Winter Washing Tips

[DetailersDomain]

Believe it or not, winter washing can be easy. Here's how to maintain your pride and joy when the mercury drops.


- Hook your hose to a warm water source, or fill Adam's wash bucket with warm water.
- Spray wheels and tires with Simple Green. Loosen dirt with Adam's Boar's Hair Brush.
- Rinse vehicle from top to bottom, including wheel wells and areas behind the tires.
- Wash vehicle top to bottom, making sure to rinse the wash pad over Adam's Grit Guard which is placed at the bottom of the wash bucket.
- Rinse vehicle.
- While vehicle is wet, spray a mist of Detail Spray on each panel. Dry one section at a time with a microfiber drying towel.
- Dress trim and tires with Vinyl, Rubber & Tire Dressing (VRT).
- Apply a thin layer of Buttery Wax. This amazing wax is easy to use in any temperature.
- Check windshield wiper blades and fluid level. These items are essential for winter driving conditions.

Please feel free to share your winter washing tips.

[rds0000]

I tend to have my cars detailed by a professional........when its not too cold. WOW i thought i got up early.

[DetailersDomain]

[:d]

[Grouse]

It is all about the wash.

How you wash a car determines how it looks. Most know that auto carwashes induce marring, swirling and promote a large amount of defects. Hand washing can also induce those shame issues. Using good procedures and policies when washing will go a long way to ensuring that your paint finish, trim, glass, wheels and tires will look the best they can for as long as they can. Before I go much further I want to stipulate that if you put 10 guys in a room and ask how to wash a car you will get 10 different ways to wash a car.

So what then is the correct way? Well there are many depending on what your situation is. I am going to cover how I do a basic wash in a driveway. I’ll include steps, pictures, and as best I can an intelligent concise post.

Materials:
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6 plain yellow costco microfiber
1-2 Buckets
1 sheepskin wash mitt
1 foam gun
2-4 oz of car wash soap
1 waffle weave drying towel.
1 spritzer of detail spray
1 detail buffing Microfiber towel
1 hose and nozzles

A little bit about these materials.

Yellow costco microfibers are a great cheap alternative to the more expensive micro’s. I do not like to use them on paint. That being said they work excellent on wheels, door jambs, trunk lids, tires, wheel wells and engine bays.

Buckets are pretty self explanatory. One bucket for rinse water, one bucket for soapy water. By keeping those two separate you will keep as much of the paint damaging dirt out of your wash solution as possible. I prefer my rinse bucket to have a Grit Guard. This helps settle the dirt you clean off your car into the bottom of the bucket without cross contaminating your soapy water bucket.

Sheep skin mitts are very soft and supple. I prefer them over manmade sponges and mitts because they wick the dirt into the fiber, but easily rinse the dirt free when drenched in a rinse bucket. Manmade mitts, sponges, micro fiber, cotton terry, chenille do not generally rinse free. This gives them a higher likely hood of inducing marring on your paint.

Foam Guns are a way to eliminate the soapy water bucket. They hold your car wash solution in the gun and aerate the spray as you soap down the car and mitt. The foam gun gives you an unparalleled amount of paint protecting foam for washing. Washing with a foam is not really faster, but it is less likely to induce marring when done well.

Car wash soap, what an endless discussion this could be. Suffice it to say that some soap will over time remove more of your sealant or wax layer than others. Most soaps have some foaming action and some detergent. Try a few out. I uses megs gold class, sonus, optimum no rise, poor boys super suds and a few others.

Waffle weave drying towels are shaped like a waffle. This allows them to scoop up excess moisture and pull it off the vehicle with little or no streaking. It is also much softer than a terry towel and less likely to induce marring.

Detail spray is about as controversial of a topic as car soap. After you wash you may notice that some of the slickness to the finish or wax is gone. A detail spray after you wash goes a long way to restoring that slickness and giving a shine to any luster and gloss that may have been lost.

Buffing microfibers are very dense thick micro’s that help give a luster and shine without inducing marring. Because they are thicker you can usually use one per detail spray versus 2-3 costco micro’s.

Hoses and fittings. I like a quick release setup, one that includes attachments to the foam gun, soap bottle, and stream nozzle.

