Loading ...How To: Wash A Car’s Exterior
Car washing has been a pastime of mine for years. From the early days of paying $3 for a bunch of half dressed cheerleaders wash it for me to now paying $5 for a bunch of half dressed cheerleaders wash it for me… i’ve always apprecaited a clean car. Joking aside, i’ve spent a great amount of time working “the line” and learning all the tricks of the car washing trade. Being fanatical about doing it right, it’s always amazed me how many people do it wrong. If you’ve ever wondered why the full service car wash down the street can always do a better job than you can, this guide is for you.
1. The Prep
Depending upon how often you (or the cheerleaders) wash your car you may need to be a little more thorough in this portion. It is extremely important that your car is cool (not corvette cool, but summer breeze cool) and completely shaded. This means that the car has not been sitting in the sun for the past 5 hours and it hasn’t just returned from an 8 hour road trip. Early in the morning or early evening are always the best times. If you are going to even think of washing your car in direct sunlight, you may as well just drive it down the street to the car wash. Sunlight and heat will quite literally “bake” the water and soap into your car. Even if you have hard water or water that has a pH that is slightly off you’re better off heading to the nearest car wash cause because you’ll end up with water spots that will take a blow torch to remove.
Rinse your entire car, wheels, and wheel wells as thoroughly as possible removing all the loose dirt and grime that you can. Any residual dirt will scuff your finish once you start washing so don’t slack on this process! Don’t be afraid to look like you are “watering” you car. If you don’t do this process extensively, you will end if with a dull and foggy looking paint job from all of the scraping sand and pebbles.
2. The Wash
When you wash a car, you should be using car soap. Resist the urge to use liquid Tide or Dawn for your dishes. No matter how elite your car may be, go buy some regular car soap at Pep Boys. There are tons of soaps on the market, all with different “features” like: quick drying, spotless (bullshit), waxing (also bullshit), etc. There is no need for anything other than soap. Turtle wax or some other bottom shelf brand is more than adequate. That said, my personal favorite is Griot’s Garage car soap. Mix the soap according to the concentration on the bottle. DO NOT USE MORE SOAP THAN YOU ARE INSTRUCTED TO. To wash/scrub, I always prefer a good soft wash mitt. That said, I’ve also seen some rather nice poll brushes that won’t damage the surface of the car. Make sure that you thoroughly rinse your wash mitt or brush before using it so that any lingering contaminants are washed away.
Most people incorrectly start by throwing their wash mitt on the hood of the car. Rather, start with the roof of the car and work your way down in elevation rinsing as you go. A rule of thumb is that every time you can’t scrub anymore without hitting a crease, rinse. So the roof of the car, rinse. The trunk lid, rinse. The hood, rinse. Get the picture? By starting at the top you ensure that you are never contaminating an already washed surface. If you did the hood first and then went to the roof, you would be rinsing back onto the hood.
Once you are satisfied with your wash job, give the car one last rinse making sure you didn’t miss any spots. Pay special attention to getting the soap out of rear view mirrors, trunk seams, license plate holders, and lower grills. Otherwise drying will be a real pain.
3. Drying
For drying, you can either use a natural or synthetic chamois or some terry cotton towels. Just make sure that if in fact you use towels that they were not washed with bleach or fabric softener. Otherwise it will leave a residue. Dry the car with the flat surfaces first taking great care to get inside the seams of the car to get any water out. Then move to the sides of the car. No real art to drying other than just making sure you are wringing out the towel. If your towel is too wet it will leave streaks that you will be tempted to “let air dry.” Doing so will deprive your car of the “wet look” that you crave. If you see water spots beginning to develop as you dry it is usually an indication that the car was too hot when you washed it, or you just used too much soap.
4. The Wheels
You now have a completely clean and dry car with dirty wheels. This is a good thing. Washing the wheels of your car before or during the washing of the body of the car exposes your car paint to brake dust, brake fluid, and a whole lot of things that are no good for your paint job. NEVER use the same wash mitt, or soap and water for your car and wheels. That’s not to say you can’t use the same bucket, but be sure to thoroughly rinse the bucket afterward so your next car wash doesn’t have brake fluid in it.
Make sure your wheels are sufficiently wet taking care not to re-wet the car. I highly suggest spraying them down with a wheel cleaner or degreaser. My favorite is Griot’s Wheel Cleaner. After you thoroughly spray them down, wait for about 60 seconds and then hit them with soapy water and a good wheel brush. If you use a degreaser you will see what an easy process this is. Without one you might have to scrub a bit harder for the desired effect. Once the wheel is clean, rinse it very thoroughly and dry it immediately. Repeat for all four wheels. Finish the tires off with some Griot’s Long Lasting Tire Dressing.
There you have it, a perfectly clean car exterior. Waiting for more information on the interior? Come back next week for the next installment on car washing. And in the interest of full disclosure, I do NOT work for Griot’s… though I have tried just about every one of their products on everything from $20K family minivans to $1M show cars and this stuff is the best! Far better than the stuff you may get from Ardex or Simoniz, 4 out of 5 cheerleaders actually prefer it!
Be A Man
-The Founding Father
