BumbleBug
06-09-2008, 12:18 PM
Did you know that almost all of the visible swirl marks on a car’s painted surface are from improperly washing and drying? The main culprit of those unsightly swirl marks and light scratches is routine washings. The best way to stop new swirls is to adopt a safer washing system. A proven way to stop these new swirls is to wash using the Two Bucket Wash Method.
Preparation
Remove any watches, metal belt buckles, gold chains, rings, etc. that have the possibility of scratching your car's finish.
Start with two Dirtguard™ Auto wash kits. (There are other products on the market that are similar to the Dirtguard™ that I have tried, but I don’t like them as much for two major reasons. First, the Dirtguard™ is the only one I know that utilizes a filter. And second, the tabs on the Dirtguard™ keep the unit from moving around in the bucket. If you think about it, anything in the bottom of the bucket that moves around would have a tendency to just stir all the dirt up instead of trapping it in the bottom.
Fill one bucket with clean water (this will be your rinse bucket) and one with a solution of high quality car wash and water (generally one ounce of car wash for each gallon of water. Follow manufacturers instructions. I actually measure out the appropriate amount in a clear plastic cup and then take a permanent marker and draw a line on the cup. That way I have a cheap measuring device that I can use every time!)
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/20.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/20.jpg)
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/21.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/21.jpg)
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/23.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/23.jpg)
Rinse Bucket shown here to show how the Dirtguard™ sits snug in the bottom of the bucket during use.
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/27.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/27.jpg)
Washing your car with a high quality car wash will help nourish your paint. Never wash with harsh detergents such as dish soap as they will dry your paint out which leads to a loss of gloss and shine. (A footnote to this is that there are a few times when you will wash with dish soap such as Dawn, but that is to remove any existing wax from the vehicle in order to apply a fresh coat of wax or sealer.)
Put these buckets aside for a minute.
There are several different schools of thought when it comes to what type of wash material you use on your car. Several people really like the synthetic microfiber wash mitts. I prefer to use a natural lambswool mitt. If you do decide to use a lambswool mitt, it is very important to make sure that you are using a real lambswool mitt and not a synthetic one. The easiest way to tell when shopping for one is to turn it inside out and if it’s some sort of fabric inside, then chances are it’s not real lambswool. If it’s leather or hide inside, then you are good to go!
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/26.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/26.jpg)
Pre-Rinse
Rinse the car of all loose dirt. You want to use a fairly high pressure stream of water and thoroughly rinse the car before you begin to wash to help remove or loosen as much dirt as possible. Rinse from the top of the car down. Be sure to rinse well in the wheels and wheel wells. Once the car is thoroughly rinsed, you can move on to washing it.
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/28.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/28.jpg)
Washing Wheels
Wash the wheels using a high quality wheel cleaner and a wheel brush and tire sidewall brush. Rinse the wheels first. Apply a wheel cleaner that is appropriate for your wheel type to the wheels. DO NOT APPLY CLEANER TO HOT WHEELS!! Let the cleaner soak for a bit to loosen the dirt, but don’t let it dry on the wheels. Agitate the cleaner on the wheels using the wheel brush. Be sure to get into all the nooks and crannies. Follow with a stiff bristled brush on the tires. This will help remove the browning that you often see on tires due to the off gassing of the rubber. Rinse well
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/5.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/5.jpg)
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/30.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/30.jpg)
Wash
Place the wash mitt in the wash bucket and get it thoroughly soaked with the wash solution.
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/32.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/32.jpg)
Then starting at the top of the car, wash one section at a time. It is generally best to move the mitt in a straight line across the car (generally from front to back on horizontal surfaces and horizontal on vertical surfaces) and to use very little pressure (not much more than the weight of the mitt itself.) The reason for this is that you want the mitt to lift the dirt off the surface of the paint rather than grind it against the paint.
Wash the car in small sections*, maybe three square feet at a time or less, and rinse each section to remove the loosened dirt particles.