1) Fill up your rinse bucket and put in 4 of your 6 yellow mf towels.
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2) Spray rinse off your wheels, tires, and wheel wells. The more dirt, grime, brake dust you rinse off the less you have to clean. Take a min or two to remove as much as you can.
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3) Foam down the wheels, tires, and wheel wells. Turn up the lather as much as you like. Give this a second to start to suspend the dirt and grime from those areas.
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4) Spray down your first MF towel. Use one towel per wheel/wheel well. Start from the outside edge of the wheel (where a wheel gets curbed). From the out sided edge clean the lip or flat fascia. From the fascia clean the out side edges or flanges. Work your way in to the dirtiest parts. The idea is to clean the lip and fascia first. If you clean the lip and fascia last you risk damaging them with all of the built up brake dust and grime that is in your mf towel. Then scrub the tire very well, not just simply a rub the tire but fold the rag and give it a scrub. I rarely use a brush as many wheels have very soft chrome, aluminum, polished, anodized lips that are very easy to damage with even the softest brush.
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This is the result of me cleaning two of my wheels, tires, wheel wells.
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5) Hose down the rest of the car. Use the pressure of the nozzle to blast off loose bits of junk and leaves. Use this time to examine those areas that may need extra attention during washing. Bug splatters, road tar, road grime, road antifreeze goo etc etc.
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6) Foam gun the roof, windows and mitt. I had to spray the mitt on the car for the photo, normally I spray both sides of the mitt.
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7) Wash the roof in straight lines. No circular motions. Once you have washed the section of the roof flip the mitt over and wash it 90* straight lines. I do not actually put my hand in the mitt. I feel that when your hand is in the mitt you are prone to scrubbing the paint with way more pressure than is needed. This leads to quite a bit of marring. I generally hold the mitt like I would a basket ball. By using just your finger tips you have just enough pressure to wash the car without scratching it. Once you have washed the roof, wash all of the exterior windows and door/window trim. Be sure to dip the mitt in the rinse bucket and massage any dirt or grime out. An example of washing it by straight lines.
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8) Re foam the car and mitt. Continue to wash the car never going below the 50% or lower door trim. Basically that is the dirtiest parts of the car. Wash the upper third or half first. Remember to flip the mitt and was at 90 degree straight lines. That insures you remove even the smallest amount of dirt, yes it is washing the section twice. Once you have finished the upper half to third, start on the lowers, bumper, grills, of the car. After each section rinse the mitt thoroughly to ensure no dirt or grime contamination. Re foam and continue with the same 2 step wash as the rest of the car.
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9) Once the car is washed spray the entire car off with the nozzle. I like to rinse it off this way first as it allows me to see if any soap has dried or I need to hit a section again. You can see in the following pictures the remaining water and moisture. Notice how well it beads. IT looks great like this but it is a pain to dry. You end up spending as much time ringing out the towels as you did washing the car.
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10) Remove the nozzle off the hose, turn down the hose pressure and slowly chase the water off the car. This is called sheet rinsing. It causes the water to pull its self off the car by surface tension. Leaving the vehicle most of the way dry with very little to actually dry. Here is the car after sheet rinsing.
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11) Lay out your waffle weave microfiber towel. Slowly drag the towel across the painted surfaces first. This will allow it time to soak up the extra water still on the paint. Continue till the paint is dry, and then finish the windows.
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[Grouse]

12) As I said above after a wash sometimes the slickness, luster and gloss are slightly diminished. This is the time to apply detail spray. Fold you super plush microfiber into eighth’s and then apply 3-4 good sprays of detail spray to the towel. The reason you apply it to the towel is you will use less product, have less streaking and have to work the product less. After application work the product over a panel and then flip the MF to a dry side and buff it clear of any streaking. Continue working like this till the car is done. You may find you need to unfold and refold the towel to a section of it that is not soaked in detail spray.
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Finished car.
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for all you detractors about washing it in the sun, it's 40* out.

[Mike@Startup]

Grouse, we have the same Foam gun =-)

If you are in the salt belt, spray soap & lots of water around the wheel wells, and undercarridge to get all the salt & road grim off.

I will add, if it's really cold out, DO NOT put warm/hot water on the glass. It can & will crack.

I just did a Winter Wash & Wax on my EVO over the weekend, it sucked! The car was super dirty, the wheel wells were full of gunk, and I had to wash the lowers twice to get all the grime off. It took me twice as long to wash it.

I put extra wax on the lowers, hopefully it will last a few weeks.

[Grouse]

I will be writing a review on how to clean wheels for BMWCCAPSr. I told you those foam guns were the chit. How do you like the menzerna?

[Mike@Startup]

I will be writing a review on how to clean wheels for BMWCCAPSr. I told you those foam guns were the chit. How do you like the menzerna?

Well, it's been bittersweet.
The first time I used it, the quick connect seamed like it was in tight, but as soon as I pulled the trigger, it poped out fell on the ground & broke the foam wand. Called the hot line, & they sent me a FREE ONE!

After that I like it. I had to relearn how to wash the car. It seams to work better when you dilute the soap a little. I can't just drop the hose any more it needs to be placed. Washing seams to go a lot quicker when using it.

Menz is great stuff, it does everything it's suppose to. I just wish it lasted a little longer on the cars lowers, 2 weeks of FW driving & the lowers are done. It would be nice if it beaded water better. However, it doesn't seam to attract dust like Carnuba, & it shines nicer when the car get dirty, and sheds dirt easier. I tried it with my old rotary, my rotary sucks! It doesn't have any speed control, and was just to hard to use. So I'm going to purchase a new one soon.

I really like the Menz Gel Wheel Cleaner. It sticks to the rim, & gets all the crap off easily!

I also purchased a Whole House Water filter & softener, that makes all the difference in the world!

[Grouse]

I know what your talking about on the lowers, The last few mons it seems like it simply goes away. I think it is all that liquid deicer King and Pierce county have slathered over the car.

I will tell you that the menzerna is not actually gone, the slickness is though. After the car is washed. Take a clean buffing towel with a tiny amount of detail spray for lubricant and buff your lowers. The slickness will return and so will the beading.

Better yet apply that 50/50 wax. It does a much better job at retaining slickness against that stupid de-icer.

For your mitsu a PC would probably do, but that hard audi clear almost demands a rotary.

as for the foam gun yeah i use 4oz of soap to 28oz of water on the second setting on the slider bar. that is usually enoufh for 8 wheels and one car.


I don't generally like wheel chemicals. I use car soap in MF towels. That being said PS21 wheel gel works well. as long as it is not an HF or abf product you probably will be fine.

[Grouse]

BTW we need to do another wash the cars and drink beer session. or just look at the cars and drink.

[Mike@Startup]

BTW we need to do another wash the cars and drink beer session. or just look at the cars and drink.


YES, we do! I was thinking the exact same thing! This time you can come over to my place. Use my products this time.[up]

I do need to wash the S4 it's been almost 3 weeks! I'm wanting to make it to Wednesday beer night.

[derek]

what kind of foam gun do you guys use and where could i purchase it?

[Grouse]

If i am not mistaken Phil can hook you up.

[derek]

yah the last post i saw .. he was checking .. guess i'll pm him...thanks