When it comes to washing cars the type of soap you use is very important. You want a soap that will produce a lot of suds and make the paint supper slick so the sponge will just glide over the paint. This helps to reduce swirl marks while washing. Then you can take it to the next step and buy a AutoGeek foam gun as you see in the lower left had corner of the picture. This allows you to pre soak the car allowing the soap to lift off the dirt before the sponge even touches your paint. This further reduces the swirl marks created while wahsing. In this picture I was using DP Xtreme Foam Formula Auto Shampoo. The day before I use Meguiars Gold Class. All I can say is Ill never be buying Meguiars GC after using the DP shampoo. The DP produces an amazing amount of suds, is super slick, and has a very nice minty smell.

 

If you have soft water, you will get a lot more bubbles then if you have hard water. If you have really hard water such as 10+ grains, you can pretty much forget about getting any suds.

The softer the water and the more dispersant (an ingredient in soap) you add , the slicker the car surface will be.

That is a neat product that you found though.

By the way...what does "hard" water mean? Technically, hard water has calcium and magnesium in it. The harder the water, the more calcium and magnesium. The word hardness is reserved for those two minerals. Hard water litterally means "hard to wash with"....as in, can't make bubbles.

Sorry for the chemistry lesson, but it is what I do.

 

Yeah hard water sucks. I have/ had hard water. But I bought the Total Filter kit from AG and it fixed my problems. Im just using the water softener filter from that kit. If you dont have hard water then you can use the sediment filter if you have sand or rust in the water.

 

I wash my car with the plain water from the hose, soap from K-mart, and towels.

Am I going to hell?

lol.

 

Well believe it or not, the majority of people actually wash their cars wrong even though they think they are doing it right. You are doing it wrong just by using the towels. Im going to assume you're using the wrong sponge/ mitt too. The only type of fabric that should touch your paint is microfiber. Shammies, water blades, and any other towel will scratch your car and put swirl marks in it.

I could get into correct washing methods, two bucket system, correct drying techniques, but I have a feeling I might be wasting my time.

This is 1/3 of the stuff Ill be ordering for this summer when I get back from school and start detailing again. You think car parts are expensive...



Not sure what happened to the picture in my first post. But here it is again.

 

Sponge/mitt? Hell, I don't even have those. LOL

I do have a microfiber cloth though... what kind of ..material should I use to wash the car with? A sponge of what sort?

I feel retarded now, thanks alot.

This is what I do In order:
- Move all cars away from mine, move mine away from garage door, and away from the stupid Pine trees
- Poor some K-mart auto soap into an old plastic bucket
- Unravel the hose that always get tangled up and yank the bitch to the driveway
- Fill the bucket , put hose under water as I fill to make lots o bubbles, bubbly bubbly.
- Hose the car down, to get off any leaves/pine needles etc and to get it wet
- Get the cleanest towel, rinse it, then dip it in the bucket and wash the roof and windows of my car
- hose that section off
- Rinse the towel off and put it back in the bucket, take it out and wash the hood / trunk decklid / top of the bumpers and the side of the car above the side stripes
- Grab a less cleaner towel, wet it, and get it soapy and wash the bottom of the sides, bottom of the front and rear bumpers
- Rinse the whole car off, dry it with a...drying squeegee water-sucker up thing (must be the best product I own..it works wonders)
- Wash the wheels with a nasty, 10yr old rag
- Was the tires with a brush and some laundry detergent
- Dry that all out.
- Claybar
- Turtle wax ICE (not sure if I should do this before or after I use the claybar...because I also spray the detailing spray on the car to lube it when using the claybar..hmmmm), usually put about 3 coats of ice on
- Wax (I rarely wax my car...rarely.)
- Meguires Tire shine
-Done.
- The next day, the car is covered in leaves and bird ****.

There we go..the cheap, terrible way to wash a car! Takes almost all day too.

And it doesn't look too bad..

(Yes, I do the same **** on the Vette too..haha)

 

Well all microfiber ISNT created equally. I buy all of my MF from Cobra. They also make wash mitts which are good. Sheepskin/ sheepwool, cotton, or microfiber.

As for drying, I use something called The Guzzler.

Just looked at your washing thing. You are def putting scratches and swirl marks in the paint using any old towel. Even though its clean, its still too rough for paint. I also wash/ dry my car in sections. Hood/ windows. Doors/ side where its even with the trunk lid. Then whole front of the car. Then the rear of the car.

QD's are alright for using with a clay bar. Clay lubes are better because they provide more lube for the clay which is very important. And yes, you clay before you wax.

The reason you say it doesnt look so bad is because its white. Try doing this on a black car and see what happens.

 

So...if I just replaced the ****ty towls with a washing sponge, would it be much better?

 

Well even though you might not see them, you wont be putting in swirl marks. It really depends on how much attention you pay to those little details.

 

Well since my car is white, the swirl marks are almost...impossible to notice.
If I get right up to the car and look at it from any angle, I can barely see any signs of swirls.

 

LMAO... Probably covers about 2/3 of the people here including myself.

 

Yeah but then again there's no nice reflection, it looks milky from more than 10 feet away =(

 

ditto...here is a pic of me clean car for yas..

 

I'm going to wash my car today..will post pics of how..clean it looks after.

Chance of rain is 50%....damn, **** it I'm bored.

 

i use microfibers sponges and The Absorber to dry my clean it drys it so quick no streaks no wet spots is the absorber bad to use? i also use Meguiars xtra sud car wash smells good and has **** load of suds

 

Okay welll I just got done washing the monster, it's all purdy and it even shines!!!

BUT - My brother took the digital camera, AND it's starting to rain.

So...**** me sideways.

 

Zhit, I did not realize that thing has a built-in to remove hardness. Where did you buy this thing?

 

Hey Venom, what if we could build a water treatment system that could attach to a garden hose, similar to the MR. Clean but way better? Then, sell it at MT? I think I am going to give this some thought.

For those of you that don't know, I have been an industrial water treatment consultant for 14 years. I was recently promoted and now run the entire equipment line for the entire division. I have access to every possible type of water treatment device sold AND I work for the largers industrial supplier of soaps in the world. The company also has a division that sells car wash chemicals to car washes and detailers.

Certainly, I could come up with something.

 

I would be interested. My water is hard as hell where I live.

 

I got so fed up with that Mr. clean thing I smashed it with a mallet. It was more trouble than it's worth.

 

I have hard water here and was looking into one of the ones that sears has but not sure how good it would be since it uses salt to remove the hard water wont my car start rusting? My father has a soft water filter and your hands feel soapy after rinsing in it. So I see how great it would be to use it for washing the car as the water would slide off but the salt has me worried. Blake there is a company that sells a device that you are talking about. l will do some digging and try to find it again.

 

http://www.autogeek.net/waterfilterkit2.html
or
http://www.autogeek.net/deluxe-filter-system.html

 

Everyone has the same thing just different sizes like the links above. I just wonder if the the Sodium has any effects on the car in the long run. I plan on keeping my car for a long time and the worst thing is to find out that you have alot of rust due to these water softeners.

 

I use a Meguiars Wash Mitt and a bucket with a grit guard. However, today I thought I would give Meguiars Versa Angle Wide Body Brush a try:



I am kinda against brushes of ANY kind, but this one is softer than my pecker thinking about Jon necked.

Good results too. Not to bad for $9.99.

 

Thx for the quote, LOL

 

He did.