* A note on breaking the car into sections. I will generally section a car and wash it in the following order:
Roof of car - depending on the size of the car I will break it into either 2, 4, or sometimes 6 sections
Windows and all sections between the roof and the bottom of the window line of the car - I will wait to wash the windshield last if it has excessive dirt or bug grime on it
Hood - Again, I break it into sections depending on the size of the car
Trunk lid - Just the top part of the trunk here. Again I section it based on the size of the trunk lid.
Upper fenders and upper sections of the doors - Each one is sectioned according to size, but I do not wash an entire door at once as the lower on the car, the more dirt there is so I save the lowest sections for last to avoid pulling any dirt onto higher sections of the car and scratching them. (I see a lot of those quick car wash places dry from bottom to top and it makes me cringe!)
Lower fenders and lower door section - Again sectioned according to size.
Rear of car - Again, I work top down in sections. The reason I haven't washed any of the back end up to this point other than the trunk lid is because this is the part of the car where most of the dirt is. This is due to the aerodynamics of the cars. The rear of most cars don't get the wind flow across the rear end to get dust off so it accumulates.(You will see in this picture that I am wearing my ring. I am extremely experienced in washing and always keep the wash mitt between my hand and the car. It would probably be better if I either took it off or covered it with some blue painter's tape.)
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/33.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/33.jpg)
Now here's where the second bucket comes in to play. The bucket with the clean water is your rinse bucket. Once you have washed a section of the car with the wash mitt, do not put it back into the wash solution first!
DIRTY WASH MITT
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/34.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/34.jpg)
DON'T PUT IT IN THIS BUCKET!!!!!
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/35.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/35.jpg)
PUT IT IN THIS BUCKET!!!
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/36.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/36.jpg)
Dunk the mitt in the rinse water bucket and run both sides across the Dirtguard™ to remove the dirt that you have pulled off of the car.
* One of the main reasons I like the lambswool mitts over the microfiber is because I use them in conjunction with the Dirtguard™. Both types of wash mitt will pick up dirt off the car, but when I rub them against the Dirtguard™, I feel like more of the dirt is removed from the lambswool. Microfiber, for those who don’t know, is made of little microscopic hooks. This is why it’s great to remove wax and to use with quick detailer to pull dust off the car, but I feel that with the Dirtguard™ I would be pressing a lot of the dirt back into the fiber. It would remove a lot of it, but I feel that more would be removed on the lambswool. I have no scientific data behind this, it’s just my instinct. Either solution using the Dirtguard™ is better than just washing with the same old mitt in one bucket with no Dirtguard™!!
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/37.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/37.jpg)
Wring the wash mitt out a few times while it is still in the bucket to loosen any dirt that you have picked up off of the car. Thoroughly wring the water out of the wash mitt into the rinse bucket one final time so that it can soak up as much car wash solution as possible when you dunk it in the car wash solution bucket to wash the next section.
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/39.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/39.jpg)
Run the mitt across the Dirtguard™ Insert (http://server9.myebiz.com/templates/filmTemplate/pro1227843.html)in the wash solution bucket as well to remove any dirt that may not have come off in the rinse bucket.
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/41.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/41.jpg)
Continue this process moving from the top of the car down until you have washed the entire car.
Final Rinse
Once you have washed the entire car, turn the water pressure down on the nozzle (I also remove any wash nozzles I am using so I am only using the hose) and starting at the top of the car, rinse gently. Follow the natural curves of the vehicle, and chase the water downward with the hose. The low-pressure water flow will cause any water on the car to sheet off of the car's surface leaving very little water to dry. If done properly, you can remove up to 90% of the water from the surface of the car before you even touch a towel! The thing to think about is the more you can get off the car without using any kind of friction from a towel or anything else, the less likely you are to add more scratches to the paint.
Drying
Many people spend very little time drying their cars once they have completed washing them. Drying, however, is one of the most important steps in the process. Improper drying can cause mild to severe swirl marks. If water is left on the car, it can create severe etching which is even more difficult to remove than swirl marks! It is therefore very important that you dry your car off properly every time that you wash it.
