Short guide to Exterior Hand Wash
There is a chance that you’re doing more harm to your car Paint on every exterior wash!!!
When not done correctly, washing your car with insufficient materials, tools and process can actually damage the car's clear coat and worse, the paint. In this post, we will be discussing about the root cause of this problem, the appropriate items and ways to maintain, and keep your auto vehicle looking fresh and new on a weekly basis.
Let’s talk about the use of drive through car wash. Technology is always improving, it is not a bad idea to make use of the drive through car wash given how quick the process and how budget friendly it can be compare to labor hand wash. However, the cons would out weight the pros of a drive through car wash vs hand wash in a long run by a long shot.
Say you wash your car once every month. A drive through car wash would cost you somewhere around $150/year. We can’t deny that this is very good….that if you do not care about the appearances of your vehicle. You see, most common drive through car wash don’t really clean out their machines on a daily basis. For instance, imagine having to go wash your car right after a super dirty SUV that just has gone through a long road trip. All it takes is one dirty vehicle and there goes your clear coat, it will receive swirl, scratch, damages that would take hundreds $$$ to polish them out.
1997 Cadilac from our client. Pretty much beat up. Let see if we can revive this car.
On the other hand, let say you are a car enthusiast and you always hand wash your own precious companion yourself. As an enthusiast myself, I approve this. Still, we need to go over the correct item
s, and processes that you may have overlook. This can greater assist you in perfecting the art of detailing. We recommend to do a maintain wash at least once a month and do a wax every once in a while. This will keep your car on tip top shape. If you do not have time and seeking for a professional, Clean Culture Socal Auto Detailing can provide the service that you need at a competitive price. There are a few steps we need for our maintenance wash:
First of all, we need to obtain some DI Water, also known as Deionized water. Normal tap water contains minerals which is harsh for car exterior, this is why rain, or washing car without proper dry will cause waterspot. It is also best to invest in a pressure washer for a better quality and less time consuming process, but if not, a handpump and a garden hose would be fine.
Secondly, you need to research on good quality chemicals and soaps to wash off the stubborn dirt safely. We recommend low pH, non acidic soap to wash car paint in general and at least medium pH all purpose cleaner of your choice. There are many different products on the market that can perform amazing in specific scenario but this is the minimum requirement of products we need to get started. We need to dilute these purpose cleaners / products to safely use on our paint and also would save us time and cost of restocking. Every detail business has their own dilute formula depend on the products they use. Generally we recommend a 1:8 or 1:12 for paint, 1:4 for wheel and 1:2 or 1:4 for engine bay clean, that is one part solution : part water respectively.
Follow this with some buckets and stacks of clean Microfiber Towels (recommend higher % of lint) . For the glass, it is best to find a good glass cleaner product and some Waffle Weave Microfiber Towels (lint free) to ensure non-streaking result. You can reuse these towels if you wash them correctly.
Lastly, the process to detail is very important. This process itself is similar but are varies depend on each detailers. For us, we usually start with a light decontamination using the 1:8 solution in step #2. We would let it dwell for a few minutes, this will make it easier to clean up bird poops or any hard stuck dirt. While waiting, we can proceed on some wheel and tire cleaning. Spray the wheel with some 1:4 chemical and some soap, use a wheel brush to clean the tire and the wheel, make sure we reach all the inner corners. We then use DI water and hose down the car. With this, we are done with our pre-wash. We then move on to spraying our soap solution. We can hand wash the car using microfiber towels on step 3 using 2 buckets wash method. Then go ahead and spray the car down from top to bottom. Afterward, this is optional but is highly recommended, use a Leaf Blower or compress air to blow all the exceed water that stuck in crevices of the car. We can now dry the car with some more clean microfiber towels and ensure no water spot left on the paint. The final touch you can add to this is while drying the car is to spray some detailing finisher or Wax solution then buff them off with the microfiber towels. This will provide some additional layer of protection for your car, these solutions usually last up to 2-6 months.
Notice the transformation, unfortunately we also notice some swirls and scratches in the sunlight. This coat need a paint correction.
There you have it, detailing car can be a time consuming but it is totally worth it. Doing so can save you lots of headache. To further improve the exterior of the car, we recommend to do a Ceramic Coating which provide multiple benefits. Contact Clean Culture Socal Auto Detailing more about Ceramic Coating, what it is, why you would want to get this service for your vehicle.