Washing Technique
 

As you all know, my S8 is booked in for a detail in the next few weeks.Now it would be a shame for me to spend all that money having it de swirled only to put it through the car wash place in town to swirl it all up again! So I need to get some products ordered to prevent that happening between every detail (say every six months) and plan to wash it every 3/7 days myself depending on how dirty she gets.
Now I understand to prevent swirls I need two buckets, with grit guards. I am also going to invest in a good quality washmit and some sonus waffle weaver drying towels. A snowfoam and some Megs hyperwash? I allready have some megs endurance tyre gel which works well. Is there anything I am missing from the list? Is the snowfoam just the lance + the hyperwash shampoo that attaches to the jet wash? I have one of the better Halfords pressure washers not a karcher does anyone know any compatible snowfoams?
Thanks in advance all +++

My 2d worth :)

The prime aim when washing is to clear the dirt with minimal contact with the paint work. It is contact that cause swirls.

Your friends when keeping that just detailed look are your layers of product. Anything that breeches those layer is your enemy. Anything you do to intoduce forien bodies to your paint is helping your enemy

Other enimies to your just detailed look:

Hot water. What!!!!:eek: Don't belive me? Put a bit of candle into a bowl and pour boiling water over it. Give it a couple of minuts and if it hasn't melted it will be very soft. Heat is the enemy of wax. Heat the wax that makes up your last stage protection (LSP) and you will soften it; eventually removing it. Use cool water.

Detergent not designed for car washing and cheap car detergent. It breaks down contaminents like road film by chemical reaction and will strip your wax and other layers of protection.

A Sponge. It will drag a foreign body over your paint should it pick one up. Lambs wool mitts will reduce the effect by absorbing foreign bodies into the fleece and only expelling them during a rinse.

Mechanical Car Washes - worse than beating your car with a big beating device specifically designed to cause swirls.

Eastern and Western European hand car washes - You get all that the £5 will get you and you deserve it for going.

Boy Scouts and your naibours kids and your nephews - Tie them up by their hands and feet and pop them in a sack when they get within 100yds of your car. they are leathal.

Sart with a rinse to get the car wet and float off an loose muck

Using a pressure washer of garden hose and foam lance a genourouse coating of foam. Wait 5 minutes but don't let it dry.

Use Muc off on your wheels, agitate but don't let it dry.

Fan shaped lance and pressure washer, go over the car from bottom to top a panel at a time and clear the snow foam and all visible muck.

If the dirt is light that will conclude a touchless wash.

Drying with a ultra soft Waffle Weave Micro Fibre Drying Towel and some Speed Detailer as a lubricant and shine enhancer.

If washing is needed then using your lambs wool mit, one panel at a time (roof and bonnet count as 2) using a single stoke of the glove touching lightly from top to bottom wash the car. If it is warm enough that the car starts drying while you are washing, rinse the panels you have done as you go


Once complete dry as above.

The sticky has some great info

HTH

As luck would have it, I found a lance lying around in the garage that came with the pressure washer so thats one less thing for the list below. Anyway here's the list:

Two buckets with gritguards
Megs Hyperwash
Sonus waffle weaver drying towel
Sheepskin washmit

The person I am in talks with about ordering this stuff from also suggested to me that I order Quick detailer, what do you guys think? Which QD to you recommend and what rag (sorry towel) do I apply with?

Really looking forwards to this snow foam malark :D

Useful guide there Mike, will use that when I get out to wash the beauty this weekend :)

I use the Meg's QD Singh, and have found it is awesome. However, I also purchased some Meg's towels to apply and buff. The only problem I have with this is that trying to keep them soft is a nightmare. So I've reverted to some nice microfibre cloths, which are soft, and retain their softness through washing +++

The tip with keeping MF cloths in good condition is when you wash them its a cool wash with soap (dreft) and no fabric conditioner. Fabric conditioner kills drying towels. I know as soon as the wife has not followed my wishes as the drying towels won't absorb water. Nice and soft but all absorbed gone. :(

Thanks for all your replies. In the end I went for:

2 Gritguards and buckets (Elitecarcare.co.uk) Special offer £24.99 for two I also got an alloy wheel cleaner brush from them.
The rest was from cleanyoucar.co.uk and from them I brought:
1 x Megs Hyperwash 4L
1 x Sounus Sheepskin washmit
1 x Microfibre drying towel (Had good write ups)
1 x Chemical Guys Speed Wipe (Thought I would try it as an alternative to Megs Last touch)
1 x Ultimate ultra plush micro fibre buffing cloth to apply QD with.

All in all it cost around £100, ouch! Looks like the Solar retrofit might have to wait a few months now! But I justified spending the money as it wouldn't ruin the swirl free finish after its detail. +++

Will let you all know how I get on. +++

Interesting.. did anyone see the feature .. on 5th gear I think.. where they tried out different washing techniques? Some valet bloke applied some £500 a tub wax finish to three identical motors, and then they washed them:
1 in a car wash, one at home, and one at a 'handwash' that are popping up everywhere.

Best result with least damage.. the Carwash - reason - as there is so much water about, it had the smallest risk of foreign bodies being retained on the cleaning surfaces.

Your average 'handjob' guys don't clean the mops, brushes and water enough, and doing it at home you are likely to pick up some grit.
As I tend not to be that concerned about a show car finish, I put it through the local conveyor style carwash system, and it works a treat to be fair.

belive it or not, our local european boys use lambswool washmits to wash the car. Clean your wheels with a seperate sponge.

Try not to make a habit of visiting them but sometimes pop in for a midweek wash