Your first step in drying the car is to remove as much water from the surface of the car before you have to use a towel. I recommend using either compressed air or a leaf blower. Get in all the cracks, in the mirrors, around the lights, and anywhere else that water tends to hide and blow it out.
Once you are ready to move on to towels, make sure you are using a high quality microfiber drying towel such as a waffle weave drying towel. The trick to creating a scratch free finish when you are drying is to use the towel to pull the water off the paint. Do this by placing the towel on the surface and using pressure, not motion to remove the water. Don't rub the towel across the paint to dry the car, but press it against the paint in each section to suck the water into the towel. This way you aren't moving any contaminants around on the paint.
One trick I use is to mist a little quick detailer over each section of the car before you do your final dry. This helps dilute the minerals in the water that is remaining on the car and lubricate them so that they don’t scratch the paint.
Once the exterior paint surface is dried, it is time to move on to the door jambs, around the trunk/hood, fuel door and all the other places where water tends to hide. Open them all up You can also move on to a high quality microfiber towel and some high quality quick detailer spray. Don't forget to dry the wheels!
Using this Two Bucket Cleaning method and the products listed above will help you keep your car clean, shiny, and swirl free for years to come!
Some Before and after shots!
Remember that dirty wheel?
BEFORE
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/5.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/5.jpg)
AFTER!!
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/51.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/51.jpg)
BEFORE:
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/1.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/1.jpg)
AFTER:
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/56.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/56.jpg)
And what about that Dirtguard™? Is it really worth it?
BEFORE:
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/18.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/18.jpg)
AFTER:
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/11.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/11.jpg)
Rinse Bucket Dirtguard™
BEFORE:
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/15.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/15.jpg)
AFTER:
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/14.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/14.jpg)
See how much dirt you are keeping from reintroducing to your paint by using the two bucket system coupled with the Dirtguard™!!!
Since I’ve started washing this way, I can’t imagine washing any other way!!!
Hope that helps you guys and feel free to post any questions on the forums!!
D!Tailed
*As this Lexus was one of the cars I was detailing for a customer, some of the after photos have had additional products applied to them. (wax, dressings, etc.)
Preparation
Remove any watches, metal belt buckles, gold chains, rings, etc. that have the possibility of scratching your car's finish.
Start with two Dirtguard™ Auto wash kits. (There are other products on the market that are similar to the Dirtguard™ that I have tried, but I don’t like them as much for two major reasons. First, the Dirtguard™ is the only one I know that utilizes a filter. And second, the tabs on the Dirtguard™ keep the unit from moving around in the bucket. If you think about it, anything in the bottom of the bucket that moves around would have a tendency to just stir all the dirt up instead of trapping it in the bottom.
Fill one bucket with clean water (this will be your rinse bucket) and one with a solution of high quality car wash and water (generally one ounce of car wash for each gallon of water. Follow manufacturers instructions. I actually measure out the appropriate amount in a clear plastic cup and then take a permanent marker and draw a line on the cup. That way I have a cheap measuring device that I can use every time!)
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/20.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/20.jpg)
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/21.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/21.jpg)
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/23.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/23.jpg)
Rinse Bucket shown here to show how the Dirtguard™ sits snug in the bottom of the bucket during use.
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/27.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/27.jpg)
Washing your car with a high quality car wash will help nourish your paint. Never wash with harsh detergents such as dish soap as they will dry your paint out which leads to a loss of gloss and shine. (A footnote to this is that there are a few times when you will wash with dish soap such as Dawn, but that is to remove any existing wax from the vehicle in order to apply a fresh coat of wax or sealer.)
Put these buckets aside for a minute.
There are several different schools of thought when it comes to what type of wash material you use on your car. Several people really like the synthetic microfiber wash mitts. I prefer to use a natural lambswool mitt. If you do decide to use a lambswool mitt, it is very important to make sure that you are using a real lambswool mitt and not a synthetic one. The easiest way to tell when shopping for one is to turn it inside out and if it’s some sort of fabric inside, then chances are it’s not real lambswool. If it’s leather or hide inside, then you are good to go!
