Car Wash Basics

[Aalfred]

Ok..after being too lazy to hand wash cars, I finally gave in and decided to hand wash my car atleast during the warm months. Wanted to make sure Im doing the right thing. Was going with a pressure washer/foam gun method than the 2 bucket method. Looked at all the online reviews and before I sink a ton of money into it and decide to not handwash my car, thought Id start with baby steps. Here is what I was planning to do AKA the touchless style but please correct me if this is not the correct way to do it

1. Pressure wash with 40 deg (car wash) nozzle vs mist using garden hose
2. Use foam cannon and apply thick coat of snow foam
3. Scrub the wheel with a wheel brush and wipe it with microfiber cloth
4. Pressure wash off the foam vs wipe the foam with a car wash mitt
5. Dry with waffle weave vs double loop vs microfiber towel and/or use my leaf blower

Im confused if I should wipe down the foam with a mitt or just power wash it and save drying time by just using my leaf blower (its pretty strong) instead of the towel dry. If towel dry, which type of towel

I do have full frontal PPF and Xpel ceramic on my car. Thanks and I apologize if I offended the die hard hand car washing community with my silly questions or doing something thats considered a big no-no

[james1138]

I don’t have any advice, just empathy. I’m in the same boat trying to figure out the best way to hand wash my car. I’m impatient and not a DIY guy but I’m slightly anal because I want to keep my car for years.
I’m trying to find the quickest way to wash my car and wheels. I’ve done it twice and it taken me 90 minutes each time. Good luck!

[malvern_man]

Originally Posted by Aalfred

Ok..after being too lazy to hand wash cars, I finally gave in and decided to hand wash my car atleast during the warm months. Wanted to make sure Im doing the right thing. Was going with a pressure washer/foam gun method than the 2 bucket method. Looked at all the online reviews and before I sink a ton of money into it and decide to not handwash my car, thought Id start with baby steps. Here is what I was planning to do AKA the touchless style but please correct me if this is not the correct way to do it

1. Pressure wash with 40 deg (car wash) nozzle vs mist using garden hose
2. Use foam cannon and apply thick coat of snow foam
3. Scrub the wheel with a wheel brush and wipe it with microfiber cloth
4. Pressure wash off the foam vs wipe the foam with a car wash mitt
5. Dry with waffle weave vs double loop vs microfiber towel and/or use my leaf blower

Im confused if I should wipe down the foam with a mitt or just power wash it and save drying time by just using my leaf blower (its pretty strong) instead of the towel dry. If towel dry, which type of towel

I do have full frontal PPF and Xpel ceramic on my car. Thanks and I apologize if I offended the die hard hand car washing community with my silly questions or doing something thats considered a big no-no

This is the method I use...(my X5 has a full front end PPF applied and fully ceramic coated)

Clean the wheels first...spray them with a citrus pre-wash and let it dwell for a few minutes then rinse off. Then use a dedicated wheel shampoo, wheel woolies, ultra soft detailing brushes and a dedicated wheel mitt. Don't ever use the same mitt that you use on your wheels on your paintwork, I've also got 2 separate buckets with grit guards for wheels only.

Paintwork...use your preferred snow foam to cover the car, I always snow foam on to dry paintwork. Let the snow foam dwell for a few minutes then pressure wash off, DO NOT wipe snow foam off with a wash mitt, snow foam is used to soften any road film on the paintwork before doing a contact wash. If you use a wash mitt to remove snow foam you'll just be rubbing dirt and grit into the paintwork causing swirl marks and marring.

Contact wash...use whatever your preferred car shampoo is for the contact wash using the 2 bucket with grit guards method.

After the contact wash...I sometimes use a foam cannon applied spray and rinse sealant such as ValetPRO snow seal, Bilt Hamber Touch-On or Koch Chemie protector wax. Gyeon wet coat is very good too.

Drying...I use a twisted loop drying towel in conjunction with a BigBoi BlowR Mini+ car blower.

[snareman]

Here are 2 good videos:. OG has a ton of great content.

[Aalfred]

Originally Posted by malvern_man

This is the method I use...(my X5 has a full front end PPF applied and fully ceramic coated)

Clean the wheels first...spray them with a citrus pre-wash and let it dwell for a few minutes then rinse off. Then use a dedicated wheel shampoo, wheel woolies, ultra soft detailing brushes and a dedicated wheel mitt. Don't ever use the same mitt that you use on your wheels on your paintwork, I've also got 2 separate buckets with grit guards for wheels only.

