# Body wash and care info for dummies...



## pegcityjet (Jan 14, 2006)

Hi, I have an 02 SE-R. This is the first car that I've ever owned that had a perfect body. I am completely ignorant about correct washing and body care practices. Do you guys know any sites that offer the ABC's of care?
Not that it matters but my car is the siver colour and when it's clean it has that hint of blue when you look at it at an angle. An awesome paint job for a lower priced car.
Thanks.


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## ScarCrow28 (May 14, 2002)

That’s a very good basic car care FYI. I looked into the car care section, but only found a sticky on wash n wax, but doesn’t go into great detail on the actual wash.

So here’s what I know.

As was said in the car care section, make sure you have your quality and clean materials. A wash mitt/towel/cloth.
A lintless drying towel/ chamis/ cloth. 
A couple of buckets, (soap water, rinse water for the mitt/cloth) good quality car soap (if not rewaxing, DON’T USE DISH SOAP!).
Some wheel cleaner. A separate wheel cleaning mitt/cloth/ wheel brush.
And of course your hose n pressure nozzle.

NEVER EVER EVER, let your washing or drying cloth/mitt/towel/chamois touch the ground. You will risk scratching your car with what ever they picked up. If you do drop something, either take a new one (best choice), or thoroughly power rinse it with the hose to blow off any dirt.

Try to AVOID direct sunlight, as this will cause the water to evaporate quickly. A good time of day to wash the car is during “golden hour” (early morning, or late evening when the temps are cool and the sun is not straight up in the sky.)

First step in performing a basic wash is to pre rinse the car with the hose & nozzle. This rids of all the loose dirt, grime and bird doo doo off the car. The whole point is to clean the car with as little chance of scratching up your paint and clearcoat as possible. So if it comes off with just water, the more the merrier. 

Second, with the car still wet, start at the roof and then work your way down the sides using your mitt/cloth dripping with soap water. Keep your cleaning mitt as wet as possible, and make small circle swirls as you go around the car, trying to cover every square inch. The wetter the cloth, the less chance of you scratching your car. Its all about the lube! In this case, your lube is the water! Make sure to risne your mit often and go back and grab some more soap water.

Rinse the dirty water off your mitt in a second bucket to keep your soapy water clean. You can always add more soap/water to the soap bucket if you need, and then its easy to dump the dirty water and replace with clean rinse water without loosing your soap water. Get it?

The reason you want to start at the top of the car is simple. Gravity. You don’t want to wash the bottom of your car first only to have to go back to it because the dirty water from the top of you car created spots as it dripped and drained down the side.

If working alone, its good to work in sections around the car. Once you go over a section, give it a rinse with the hose so you don’t risk the soapy water drying before you get to the overall rinse.

IF your washing your wheels, be sure to use a separate mitt or brush. Follow the same steps as for the car. While some cleaner states you just have to spray on and then spray off, you tend to get better results by wiping around. 

Once your done giving the car a once all over with the mitt, its time for the all over rinse. When rinsing, its actually better to let the water flow out the hose naturally without the pressure nozzle. Again, start at the top and work down the sides. The reason for not using the nozzle is the risk of pressure washing your wax away. Before, you were aiming for the dirt on top of your paint/wax. Now that there is no dirt on top, its just the wax fairing for itself. Now, surely you could be wearing away wax during the pre wash, but why bully your wax job more then necessary, might as well play it safe and let your wax last as long as it can. Even if it doesn’t pressure wash the wax, it certainly wont’ hurt anyting using this method.


Finally, go over the car with your drying towel/ cloth. This picks up the majority of the water and minimizes any resulting dry spots.


Then staind back and gawk. Now that thats done, time to go jump in the pool!


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