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/26.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/26.jpg)
Pre-Rinse
Rinse the car of all loose dirt. You want to use a fairly high pressure stream of water and thoroughly rinse the car before you begin to wash to help remove or loosen as much dirt as possible. Rinse from the top of the car down. Be sure to rinse well in the wheels and wheel wells. Once the car is thoroughly rinsed, you can move on to washing it.
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/28.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/28.jpg)
Washing Wheels
Wash the wheels using a high quality wheel cleaner and a wheel brush and tire sidewall brush. Rinse the wheels first. Apply a wheel cleaner that is appropriate for your wheel type to the wheels. DO NOT APPLY CLEANER TO HOT WHEELS!! Let the cleaner soak for a bit to loosen the dirt, but don’t let it dry on the wheels. Agitate the cleaner on the wheels using the wheel brush. Be sure to get into all the nooks and crannies. Follow with a stiff bristled brush on the tires. This will help remove the browning that you often see on tires due to the off gassing of the rubber. Rinse well
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/5.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/5.jpg)
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/30.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/30.jpg)
Wash
Place the wash mitt in the wash bucket and get it thoroughly soaked with the wash solution.
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/32.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/32.jpg)
Then starting at the top of the car, wash one section at a time. It is generally best to move the mitt in a straight line across the car (generally from front to back on horizontal surfaces and horizontal on vertical surfaces) and to use very little pressure (not much more than the weight of the mitt itself.) The reason for this is that you want the mitt to lift the dirt off the surface of the paint rather than grind it against the paint.
Wash the car in small sections*, maybe three square feet at a time or less, and rinse each section to remove the loosened dirt particles.
* A note on breaking the car into sections. I will generally section a car and wash it in the following order:
Roof of car - depending on the size of the car I will break it into either 2, 4, or sometimes 6 sections
Windows and all sections between the roof and the bottom of the window line of the car - I will wait to wash the windshield last if it has excessive dirt or bug grime on it
Hood - Again, I break it into sections depending on the size of the car
Trunk lid - Just the top part of the trunk here. Again I section it based on the size of the trunk lid.
Upper fenders and upper sections of the doors - Each one is sectioned according to size, but I do not wash an entire door at once as the lower on the car, the more dirt there is so I save the lowest sections for last to avoid pulling any dirt onto higher sections of the car and scratching them. (I see a lot of those quick car wash places dry from bottom to top and it makes me cringe!)
Lower fenders and lower door section - Again sectioned according to size.
Rear of car - Again, I work top down in sections. The reason I haven't washed any of the back end up to this point other than the trunk lid is because this is the part of the car where most of the dirt is. This is due to the aerodynamics of the cars. The rear of most cars don't get the wind flow across the rear end to get dust off so it accumulates.(You will see in this picture that I am wearing my ring. I am extremely experienced in washing and always keep the wash mitt between my hand and the car. It would probably be better if I either took it off or covered it with some blue painter's tape.)
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/33.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/33.jpg)
Now here's where the second bucket comes in to play. The bucket with the clean water is your rinse bucket. Once you have washed a section of the car with the wash mitt, do not put it back into the wash solution first!
DIRTY WASH MITT
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/34.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/34.jpg)
DON'T PUT IT IN THIS BUCKET!!!!!
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/35.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/35.jpg)
PUT IT IN THIS BUCKET!!!
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/36.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/36.jpg)
Dunk the mitt in the rinse water bucket and run both sides across the Dirtguard™ to remove the dirt that you have pulled off of the car.
* One of the main reasons I like the lambswool mitts over the microfiber is because I use them in conjunction with the Dirtguard™. Both types of wash mitt will pick up dirt off the car, but when I rub them against the Dirtguard™, I feel like more of the dirt is removed from the lambswool. Microfiber, for those who don’t know, is made of little microscopic hooks. This is why it’s great to remove wax and to use with quick detailer to pull dust off the car, but I feel that with the Dirtguard™ I would be pressing a lot of the dirt back into the fiber. It would remove a lot of it, but I feel that more would be removed on the lambswool. I have no scientific data behind this, it’s just my instinct. Either solution using the Dirtguard™ is better than just washing with the same old mitt in one bucket with no Dirtguard™!!
