Alright, I'm not a professional, far from it. I just decided to make this thread for people like me who don't live in a house and want to use a car wash station to give their car a good wash.
If anyone has any suggestions on my process I would love to hear them. After all, that's how we learn what we know.
You need:
- two buckets
- 2 grit guards (I don't have any yet)
- wheel brush
- Soap of your choice
- tire shine of your choice
- 2 sponges or mitts of your choice (micro fiber or sheep skin)
- 2 big drying towels or more (micro fiber)
- Wheel cleaner of your choice
You can see the products I use in the pictures.
1) Open your hood and vacuum your car thoroughly. (opening your hood allows it to cool minimizing water spots.)
2) Drive it in the car wash station, turn your car off, close your windows, DON'T retract your side view mirrors.
3) spray the wheels using any wheel cleaner you prefer. I've heard ENDLESS recommendations, but p21s gel seems to be the preference of most people. (I don't have mine, so I just bought some thing from auto zone for the mean time) Let it sit for about a minute.
4) As the wheel cleaner does it's work, pour 4-6 bottle cap full of zaino Z7 into one of the buckets.
5) Start the high pressure wash option and spray your wheels down with a GENEROUS amount of water.
6) Switch to the low pressure spotless rinse option and fill the bucket you put the zaino Z7 in.
7) Fill the other bucket (clean one with nothing in it) with water.
Now both buckets are filled with water. One is your washing bucket and the other is your rinsing bucket.
8) With the amount of time you have left on the low pressure spot free rinse, spray the car down.
9) Dunk the sponge into the wash bucket and let it absorb as much water as possible.
10) Place the sponge on the roof or any surface you want to start with and go back and forth (NO CIRCULAR MOTION). Do half the roof (or trunk or hood) then flip the sponge over and do the other side of the roof (trunk or hood).
11) Wring the sponge
12) Dunk it in the clean water bucket and wash it.
13) Wring the sponge again.
14) Back into the wash bucket.
15) Finish the side, trunk, hood, back (only as low as the license plate is), front (only as low as the front tow hook cover is). Make sure you clean the sponge as mentioned in steps 11-14 between each section.
16) As you do the sides, make sure you go only a little higher than the current position of the sponge in the following picture.
17) Clean the mirrors, windshield, window and back windows with the sponge. Also, lift your wipers and clean them (you will be surprised how dirty they are).
18) Clean the sponge and put it aside. Get the second sponge now and do all the lower parts. i.e lower sides, lower back, lower front.(depending on how dirty your car is, you might want to do another pass over all the parts to get them clean).
19) Pour the rest of the wash bucket onto the car.
20) dump out the dirty water.
21) Start up the high pressure rinse and rinse the car down.
22) Clean both your buckets as show in the picture.
23) Switch to low pressure spot free rinse and fill your wash bucket (No soap just water)
24) Optional: Give your dogs some water. This will add a good shine to your car. lol
25) Use the 'flood' technique to get rid of as much water as possible by 'flooding' each part separately and allowing most of the water to flow down.
26) Get your towel, Fold it in half and place it on the car. Don't go back and forth. All you do is place the towel down and gently tap it and remove it and move onto the second spot. I was skeptic about this until i tried it and works great and dries your car just fine. Don't forget your windows and windshield.
27) I like to clean all the small spaces on the car. Between the door and the body, between the trunk and the body, hood and the body and mirror and its casing. They get surprisingly dirty.
All I do is get my L.A ftiness tag
28) put the towel over it.
29) Insert the towel covered tag into the spaces and move along.
30) I did one door sill and this is how dirty it is.
31) Put your wipers down, open the hood and clean the inside with the damp towel. FYI: Some people actually use engine oil to shine the interior. Put some on a towel or whatever you want and wipe the engine bay down. It will not smoke and gives it a good shine as I have tried it on my e46 ///M not on my e92 ///m yet.
32) Use a wheel only designated towel to clean and dry your wheels thoroughly. Get your hands in there and just rub all over. I forgot to mention, if your rims are really dirty use a brush like the one in the picture below.
This is the towel after cleaning the wheels.
33) Get inside with a new slightly dampened towel and wipe down the whole interior including your navi screen and your front display.
34) I got this tire shine from autozone and I LOVE ITTTTT. It shines Wonderfully, no mess, and stays on for the whole week and looks like i just applied it after it's been on for a week.
35) Squeeze to get the product out onto the pad and wipe your wheel with it.
36) Get the damp towel and wrap it around each exhaust pipe and clean it by pulling each end back and forth.
37) Stand back take a well deserved deeeeeeeeep breath and smile and enjoy your face as you see it on your shiny car.
38) Dogs are exhausted. You'd think they were doing all the work. Nevertheless, they love the clean feeling and take a nap as you drive home with people
at your car
