What's your wash routine?

[viciousmo]

I'm curious to see people's wash routine, as mine has evolved over the years. Also, to see what products you guys like to use! I've always been a garage enthusiast when it comes to detailing. My car has PPF + Undrdog coating and here's what it looks like. It typically takes me about 1 to 1.5 hours for exterior/interior.

• Wheels: Rinse down the wheels with a pressure washer. Spray the wheel/tire solution (Meguiar's, Adam's, P&S) generously and let dwell for about 45 secs to a minute. Agitate with tire/wheel brush, rinse off wheels. I use an EZDETAIL brush for the barrels, Detail Factory Curveball XL brush for the faces, and a no-name stiff brush for the tires!

• Initial Rinse: Rinse the entire vehicle to remove heavy droppings. If there are a lot of bugs, I will spray some bug remover on the front bumper (3D Bug Remover), let that sit for a minute, and rinse it off.

• Body: I foam the entire vehicle down with a generous amount. I am currently using a Griot Boss Foam cannon with Meguiar's gold class. I'll try the MJJC V3.0 with Adam's Mega Foam this weekend.
  
  After the foam has had it's time to dwell, I will grab 3-4 wash mits starting from the top, and get to work. I have a wash bucket with some soap and clean water. Once a side of the mitt gets dirty, I throw it into another bucket that does not get re-introduced to the wash bucket.

• Drying: I am currently using a MetroVac sidekick, which has been taking longer than I'd like, and a Griot's drying towel to cover up the loose ends. I will be picking up an EGO 670 to speed this process up.

• Interior: Since I touch my interior either weekly or at least once every two weeks, I don't have too much accumulation. I like to use a mild chemical such as P&S Xpress, sometimes diluted, and wipe down the entire interior surfaces. I have a VacMaster to vacuum up carpets quickly.

I was testing out dilution ratios with my foam cannon. I usually produce a thicker foam before the wash media touches the paint.

[TboneS54]

Cars are ceramic coated. Black car washed every week. Silver car every other or 3rd.

Depends a little on if I want to decon or not (spray iron remover on dry car, then hose off)

If no decon, start by wetting car to soften contaminants.

Do wheels first w/ iron remover + wheel cleaner (meguiar's ultimate or Griott's HD)

Sometimes I don't even touch the wheels, just spray and hose off, but every other time, I do scrub lightly with MF "sponge"

Then spray the whole car with soap (ofc, foam cannon is preferred). I use Carpro reset for bucket, but cheaper Nanoskin hypersuds (800:1!) or Megs hyperwash to "pre-treat" the surface - purely to avoid marring (black car - I don't do that for the silver car). I don't really feel motivated to get a pressure washer... yet anyway. I have great water pressure out the garden hose.

2 bucket method to touch wash the car using 70/30 Korean MF wash pad

Blow dry the the car. Dab the remaining water with 70/30 short nap (pearl weave) towel, AF Korean edgeless 450.

Sometimes use that same towel with a "drying aid" (Woflgang uber sio2 RW - very similar to ech2o)

[P1]

1) wash the wheels with some car shampoo and various brushes
2) wash the car using a single bucket and a good quality sponge
3) blow as much water off as possible using my Ridgid shop vac
4) dry it with a microfiber
5) use a quick detailer and give the car a once over
6) throw some slop on the tires

There is absolutely no need to overthink this. The below photos speak for themselves. I had the F15 until it reached 100,000 miles and it was perfect until the day I sold it.

[nerdogray]

1. Make appointment with detailer.
2. Overpay for underdelivering.

[///MPhatic]

1. Rarely drive the car, and when I do it's on perfect days.
2. Manually wash the car at my local car-wash, drive the 1.7 miles to my home and wipe the car off with a wet terrycloth towel.
3. Win.

A little evening drive. by Andrew Thompson, on Flickr

So many holes, so little time. by Andrew Thompson, on Flickr

[SigmaShift]

My car is ceramic coated with the following products:
Body: Gyeon Infinite Ceramic Coating
Windows: Gyeon View Window Coating
Wheels and Calipers: Gyeon Rim Wheel Coating

This is my process I use to do a maintenance wash:

Wheels: Spray wheels with MTM Foam Cannon using P&S Brake Buster and Koch Chemie Magic Wheel Cleaner. I brush and agitate the wheels and tires with a speed brush, tire brush, and the wheel faces with a finger mitt, using a wheel bucket with McKees rinse less wash mixed with the water. I'll then spray the wheels with Gyeon Wetcoat and spray it off to give them some extra beading.

