wash the foamed section.
4. Toss the used mit into the empty bucket
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each section of the car.
6. Rinse the car with the pressure washer
7. Dry and apply a spray wax
8. Wash the mits and towels in the washing machine.

Every 3 months I`m applying a synthetic carunda blend wax.

Every 6 months I use a non ph neutral soap, apply a sealant followed by the blend wax.

What do you more experienced people think?

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Instead of doing sections foam the whole car.
Use a bucket of clean water to rinse mitt after each panel (unless you mean you are using a clean mitt for each section)
I would clay the vehicle before applying a coat of wax.

Depending on what type of synthetic wax you are using the sealant may be unnecessary.

Yup clean mit for each section.

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Wax will stick to almost anything so you can apply over a sealant but it may not last as long as if it were on bare paint. Also be careful that wax is no longer what it used to be. Natural wax is ok but beware of synthetic sealant marketed as wax going on top another sealant. They may or may not play well together.

Maybe once every 6m when you do your decon wash, use iron remover on panels below window seal. Once every 12 m do a gentle clay but that depends where your car lives and how much embedded contaminants it may get.

Apart from the extra (optional) steps mentioned above you are on the right track with your washing routine.

Cheers

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Welcome to Autopia!

I`ll go down through your items and comment, and please let me apologize in advance if I come across as overly critical or don`t word things as sensitively as I oughta.

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Originally Posted by formernuke

Here is what I`m doing for the paint.

Maintenance wash-
1. fill one small bucket with ph neutral soap and water with a second empty one next to it

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A bigger bucket might be better.

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. 2. Rinse with low pressure pressure washer

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Very good!

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3. Foam cannon a small section, dip a clean wash mit into the bucket and wash the foamed section.

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I`d need *FAR* more info about how you do the "wash the foamed section" before I could comment. There are just so many variables involved in "moving a wash mitt across paint to clean it".

Noting that I don`t use a Foam Cannon (but do use a foamGUN every moment my wash media touch the paint), I don`t see how I could wash marring-free doing it the way you are. BUT if you can go ages without seeing any marring during your inspections then you`re doing OK; if NOT then something`s haywire.

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4. Toss the used mit into the empty bucket

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I get why you`re doing that (Autopian Bill D and others do the same kind of thing) but let me ask you this:

You`re retiring it because it`s presumably contaminated, right? But did you already move that contaminated mitt across your paint? I.e., if you moved it across a foot-long area, what if it got contaminated during the first few inches? Then you`ve moved a contaminated mitt across your paint for inches, possibly marring t.

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5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each section of the car.

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How many passes does it take to get things clean? I view it as choosing between:
1) one pass, aggressive enough to get it clean with just that one, maybe so aggressive you mar the paint
2) numerous passes, EXTREMELY gentle, too gentle to clean with just one pass but so gentle that no marring is instilled.

FWIW, I wash each section numerous times and I don`t mean just two or three.

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6. Rinse the car with the pressure washer

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I prefer to rinse with a regular hose as I find *volume* of water to be more useful than the pressure under which it`s sprayed, but that`s just me and I can see why some prefer the opposite.

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7. Dry and apply a spray wax

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Again, lots of variables can factor into what "Dry" means in this context.

I too often use a Spray Wax on one of our vehicles, though I wouldn`t do that on the ones that wear a long-lasting sealant (I use a different Drying Aid on those).

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8. Wash the mits and towels in the washing machine.

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OK, I do that too (I don`t need to wash my mitts very often because they don`t retain any contamination with my wash regimen, but that`s just me and if yours do get soiled then by all means keep laundering them).

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Every 3 months I`m applying a synthetic carunda blend wax.

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I would go nuts doing that so often (although sure I used to do it all the time), preferring products that last an awfully long time.

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Every 6 months I use a non ph neutral soap, apply a sealant followed by the blend wax.

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Same comment; if a sealant only lasted that long I`d switch to something better. But YMMV factors in and vehicles that get used hard might need redoing more often. BUT I`d just use one LSP (Last Step Product, i.e., wax or sealant), period.

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What do you more experienced people think?

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I think that I could discuss Maintenance Washes until you`re sick and tired of the topic ;)

There was zero mention of wheels, nor of the wheelwells/undercarriage/etc. and I`d sure want those areas kept spotless (yes, even on a Daily Driver/beater car..even more important on those IMO). But DON`T WORRY ABOUT WHAT I DO/THINK/RECOMMEND unless you have a reason to! Because...

