DIY: How to wash your car the right way. [56k go ride a bike]

drdellorama @M3F wrote:
Hi fellow member, i decided to do a write up on how to wash car, i hope my writeup answers all your question about washing car.

Here are the products i used today: (and place where you can get em)


Meguairs NXT car wash soap (any autoparts store, pepboys, walmart, etc)
Meguairs Gold Class car wash soap (any autoparts store, pepboys, i haven't seen this at walmart lately though)
Simple Green (same as above, i got em at walmart)
2 buckets
Shmitt (autogeek.net)
Cobra Guzzler (autogeek.net)
Armor All extreme tire shine (pepboys, walmart, etc.)
Stoners Invisible Glass(pepboys, walmart doesn't sell the aerosol type, they have the sprayer type)
Meguiars Quik Detailer (any autoparts store)
Armor All Tire Foam (any autoparts store)
Foam Gun (lowes, $10)
and lots of microfiber towels (costco)

Ok, i dont have any before pictures, but my car was fairly dusty and kind of dirty also,

I decided to try two different soap with the foam gun,
Here are the foaming/sudsing action of Megs NXT:




As you can see, it produces fair amount of Suds/foam.
I let the suds sits on the car for 3-4 mins to let the soap do it's thing and then rinse off.
By this time, the car was already clean i didn't see anymore dirt on the car.

Here are the foaming/sudsing actioin Meguiars Gold Class on the foam gun:




As you can see, it kinda produces more suds than the NXT,
and the megs gold class smells so good!!!
i let the soap sits for another 3-4 min then rinse off,

here's what you get after:




yes, the car is already clean without me even touching it!!

Here's what i use for the Wheels:
Simple Green in the foam gun


Rinse the wheels first


Then spray it on:




Don't forget to spray the Wheel Well also

Next step is to agitate the dirt with a brush:
the brush i'm using is Meguiars



Rinse:



OK now we get to the washing part:
Fill Two buckets with water,
in one bucket, add soap, i use the gold class in this one. (RED BUCKET)
the other one is just plain ol water. (GREEN BUCKET)


here's the Shmitt:


and here's the Shmitt in action:


After each panel, rinse the mitt in the green bucket, after that, dip it the the bucket with the soapy solution, and proceed to wash another panel








Remember to wash from top panel to bottom.

Rinse:


Then rinse with NO nozzle, this is called Flooding the Paint, drying will be so much easier with this.



Compare this image to the one before the flooding, now you see why it is easier to dry off the car with flooding?


Next step is to dry the car with the Cobra Guzzler:
See the Size of that thing??????
i didn't wring the towel at all during the drying of the car.



All nice and dry now:






Drying the wheels and tires is the next step, i just use OLD microfiber towels for this:


Then i dry the engine bay, which i washed it earlier but i didn't take any picture:
then i used the armor all TIRE FOAM on the engine bay (plastic part only)



Next step is cleaning the windows:


Streak Free Finish!

Next, i applied some tire dressing:


BEFORE:


AFTER:




i decided to break out the DP max Wax and applied it to the hood only:






FINAL STEP:
Put her in the garage, yes, that is Duct tape on my headlight, i just didn't want to risk any fogging inside it when i washed my engine bay.


All comments / Feedback are welcome!

Geoj wrote:Cobra Guzzler...what a great name. I'm going to need to pick up one of them.

JHass wrote:

Geoj wrote:Cobra Guzzler...what a great name. I'm going to need to pick up one of them.

Hahaha sounds something JLanch might be into Guzzling Cobra's

JHass wrote:

Geoj wrote:Cobra Guzzler...what a great name. I'm going to need to pick up one of them.

Hahaha sounds something JLanch might be into Guzzling Cobra's

jcrome wrote:Jeez that's a process lol.

I prefer the gold wool wash mitts. and softly drying with bath towels.

I personally have never liked using a chamois.

jcrome wrote:Microfiber

Chamois


Go to Pennys and buy a couple NICE, PLUSH bath towels