There are three distinct car-detailing personalities. These include: (a) The person who uses the local car wash and might use a car duster between appointments; (b) The person who washes the car at home regularly and does a comprehensive detailing once or twice a year; and (c) The rest of us, for whom there are no steps too complicated, no amount of bending and stretching that is not compensated in owning a car with impossibly good paint. In our story, we'll try to help you better understand the "art of detailing," and how it can help protect your valued investment.
The paint on your vehicle has many enemies, natural and otherwise. Natural enemies include bush rash, bird droppings, solar radiation, kids on bikes, sea salt and tree sap. Unnatural enemies include pollution, which ranges from smog to airport soot, tar, chemical overspray and...kids on bikes.
Today's factory paint is actually softer and easier to stain than ever before because of environmental standards. At least some of the multiple coats in modern car paint are compounded to work with water as a solvent, instead of alcohol- or petroleum-based solvents. Although water is the only true universal solvent, the resins that compose excellent paints are not as soluble in it as they are in alcohol or a petroleum reducer (the proper term for enamel thinners).
For these reasons, paint maintenance is more technical than before, whether we're talking about a proper wash soap or which polishing compound to use for what surface. For the purposes of this story, we're going to stay away from the outright abrasive compounds and stick to the kind of detailing the average owner can do at home.
Type A:I Don't Wash My Own CarLet's get this person out of the way, shall we? You're probably aware that there is an existing animosity between the mechanized car wash industry and the citizens who wonder if those rolling, 8-foot brushes can hurt their paint. That's an argument for another story, so let's presume that this first personality at least gets the car "hand-washed" by industrious girl scouts or high school kids for a fundraising campaign. No terrifying brushes, just soap and water, followed by lots of towels.
If the car is garaged most of the time, there's no crime in using a duster to keep it looking fresh between washes. Oddly, car dusters get better with every use-their paraffin-soaked cloth nap actually improves in dirt-snatching power with regular use, provided you don't try to freshen a dirt-caked vehicle with it.
Dusters are available from many sources and have been around for many years, but they first seemed to appear in the catalog of the California Car Cover Company, located in California's San Fernando Valley.
In addition to using a duster, 'tweeners can also use disposable wipes to do some paint clean up. CleanTools' The Glosser is a saturated wipe that goes beyond the call of duty. The Glosser can actually be used to remove light dirt from an otherwise clean car, giving it a just-waxed look. Expect to see more of these products listed later this year-now that the concept has been developed, their useful convenience will certainly create a demand.
Type B:I Wash My Own Car-SometimesThis person enjoys washing the car and likes keeping the investment value as high as possible through an assortment of products. As long as the process doesn't require more than a few hours, this person will do it.
Car washing tips abound on the Internet, and the manufacturers we contacted for this story generally agree on one procedure. Here's the boiled-down version.
If at all possible, wash your car in a covered area. If that's not practical, open shade is the next best thing. If there isn't any shade, get up early in the morning and eat breakfast afterwards! Vacuuming the interior is a great way to begin. You don't want dust and dirt flying on a clean exterior.
Dish soap is designed to lift congealed eggs and pork chop remnants from china plates. Think about the chemistry it takes to do that. Using dish soap will immediately lift wax and essential oils from car paint. So don't use it.
The better choice is to use one of the many car wash soaps available everywhere. They're formulated to leave the wax on the paint, while removing that grime that accumulates on the paint. It is important to use the recommended quantity of car wash soap in order to avoid removing any wax. Even these specialty soaps can totally degrease the car if used too liberally.
The three cardinal rules for washing your car are:,* Wash body panels individually, working from top to bottom.,* Rinse your wash mitt frequently in clean water.,* Wash the tires and wheels last.
If you're detailing a car with a high roofline, don't wear a belt or a shirt with buttons, because you might scratch the paint trying to reach for the elusive dirty spot way up high.
Most people use towels to wash their vehicles, which is OK if the towel is rinsed often and replaced frequently. What works best is a lamb's wool wash mitt, which you'll find leaves fewer scratches behind and can remove stubborn dirt with less scrubbing motion than towels.
A wool mitt picks the dirt up and holds it off the surface of the paint's finish, until you rinse it in the bucket. New cotton towels work well, but the deeper nap of the mitt offers better insurance. Lamb's wool mitts are available at most retail auto parts stores or directly from most of the sources listed.
If you're really serious about it, you can purchase a boar's hair brush. A brush is also better for cleaning the tight spots like those near the headlight bezels and body seams. You can get a brush from Griot's Garage.
Drying TechniquesDrying the car can be made simpler by streaming rinse water across surfaces instead of spraying the car to rinse it off. Streaming the water allows the water's natural surface tension to "collect" water droplets and leave the paint in sheets, which provides a surface that is almost dry even before you approach the car with a towel or chamois.
