i'm fairly new here and for the first time i'm reading the car care and detailing stuff. many of the threads about washing the truck interested me. whenever i wash my truck, i always took it to the car wash and sprayed it down to minimize scratching. i never took a towel or anything to dry it, i would just spray it with "spot free" water. i do all that to minimize touching the paint, and even if i had a water mark, i would just leave it.

after reading these threads, i'm interested in washing and waxing it myself. what kind of products do you use? wash, wax, type of towels, etc.

sorry if this post is redundant from previous post asking for advice on what to use.

thank you in advance for any advice you can offer me.

 

lol...if you are just spraying water....how are u actually wiping the dirt off?

You need to wipe the truck to get it clean.

Here is a couple of sites of lot of info....some basic stuff as well.

http://web-cars.com/detail/wax.php
http://autopia-carcare.com/index.html

 

Everyone has there own personal preferences on washing a car and there is lots of ways to do it. Say for a sample a one hundred thousand $ show room car to a beat up old ugly truck.
First thing use car soap (more lubricating the soap is the better) (I like Meguiar's hi-tech car soap)
Rinse the grit off your car first.
Wash mitt and bucket, some use two buckets one for rinsing the grit out of the mitt the other soap.
Try to wash back & forth instead of a circular motion, applying a light firm hand on the mitt, if you think you have to apply heavy pressure to the mitt to clean then your car should be clayed, polished and waxed. After that it would clean real easy with vary light pressure on the mitt.
Dry the water off your car with something like a chamois, Microfiber chamois towels works the best.
Try to void car washes, why because most car washes use soap that will take off wax not only that the water pressure grins the dirt into the paint. If you have to use a car wash, wash with a angle instead of straight in. Never use acid to clean rims because your rims will not last long, best to use a mild rim cleaner that you have to brush/rag clean the rims.

If you have a professional Detailer in your town talk to him about your car/truck, you would be surprised what a good detailer can do. Like make a car "new again", not that easy when said! A lot of knowledge.
If you like to do it your self, well most detailers I know love to help, just bring a six pack of beer at the end of the day, you could learn more faster then reading on the net.

 

I live in an area that uses a ton of salt on the road and also an area where it's extremely cold most of the winter. I take my truck to the car wash once a week and spray it off. Granted it doesn't get everything off but its a heck of alot better than leaving all the salt and grime on my truck. If I get a nice day in the winter time I hand wash and wax the truck because I know the car wash actually removes some wax. I use high quality wax's so I don't too worried about removing wax.

During the warmer months I use NXT car wash and a lambs wool mit to really clean her up....

Ron

 

most of the times it all comes off, if it doesn't then i just spray in the area needed for a longer period of time with the high presure sprayer. over time it all comes off from multiple washes etc. i will never use the provided brush the car wash has because i think that wil leave swirls all over the truck although i have never tried it.

thanks for all the replies, does washing with the mitt or towel not scratch the truck? i would think that if i was wiping it with the mitt, sponge, or towel it would trap some dirt in it and scratch up the paint. anyways, thanks for all the techniques. do you guys recommend any products? i will most likly go buy some this weekend at wal mart or something.

let me add another thing, after you wash, do you wash the towels, chamois, sponge, etc in the washing machine or what do you do with it?

thanks again

 

I'd call this a double edged sword...

First, I agree 100% with you on not using the brush at the local wand wash but, as you're probably seeing, you're not able to obtain a super-clean finish with the wand and pressure alone.

Here's what I do on a regular basis when it's cold (and sometimes when I'm just wanting the pressure of a wand wash).

Take two buckets into your house. Fill one with a quality shampoo/water solution and fill the other with regular water. Obtain some chenile wash mits or Lambs wool wash mits (both can be purchased here. Pop a couple of lids on your buckets and tie them off in the back of your truck. Mob to the wand wash with a fi****ll of quarters.

Utilize the RINSE water to thouroughly wet the vehicle down and also to address extra grimey areas (wheel wells, lower fenders, flares, wheels, running boards, etc). Blow all of these off in a direction from clean to dirty (aka: don't blow the gunk back on to the truck elsewhere). Further, address the entire vehicle with the pressure to accelerate dirt removal. This doesn't mean to 'blast' on a single spot but rather to remove the gunk on your truck. Blasting in a single spot will accelerate wax/surface protection and simply isn't good.

Using your two buckets, rinse off your sponges in the plain water and then go to your soapy water. Wash, starting at the top of the vehicle, and work downward. Dedicate a couple of sponges to your extra grimey areas and DO NOT allow those sponges into your shampoo solution until the very end (once you've worked to the bottom). On a FREQUENT basis, bring your soapy mitt back down to the clean water and rinse it out very well. This will help to release some of the gunk that has become trapped in your mitt or sponge and keep you from reintroducing it to your painted panels. Repeat until complete. Don't allow the soap to dry to your finish if possible.

Rinse with REGULAR RINSE water and the wand.

Repeat on areas that you may have missed or areas that need to be further addressed.... once you've completed your painted areas, remove your 'good' sponges and place them in a place (not the ground) where they will be okay (the ground will just introduce them to sand and other scratch causing material). Using your lower body panel sponges/mitts, clean the problem areas (wheels, boards, flares, wells, etc). Be reminded, you are NOT allowed to use your good sponges in the shampoo solution now because you've effectively brought 'gunk' into that equation.

Rinse with regular rinse water.

Switch to the spot-free rinse before you're complete and pay special attention to the spots that accumulate water (seals and such) that may drip later. This will help you in the long run from the standpoint of having to deal with water spots potentially.

If needed, repeat with the spot free rinse (mind you, spot free rinse is nothing more than filtered water... there isn't a chemical additive).

If you wish to dry, utilize a ultra-soft waffle weave microfiber drying towel and let the TOWEL DO THE WORK. There's no need to press downward on the towel to get water to come into it!

Swirls and scratches are the other edge of that double edged sword I mentioned. If you plan to keep your vehicle clean, they're almost always going to happen. Those of us that utilize this two bucket washing method effectively reduce the potential for them to occur but, even using the best washing techniques, chemicals, and supplies, you're going to end up with them in a slight way... they're a necessary evil.

That's not to say that we can't remove them once they're there though...

Smart techniques, good procedure, common sense, and a mix of luck with these things will aid in preventing swirls/problems.

RP