Washing your car at home can be a great, gratifying process. There’s nothing quite like getting into the nooks and crannies, and then eventually, standing back and admiring a good job done. Even better is that there are ways to make car washing even more fun and less labor-intensive.
David Tracy wrote about how he bought a power washer and a foam cannon. The result, he believes, is a game-changer. Fix It Again Tony has a good car wash hack:
Getting an electric leaf blower was the game changer in car washing for me. I don’t have to hand dry my cars anymore.
Micah Cameron:
Foam cannons are great because they allow the soap to dissolve dirt and lift it off the paint before you take a wash mitt to the vehicle. They aren’t necessary, but they are nice to have.
Just a few tips:
-You still need to use two buckets. Rinsing your mitt in a bucket of rinse water will ensure you aren’t rubbing dirt back into your paint.-Foam from the bottom to the top. Otherwise, foam will roll down from the top and negate the benefits of using a foam cannon.
-The foam shouldn’t be ultra thick. If it’s too thick, gravity will pull it down and negate the benefits of using a foam cannon. Crazy thick foam looks good on Tik Tok, but it has no practical application irl.
-You don’t need to use a dedicated foam gun product. Regular car wash shampoo will do just fine. I like Meguire’s Hyper Wash the best.
FormerTXJeepGuy:
I’ve been using Optimum No-Rinse for over a decade now, probably use a gallon of water to mix it in (and thats mainly to get the water above the grit guard in my bucket). You should give that a try. The labor savings alone make it so I don’t mind washing the whole fleet at once.
Sid Bridge:
Geez. Dude has one baby and suddenly it’s all LOOK AT MY FOAM CANNON!
Nic Periton:
Tempting as it may be, do not wash your baby with a foam cannon. Two year olds are fair game, they wobble into the path of the foam thingy and only a gentle pressure wash gets the foam off.
Thomas wrote about the blocky and slab-sided Bentley EXP 15, and I can’t ignore Factoid’s comment:
“The great ships hung motionless in the sky, over every nation on Earth. Motionless they hung, huge, heavy, steady in the sky, a blasphemy against nature. Many people went straight into shock as their minds tried to encompass what they were looking at. The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t. And still nothing happened. Then there was a slight whisper, a sudden spacious whisper of open ambient sound. Every hi-fi set in the world, every radio, every television, every cassette recorder, every woofer, every tweeter, every mid-range driver in the world quietly turned itself on. Every tin can, every dustbin, every window, every car, every wineglass, every sheet of rusty metal became activated as an acoustically perfect sounding board. Before the Earth passed away it was going to be treated to the very ultimate in sound reproduction, the greatest public address system ever built. But there was no concert, no music, no fanfare, just a simple message. “People of Earth, your attention, please,” a voice said, and it was wonderful. Wonderful perfect quadraphonic sound with distortion levels so low as to make a brave man weep. “This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council,” the voice continued. “As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth minutes. Thank you.”– Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
Have a great evening, everyone!
Agree on cannon if needed, I do multiple microfibers instead of buckets folded into quarters. After diy’ing for 40 years with wax or sealant I paid for pro installed PPF with Gtecniq CSU and it’s a true game changer. Super easy cleanup and going strong at 5 years. Use topper twice a year. Yes to leaf blower too!
The leaf blower tip is GOAT on car wash tips. It gets rid of those annoying constant drippy spots like side view mirrors, door handles, etc.
I would add that a backpack mounted 2 stroke leaf blower works even better than an electric one though, plus that way you’re using gasoline to dry your gasoline powered car yo
Eww, no. Gas leaf blowers [gas gardening equipment in general] can die in a greasy smoky gasoline fire. The noise pollution, the literal pollution, just: no. The electric future is here and I’m not going back.
Laugh all you want, it’s like WAYYYYYY more powerful. I have both. The electric one is a toy I use for blowing out my garage or dog hair from the interior. For anything like wet leaves, or drying off a car, the 2 smoke is superior. BRAAAPPPPPP
Just waiting for David to get the fine for using water in California, and is the foam certified for use in California? Maybe his lineage derives from phone sanitizers so he’s covered as it falls under cultural heritage allowances.
His shammy cloths were dolphin-safe so all good.
And you can tie all the COTD’s from yesterday together by reminding everyone not to forget their towel!
You sumbitch, have yourself an upvote.
Dammit, now I have to go read those books AGAIN!!!
David, as he’s hopping into a Willys that was secretly an interstellar taxi all along: “So long, and thanks for all the rust!”
42
So many family members and friends have learned not to say “Can I ask you something?” Because they automatically get an answer of 42, every time.
“How many roads must a man walk down?”
“No, that’s not it. Too trite.”