Auto Upholstery San Francisco - Great Car Washing Tips - Cooks Upholstery and Classic Restoration

The dishwashing soap myth

Companies that have a vested interest in you buying their products have been spreading the word about all the damage that dishwashing soap will do to your car. Here is my take on all this.

The reason you wash a car is to remove dirt. To do that you need to do several things, most important is you need to make the water....wetter.

This may seem silly at first, what is more wet than water after all? Well, lots of things, but first and foremost, water has a thing called surface tension. This is what keeps water beading on shiny cars, and why you can fill a glass higher than the rim, up to a point. A good car wash soap will act to break down the surface tension. That is why soapy water doesn't bead.

Second, a wash soap must remove grease and dirt. It needs to be a detergent to do that, otherwise you are depending on the action of the wash cloth/mitt on the paint to scrape off the dirt. Not a pretty picture.

Third, a wash soap should make your paint feel slimy or slick, that means it is helping surround those bits of dirt/grease and let them rinse off your car.

I have tried lots of car wash products intended specifically for a car. Here is what I have found:

1. You CANNOT wash and wax your car at the same time. You can only do one or the other well. Any product claiming to do both is a compromise or worse.

2. Dishwashing soap does not "strip" wax off cars. I use Liquid Ivory exclusively on all my cars. Several national champions, 40 year old original paint, and daily drivers. The act of washing with ANY product will take a little bit of your wax off. That is what it's designed to do! Wax is supposed to slowly wear off to keep dirt from embedding in your paint. That is why Carnuba is such a great product. Every time you wipe, wash, rinse etc your car, you strip wax. It's going to happen no matter what you use.

Use a small squirt of Ivory Liquid in a bucket of water. You will get lots of suds. These are essential to helping get the dirt off your paint and away from your car without scratching. Any wash product that doesn't make lots of suds that last, is doing more harm than good. Most car wash specific products do not make good suds, and when you feel the wet paint it is not slick, but grabs at your hand. Ivory is slick and rinses clean.

Wash from the top down, and have two wash mitts/cloths. Use one from the beltline up and another from the beltline down. The Beltline is about the middle of the side of the vehicle. Below this a lot of scratchy silicone build-up and you don't want this in your wash mitt for the top/hood/trunk.

Wash one section at a time and use lots of water at low pressure to rinse. By using a thick stream of water gently played over your car, you can make that surface tension work for you, to help take more beads off the car making it easier to dry.

 

If all you ever did was use a high pressure car wash, it would be worse for your car than always hand washing correctly. But most of us don't have the luxury or time to hand wash every week or two.

 

I use those wand type car washes all the time. In the winter, on non-freezing days, they are great to keep salt/crud off your car when you can't wash by hand. I even use the full service washes once in a while. It's better than leaving acid rain, dirt and worse on your car if the weather won't let you do it right. Search for the newer washes or those that are maintained well. Don't go by the number of expensive cars entering the wash, many times people with too much money don't care what happens to their cars, since they will have a new one next year. Look over the business yourself and see if it looks like it would be at least somewhat kind to your paint.

Super Tip: When washing your car at a wand type wash, use the rinse function and spray at crevices and cracks where dirt can accumulate. You want to get lots of water behind these and clean out the dirt. Remember it's not water alone that causes rust, it's water combined with dirt. If you never rinse these areas they will accumulate dirt and get wet anyway as it rains. Better to power wash them often.

I have a synthetic chamois that I have used for almost ten years. These things are great. I finally found the company that sells them in the next state! The Hydra-Wipe I offer is just $14.95 and will outlast a dozen expensive natural chamois. When it gets dirty, just wash in the sink. If you want a high gloss, then follow with soft white bath towels after using the chamois. This will get rid of the tiny beads left.

source: http://www.dccarcare.com/tipowk/tipowk7.html

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