The most important part about maintaining your cars finish is proper washing and drying techniques. Proper washing and drying techniques can and will greatly reduce that amount of marring and swirls as a result of general care. A scratch free wash system is possible, but requires the upmost attention to detail and technique. As well as the proper tools needed to get the job done properly.
These are the products ill be using to clean my wheels and tires.
The leftmost bottle is a product called p21s gel wheel cleaner. I like it for its cleaning power, and gel factor which helps it cling to vertical surface w/o running off fast. Probably one of the safest and best wheel cleaners on the market, that does come at a price. It is on the pricey side at 22$ per quart.
The middle bottle is what i use to clean tires. Its Meguiars APC D103. Its diluted 4:1 (4 parts water to 1 part cleaner). its decent at cleaning tires. Are there bettter products? yes. But its what i have so ill use it. Its cost effective, because Megs APC is cheap (16$ a gallon) and can be diluted in many different ways for different jobs.
The bottle on the right is Chemical Guys gel wheel cleaner. Just like the p21 its a gel based cleaner. The upside is that its significantly cheaper, and can be diluted (that particuler bottle is 3:1) A gallon of cleaner will diluted to 5 gallons of cleaner. And at 20$ per gallon its very cost effective.
I also have an assortment of brushes to clean every part of the wheel.
Here is the wheel, hasnt been cleaned in almost 2 weeks.
I apply the cleaner while the wheel is cool and dry. The products i use are already safe and diluted, so hosing the wheel down prior will just dilute the cleaner more when i spray it on the surface.
I like to spray the wheel cleaning product on the dampened brush. This serves 2 things. Prevents overuse of product, and i find that it foams up much better, and i can see where ive agitated and where i havent.
once the wheel face is done i use the spoke brush to get the inner barrels clean. sam technique of spraying a couple squirts on the brush.
rinse it off
After i do all the wheels and tires, i give the car a thorough rinse. Then i spray APC on the upper and lower grilles, and the rear badges. I agitate using a soft brush.
These are the car washing products ill be using. Ill be doing the 2 bucket method, and using grout sponges and Optimum car wash as my shampoo. Its important to dilute your wash according to the bottle because to much shampoo will be just a waste of product, and could strip off whatever wax is on the car.
My car needs no more than 2 gallons of wash water, therefore i fill my wash bucket to two gallons, and measure out my shampoo. I add to it the wash water, because if i did it the opposite and poured the shampoo in first than added water, this would have caused unneeded soap suds, and would make the amount of water added unmeasureable. Suds is nice, but isnt what gets teh grime off your car. Wash water is meant as a lubricant for your sponge or mitt to slide the dirt off of. So you want the solution to be slippery.
I chose optimum car wash because I had waxed my car last week, and just wanted to do a quick wash (ive been using ONR for the past month or so ive been wanting to do an actual wash for awhile, More on ONR later). OPT car wash is a great product, at a decent price 11$ for 32oz. It also smells heavenly, like blueberries.
The 2 bucket method is self explanatory. 1 bucket is filled with clean water and used to rinse out the wash media. This keeps the wash water clean and reduces teh chances of scratching your cars finish by grit that was stuck on your sponge.
I wash panel by panel starting on the hood, and roof. After every panel, or half of a larger panel, i rinse off my sponge in the rinse bucket. After the horizontal panels i go around the car starting on the drivers side fender and wrapping around counter clockwise around the car, finishing on the front bumper, making sure to rinse my mitt every panel. I have this method, because my car gets cleaned once a week, therefore my lower panels dont see a ton of dirt buildup.
After the car is washed and rinsed, go over the car again with the water free flowing from the hose. This will sheet the water on the panels, and reduce the amount of water left on the surface, thus making drying faster.
These are the drying towels that i use. They are both from exceldetail.com. The towel on the left is by far one of the softest waffle weave towels ive ever used. the one on the left isnt as soft, but holds and absorbs more water than the lighter blue one (which is called the monteray waffle weave btw)
all done
I also cleaned up the muffler. I had noticed it was getting kind of dull as of late, So i used the left over wash water and an old sheepskin mitt and gave it a good washing. After it was dried i gave it a quick polish with mothers power metal polish. Just to brighten it up a bit, not looking for a serious turnaround.
