Accumulator
Well-known member
It's been over a year since I've posted about these things, and they've come up on other threads. SO...here's my $0.02 and then some:
First, you gotta *INSPECT YOUR BOAR'S HAIR BRUSH BRISTELS FOR ADHESIVE CONTAMINATION. IT WILL SEVERELY MAR YOUR PAINT.* I found it on two (from when they glued in the bristles), sent them back and told them to INSPECT the replacements before sending them! Now I look at mine under magnification before using them.
The biggest concern is probably "will they mar my paint". The answer is "maybe". Would I use them on a freshly polished black car? No. I don't use them on the XJS or my S8. But then it takes me over three hours to wash THOSE cars, using VERY overkill techniques (soap solution siphon-fed through the mitts, etc.). And I still use smaller BHBs for the wheels and the nooks and crannies on EVERY vehicle I wash.
I've checked out the marring potential of these things VERY thoroughly, using highly polished panels, extreme illumination, magnification, etc. The following is based on direct observation, not just conjecture.
Yes, they *CAN* mar certain finishes. SOME paints are just too soft for them. BUT, many clearcoats are NOT too soft; the BHB won't mar them *IF* (and that's a very *BIG* "IF"!!) used correctly. My Mazda, for instance, is always washed with a BHB and after two years of "beater duty", I haven't had to polish it yet! Hardly even any micromarring, and what it does have is random, minor, and isolated. Hard clear on that one! Plus, I don't let it get too dirty and I keep a LOT of SG on it. On Accumulatorette's A8, I'll get a LITTLE marring from washing it with the BHB. About the same as I got with a mitt using normal, Autopian, two-bucket techniques. The sorta barely-noticeable, general stuff that's usually considered inevitable with year-round drivers, nothing a PC and very mild polishes won't remove quickly and easily. I have to polish it every year or so to keep it nice enough for me.
The big problem with BHBs is that people are seduced by the ease with which one can do a quick wash with them. Quick washes with a BHB will usually mar the paint, sometimes quite badly (but usually not too DEEPLY). Gotta exercise self-discipline and use 'em right. The APPARENT advantages (that you can cover a lot of area quickly, that they hold a lot of solution) are actually temptations to fall victim to the BHB's potential PITFALLS.
Biggest problem- dirt doesn't migrate up the bristles or get captured/caught up (away from the paint) as it does with a mitt. It's not that the wet, soap-lubed hair itself is too harsh for most automotive paint. It's the dirt getting dragged across it by the bristles that does the marring.
So if the vehicle is very dirty, and doesn't have protection on it that lets dirt (easily) slide off, marring is probable, perhaps inevitable.
To use a BHB safely: Gotta use a high-lubricity wash solution (slipperier than Gold Class, for instance), and lots of it. I like a pre-soak, too. Gotta just BARELY touch the surface, "whisking" the dirt away with LOTS of solution (I'll sometimes spray wash solution through the brush with a shower-foam gun while doing this if the panel's really dirty). If you're pressing hard enough to really bend the tips of the bristles, you're risking marring- that's NOT the right way to do it. GOTTA rinse the BHB and the panel FREQUENTLY (people try to wash a whole panel without rinsing and redunking the brush in wash solution- bad idea). I always wash/rinse a panel at least twice. I might rinse/dunk the brush four or six times for EACH wash/rinse, too. It doesn't go too fast.
FOr many people, all this might add up to the BHB being no easier to use than a mitt, maybe even more difficult. It's easier *FOR ME* because I've used them for over 20 years and am thus accustomed to them. And *I* just like using a brush better than using a mitt (which I still do on the XJS and the S8).
The only REAL *ADVANTAGE* to the BHB, for most people, is its free-rinsing nature. Dirt just doesn't stick to those bristles the way it can get trapped in a mitt. When I use mitts, I'll use at least four of them per vehicle (only using them on the paint) because there's always some contamination that just doesn't rinse out.
Another BHB application is vehicles that are gonna get polished anyhow. Anthony O. uses them for this. The marring you CAN get from a BHB is seldom anything serious. If you're gonna polish anyhow, you can do a fairly quick wash with them (using the "not recommended" techniques- i.e., normal ones). Then the "apparent advantages" can work in your favor. But if you want to avoid any additional marring, you gotta work at using the CORRECT techniques explained above.
