The minimum amount of drying needed for no watermarks at all?

M

Manix

New member
I normally have a two stage method for drying my car with microfiber towls after a wash.


First pass over a section (like side of car) is with a wet towl to absorb around 90% of water, then second pass with a dry towl to absorb the last small bit of water.
By the time the whole car is done the second towl is damp only.


The second pass just doesn`t feel right, too abrasive & in fact scratches plastics like headlight covers.


So I`m now trying just one pass with the wet towl to avoid possibly scratching with the second dry towl. Just have to ring the heck out of it each time or it will leave too much water behind. Still at best there is a small amount left which dries up in about 10mins. So far it doesn`t seem to leave anything behind that is visible.


Has anyone done it like this? Does it leave any streaks or marks?
 
Manix- IMO you need different drying media. NOTHING that touches your vehicle should mar the surfaces its used on...not lenses, paint, anything. Test everything and only use what passes the test.

IME the waterspots/marks issue is primarily a matter of your water. Without my filters, softener, and for some stuff the deionizer, the water at my place would cause issues something awful. But *with*all those measures it`s no problem.

If you don`t see any problems from where it just naturally evaporates, then OK; I wouldn`t look for problems you don`t know you have ;)

But I sure would replace any towels/etc. that mar your vehicle, and I almost always use a Drying Aid. I *never* wring out drying towels, rather I just get out another one. And yeah, I still start the drying with the AirWand, and finish up with the compressor. So for me it`s about a six step process:

-Blow off with AirWand
-Dry glass with WWMF
-Spritz Drying Aid on panel
-First wipe with plush MF Drying Towel
-Subsequent wipe(s) with same
-Blow water out of nooks and crannies with air compressor

FWIW, thoroughly drying my vehicles takes a *VERY* long time, even if I don`t count the undercarriage and engine compartment. And I`m not talking just a half hour by a long shot...at the previous shop with it`s awful water, this stuff took me forever.
 
Manix,
Thanks for your post last night.

What are you using to wash your microfiber towels, and are you looking at them before each use to make sure nothing is stuck in them that would scratch your paint?

You mention, your 2nd pass "feels abrasive" - what do you mean? The towel makes sounds as it goes over the paint, or does the paint feel abrasive to your bare hand, or what ?? The towel feels abrasive ?? How so ??

As has been said above, always use a Quick Detailer, etc., something to make the surface more slippery and help avoid scratching it, is always good..

I personally use an 8hp Master Blaster to blow off all the water, but I still like to spray the panels with Optimum Clear Seal and then gently, with very soft, absorbent, clean, microfibers, wipe that gently down, even though it says you can leave it to dry clear by itself..

Lastly, if your vehicle paint is the "rough, abrasive, etc.," you mention, perhaps it needs to be gone over with a claybar, clay towel, clay pad or something???
Dan F
 
Heh heh, that "towel feels abrasive" makes me think of my, presumably unfounded, concerns about the GG PFM; most everybody says it "feels a little rough and grabby" but also that it`s perfectly safe marring-wise. IMO you can`t always tell whether something`s safe or not unless you do some sort of test, like the (admittedly flawed) CD-test.

And then there`s the diff between "blowing the water off" vs. "blowing it dry through evaporation" vs. "drying by getting the water to transfer to a towel". Depending on the water quality (again), one might be best/worst.
 
The PFMs are perfectly safe. I`ve been using them for a better part of a year now They`ve also been washed several times. Work great!
 
Speaking of the Griot`s PFM towel, how many do you typically go through when you dry the entire car?
Do you flood rinse/blow dry to lessen the amount of water you need to absorb?

And how do you wash the towels? I notice when I wash my MF towels, I get all types of lint stuck in the fibers.
 
Manix, the two towel method is exactly what I`ve been doing to avoid streaks with my hard water. No flood rinsing for me since I`m using a pressure washer.

For the first pass I purposely dunk and wring out a plush 600 gsm towel. It leaves plenty of streaks for the second pass. Second pass is with a dry waffle weave.

Are you using a drying aid? I find it makes a big difference, but you need to pick the right one. You want something that "flashes" well, and it will help the water spread and evaporate cleanly. Uber and IUJD would be my top picks out of what I`ve used.

I can *almost* get it done with one pass, but I`d need to change towels. You want something with a dense pile. Watch Larry Kosilla`s drying video to see what I`m talking about.

You`d think drying should be easy, like just grab a waffle weave and go to town, but it`s actually been one of the more frustrating parts of detailing for me.

I`m upgrading to a pfm this week so finger`s crossed!
 
renzo said:
..Do you flood rinse/blow dry to lessen the amount of water you need to absorb?
Click to expand...

Anything you can do to minimize the water should prove beneficial as long as your mineral content isn`t so awful that you can`t risk any drying by evaporation (which would change the priorities).