Paintwork...use your preferred snow foam to cover the car, I always snow foam on to dry paintwork. Let the snow foam dwell for a few minutes then pressure wash off, DO NOT wipe snow foam off with a wash mitt, snow foam is used to soften any road film on the paintwork before doing a contact wash. If you use a wash mitt to remove snow foam you'll just be rubbing dirt and grit into the paintwork causing swirl marks and marring.

Contact wash...use whatever your preferred car shampoo is for the contact wash using the 2 bucket with grit guards method.

After the contact wash...I sometimes use a foam cannon applied spray and rinse sealant such as ValetPRO snow seal, Bilt Hamber Touch-On or Koch Chemie protector wax. Gyeon wet coat is very good too.

Drying...I use a twisted loop drying towel in conjunction with a BigBoi BlowR Mini+ car blower.

Thank you. So Im a bit confused. You do snow foam, then wash it, then do the car shampoo and use the wash mitt using 2 bucket method? The video from OG shows the guys wiping off the snow foam using the car mitt. Is that a taboo ? There is just so much variation and time spent that I think I might end up going to a detailer that charges me $30 per wash

[vbb]

I think there are two main goals of car detailing. The first is to keep the car clean (dirt and dust). The second is to keep from damaging the paint (swirl marks, scratches and nicks). This may be oversimplifying it, especially since I'm not a pro detailer, but touching the car introduces the possibility of adding swirls and micro scratches to the paint, so you want to try to touch it as infrequently as possible.

Running a car through an automatic car wash with brushes or using those hard bristled brushes at the self car wash places are the surest ways to scratch up your paint, and I think even the complete novices understand that. But handwashing your car the wrong way, with too much pressure applied, too many passes with the wash mitt, not using clean mitts and towels and then drying the car the wrong way could all cause issues.

The purpose of the foam is to break down the dirt and particles on your paint, so when you foam the car up you let it sit there and do its job, then you rinse everything off. You don't need to go behind the foam by rubbing it all in with a wash mitt. If you're going for maximum cleaning, THEN after the foam and rinse you go with the two bucket method, using a clean wash mitt, light pressure, and straight lines back and forth rather than a circular pattern. Rinse out the mitt often. Then dry the car with air if you have a blower first, then come behind it with a drying towel.

I often skip the foaming step unless I'm doing a full detail, because dragging out the equipment does take extra time. I do a lot of in-between quick washes where I rinse the vehicle first, do a quick two bucket pass over the car in basically 5 stages (roof and windows, hood and front bumper, right side, left side, rear) with a quick rinse in between. Then I use a leaf blower to get most of the water off, then finally I do a quick dry with a drying towel. I don't worry about trying to get every single nook and cranny of the car. The whole process takes 30 mins. It's not a 10/10 detail, but the car looks clean. I wash my wheels off more frequently, by spraying them down with cleaner, and hosing them off. That takes maybe 10 minutes.

[Aalfred]

Originally Posted by vbb

I think there are two main goals of car detailing. The first is to keep the car clean (dirt and dust). The second is to keep from damaging the paint (swirl marks, scratches and nicks). This may be oversimplifying it, especially since I'm not a pro detailer, but touching the car introduces the possibility of adding swirls and micro scratches to the paint, so you want to try to touch it as infrequently as possible.

Running a car through an automatic car wash with brushes or using those hard bristled brushes at the self car wash places are the surest ways to scratch up your paint, and I think even the complete novices understand that. But handwashing your car the wrong way, with too much pressure applied, too many passes with the wash mitt, not using clean mitts and towels and then drying the car the wrong way could all cause issues.

The purpose of the foam is to break down the dirt and particles on your paint, so when you foam the car up you let it sit there and do its job, then you rinse everything off. You don't need to go behind the foam by rubbing it all in with a wash mitt. If you're going for maximum cleaning, THEN after the foam and rinse you go with the two bucket method, using a clean wash mitt, light pressure, and straight lines back and forth rather than a circular pattern. Rinse out the mitt often. Then dry the car with air if you have a blower first, then come behind it with a drying towel.

I often skip the foaming step unless I'm doing a full detail, because dragging out the equipment does take extra time. I do a lot of in-between quick washes where I rinse the vehicle first, do a quick two bucket pass over the car in basically 5 stages (roof and windows, hood and front bumper, right side, left side, rear) with a quick rinse in between. Then I use a leaf blower to get most of the water off, then finally I do a quick dry with a drying towel. I don't worry about trying to get every single nook and cranny of the car. The whole process takes 30 mins. It's not a 10/10 detail, but the car looks clean. I wash my wheels off more frequently, by spraying them down with cleaner, and hosing them off. That takes maybe 10 minutes.

Thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for. Clean it just to make sure its presentable and maybe once a month do the detailer wash. Its a pain to schedule with him ahead of time and the way Im adding more and more stuff to my wash list and I feel like I could wash with the detailer once every 2 weeks and still come out on top with the cost. It is a rabbit hole with so many options and products that it becomes overwhelming and makes u not do it at all. I dont have a lot of time to spend on weekends washing the car and would rather spend that time with my kids. One hr a week is prob the max I can afford and I feel at the end of the day, my priority is still my kids and its just a car. So ill try the rinse method first and see if its good. If it doesnt, then prob cut my losses and let someone else do it

[snareman]

Yea, on the how clean you need/want it to be its kind of a how clean do you need/want it to be? If someone is paying you to detail their car then you have to get it closer to perfect, but if you are just going to every day public driving presentable where generally no one is doing the equivalent of pixel peeping your car a generalized wash plus/minus a good tire clean is all you really need. If its nice weather and I have the time I do find the cleaning process to be somewhat therapeutic and enjoyable and will spend more time to get all the little stuff. You could probably take it to the touchless wash and get the same results, although people argue that isn't good for the paint either.

[vbb]

Originally Posted by Aalfred

Thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for. Clean it just to make sure its presentable and maybe once a month do the detailer wash. Its a pain to schedule with him ahead of time and the way Im adding more and more stuff to my wash list and I feel like I could wash with the detailer once every 2 weeks and still come out on top with the cost. It is a rabbit hole with so many options and products that it becomes overwhelming and makes u not do it at all. I dont have a lot of time to spend on weekends washing the car and would rather spend that time with my kids. One hr a week is prob the max I can afford and I feel at the end of the day, my priority is still my kids and its just a car. So ill try the rinse method first and see if its good. If it doesnt, then prob cut my losses and let someone else do it

I would even do less frequently than that, but it's obviously a personal preference. My M4 is my daily driver, and although it is garaged, it does see rain and pollen (we almost never get snow where I live). I do the full detail like 3x per year... once after the pollen season (early May), once in the summer and once in the late fall (early December). It's all quicker washes like I mentioned above in between, and that's all I do in the winter and early spring when it's rainy in my area. And I have a black car. A pro detailer could pick up on imperfections as could an amateur that is specifically looking for them, but to 9 out of 10 people I'm the guy that always has a clean car. I'm not chasing perfection, I just want the car to look good most of the time.

[snareman]

Originally Posted by vbb

I would even do less frequently than that, but it's obviously a personal preference. My M4 is my daily driver, and although it is garaged, it does see rain and pollen (we almost never get snow where I live). I do the full detail like 3x per year... once after the pollen season (early May), once in the summer and once in the late fall (early December). It's all quicker washes like I mentioned above in between, and that's all I do in the winter and early spring when it's rainy in my area. And I have a black car. A pro detailer could pick up on imperfections as could an amateur that is specifically looking for them, but to 9 out of 10 people I'm the guy that always has a clean car. I'm not chasing perfection, I just want the car to look good most of the time.

Flame suit on here, but that was what I decided years ago with the drive through wash. While I enjoy washing the car I don't always have time and in the winter am not going to be standing outside washing in 20 degree weather. I decided that my desire to have an always clean car was greater than my desire to have a swirless car. I now have all the parts for my pressure washer with DI water set up, but I still don't see myself out handwashing my X3 in February. Sometimes clean enough for the car I'm likely to have for 3ish years is clean enough.

[vbb]

Originally Posted by snareman

Flame suit on here, but that was what I decided years ago with the drive through wash. While I enjoy washing the car I don't always have time and in the winter am not going to be standing outside washing in 20 degree weather. I decided that my desire to have an always clean car was greater than my desire to have a swirless car. I now have all the parts for my pressure washer with DI water set up, but I still don't see myself out handwashing my X3 in February. Sometimes clean enough for the car I'm likely to have for 3ish years is clean enough.

I agree. This car detailing (and PPF and ceramic coating) is a rabbit hole, and often those chasing perfection actually stress themselves out and take away from the joy of owning the car in the first place. I don't want to be that guy.

[snareman]

Originally Posted by vbb

I agree. This car detailing (and PPF and ceramic coating) is a rabbit hole, and often those chasing perfection actually stress themselves out and take away from the joy of owning the car in the first place. I don't want to be that guy.

Yea, it's hard for me to justify the cost of PPF on a car I'm likely to only have for 3ish years.

