How To Properly Wash Your Car
Hello everyone, Im going to start posting up How-To's on proper car care. Mostly the detailing aspect of care. This first segment is on how to properly wash your car. Washing the car may seem to be the easiest thing to do, but if done wrong, you can swirl and scratch your cars paint to hell and back. Im here to to show you guys how to minimize and prevent swirls and scratches from being inflicted on your cars finish.
Here is what you will need.
2 Buckets
1 Grit guard, (2 if you want)
1 Plush wash mit (NOT A SPONGE)
1 Waffle Weave towel (Not a regular towel)
A good hose attachment,
and finally a good car wash soap,
There are many out there, I prefer to use Meguiars NXT Wash
Now let me explain this technique. There are two buckets, one filled with water and the other one with the Suds. The bucket filled with water is your first stop when washing your mit during the wash because this removes the heavy grit from the mit. The second bucket is your suds bucket. You want to have a ample amount of suds because the suds act as a lubricant which helps transfer the dirt from the car to the mit without scratching the paint.
Having a Grit Guard is important because this is a barrier that prevents your mit being intagneld with the light debry and dirt.
Place the Grit Guard in the bucket with the suds because right after being rinsed, this is the last stop for the mit before it goes onto the paint.
Go ahead and add the soap into the suds bucket and fill it up.
Before washing the car, you want to be parked in a shaded area and to allow the paint to cool down to prevent water spots from form, especially on black cars.
First rinse off the car top to down, you can use a Foam gun or a pressure washer with a wide nozzle. Do not make it a constant stream because it can remove paint. This removes the heavy derby from the car which prevents the mit being containmented with heavy items such as rocks and other hazardous particles.
After that is completed go ahead and get your mit from the suds bucket and start the wash process. Start from the roof and work your way down, panel to panel, rinsing off the soap after each completed panel.
I personally break down each panel into fourths, after each quarter is done, the mit goes into the rinse bucket to remove heavy debry and then to the suds bucket with the grit guard to shake off any lighter particles and to also get more suds. And then rinsing off the panel with water.
Just for fun, I will show you what the mit will pick up just from one panel.
All those black specks are small rock particles, all of them are responsible for swirling up paint
I proceeded to do the a small part of my trunk with the contaminated mit to show you what happens. While the swirls are light, a constant wash like this will cause the car to begin to look like crap, filled with scratches and swirls
After washing the entire car, the next step is drying. Drying can the the easiest while being the hardest at the same time. Do NOT use a regular towel like this.
The fibers of the towel are way to stiff which can just scratch the paints surface horrible. I did not do a experiment on the car because sometimes the scratches can be so severe, a heavy polish will have trouble removing them.
I opted for a waffle weave towel because these towels soak up the water better and do not have the sharp fibers like regulars towels do. Instead of wiping the towel across the paint, blot it. This soaks up the water and prevents any kind of particles on the towel to scratch the paint.
There are other ways of drying your car like flooding each panel with water. This works but only if the car has been waxed in the previous week.
A video of this process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtoWk9thSEI
After the car is done drying, grab a good detail spray and go over each panel just to make sure you didnt miss any dirt, water blobs or water spots.
I used M135 Detail Spray with a Ultimate Touch Microfiber Towel.
Next HOW TO is going to be on proper Wax technique.
Be on the look out.
Hello everyone, Im going to start posting up How-To's on proper car care. Mostly the detailing aspect of care. This first segment is on how to properly wash your car. Washing the car may seem to be the easiest thing to do, but if done wrong, you can swirl and scratch your cars paint to hell and back. Im here to to show you guys how to minimize and prevent swirls and scratches from being inflicted on your cars finish.
Here is what you will need.
2 Buckets
1 Grit guard, (2 if you want)
1 Plush wash mit (NOT A SPONGE)
1 Waffle Weave towel (Not a regular towel)
A good hose attachment,
and finally a good car wash soap,
There are many out there, I prefer to use Meguiars NXT Wash
Now let me explain this technique. There are two buckets, one filled with water and the other one with the Suds. The bucket filled with water is your first stop when washing your mit during the wash because this removes the heavy grit from the mit. The second bucket is your suds bucket. You want to have a ample amount of suds because the suds act as a lubricant which helps transfer the dirt from the car to the mit without scratching the paint.
Having a Grit Guard is important because this is a barrier that prevents your mit being intagneld with the light debry and dirt.
Place the Grit Guard in the bucket with the suds because right after being rinsed, this is the last stop for the mit before it goes onto the paint.
Go ahead and add the soap into the suds bucket and fill it up.
Before washing the car, you want to be parked in a shaded area and to allow the paint to cool down to prevent water spots from form, especially on black cars.
First rinse off the car top to down, you can use a Foam gun or a pressure washer with a wide nozzle. Do not make it a constant stream because it can remove paint. This removes the heavy derby from the car which prevents the mit being containmented with heavy items such as rocks and other hazardous particles.
After that is completed go ahead and get your mit from the suds bucket and start the wash process. Start from the roof and work your way down, panel to panel, rinsing off the soap after each completed panel.
I personally break down each panel into fourths, after each quarter is done, the mit goes into the rinse bucket to remove heavy debry and then to the suds bucket with the grit guard to shake off any lighter particles and to also get more suds. And then rinsing off the panel with water.
Just for fun, I will show you what the mit will pick up just from one panel.
All those black specks are small rock particles, all of them are responsible for swirling up paint
I proceeded to do the a small part of my trunk with the contaminated mit to show you what happens. While the swirls are light, a constant wash like this will cause the car to begin to look like crap, filled with scratches and swirls
After washing the entire car, the next step is drying. Drying can the the easiest while being the hardest at the same time. Do NOT use a regular towel like this.
The fibers of the towel are way to stiff which can just scratch the paints surface horrible. I did not do a experiment on the car because sometimes the scratches can be so severe, a heavy polish will have trouble removing them.
I opted for a waffle weave towel because these towels soak up the water better and do not have the sharp fibers like regulars towels do. Instead of wiping the towel across the paint, blot it. This soaks up the water and prevents any kind of particles on the towel to scratch the paint.
There are other ways of drying your car like flooding each panel with water. This works but only if the car has been waxed in the previous week.
A video of this process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtoWk9thSEI
After the car is done drying, grab a good detail spray and go over each panel just to make sure you didnt miss any dirt, water blobs or water spots.
I used M135 Detail Spray with a Ultimate Touch Microfiber Towel.
Next HOW TO is going to be on proper Wax technique.
Be on the look out.
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