need help on how to wash my car

  • Thread starter Thread starter Slick Rick
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Slick Rick

Slick Rick

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London
My car has been needing a wash for a while now and usually this isn't a problem but with a hosepipe ban in London i have had to use a bucket and sponge only. I went once over with some clean water and sponge, then with soapy water and sponge, threw some clean water over the car and finally went over with a damp cloth. I left the car to dry for a while and now it looks dirtier than before!!! its got huge brown water marks everywhere!!
I'm not sure what to do, i cant use the jet wash to clean it and I'm definitely not paying a car wash to finish the job i started.
Any advice on how to clean it without using a hose??
I thought the damp cloth would sort it but i was wrong:indiff:
 
try rinsing it a few times with a bucket of completely clean water, and then taking it for a drive before it dries.
 
You should dry it using a chamois leather.

You could also try Armor All car cleaning wipes from Halfords or other good car accessory shops (and no doubt a few bad ones too!). As long as the car is not mucky, they work really well.
 
Forget all that expensive stuff like Armor All, Mequires, Mothers whatever. To get a really nice wash of your car go get some dawn dish soap and put it in your bucket. Add Water, apply it by hand, and then splash several buckets of totally clean water onto the car. Then go get a terry cloth and hand dry it. No water spots!

Now, if you use dawn you are going to want to wax it because the purpose of the dawn is to strip off old and decayed wax, bugs, tar, etc etc. So now is where you want to spend a little money. Go get a really nice wax with high carnuba content (30%+ minimum) and apply one thin coat and remove. Then another then coat and remove, then another. Wait approximately 2 hours between coats. This means you will be starting in the morning. After you do this you are going to have a wonderful deep wet look to the car.
 
IMADreamer
Forget all that expensive stuff like Armor All, Mequires, Mothers whatever.
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The wipes I mentioned are only £4 for a packet of 10. You only need 1 wipe per wash. They're probably a good idea at the minute due to the drought in South East England.
 
Basically, to avoid water spots, you have to dry the car yourself. There are all sorts of dirt, grime, and minerals in your water. If you let this water dry on your car, you'll get spots. So, get a towel (good enough) or chamois (much better), and dry that sucker with your hands. Also, don't let the soapy water dry on your car either, as it will leave a scum layer. What I usually do is wash the car one section at a time (scrub with soapy water and then immediately rinse), and also wetting the whole car down every few minutes to keep it wet (and to keep the minerals in the water and not on the paint) until I'm good and ready to dry it. Perfect results every time.
 
if your going to follow IMAdreamer's path, don't use dawn, use Ivory, its just plain soap, nothing to make your hands softer or anything like that.

i have had to wash my car with only one bucket before.....it sucks.
best advice i can give you is more buckets!

a waterblade works really well, but if you can trap tiny pieces of dirt and drag them while your getting water off.

ask the guys and autopia (google it) though, im sure they have some crazy ideas already going.
 
If you don't mind me asking, why can't you use a hose? If you have a way to fill buckets I would think a hose hookup would be possible?
 
I first spray it wet, then sope it in, spray the sope off, drying the car off with this cloth with absorbs wather and finally I clean the windows with a special window cleaner for cars 👍
 
Slick6
If you don't mind me asking, why can't you use a hose? If you have a way to fill buckets I would think a hose hookup would be possible?
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Noo! ive got a hose, im just not allowed to use it because theres a hose ban in London! lol!
i think the hosepipe ban means i can fill buckets up with the hose but i cant use the hose directly to wash the car or water the garden etc....
I don't think its very effective though because I'm just gonna try and clean the car again now because its still dirty. But then again I'm sure using a jet wash wastes ALOT more water

I think ill try what kylehnat said and wash and dry the car in sections instead of trying to clean the whole car at once.
 
daan
You should dry it using a chamois leather.
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This is good advice, the chamois leather is your friend!

I just did a crap rush job of washing my car, because i'll usually wash with car shampoo, rinse, chamois dry and then wax. Oh and use that rain away stuff on the windows.

But today I just washed it and rinsed it, I only realy wanted to remove bird poo and various insects from it so it still looks crap.

You don't realy need a hose tbh and I tend to go over the top with the hose anyway so i'm probably better off without it.
 
Race Idiot
This is good advice, the chamois leather is your friend!

I just did a crap rush job of washing my car, because i'll usually wash with car shampoo, rinse, chamois dry and then wax. Oh and use that rain away stuff on the windows.
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The 'rain away stuff.' It's formally called RainX. It's really amazing, I use it every time I wash my cars, recommend it to all of my friends. When I'm on the highway and it's raining, I don't even consider using wipers. And the harder the rain, the more clear it gets.
 
STLbarcelona5
The 'rain away stuff.' It's formally called RainX. It's really amazing, I use it every time I wash my cars, recommend it to all of my friends. When I'm on the highway and it's raining, I don't even consider using wipers. And the harder the rain, the more clear it gets.
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You can usually do that without rainex too. I normally don't use wipers on the highway when it's raining.
 
blargonator
if your going to follow IMAdreamer's path, don't use dawn, use Ivory, its just plain soap, nothing to make your hands softer or anything like that.

i have had to wash my car with only one bucket before.....it sucks.
best advice i can give you is more buckets!

a waterblade works really well, but if you can trap tiny pieces of dirt and drag them while your getting water off.

ask the guys and autopia (google it) though, im sure they have some crazy ideas already going.
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The Zaino brothers recommend dawn. They know more then you or I put together about car detailing. So I am using dawn. It really does work too. The next time I detail my car I will post up pictures for the world to see. After a good Saturdays worth of work my 10 year old beater looks show room.
 
i never looked at what Zaino bros. said, although i hear good things about their products.
i am just used to being in a colission repair classroom and our teacher always told us to use plain ivory soap because it does not have any silicon or anything like that and things like WD-40 are not welcome in body shops thanks to the silicone.

either way, i'd check autopia because those guys are real detailing nuts <8- )
 
I've used Dawn, and pretty much every other dish soap on the planet. They all work just fine.
 
I find it funny that there is a drought in england right now :lol:

also when waxing do it in small sections because if you do large sections you will feel rushed when rubbing it in and taking it off, this will probably lead to the greatest annoyance in car care, swirl marks.
 

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