And how do you wash the towels? I notice when I wash my MF towels, I get all types of lint stuck in the fibers.
Click to expand...

Hot water with a Microfiber Detergent (they always work better for me than regular detergent but YMMV), extra rinse(s) as needed, sometimes with distilled white vinegar in the penultimate rinse (always need another rinse afterwards to get all the vinegar out). I machine dry on "low".

What kind of lint? As long as you don`t wash MFs with cotton/etc. and your washer/dryer are nice and clean I wouldn`t expect any linting to speak of....but since you are getting it I wonder what it`s from.
 
Accumulator said:
What kind of lint? As long as you don`t wash MFs with cotton/etc. and your washer/dryer are nice and clean I wouldn`t expect any linting to speak of....but since you are getting it I wonder what it`s from.
Click to expand...

I don`t mix my MF towels with any other laundry when I wash and dry so it must be lint from a previous batch of laundry. Washer/dryer must not be clean enough. Is it enough to just wipe it down before each wash/dry cycle?
 
renzo said:
Speaking of the Griot`s PFM towel, how many do you typically go through when you dry the entire car?
Do you flood rinse/blow dry to lessen the amount of water you need to absorb?

And how do you wash the towels? I notice when I wash my MF towels, I get all types of lint stuck in the fibers.
Click to expand...

The big one does my entire Xterra and asks for more.

I just machine wash it separate with regular detergent. Then machine dry on low. Comes out looking new every time.
 
Blow dry the car with a $20 leaf blower and you can get away with a single MF towel and some light QD misting. Bonus is you don`t have water running out of doors, mirrors, wheels, etc.
 
Dan said:
Blow dry the car with a $20 leaf blower and you can get away with a single MF towel and some light QD misting. Bonus is you don`t have water running out of doors, mirrors, wheels, etc.
Click to expand...
Eh, sure wish it worked out that way for me!

I blow things off with the AirWand, go over it with the compressor, and still spend forever drying it. Use more than one MF too, but then I`m pretty generous with the Drying Aid unless reLSPing. Even then I`ll spend longer on that "final drying" step that many here do on the whole wash. Simply don`t know how people do stuff so quickly/easily...
 
Accumulator said:
Eh, sure wish it worked out that way for me!

I blow things off with the AirWand, go over it with the compressor, and still spend forever drying it. Use more than one MF too, but then I`m pretty generous with the Drying Aid unless reLSPing. Even then I`ll spend longer on that "final drying" step that many here do on the whole wash. Simply don`t know how people do stuff so quickly/easily...
Click to expand...

That might be the difference. I literally mist, like super fine mist the panel, and TBH, I probably don`t use as much as I should. We are on different planes when it comes to swirl avoidance though. I just don`t want to see them where you don`t want to cause any at all.
 
Dan- Heh heh, even here at Autopia I`m "on a different plane" :o But yeah...and also, our vehicles just happen to be ones that *really* retain water in various places, maybe because I get stuff so wet washing the way I do. From the back sides of the wiper arms to the sideview mirrors, not to mention the huge panel gaps, there are all sorts of places that need blown out more than once...more than twice too...no matter how well I think I`m doing it.
 
Side view mirrors are the devil. I`ve lost count of the times I`ve had everything dried and looking good on my black car, yet when I go back out hours later, there is a line of water spots on the door running from the mirror to the rocker panel.

Another one that drives me nuts are the internal hidden water channels which drain water somewhere else on the vehicles. SUV`s and hatchbacks are notorious. My VW has very tight gaps on the rear hatch, but water from the roof drains into a gap between the upper hatch and roof. From there, it runs inside the car and then drains out where the hatch meets the bumper. Typically not enough to run out very far, so I have to open the hatch to get the water...which then seems to release another cascade of water elsewhere in those channels. At that point I start looking for a tool like an RPG or LAW launcher to end the madness for good.
 
Desertnate- Heh heh, yeah...same experiences here, although that lengthy drying process will usually get it all if I go through it.

What really bugs me about the sideviews is the initial new-to-me vehicle detail, where I try to smooth the paint inside those using long swabs/etc., which takes [freakin`] forever. Fortunately, the LSP lasts a long time in there and that helps keep dirt from building up so much and IMO also helps the water get out easier.

You have a compressor? Even a little cheapie from Harbor Freight (~$40) might be sufficient for this.
 
Electric leaf blower start from the top down. The last thing I do is under carriage, Then go back and make sure I hit the panel seams, front grill, wheel wells, rims, suspension, brakes. I open the hood, doors and trunk. While I`m drying under the hood everything else is drip drying. After I`m done under the hood, go back and do all the door jambs. I can dry the rest of the entire car with two 16x24 waffle weave towels but I use 4. I have two for the top half of the car and two for the bottom half. Once the dry is done they are barely damp. I either do a once over with IUDJ if it does not need another coat of LSP.
 
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