These are the products ill be using to clean my wheels and tires.
The leftmost bottle is a product called p21s gel wheel cleaner. I like it for its cleaning power, and gel factor which helps it cling to vertical surface w/o running off fast. Probably one of the safest and best wheel cleaners on the market, that does come at a price. It is on the pricey side at 22$ per quart.
The middle bottle is what i use to clean tires. Its Meguiars APC D103. Its diluted 4:1 (4 parts water to 1 part cleaner). its decent at cleaning tires. Are there bettter products? yes. But its what i have so ill use it. Its cost effective, because Megs APC is cheap (16$ a gallon) and can be diluted in many different ways for different jobs.
The bottle on the right is Chemical Guys gel wheel cleaner. Just like the p21 its a gel based cleaner. The upside is that its significantly cheaper, and can be diluted (that particuler bottle is 3:1) A gallon of cleaner will diluted to 5 gallons of cleaner. And at 20$ per gallon its very cost effective.
I also have an assortment of brushes to clean every part of the wheel.
Here is the wheel, hasnt been cleaned in almost 2 weeks.
I apply the cleaner while the wheel is cool and dry. The products i use are already safe and diluted, so hosing the wheel down prior will just dilute the cleaner more when i spray it on the surface.
I like to spray the wheel cleaning product on the dampened brush. This serves 2 things. Prevents overuse of product, and i find that it foams up much better, and i can see where ive agitated and where i havent.
once the wheel face is done i use the spoke brush to get the inner barrels clean. sam technique of spraying a couple squirts on the brush.
rinse it off
After i do all the wheels and tires, i give the car a thorough rinse. Then i spray APC on the upper and lower grilles, and the rear badges. I agitate using a soft brush.
These are the car washing products ill be using. Ill be doing the 2 bucket method, and using grout sponges and Optimum car wash as my shampoo. Its important to dilute your wash according to the bottle because to much shampoo will be just a waste of product, and could strip off whatever wax is on the car.
My car needs no more than 2 gallons of wash water, therefore i fill my wash bucket to two gallons, and measure out my shampoo. I add to it the wash water, because if i did it the opposite and poured the shampoo in first than added water, this would have caused unneeded soap suds, and would make the amount of water added unmeasureable. Suds is nice, but isnt what gets teh grime off your car. Wash water is meant as a lubricant for your sponge or mitt to slide the dirt off of. So you want the solution to be slippery.
I chose optimum car wash because I had waxed my car last week, and just wanted to do a quick wash (ive been using ONR for the past month or so ive been wanting to do an actual wash for awhile, More on ONR later). OPT car wash is a great product, at a decent price 11$ for 32oz. It also smells heavenly, like blueberries.
The 2 bucket method is self explanatory. 1 bucket is filled with clean water and used to rinse out the wash media. This keeps the wash water clean and reduces teh chances of scratching your cars finish by grit that was stuck on your sponge.
I wash panel by panel starting on the hood, and roof. After every panel, or half of a larger panel, i rinse off my sponge in the rinse bucket. After the horizontal panels i go around the car starting on the drivers side fender and wrapping around counter clockwise around the car, finishing on the front bumper, making sure to rinse my mitt every panel. I have this method, because my car gets cleaned once a week, therefore my lower panels dont see a ton of dirt buildup.
After the car is washed and rinsed, go over the car again with the water free flowing from the hose. This will sheet the water on the panels, and reduce the amount of water left on the surface, thus making drying faster.
These are the drying towels that i use. They are both from exceldetail.com. The towel on the left is by far one of the softest waffle weave towels ive ever used. the one on the left isnt as soft, but holds and absorbs more water than the lighter blue one (which is called the monteray waffle weave btw)
all done
I also cleaned up the muffler. I had noticed it was getting kind of dull as of late, So i used the left over wash water and an old sheepskin mitt and gave it a good washing. After it was dried i gave it a quick polish with mothers power metal polish. Just to brighten it up a bit, not looking for a serious turnaround.
