BluBrett

Being a member of Autopia.org, I have learned a nice, scratch-free way of washing my car. I have a 1995 Acura Legend with 220,000 miles that looks like it just drove off the showroom floor (I know, . I will post a thread later), and your car can look that way too. So, here is my wash technique.

Tools:
-2 microfiber wash mitts
-1 tire scrubber
-2 buckets
-Meguiar's soap
-hose w/ working water
-some high quality microfiber cloths (as in no "bag-o-rags" from Pep Boys)
-microfiber waffle weave cloth
-Blue Magic window towel
-Q-tips
-Windex auto (needed if you have tinted windows. regular windex works for non-tinted windows.)
-tire shine (optional)

-I start by pulling my car in the drive way. The slanted surface aids with water dripping out of crevices.
-Next, I fill up one bucket with soap and water, and I fill up another with just water.
-I rinse my car off with the hose at medium pressure. My car is never actually "dirty", but i still like to rinse as much dust off as possible first.
-Next up, I dip my best microfiber mitt into the soapy mixture and do NOT squeeze any soap out of the mitt. The more lubrication, the less likely it is to marr the paint.
-I wash the hood, then the roof, then the trunk, then the windows, then all other painted panels. I only go in up-down motions or occasionally side-side motions, but never both at the same time and NEVER IN CIRCLES!!! After every panel, i squeeze out the soapy water from the mitt, dip it into the plain water, squeeze it out, re-dip it into the plain water, squeeze it out, and then dip it into the soapy bucket and move on to the next panel. If the spaces between panels are still dirty, I use a Q-tip with some car soap to clean it. Also, don't forget to clean door jambs/scuff pads with a wet mitt.
-After I finish this, I move on to the wheels. I clean the tires with a tire brush and the leftover plain water, rinse the tire and rim, then use my old, slightly worn out mitt for the rims and the small, painted part of the wheel well (actually, this may be considered part of the fender/quarter panel.) Repeat for all 4 wheels.
-Next, I thoroughly rinse the car off with medium pressure.
-I dry with a waffle-weave microfiber towel. Only go in back-and-forth movements, never circles. If any streaks are left over, I use a dry microfiber towel and some Meguiar's QD to remove them, again in back-and-forth movements. Dry all jambs last.
-Then I clean windows. this can be done almost any way you can get them to be clean.
-Finally, I use some Blue magic tire shine if I want to dress the tires.

Thanks for looking, and feel free to comment/ask questions/flame me for anything you think I did wrong .

Jesstzn

See bold numbers above

(1) Change your mitts to sheepskin as they are a lot more forgiving than M/F
(2) Don't squeeze the suds out of the mitt before rinsing in the rinse water .. this will aid in removing any grit from the mitt.
(3) Remove the nozzle from the hose and use a gentle stream of water for the final rinse. This will float any grit off the car not blow it around and also will pull about 80% of the water off the car if it has wax on it.

BluBrett

1) I have sheepskin mitts, but I threw them aside as wheel mitts because I cannot get a marr-free wash for the life of me when I use them.
2) I should reword that. I squeeze about half of it out of the mitt, then dip it, twist my hand back and forth, repeat.
3) I have no nossle, so my water always has a gentle stream

Jesstzn

Maybe you had cheap ones .. I am the opposite .. too much damage with any of the M/F ones I tried.

What color is your car?

BluBrett

Honestly, they were probably cheap ones

Canterbury Green. I have a thread called "Click & Brag: 220,000 mile Legend-straight from the showroom" if you want to see my car.

Jesstzn

Nice car .. in all due respects at 200K unless the car was polished swirl free by a pro recently there will be enough natural marring in the paint that unless you were washing road mud off you wouldn't notice micro marring or the lack of it from the mitt used.

BluBrett

It gets polished when it needs it by me. Obviously, it's a daily driver so the finish won't stay perfect even if washing never induced micromarring because careless people brush up against it, tap it with their purses, let their door tap mine, etc. I can assure you it is swirl free after several washes since it's last polish, and it will stay that way for a nice amount of time. My garage queen, a Chevy Tahoe, has only been polished twice since 2000 and you can only see the tiniest micromarring at sunset, because my wash method works wonderfully for me.

SweetJazz

Blubrett,

Welcome to the forum. I have seen your car on other forums and it is a beautiful car. I recently sold my 1994 Civic that was on par with your Legend. Bottom line is that good technique and quality products will give you long lasting results. I think many people have a wash method that works for them. Here are some of the things I would do differently.

BluBrett

Hmm, i remember replying to this but my reply isn't there.

Why?

BluBrett

Edit: the "why?" was supposed to be replying to your #3 thing on the list.