Body: Pre-rinse the body using Koch Chemie Active Snow Foam to loosen debris, road grime etc in a MTM Foam Cannon. I let that dwell, and then I wash it off. Then I follow-up using Koch Chemie Gentle Snow Foam from the foam cannon, and rinse it off after a few minutes. I proceed to hand wash the car using KC GSF from my dual buckets using an incredipad. Wash off the remaining soap using de-ionized water that's inline with my pressure washer.

Dry: Blow dry the car with an EGO blower and stubby attachment. From there I am using a microfiber towel with my drying aid of choice (currently I am liking P&S Beadmaker mixed with P&S Dream Maker 10:1, dubbed Cleanmaker)

Windows: Invisible glass, wiped down with a glass microfiber.

Wheels/Tires: Wipe down the wheels with a throw away microfiber using some drying aid to remove any left over dirt or water spots. I'll use CarPro Perl or Obsessed Garage Tire Dressing on the tires, wiping off any excess.

[DocL]

Wet first. Apply soap with a boarshair bursh. Rinse off soap. Clean wheels with remaining soap and dirty water. Rinse wheels. Dry car. Done in 20 minutes and car looks just as good if I had spent four hours on it like a maniac. It does help that I have PPF and ceramic coating. Wheels will be slightly dirty in 20 miles, so I don't spend time on them.

[cooolone2]

Heavy rinse and pressure rinse
Spray wheels with PH neutral wheel cleaner, clean wheels, shine rubber
Foam car, dwell, rinse
Foam car again, 2 bucket wash
Waffle micro dry with detail spray
Detail spray again
Cover car

[Brian1988]

Originally Posted by ///MPhatic

1. Rarely drive the car, and when I do it's on perfect days.
2. Manually wash the car at my local car-wash, drive the 1.7 miles to my home and wipe the car off with a wet terrycloth towel.
3. Win.

A little evening drive. by Andrew Thompson, on Flickr

So many holes, so little time. by Andrew Thompson, on Flickr

Love how your wheels look. If you don’t mind sharing, what is the model for those bbs?

[///MPhatic]

Originally Posted by Brian1988

Love how your wheels look. If you don’t mind sharing, what is the model for those bbs?

Thanks.

FI-R

[1209582]

interior
1. dust off carpet, then vac
2. colorlock leather cleaner for hard to remove spots, p&s xpress for general area using microfiber towel

wheels + tires
1. spray iron-x, let it dwell, rinse
2. wowo's clean wheel diluted 5:1 using ik foam pro 12
3. adam's tire & rubber cleaner undiluted

paint
1. gtechniq bug remover if necessary
2. foam car with bilt hamber auto foam, let sit for 3 min, rinse
3. foam door jambs with ik foam pro 2+ using bilt hamber auto foam, scrub with wash mitt, turn off pressure washer remove nozzle and rinse
4. foam car with carpro reset using aliexpress wide mouth foam cannon, use microfiber madness incredipole to clean car using two buckets
5. rinse, ego blower to get most the water off, then dab some wet spots with microfiber towel
6. kamikaze overcoat to finish

[danallxt]

Similar to other posts but one thing i do different.

After foaming with a water cannon, i then rinse that foam off, my thinking is I'm letting that foam loosen dirt etc, i do not want to move dirt around by then washing that foam/dirt around. After that rinse i then wash with 2 bucket method. I'm sold on that method as when i tried the two bucket method, and saved that 2'nd bucket, the amount of dirt etc that settled to the bottom surprised me....so that dirt gets separated from the wash bucket and not reintroduced to the car with the subsequent wash immersion in that bucket.
Just me.
Also before foaming i may or may not rinse the car first to remove dirt depending upon how dirty it is.

[ZCPMV8]

Originally Posted by nerdogray

1. Make appointment with detailer.
2. Overpay for underdelivering.

This is so true. Disappoints everytime, I have no clue how some of these detail shops have 5 star reviews.