Your car wash workflow

[kilobravo]

I pay her well...

​

And this is the checklist she uses:

- Wheels and tires
- Pressure washer rinse
- Foam
- 5-min soak time
- Rinse
- Hand wash
- Rinse
- De-ionizing rinse.
- Spray rotors with Hyde's Rustopper
- Blow dry with MasterBlaster
- Up and back on the driveway with hard stops on each to dry out the brakes.

Sponsored

 

[Dana Pants]

I'm also curious to hear people's process but with a twist.

How do yall wash your cars at a coin car wash ? For people like me who live in apartments and don't have access to an area with a hose.
I absolutely refuse to use a drive thru wash because they chipped my paint on my last mustang

Diluted Optimum No Rinse in a pressurized bottle (like used for lawn care) and lots of clean microfiber rags is a pretty good method after the pressure washer. ONR is also a good clay bar lube.

 

[kilobravo]

PS.

Sometimes her sister accompanies her and helps. :-)

 

[WD Pro]

Dressed like that, I would be requesting that she pays special attention to the areas under the sills, splitter and defuser etc ...

WD

 

[Kristian87]

I'll play...

For a maintenance wash

Set up: get all my bottles out, set the pressure washer up, fill my wheel bucket with water/soap

Wheels
Spray down inc wheel arches
Tire cleaner, scrub tires, rinse. APC for the wheel arches, scrub & rinse
Wheel cleaner on wheel barrels, aggitate, rinse, then the wheel faces.
Quick spray of APC on the exhaust tips and aggitae/rinse

Body
Good spray down with a wide ish nozzle on the pressure washer
Foam, dwell for a few mins (weather dependent). Sometimes hit the badges at this point with a soft brush and the hard plastics with a stiffer brush
Another rinse off
Wash with 2 bucket method
Spray down

Dry & Protect
I hit the glass with a drying aid good for reducing water spots, then wipe dry with a drying towel
I'll get the metrovac dryer at this point and hit all of the crevices, wheels and taillights so they are not dripping wet
The body gets either detail spray, spray wax or a spray sealant, then dried with a separate drying towel.
Same drying aid as the glass goes on the wheels and exhaust and I dry them by hand - with specific drying towels I only use on wheels. This is a must with our extremely hard water!
Quick once over with a glass cleaner to tidy up the glass
Tires get a tire dressing

Interior (will do this first if it needs doing).
Thorough vacuum
Wipe down with a microfibre sprayed with interior detailer

All in all, I'm normally 3-4 hours including set up and packing away. Due to do it this weekend - long overdue!

 

[DFB5.0]

The Mustang is my favorite car to wash, don't know why exactly, just is!

A maintenance wash on the Mustang takes me 1.5 - 2 hrs depending on if I'm relaxed and taking my time, if I need to hustle, I can have it done in just over an hour.

1. I get the car into to position, fill my buckets, set up the pressure washer and select my tools and chemicals.

2. Wheels are washed with normal car wash soap from my foam cannon and a variety of brushes and wash mitts. I will also attend to the wheel wells and exhaust tips with the same soap. I will scrub the tires with Brake Buster undiluted every 2 - 3 washes, I don't personally need to do this every wash.

3. Rinse the car down thoroughly.

4. Foam the car top to bottom with soap. I cycle through a few different soaps, I'm a hussy when it comes to products. Koch Chemie GSF, CarPro Reset and NV Snow are my favorites.

Please bare with me here, because this is where I deviate from the traditional two-bucket method. I have one bucket filled with clean water, apply the soap to the car via a foam cannon and then work around the car, rinsing the wash mitt between panels. My reasoning for this method is that my "good" cars never see wet or dirty roads, at the most, I'm really only cleaning off a layer of dust and perhaps some bugs. So I don't use the two-bucket method. I like how the foam cannon gets the soap directly on the car for heavy lubrication. Now, if your car is actually dirty, the two bucket method is generally a better choice.

5. Thorough rinse.

6. Drive the car into the garage, blow the car down with a blower, I use a Big Boi BlowR Pro.

7. Complete the drying process with a towel and drying aid. Again, I cycle through a few drying aids including Bead Maker, OG Drying Aid, P&S Paint Gloss and Meguiar's Last Touch. I use the same product and a separate towel to do the door jambs.

8. Open the hood, remove any lingering water, wipe over the engine bay in general, using the same drying aid as the paint.

9. Clean the exterior glass, interior glass every few months. Stoners Invisible Glass is the one I grab the most.

10. Vac the interior, mostly the drivers side. I generally don't need to use an interior cleaner, although I will damp a microfiber with Megs Last Touch and wipe over most surfaces.

11. Last and my favorite steps, the wheels and tires. I go over the wheels to remove any drips of water, using NV Boost as the drying aid here, same thing for the exhaust tips. I then apply tire dressing, again playing with different products, usually NV Onyx, OG Tire Dressing or CarPro Perl.

12. Move the car into it's parked position and put the cover on.

The result is a clean car and a nourished soul!

 

[groove93]

For me, the goal is to not "Put Hands" on the paint unless you need to.

On a good day, a pre-wash to get as much dirt and grime off of the paint.
Let a Traffic Film Remover dwell on the paint for a few minutes before washing it off.

If there's still dirt, I'll spray Chemical Guys Orange Degreaser on areas needing attention (Bug Guts for example), then apply Gyeon Foam on the entire Car. Let this dwell for about 5 minutes, while at the same time using my Detailers Brush to wipe Emblems and areas between Doors, Hoods, trunks, Grills, etc.

