Professor

Despite an expensive hand wash or self-serve, I always have to go back in about an hour or two and wipe the top of the back bumper off. Is this universal or is there a solution?

I'm thinking water remains between the trunk lid and quarter panels... I think I'll start popping the trunk and use a towel to dry all that area.

On The Run

Water gets trapped in every car I've ever owned and drips afterwards. On my S4 it was the mirrors, on my MX5 it's the door handles and the mirrors, I'm pretty sure the trunk area has collected and dripped water on every car I own.

Solution: Tape everything up before you wash
Don't wash as expensively? OR extensively.

KillerG

What i do is I open and close the trunk and all the doors repeatedly, water stays in the panels so this helps push them out, also open the doors and trunk and clean from the inside you can usually see where it accumulates. I also move my car once before i finish the details since this gets water to roll out of the side mirrors or anywhere else it settled

this is my novice advice, I bet slick knows all the tricks

Acura_Dude

PyroDave

i got the car washed once. 5 minutes later hit a bump hard. all the water poured out of my mirror onto the car. looked horrible. also comes out of the trunk. get cans of compressed air, and spray anywhere it can get caught

LC2ner

I like to dry my car off with an air compressor. Resolves that problem.

ceb

Actually, the proper way to dry a car is to blow the water out of nooks and crannies using the air compressor, then blotting the car dry using a big microfiber towel. Never wipe the car dry as that will cause swirls.

TSXy Luster

I've wiped my car dry with a water drying towel and never had swirls.

MrOtocinclus

This is how I resolved this issue. I wipe underneath the trunk lid, and stick my towel into the gutter area and remove excess water. This gets rid of most of the splash when closing the lid. With the remainder, I just blot dry with a different towel.

Call me OCD but I just love having a clean drainage gutter. When I do a quick spray-wax, I wipe the gutter with the towel when I'm done to get some extra hydrophobic goodness into there.

Still haven't figured out the rear-view mirrors though.

Stylinhonda

There really is no way around it. There is always going to be water coming out of somewhere on all cars after a wash.

I always use my air compressor to get most of the water out. IMO everytime you wash your car, you should be drying everywhere, but under the car. Open your doors, gas cap, trunk and hood etc.

You can't expect to spend $10 bucks and not lift a finger and get a good wash. Washing the car youself makes you aware of any knicks, scratches etc. that may need to be cared for.

People say "how do you keep your car so damn clean." my response is, I usually just wash it when it's going to be nice out for more than a few days, spending about 2 hrs on it each time. With the music on in the garage it's actually pretty relaxing and rewarding!

CooldudeTSX

Use a leaf blower first, and that will remove all residual water from the mirrors, lamps, lights, handles, etc. Next, manually dry the exterior followed by opening all doors, trunk, and hood, drying these as well. The only challenge is the water inside of the door panels. Remove this by either (i) opening and closing the doors several times or (ii) leave each door open for a while until all the water finally drips from the drain holes and onto the ground/floor.

Acura_Dude

ceb

A leaf blower - unless it is brand new and unused - will blow little bits of crud at fairly high speeds towards your paint. In addition, you certainly shouldn't be getting significant amounts of water into your door panels. The only water ther should be on the sills and on the frames - ready to be blotted off.

wvtriple

After my Dad had passed a couple of years back, I inherited many of is cleaning tools and gizmo's from his Harley inventory (sold the bikes, I'm not fat or ready to dress like an angry pirate). This was one of the best tools I gained; it works like a dream on the cars to blast the water away from every place you guys have mentioned. It works great on both my bikes too!