The bottom line IMO is....Are *you* satisfied with your results?"

If so, then just keep doing it and "never mind" about what we think. If not...if the paint gets marred, if you`re redoing the LSP more often than you`d like, if you want to change something...then I`m sure we can come up with lots of suggestions. BUT don`t change stuff unless you really think you oughta.

I wash panels gently numerous times just like Accumulator. Then I use a fresh mitt on the next panel much like when polishing using multiple pads. Always has resulted in being marring free for me.

I`m foaming to add extra lubricant to the panels.

This car is my daily driver and lives outside. Washing it regularly I haven`t had to wash multiple times to get it clean.

I use very light pressure straight line motions when washing.

I do agree that once you go the first inch you start picking stuff up on the mitts but I`m trying to keep it from getting to the point where it starts marring.

Thanks for all inputs so far.

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Pressure washer rinse: great call, when I started using one it really improved my wash regime. And I`m only using a cheap electric one.

Foam cannon is fine, section by section or foam the whole car. I personally think it`s more important to rinse your wash mitt frequently, or in your case, grab a new one. I`m not sure how many you have but I wouldn`t want to do a dirty car with just two mitts.

One thing I picked up from Accumulator is the idea that your rinse bucket should be almost clean at the end of the wash. I know you`re not using a rinse bucket but the idea is that the more contaminants you remove before you wipe the car the less contaminants there are that can scratch the car. It`s a simple idea and in your case I would take plenty of time with that initial pressure washer washer rinse and pay extra attention to any bugs, bird droppings, leaves, etc. you see that are clearly abrasive.

Final point is don`t chase paint perfection if it`s not important to you. Whether this is a necessary chore or a hobby you enjoy don`t let it own you if it doesn`t need to. Though if you do want to go down the OCD rabbit hole we`re here to help :D

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Originally Posted by DetailZeus

Pressure washer rinse: great call, when I started using one it really improved my wash regime. And I`m only using a cheap electric one.

Foam cannon is fine, section by section or foam the whole car. I personally think it`s more important to rinse your wash mitt frequently, or in your case, grab a new one. I`m not sure how many you have but I wouldn`t want to do a dirty car with just two mitts.

One thing I picked up from Accumulator is the idea that your rinse bucket should be almost clean at the end of the wash. I know you`re not using a rinse bucket but the idea is that the more contaminants you remove before you wipe the car the less contaminates there are that can scratch the car. It`s a simple idea and in your case I would take plenty of time with that initial pressure washer washer rinse and pay extra attention to any bugs, bird droppings, leaves, etc. you see that are clearly abrasive.

Final point is don`t chase paint perfection if it`s not important to you. Whether this is a necessary chore or a hobby you enjoy don`t let it own you if it doesn`t need to. Though if you do want to go down the OCD rabbit hole we`re here to help :D

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It`s a new car and I want to pass it down my 3 year old. Unfortunately living in New England is hard on cars.

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Originally Posted by DetailZeus

One thing I picked up from Accumulator is the idea that your rinse bucket should be almost clean at the end of the wash.

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While apparently not applicable to formernuke, I do think that`s a great way to evaluate how the wash is going. I just can`t buy into the idea that "the dirt gets safely trapped in the wash medium, away from the paint", but I suppose it`s a matter of degree, as is so much of this stuff.

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Originally Posted by formernuke

It`s a new car and I want to pass it down my 3 year old. Unfortunately living in New England is hard on cars.

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That`s just soooo cool of you, to be thinking about it that way. And/but yeah...I sure sympathize with others who have to deal with winter and salt exposure.

Assuming it`s driven year-round (and considering your locale), I`d be *all* about keeping the out-of-sight bits clean. No point in having unmarred shiny paint if it rusts out. I often think that I spend far more time/effort on the parts that only my Tech and I see than I do on the body proper that everybody sees.

I trust you`ve had the more critical areas rustproofed by somebody who genuinely knows what he`s doing (and that`s more rare than one might think!). Some vehicles simply *rust out* unless you take pretty extreme measures, even if *not* driven in the winter and salt/etc. makes it all so much trickier.