GUIDE: Keeping your car clean and swirl free on a budget

[miguel.in.az]

Semi-related but if you guys want to keep the inside of your car smelling fresh after a wash, stick a dryer sheet under each of the front seats and under the floor mats too if you'd like. My car doesn't smell bad by any means but I want to keep my car smelling nice for more than a few days.

 

[Quisp]

I find taking a couple mile drive after washing cuts the drying chore considerably.

 

[Manta Ray]

Something I'd like to add to this is when and if you can spare the change, buy a gallon or whatever large amount of quick detail spray, I have found this stuff to be indispensable to prevent swirls, and perfect to clean up door jams without swirling it up, the dirt in your jams are mostly just dust, QDS will keep your towel nice and lubricated while wiping away the dust.

When drying the car and you are on a budget with mid tier drying towels, you can use the the QDS, and just one light mist will add some lubricity and make the towel less aggressive towards your paint. Another benefit to a good QDS is that it prevents water marks when drying if your drying towel isn't up to par (basically costco/bj's carry b-c grade microfiber towels which means its not plush, and soft and absorbant...) and finally it is great to keep a spray bottle of this stuff around to quickly hit and remove any bird poop or whatever that gets smacked onto your car in between washes. For a nice budget choice? probably Meguiar's D15501 Last Touch Spray Detailer - 1 Gallon by Meguiar's for 25 bucks.

I personally always try to keep a bottle of QDS and a spray wax in my car with one "dirty" towel and one buffing towel... dirty towel to be used with QDS, and the buffing towel for the spray wax.. The spray wax prolongs the time between waxing, by a reasonable amount... I like to use the same brand and tier spray wax as the wax I am using, for example meguairs ultimate paste wax and ultimate spray wax. (this is purely optional and not really necessary but I always recommend it to keep your paint protected at all times.)

for a good drying towel... I must say, nothing beats my wooly mammoth drying towel from chemical guys... I haven't had the luck with the waffle towels, they always seem to leave something behind, the best part about them is how easy it is to wring it dry because it isnt a "fluffy" towel.

This is just my personal opinion and in no way reflects a professional opinion, I am not responsible for any extra shines that happens to your car

 

[Original J-Pat]

With all the products overflowed in the detailing area it's so hard to make a choice but I have heard good reviews on meguiar's an chemical guy's products.

 

[ChuckL]

Got lazy and went to a car wash a few days ago where the employees do a quick scrub of the car with a soft bristle brush before going in and one of them allowed the hard plastic part of the brush to touch my car. Now I have several small scratches on my hood. Car has less than 3,000 miles...

My fault though, so all I can do is warn others.

 

[boombots]

Great write-up. I use a 2nd mitt for the rocker panels too. They tend to be dirty enough I don't want to use the same one I use for the hood.

The one time in my life I did a drive through car wash was a disaster. Just got home from vacation and wanted to clean the car for a meet the next morning... It's one of those where it pulls you through with your car in neutral. It drug my wheel along something metal and curbed it something fierce. Granted they wrote my a 600 check for the fix... Never again

Sent from my XT1064 using Tapatalk

 

[Manta Ray]

Got lazy and went to a car wash a few days ago where the employees do a quick scrub of the car with a soft bristle brush before going in and one of them allowed the hard plastic part of the brush to touch my car. Now I have several small scratches on my hood. Car has less than 3,000 miles...

My fault though, so all I can do is warn others.

How deep are the scratches? I might be able to recommend to you how to minimize the appearance. Let me know if you have questions, you can PM me.

 

[Original J-Pat]

I follow Auto Fetish Detail on youtube and his website seems to be the most transparent person I follow alot of the other detailers just promote their own products.

 

[ChuckL]

How deep are the scratches? I might be able to recommend to you how to minimize the appearance. Let me know if you have questions, you can PM me.

Thanks for the offer. They were deep enough to see white, but I had some paint polish and was able to reduce their appearance enough that they're only noticeable when the light hits the scratches at a certain angle.