imported_Aurora40
New member
Ok, a little background. I didn't used to hate drying the car. I used to just wipe it down with a nice chamois and that was that. Then I read the "perfect drying technique"... It never occured to me that my drying was a perfect chance to scratch the car. So I changed my technique. I've always sheeted the water off with the hose, and from there I then started walking around the car carefully blotting off the water with the chamois, then doing a final panel wipe with a Pakshak (the biggie). This put my mind at ease about scratches, but what an arduous nightmare. It took forever, and usually panels would dry with spots because it took so long to get around to them. So then I'd have to go all over the car with some QD to remove spots. This is when I started hating to dry the car. I almost hated to wash it just because I knew I'd have to dry the thing...
Then, some enterprising Autopians started talking about deionized water, and some carwash folk mentioned how the "spot-free" rinses worked great. This got me thinking about distilled water. It's cheap and better than deionized water because it is almost totally pure. I used to use it in the iron precisely because it doesn't leave anything behind. So, I just put distilled water to the test today. I got a hand-pump 2 gallon sprayer from Lowe's for about $30, and I got 3 gallons of distilled water from Shopper's for $2. I washed the car today (man did that feel good, it was disgusting) exactly as I usually would. Hose water in the buckets, hose for spraying down and rinsing. Then I did the final hose rinse to sheet as much water off the car as I could. Then I went around with the distilled water sprayer. It sprays a gentle splashy stream just like at the car washes. You can't sheet it because it splashes too much. So I just sprayed the whole car down, paying extra attention to places water usually rolls out of later. On the sides, the water runs down fairly well, but on the tops it doesn't so much. So there it displaces the hose water, but it also dilutes it a lot. Personally, I can't imagine just parking the car in the garage like this. So I took my trusty Pakshak and wiped the car down. But here's the thing. I just went quickly and lightly. I don't care if the surface was still wet, I just cared that it was less wet. Wring the towel out as needed and keep going. I pushed all the standing water off, so it was just somewhat wet. Plus, I think this will really help for spots where there is still some hose water because it will get diluted so much by the distilled that any deposits should be impossible to notice. The best part? It worked fabulously. It was a joy to wipe the car down this way because I didn't have to obsess over every little drop, and if I didnt' get to a panel quick enough (not likely), the water isn't going to spot. There are no spots to be seen on the car, although I still need to wait and see if any appear around the leaky areas like the trunk (although even still, that would be much easier to deal with than a whole spotty car, and I have to deal with those with all the other drying methods too). Oh, also, I only used 1 gallon (more like 9/10ths of a gallon because I played around with it a little first) of distilled water, which cost a whopping 67 cents!
I now love drying again, and all I need is one towel (although I still want to try a DFTowel)!! Thanks to Jimamary for the sprayer and water ideas and to everyone who was talking about deionized water and "spot-free" rinses! :xyxthumbs I'm really ecstatic about this! :shocked
Then, some enterprising Autopians started talking about deionized water, and some carwash folk mentioned how the "spot-free" rinses worked great. This got me thinking about distilled water. It's cheap and better than deionized water because it is almost totally pure. I used to use it in the iron precisely because it doesn't leave anything behind. So, I just put distilled water to the test today. I got a hand-pump 2 gallon sprayer from Lowe's for about $30, and I got 3 gallons of distilled water from Shopper's for $2. I washed the car today (man did that feel good, it was disgusting) exactly as I usually would. Hose water in the buckets, hose for spraying down and rinsing. Then I did the final hose rinse to sheet as much water off the car as I could. Then I went around with the distilled water sprayer. It sprays a gentle splashy stream just like at the car washes. You can't sheet it because it splashes too much. So I just sprayed the whole car down, paying extra attention to places water usually rolls out of later. On the sides, the water runs down fairly well, but on the tops it doesn't so much. So there it displaces the hose water, but it also dilutes it a lot. Personally, I can't imagine just parking the car in the garage like this. So I took my trusty Pakshak and wiped the car down. But here's the thing. I just went quickly and lightly. I don't care if the surface was still wet, I just cared that it was less wet. Wring the towel out as needed and keep going. I pushed all the standing water off, so it was just somewhat wet. Plus, I think this will really help for spots where there is still some hose water because it will get diluted so much by the distilled that any deposits should be impossible to notice. The best part? It worked fabulously. It was a joy to wipe the car down this way because I didn't have to obsess over every little drop, and if I didnt' get to a panel quick enough (not likely), the water isn't going to spot. There are no spots to be seen on the car, although I still need to wait and see if any appear around the leaky areas like the trunk (although even still, that would be much easier to deal with than a whole spotty car, and I have to deal with those with all the other drying methods too). Oh, also, I only used 1 gallon (more like 9/10ths of a gallon because I played around with it a little first) of distilled water, which cost a whopping 67 cents!
I now love drying again, and all I need is one towel (although I still want to try a DFTowel)!! Thanks to Jimamary for the sprayer and water ideas and to everyone who was talking about deionized water and "spot-free" rinses! :xyxthumbs I'm really ecstatic about this! :shocked