First, you gotta *INSPECT YOUR BOAR'S HAIR BRUSH BRISTELS FOR ADHESIVE CONTAMINATION. IT WILL SEVERELY MAR YOUR PAINT.* I found it on two (from when they glued in the bristles), sent them back and told them to INSPECT the replacements before sending them! Now I look at mine under magnification before using them.
The biggest concern is probably "will they mar my paint". The answer is "maybe". Would I use them on a freshly polished black car? No. I don't use them on the XJS or my S8. But then it takes me over three hours to wash THOSE cars, using VERY overkill techniques (soap solution siphon-fed through the mitts, etc.). And I still use smaller BHBs for the wheels and the nooks and crannies on EVERY vehicle I wash.
I've checked out the marring potential of these things VERY thoroughly, using highly polished panels, extreme illumination, magnification, etc. The following is based on direct observation, not just conjecture.
Yes, they *CAN* mar certain finishes. SOME paints are just too soft for them. BUT, many clearcoats are NOT too soft; the BHB won't mar them *IF* (and that's a very *BIG* "IF"!!) used correctly. My Mazda, for instance, is always washed with a BHB and after two years of "beater duty", I haven't had to polish it yet! Hardly even any micromarring, and what it does have is random, minor, and isolated. Hard clear on that one! Plus, I don't let it get too dirty and I keep a LOT of SG on it. On Accumulatorette's A8, I'll get a LITTLE marring from washing it with the BHB. About the same as I got with a mitt using normal, Autopian, two-bucket techniques. The sorta barely-noticeable, general stuff that's usually considered inevitable with year-round drivers, nothing a PC and very mild polishes won't remove quickly and easily. I have to polish it every year or so to keep it nice enough for me.
The big problem with BHBs is that people are seduced by the ease with which one can do a quick wash with them. Quick washes with a BHB will usually mar the paint, sometimes quite badly (but usually not too DEEPLY). Gotta exercise self-discipline and use 'em right. The APPARENT advantages (that you can cover a lot of area quickly, that they hold a lot of solution) are actually temptations to fall victim to the BHB's potential PITFALLS.
Biggest problem- dirt doesn't migrate up the bristles or get captured/caught up (away from the paint) as it does with a mitt. It's not that the wet, soap-lubed hair itself is too harsh for most automotive paint. It's the dirt getting dragged across it by the bristles that does the marring.
So if the vehicle is very dirty, and doesn't have protection on it that lets dirt (easily) slide off, marring is probable, perhaps inevitable.
To use a BHB safely: Gotta use a high-lubricity wash solution (slipperier than Gold Class, for instance), and lots of it. I like a pre-soak, too. Gotta just BARELY touch the surface, "whisking" the dirt away with LOTS of solution (I'll sometimes spray wash solution through the brush with a shower-foam gun while doing this if the panel's really dirty). If you're pressing hard enough to really bend the tips of the bristles, you're risking marring- that's NOT the right way to do it. GOTTA rinse the BHB and the panel FREQUENTLY (people try to wash a whole panel without rinsing and redunking the brush in wash solution- bad idea). I always wash/rinse a panel at least twice. I might rinse/dunk the brush four or six times for EACH wash/rinse, too. It doesn't go too fast.
FOr many people, all this might add up to the BHB being no easier to use than a mitt, maybe even more difficult. It's easier *FOR ME* because I've used them for over 20 years and am thus accustomed to them. And *I* just like using a brush better than using a mitt (which I still do on the XJS and the S8).
The only REAL *ADVANTAGE* to the BHB, for most people, is its free-rinsing nature. Dirt just doesn't stick to those bristles the way it can get trapped in a mitt. When I use mitts, I'll use at least four of them per vehicle (only using them on the paint) because there's always some contamination that just doesn't rinse out.
Another BHB application is vehicles that are gonna get polished anyhow. Anthony O. uses them for this. The marring you CAN get from a BHB is seldom anything serious. If you're gonna polish anyhow, you can do a fairly quick wash with them (using the "not recommended" techniques- i.e., normal ones). Then the "apparent advantages" can work in your favor. But if you want to avoid any additional marring, you gotta work at using the CORRECT techniques explained above.
eek: )I don't think I'll be trying this tool out, as convenient it would be for washing things such as my parents' van for instance....
that I'm so paranoid about SOME sources of marring, yet I use the BHB even though I know *IT* will sometimes mar if I'm not careful enough. I guess it's just too much of a hassle to use methods that I *KNOW* are safe. I don't drive the S8 as much as I'd like because the safe cleaning methods are such a time-consuming hassle 
Though I DID use them on some nice ones and didn't have a problem.