Getting water out of the door hinges and door gaskets can be done by driving the vehicle around the block before you dry it or by using an air compressor to blow it out. Notorious water collection spots include chrome or plastic trim, side moldings and doors. Doors have drain holes that should be checked occasionally for blockage that can trap the water, which rusts the metal.
There are four specific drying tools preferred by detailing professionals. They include:,* Microfiber towels ,* Pure cotton terry (Turkish) towels,* The Absorber chamois,* High-quality "dry soft" chamois
Microfiber towels are relatively new to the market. At this point, they are all made by 3M. Microfiber technology is basically built around synthetic fibers much smaller in diameter and more convoluted in shape than a human hair. By weaving these fibers into a cloth towel, a fabric is created that is surprisingly useful. To begin with, they pick up water far more effectively than cotton towels. Furthermore, microfiber towels remove the whitish wax glaze that remains after applying a fresh coat of wax to paint. Most importantly, microfiber towels will not scratch paint, even though they feel like they can. You can machine wash them just as you would cotton towels (see the following section on cotton towels and why fabric softeners are a bad idea).
The only rule for microfiber towels is that you keep those you use for removing wax haze separate from those you use for drying the car. Washing them separately is also recommended to keep the wax from interfering with the drying abilities of the towels.
Prior to the appearance of microfiber towels, detailers had long preferred 100-percent cotton terry towels for drying and removing wax haze. The term "Turkish toweling" referred originally to a specific type of cotton plant imported here from the Middle East. While that genus of cotton has been grown here for many, many years, the term is now loosely applied to better grades of cotton used in the manufacture of towels.
It is very important NOT to use any fabric softener when washing cotton (or microfiber) towels. This advice covers dryer sheets, too. The reason is that softeners will diminish the fabric's ability to retain water through capillary action. Actually, the cool thing is to keep a small box of regular Tide detergent for use on your detailing cloths. Tide is a perennial shop favorite because it is uncomplicated, effective and able to remove nearly any foreign substance from cloth. Of course, Tide's unfettered nature requires that the cloth be durable enough to survive the hot-water wash process.
If you prefer to use cotton towels and don't want to ransack the linen closet, you can find good towels of the correct fabric composition from most of our sources listed here. In particular, Meguiar's, Griot's Garage and Goodspeed Motoring each carry good cotton towels.
Richard Griot suggested testing any towel to affirm that it's all-cotton. Richard puts a match to one corner of a questionable towel to see if the edge binding thread goes up in wisps of black smoke, although we don't suggest that you try this at home. But if it happens, the towel is made of synthetic. In either case, it is unsuitable for use because synthetic thread will definitely leave scratches in the paint, while cotton fibers will not.
The Absorber is essentially a synthetic chamois, but it works very well, and is easier on paint than either of the other two drying tools. Towels and some natural chamois actually draw or can scrub oils and wax from the paint's surface. The Absorber won't. What the Absorber is good at is picking up water and it can do that like a champ. The Absorber picks water up instantly, using capillary action. Towels and natural chamois also use capillary action, but their pores are larger and irregularly spaced, where the Absorber's pores are microscopic and very densely spaced. When you wring out a towel or natural hide chamois, some of the water remains trapped in their fabric. Not so with the Absorber, which wrings almost completely dry with a light twist. So dry, in fact, that when you're done wringing, you can roll the Absorber up and return it to its storage tube without worrying about mildew or rot.
Dry/Soft chamois are expensive and worth every dime, according to many of the experienced detailers we contacted for this story. Amazingly, the good ones dry totally soft and pliable. Cheap chamois often dry into a kind of cardboard state, so be aware of that problem before you buy one.
Type C:I'm An Advanced DetailerThis person is fascinated by tedious work and enjoys a good relationship with his or her car. In addition to washing the outside of the car, this person also pays attention to properly cleaning the interior and tires.
After washing and drying the car, what does the detail-driven owner do? Well, he gets out a clay bar and some spray detailer. (For more specific information on clay bars, see our sidebar story). This step is relatively easy and can produce a spectacular improvement in the smoothness of your paint.
At this point, it would be appropriate to evaluate the condition of your paint and decide if it needed any more aggressive conditioning prior to glazing and waxing. Meguiar's is so insistent on the importance of this step that your various options are described on the company's Web site. The company supplies a large number of specific products for bringing wind- and sun-tortured paint back to life.
Another source with a large variety of heavy-duty, professional-grade paint rejuvenation materials is Goodspeed Motoring. Jeremy Goodspeed has vast experience as a detailer and his extensive line of available products can be tailored to whatever your needs are. In fact, he carries many of the other sources named in this story, as well as products from ZyMol and suppliers to professional detailing shops.
Rather than delve into paint resurrection, let's move on with the presumption that your paint is, for the most part, in pretty good shape.
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