[james1138]

I am like you, I do not want to do this, and I’d rather be spending my time doing other things. So I’m trying to come up with the quickest option available. So far it here is my method. I’m not married to the products, these are just the ones that I have and that’s why they’re in my notes. The only thing I might change is cleaning the wheels first. Also, I can’t be bothered with a pressure washer so I use a garden hose…

Make sure chemicals are diluted

Watch two bucket video

(Optional: spray down car with foam cannon)

Spray down car with hose.

Move car into garage.

Two buckets, one with soap and water, one with water and dirt trap.

Use Chemical Guys Rinse Free or ONR to wash car. Ring out excess water before using.

Dry car with microfiber towel

Spray car car down Chemical Guys HydroSpeed Ceramic Quick Detailer and polish dry with microfiber.

Spay tires/rims with Chemical Guys Wheel Cleaner and use leftover Chemical Guys Rinse Free solution and fresh mitten and when tools to clean wheels/rims.

Use Chemical Guys Tire shine on wheels

[Aalfred]

Originally Posted by vbb

I agree. This car detailing (and PPF and ceramic coating) is a rabbit hole, and often those chasing perfection actually stress themselves out and take away from the joy of owning the car in the first place. I don't want to be that guy.

You see….i did the ceramic so that i wont have to spend too much time washing this car but now its the opposite I dont plan on hand washing this car during winter months and my winters r long. Like Nov to April. Its gonna snow tonight and tomorrow morning if u wanna know lol. So its a crapshoot when I wash the car during winter months. Ive done automatic touch-less washes when I got my car but then had it ceramic coated a month ago and he recommended not to use them too often and so here I am. Last time I washed the car with him, I had scheduled it 2 weeks in advance only to cancel it twice due to snow and finally I got it done but it snowed anyways on my way home and it was like why did I even wash the car So summer, Im gonna do the regular hand wash and winter I have a manual car wash nearby so I might just suck it up and hose down the salt and make it look presentable

[snareman]

Originally Posted by Aalfred

You see….i did the ceramic so that i wont have to spend too much time washing this car but now its the opposite I dont plan on hand washing this car during winter months and my winters r long. Like Nov to April. Its gonna snow tonight and tomorrow morning if u wanna know lol. So its a crapshoot when I wash the car during winter months. Ive done automatic touch-less washes when I got my car but then had it ceramic coated a month ago and he recommended not to use them too often and so here I am. Last time I washed the car with him, I had scheduled it 2 weeks in advance only to cancel it twice due to snow and finally I got it done but it snowed anyways on my way home and it was like why did I even wash the car So summer, Im gonna do the regular hand wash and winter I have a manual car wash nearby so I might just suck it up and hose down the salt and make it look presentable

I considered ceramic as well, but then if you get that you really need to only hand wash it because if you go through any kind of wash with it the stuff wears off much faster.

[malvern_man]

Originally Posted by Aalfred

Thank you. So Im a bit confused. You do snow foam, then wash it, then do the car shampoo and use the wash mitt using 2 bucket method? The video from OG shows the guys wiping off the snow foam using the car mitt. Is that a taboo ? There is just so much variation and time spent that I think I might end up going to a detailer that charges me $30 per wash

Snow foam first, let it dwell for 5 minutes or so then pressure wash off. Then do your contact wash with whatever car shampoo you prefer to use using a microfibre wash mitt and 2 buckets.
I'd NEVER wipe off snow foam with a mitt because all you're doing is rubbing the loosened dirt/traffic film/grit into your paintwork.

[malvern_man]

Originally Posted by snareman

I considered ceramic as well, but then if you get that you really need to only hand wash it because if you go through any kind of wash with it the stuff wears off much faster.

Wears it off much faster and f**ks up you paintwork big time, in fact it doesn't matter if your paintwork is ceramic coated or not your paintwork will be ruined the first time you go through any sort of automated car wash. I shudder every time I drive by one and see a car going through.

[snareman]

Originally Posted by malvern_man

Wears it off much faster and f**ks up you paintwork big time, in fact it doesn't matter if your paintwork is ceramic coated or not your paintwork will be ruined the first time you go through any sort of automated car wash. I shudder every time I drive by one and see a car going through.

Well, it adds some swirls. It's a trade off for what you want with your paint and how perfect you want it to be and how much time and effort you want to invest.

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by snareman

Flame suit on here, but that was what I decided years ago with the drive through wash. While I enjoy washing the car I don't always have time and in the winter am not going to be standing outside washing in 20 degree weather. I decided that my desire to have an always clean car was greater than my desire to have a swirless car. I now have all the parts for my pressure washer with DI water set up, but I still don't see myself out handwashing my X3 in February. Sometimes clean enough for the car I'm likely to have for 3ish years is clean enough.

