car wash help
 

so after 3 weeks of pwnership i think it's time to wash my evo. i used to use the self car washes on my jetta because i had no driveway. after about 6 or so times i started noticing swirls. i blamed it on their shampoo scrubber (prolly dirty) and my ****ty ass shammy that couldn't dry worth a damn. this made me rub harder and prolly caused more damage to the paint.

TOOLS

so, now i can wash in a driveway. I've already taken it through esso's touchless last week and it was a ****ty wash. water marks/streaks everywhere. so last night i got this r{armour all}r car wash kit with their

2-in-1 wash mitt,
glass towel,
polish towel,
dusting towel,
drying towel.

see the products here http://www.speeding.co.uk/acatalog/A...ools.html#a493

for $14 CAN, i thought it was a decent deal. now do you guys think it's safe for very delicate paint jobs like the evo has?

WASHING FLUID

i also got armour all's wash & wax...they say they mixed in a little bit of wax with this car wash to give the paint a good shine...whatever, marketing BS. i doubt it will look 1/10th as good as a good waxing.

but, i've never waxed before so i thought i'd take it slow and learn to wash the damn car first before i spend more money and buy wax.

WHEELS/INTERIOR

i also got some aluminum wheel cleaner from meguire as well as the plastic protectant polish stuff for my dash and my rear bumper/diffuser.

am i good to go? missing anything or over thinking too much?

i think i'll start with the wheels first
hose off any debris on the car
and then start with the wash mitt from top to bottom of the car
hose off again
dry with the dry cloth.

how should i dry it? should i move the towel in one direction or circular movement? afraid of swirling :(

helpful hints:
obviously, 2 buckets - 1 for rims, 1 for car, along with different spounges/mitts/what have you
meguiars car wash (the purple stuff) works great for me
make sure you thoroughly rinse the car so you don't get soap/water spots
drying: dry once with shammy/cloth/towel, basically just remove all the large amounts of water on the car, then go over the car with a microfiber towel or something close to it and "buff" the car

as far as waxing, it's an experience with any car lol - but i highly suggest trimshine if it's your first time waxing. it never fails to get all over the damn trim

and many people are going to tell you, as far as getting rims clean, nothing works like good old elbow grease quite honestly

Check out this link for help.
Have fun.
http://www.autogeek.net/exterior.html

cool thanks guys.

now go on clean your car and post some pics

I had a guy in GA, one of the goto guys on autopia detail my car, charged a lot but is one of the best. He told me for washing the car myself, do not use the karate kid technique of circles.

He mentioned the best thing was to wash in the direction of the airflow that hits the car while it's moving. He also mentioned that the california duster is a good product in between washes.

Heres the link for my car on there: My 04' G35 Coupe

Also if you don't want to wash your car every few days and still want to keep it nice and shiny I recommend a company called Gliptone. They have a product called body gloss that is basically for shining up in between washes or for at car shows and such. Amazing product and they have really good prices.

http://www.gliptone.com/retail/

check the detailing section on evom at the bottom of the main forum area. lots of helpful hints and lots of how to's and pictures and even direct vendor help. it's one of the reasons i love evom because of its completeness.

someone mentioned use 2 buckets, one for car and one for rims, i would actually recommend one for soap, and one for releasing dirt. so first dip in the soap and soap the car up, then dunk it in the second clean bucket and release the dirt, just wring it dry and use the soap again. it really prevents bringing dirt back up onto the car that can scratch the paint.

3 buckets :)

2 for washing body (1 to soap with, 1 to rinse mitt after soap)
1 for wheels

use a high pressure sprayer to remove big chunks of dirt

I use duragloss 901 to was with, then duragloss 105 sealant to "wax" with...

clay bar as well if its rough...

to do a proper proper wash+wax should take most of the day...

They're a bit costly, but you might want to invest in a foam gun. I bought one a few months ago and love it. Just the foam gun and one bucket of clean water to rinse the wash mitt off in and you're set. No more swirl marks {thumbup}