How do you wash & detail your truck when it's hot outside?
 

Just like the title says... Even mid-morning it get's in the 90's this time of the year. If I wash one side of my truck, by the time I get done with the other side, there's already water spots on the 1st side... Then you're not supposed to polish or was in sunlight. What to do? The idea of waking up at 6am on the weekend is not very appealing to me at all.

dude, i feel your pain. I keep water on the truck all the time. I'll do a panel and then spray the others until I'm satisfied. I don't have a garage or anything like that either so I have to do mine outside as well.

keeping the water on it for me has worked. I continually respray. my neighbor thinks I'm crazy but his black 06 f150 always seems to have water spots and mine doesn't. he's even told me its because he doesn't go insano on the keeping it wet until he can dry properly and he isn't going to.

I also use the keep water on it all the time method. I wash one panel at a time and everytime I rinse one I rinse the whole thing again until I finish the whole truck. Not perfect but it works better than anything else I have found so far.

I park the front half of the truck just nosing into the garage; meaning that the hood and each front fender are in the shade. When finished washing those three areas, I dry off with a cotton towel. Then I pull the truck into the garage a little to get the middle of the truck (roof, windshield, and doors) in the shade. Since the front of the truck is already washed, I am not going to be getting the garage wet by washing the middle, which is still just outside the garage. I then dry the middle off with the towel after washing. Finally, I pull the truck further into the garage to get the back-half in the shade and then wash it and dry it off.

Little extra work because you will get some water overspray on dried areas, but worth the trouble because I have no spots when I'm done.

if I have to wash in the sun,, which is rare, then I use my daughter to stand there and keep the sun side of the vehicle wet the whole time ..

I can usually align my canopy such that I can keep everything in the shade, but ocassionally it can't be done ..

When I chose my lot to build on, I made sure to pick one with trees that were oriented in such a way that I would have a shady driveway for car washing most of the day.

Then, about a month after I moved in, all my mother ****** tree's died and left me with a driveway that has blazing sun most times of the day! :mad:

Now I just plan ahead and wash my vehicles in the early morning or evening (the only times it's shady in my driveway) and wax the car in the garage that day or the following day. During "iffy" times when there's still a little sun to battle, I just keep the panels wet as others have mentioned -- it works pretty well!

:thumbsup:

Just do a quick wash getting all the dirt and road mess off of the paint and go back with ExcelaWash (you can find it at www.excelawash.com ) and then it will put a coat of wax on while it cleans! Great stuff I use it on my truck all the time! You can even use it on the windows. They make a great leather cleaner and Trim cleaner also!! Check it out it's pretty neat stuff!!:beers:

If your having a problem w/ water spots on your truck after your done washing and drying spray quick detailer on it and that will take car of it all.... After every single wash I use Meguier's Quick Detail and it always comes out looking beautiful...

i use the Mr. Auto Dry (i think that was its called) it works perfectly and leaves no water spots..

Wash it at night, then be ready to wax early the next morning.

Tough it out!!! I have no shade option...I just wash and do my best to keep it from drying... After I'm done, I use the QD to remove all remaining spots. If I'm going all out...I loose the battle. I still have to work in the sun. I do my best to work at night/early morning, but occasionally, I get the client who wants their BLACK Ram 3500 done in the middle of the sunny/hot day... What do you do??? SWEAT! Remember to work small panels, as a polish or compound drying on the surface can lead right back to swirls...

G'Luck!

At school, I can was it in the afteroon when the shade from the building covers the alleyway. At home, I can usually wash it after 6 or 7 pm. If not, then I wash it at night. Ever seen a guy washing his truck at 1am? Yeah.... :o

How bout a a DIY car wash bay? Take your buckets along and wash till ya drop--plenty of shade there I hope. I like the water pressure better than my garden hose can give also--great for the fender wells.

On the other hand I just use Jet Dry.... Ya know, the stuff for the dishwasher. One table spoon per gallon. The water will just sheet off no drying necessary. :thumbsup:

All you need is 4 things:
Bucket
Chamois
Soft Sponge
Time

I hand wash my truck like this every weekend, now and then using Autodry. I prefer the handwashing method, in my opinion nothing gets it cleaner and it can be done in sun, although it's not very fun.

You can also use a rinsless wash product like QEW (Quick Easy Wash), or Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine, or or DP 4 in one Wash & Shine to wash & dry one spot at a time.

They're easy to use and they allow you to wash one spot or one panel at a time. If done correctly, it won't marr or scratch your paint as hard as that might be to believe. If your vehicle is absolutely filthy dirty and caked with crud, then this isn't the product to use, but it works very well in many applications. These products aren't just limited to vehicles with light dust. You can clean a surprisingly dirty vehicle without any marring or scratching if you use the product correctly and work smart.

Basically, you pour a few ounces of this product into several gallons of water. Then you place your microfiber or sheepskin or foam wash mit / tool into the solution so its thoroughly wet. Start with one panel and make one light pass on that panel. Then thoroughly rinse off your wash tool in the wash bucket if it has a grit guard or rinse it off in a seperate bucket of clean water, but make sure your wash tool is clean before using it again. Then dunk your wash tool into the wash bucket and wipe down that strip again if needed or start a new strip on that panel. Then rinse off your wash tool. Once you have a strip or two of clean paint or glass, etc, then wipe that clean section dry with a clean soft microfiber towel and use as little pressure as possible. You simply keep repeating this process until your vehicle is completely washed and dried. Some people have different ways of using these products (pre-treating the panels, one bucket vs two buckets, etc), but this is just a quick summary of the basics. You can find more on these products and how to best use them via google.

I run into a lot of skeptics on this process, but they're always amazed when I demonstrate this method in front of them. There's definitely the potential for problems (scratching / marring, etc), but if you're careful and work smart, then there's no reason why these products and methods won't work well for you.