The easiest way i've found in the winter is "rinseless" in the garage. Spray down with a hydroshot, wipe down, dry. Link below.

After much experimenting, I've found the key is to use chenille mitts and the Garry Dean Method. The other thing is, especially in the winter, do it at least weekly. The problem with paint is, if you let it go 3+ weeks without washing it'll get "contaminated" which then makes everything harder as dirt sticks to your car better and you get into a doom loop.

Anyway, rinseless is SUPER easy and you can do it anywhere and it takes about 20 minutes all in, including setup / cleanup.

General instructions & tools here.

Net-Net:
* 2 bucket is inefficient & not the best method to prevent marring
* Foam cannons & power washers are 95% fun, 5% useful and a hassle
* Frequent washing with an easy, fast method is 99.9% the trick

[Aalfred]

Originally Posted by GrussGott

The easiest way i've found in the winter is "rinseless" in the garage. Spray down with a hydroshot, wipe down, dry. Link below.

After much experimenting, I've found the key is to use chenille mitts and the Garry"]Garry Dean Method. The other thing is, especially in the winter, do it at least weekly. The problem with paint is, if you let it go 3+ weeks without washing it'll get "contaminated" which then makes everything harder as dirt sticks to your car better and you get into a doom loop.

Anyway, rinseless is SUPER easy and you can do it anywhere and it takes about 20 minutes all in, including setup / cleanup.

General"]General instructions & tools here.

Net-Net:
* 2 bucket is inefficient & not the best method to prevent marring
* Foam cannons & power washers are 95% fun, 5% useful and a hassle
* Frequent washing with an easy, fast method is 99.9% the trick

Can you do rinseless with salt stains and residue on the car ? Won’t it just rub it it and scratch the car ?

[lazie_au]

Use clay bar to remove anything that could scratch the paint after washing. The car should still be wet and frequently refresh your clay.

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by Aalfred

Can you do rinseless with salt stains and residue on the car ? Won’t it just rub it it and scratch the car ?

Absolutely - I started doing in 20 years ago in MN when it was called "RV Wash" and I had to buy it by the case from RV centers.

There are a few options depending on how trashed the car is & temp and facilities:

(1.) Spray it off at a U wash, then drive home and do a "rinseless"

(2.) Buy a max power hydroshot and spray it off in the road or drive, then pull into your garage and do a rinseless. (you can even use collapsible buckets and a 5 gallon bottle of de-i water from the grocery store and be ultra portable; I do this for road trips & wash in the hotel parking lot)

(3.) Do an ultra careful rinseless

So what does "ultra careful" mean?

(a.) Spray down the car with 4x ratio mixed rinseless solution & let it dwell & drip for some time; not until dry, but 10 or 20 minutes if you can

(b.) Dip a chenille mitt into the bucket, only very lightly ring it out and wash, say, just the window part of the door panel, move ONLY left to right, overlap your passes, and use only enough pressure keep the mitt from falling. Super gentle. Sometimes I'll only 2 two passes per mitt side: first left to right, then flip the mitt 180 deg, shake the fingers but still same side and do the the 2nd pass, then no more passes with that mitt side. The principle here is, to have as fresh a mitt surface as possible.

(c.) Flip the mitt to the other side, the still clean side, and continue, then toss that mitt in the dirty bucket and grab a fresh clean mitt. Yup, you'll got through a lot of mitts this way, but you can get them quite cheap and then launder easy (cold water, tide free-n-clear, x-low dryer, no dryer sheet)

I'm actually just testing this right now as I'm polishing my car over 2 weeks so I have freshly polished panels to test and I get ZERO marring this way.

Now, with that, it's been 18 months since I got the car and it DOES have marring, so how'd it get there? But I suspect it's a few of the hotel washes I did where I have minimal equipment and poor lighting.

That said, it's not marring you could see in the Sun unless you reeeaaalllyyy looked, only visible with shop lights, but it's there. Or was there. Rupes Uno Pure took out 95%, but there were some deeper scratches I had to use the yellow pads & polish on.

But on the good news side I had zero paint contamination; that happens because you get dirt on your car and it sits there for weeks while your car goes through hot & cold cycles. What happens is, when you car heats up it expands which opens up little cracks in your clear coat which the dirt falls into, then the car cools, the car contracts, and the cracks close trapping the dirt. Now you have to "decontaminate" the paint with chemicals like iron removers, and then physically using clay.

Oh - DO NOT use clay unless you're going to polish after; clay WILL marr your paint for sure.