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/37.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/37.jpg)
Wring the wash mitt out a few times while it is still in the bucket to loosen any dirt that you have picked up off of the car. Thoroughly wring the water out of the wash mitt into the rinse bucket one final time so that it can soak up as much car wash solution as possible when you dunk it in the car wash solution bucket to wash the next section.
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/39.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/39.jpg)
Run the mitt across the Dirtguard™ Insert (http://server9.myebiz.com/templates/filmTemplate/pro1227843.html)in the wash solution bucket as well to remove any dirt that may not have come off in the rinse bucket.
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/41.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/41.jpg)
Continue this process moving from the top of the car down until you have washed the entire car.
Final Rinse
Once you have washed the entire car, turn the water pressure down on the nozzle (I also remove any wash nozzles I am using so I am only using the hose) and starting at the top of the car, rinse gently. Follow the natural curves of the vehicle, and chase the water downward with the hose. The low-pressure water flow will cause any water on the car to sheet off of the car's surface leaving very little water to dry. If done properly, you can remove up to 90% of the water from the surface of the car before you even touch a towel! The thing to think about is the more you can get off the car without using any kind of friction from a towel or anything else, the less likely you are to add more scratches to the paint.
Drying
Many people spend very little time drying their cars once they have completed washing them. Drying, however, is one of the most important steps in the process. Improper drying can cause mild to severe swirl marks. If water is left on the car, it can create severe etching which is even more difficult to remove than swirl marks! It is therefore very important that you dry your car off properly every time that you wash it.
Your first step in drying the car is to remove as much water from the surface of the car before you have to use a towel. I recommend using either compressed air or a leaf blower. Get in all the cracks, in the mirrors, around the lights, and anywhere else that water tends to hide and blow it out.
Once you are ready to move on to towels, make sure you are using a high quality microfiber drying towel such as a waffle weave drying towel. The trick to creating a scratch free finish when you are drying is to use the towel to pull the water off the paint. Do this by placing the towel on the surface and using pressure, not motion to remove the water. Don't rub the towel across the paint to dry the car, but press it against the paint in each section to suck the water into the towel. This way you aren't moving any contaminants around on the paint.
One trick I use is to mist a little quick detailer over each section of the car before you do your final dry. This helps dilute the minerals in the water that is remaining on the car and lubricate them so that they don’t scratch the paint.
Once the exterior paint surface is dried, it is time to move on to the door jambs, around the trunk/hood, fuel door and all the other places where water tends to hide. Open them all up You can also move on to a high quality microfiber towel and some high quality quick detailer spray. Don't forget to dry the wheels!
Using this Two Bucket Cleaning method and the products listed above will help you keep your car clean, shiny, and swirl free for years to come!
Some Before and after shots!
Remember that dirty wheel?
BEFORE
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/5.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/5.jpg)
AFTER!!
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/51.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/51.jpg)
BEFORE:
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/1.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/1.jpg)
AFTER:
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/56.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/56.jpg)
And what about that Dirtguard™? Is it really worth it?
BEFORE:
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/18.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/18.jpg)
AFTER:
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/11.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/11.jpg)
Rinse Bucket Dirtguard™
BEFORE:
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/15.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/15.jpg)
AFTER:
http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/14.jpg (http://www.tsgautocare.com/images/stories/CarWash/14.jpg)
See how much dirt you are keeping from reintroducing to your paint by using the two bucket system coupled with the Dirtguard™!!!
Since I’ve started washing this way, I can’t imagine washing any other way!!!
Hope that helps you guys and feel free to post any questions on the forums!!
D!Tailed
*As this Lexus was one of the cars I was detailing for a customer, some of the after photos have had additional products applied to them. (wax, dressings, etc.)