Work on the Wheels, P&S Breakbuster, plus using Super Clean to clean up the Tires.
I also use Gyeon Iron Wheel Cleaner just once a month.

Once wheels and tires are done, I further inspect the paint to see whether or not I need to perform a Mitten wash. If so, I'll use Gyeon Bathe in a two-bucket set up and wipe down the entire car. Power Wash all of the extra soap and suds off of the car.

Rather than Blow Dry the car, I'll use something like Turtle Wax Seal and Shine, or P&S Bead Maker to coat the car. Gyeon Bathe has some added protectant in its contents as well, and I've read about detailers going over their vehicles with a light film of this soap, the washing it off before adding a "Topper".

Use Gyeon Glass to clean the Windshields and Windows.

Blow Dry the Wheels, apply a Topper, then add Chemical Guys VRP to the tires

Now if I lived in a climate where it did not rain as much or I had consistant weekends with sunny to partly cloudy weather, then those maintenance washes would be very simple, short and sweet.

 

[PoCoBob]

If the car is really dirty I take it through a local touchless carwash first. I buy the econo wash and that really just knocks the thick dirt off the car. I don't want to get that into my wash mitt.

I apply tire shine first, I like black tires but not shiny tires. I let that sit for awhile while I get the hose out of the shed and mix up a bucket of carwash soap.

I use a separate mitt for the paint and another one for the wheels. I do section by section, roof, hood, grill, right side, trunk area, left side, and the wheels last. Always soap on and immediate rinse not letting the soap dry before I rinse it off. I rinse off the remaining tire shine when I rinse the wheels.

I usually just dry the hood, roof and trunk lid. They show water spots really bad but the rest of the car dry's without spotting.

Finally both wash mitts go into the washing machine. I want anything that may have get caught in the mitts out before I need to wash the car again.

 

[JuicySmollet]

Pressure wash fender liners and wheels/tires
Use dedicated mitt and wheel brush on liners, wheels/tires
Pressure wash car
Foam cannon car
Wash with dedicated mitt
Rinse with garden hose
Sheet water with garden hose
Leaf blow grille, mirrors & other water collection spots
Dry windows
Dry paint with drying aide (Beadmaker) and microfiber drying towels
Dry door & trunk sills, & under hood with small microfibers

I'm finding that if I pressure wash rinse and blow dry, it will leave a slight residue (almost looks like tiny water spots) but I end up using Beadmaker on it anyway

 

[Scuba]

I'd be interested in the thread where you all post your car wash workflow. How do you do it, in what order and what products do you use? Let's try and keep it simple.

I use a touchless technique in my driveway with a pressure washer, foam cannon and high speed blower.

1. Get the entire car wet and blast away what I can with the yellow tip
2. Foam it down, usually two coats
3. Rinse with yellow tip
4. Blow the car dry (takes about 30 mins just for this step)

Works really well- sometimes I have to touch up some spots with a microfiber cloth and detail spray. Other than rock chips, the finish is pretty flawless after ~20 washes.

I've used several different soaps, haven't landed on my favorite yet (Meguiars, Mothers, Turtle Wax). Pretty much, if it foams well, I like it
I use Turtle Wax Ice detailer.
Meguiars Endurance tire gel for tire shine- works really well, lasts a long time, but takes a while to apply.

 

[Lorne34]

I follow Larry at AMMO NYC... he has some excellent washing process videos. His "maintenance wash" technique makes a lot of sense as well....

https://ammonyc.com/blogs/learn/chapter-104-essential-car-cleaning-steps

https://ammonyc.com/blogs/learn/chapter-107-how-to-maintain-your-detail

 

[Muhnopoly]

So I washed my car at the coin wash today since I live in apartments and don't have access to a hose, I use a wash mit instead of the dreaded brush but when I got home to clean the wheels I noticed how filthy the wheel barrels are. What's the best and most effective way to clean that sort of thing without a hose? Just detail spray and a few microfiber? I was thinking what if I bought a cheap garden pump sprayer that I can fill up with water and just use a bucket with car soap and a wheel brush and just use that to rinse after ? Hahaha

 

[m3incorp]

It will definitely work better than nothing. The wheel barrels can be tough to get to, depending on your type of wheels.

So I washed my car at the coin wash today since I live in apartments and don't have access to a hose, I use a wash mit instead of the dreaded brush but when I got home to clean the wheels I noticed how filthy the wheel barrels are. What's the best and most effective way to clean that sort of thing without a hose? Just detail spray and a few microfiber? I was thinking what if I bought a cheap garden pump sprayer that I can fill up with water and just use a bucket with car soap and a wheel brush and just use that to rinse after ? Hahaha

 

[Muhnopoly]

It will definitely work better than nothing. The wheel barrels can be tough to get to, depending on your type of wheels.

Stock 2020 GT rims, so plenty of space to get my hands in. Might just have to do that since I have a bucket just need one of those long wheel brushes to get into the barrel and use the sprayer to rinse down after.

 

[m3incorp]

Oh yes, get one of the long reach brushe and you will be good to go.

Stock 2020 GT rims, so plenty of space to get my hands in. Might just have to do that since I have a bucket just need one of those long wheel brushes to get into the barrel and use the sprayer to rinse down after.

Sponsored