Re: Brakes:too much washing?

[John Edwards <ymoon@bellsouth.net>]

I totally agree with Chris- 4 to 5 times a week is a bit much. When I ran my
detail shop, my truck got it once a week, and that was good- seems that we were
too busy doing everybody else's car! ALWAYS wet your car down before putting
your wash mitt on your car! The water lubricates the existing dirt to minimize
damage. I always used 5 gallon buckets and kept them as full as possible so the
dirt will sink to the bottom and not on your mitt. I also used separate buckets
for wheel washing. Keeps the wheel cleaner off your precious wax job. Also, LET
YOUR WHEELS COOL DOWN BEFORE WASHING THEM, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE A VERY EXPOSED
BRAKE ROTOR!!!!! THAT IS HOW ROTORS GET WARPED!!!!!!!! On black paint , I like
to use new wax applicators, it just makes me feel better. They're cheap and it
pays off in the final product. I also agree with towel drying. I happen to
detest water spots. There is a wax if you can find it called Meguiar's Gold
Class. I used it on my friend's black Corrado VR6 and it looked absolutely
unreal. Highly recommended.

Travis E. Augusta Ga
85 4000squattro

Dan Sinclair wrote:

> Re: washing your car often - pros and cons.
>
> As a former professional auto detailer, I have some first hand knowledge in
> this area.  I've been meaning to make a web-based detailing tips page, but
> haven't got around to it.  Some of the cleaning agent companies have tips on
> their web-pages, but most are fairly self-serving - go figure.
>
> Washing your car 4-5 times a week is probably excessive.  I don't think it
> will harm your brakes, but your paint will not fair so well.  No matter how
> careful you are, washing your car will always rub microfine dirt particles
> across the surface of your paint.  In time, these result in tiny little
> scratches.  In full sunlight, you'll recognize these scratches as a
> spider-web looking effect that's uniformly found all over the car.  They're
> unavoidable, and waxing and compounding will usually take them off, but the
> more often you wash, the more of these web-like scratches will appear, and
> the more paint or clearcoat you'll have to compound off to get a nice gloss
> back on the car.  Paint and clearcoat are finite, and it's very possible so
> compound and wax it away - then you're left with glossy gray primer spots or
> dull spots where the clearcoat is gone.
>
> When you wash your car in general, you want to use a fairly high pressure
> stream of water to pre-rinse the vehicle.  Don't use a high psi pressure
> washer!  You can literally loosen paint and trim and moldings with some of
> those suckers, and you can force water into places it shouldn't go (door
> locks, seals etc.)  Get all loose debris off with a good stream of water,
> and wash off as much grit as possible (most of it sticks, but more dirt
> comes off in a pre-rinse than you might think).  The reason for pre-rinsing
> is to get off dirt that you'd otherwise rub around on the paint if you just
> went at it with a wash mitt.  You don't want to drag any more dirt across
> the surface of your paint than is absolutely necessary.
>
> Next, wash the car from TOP to BOTTOM, section at a time.  Start with the
> hood and roof and trunk lid, rinse down.  Next, wash the upper part side
> windows, rinse down.  Do the TOP HALF of the doors and UPPER parts of the
> fenders, rinse down.  Then wash the lower parts of the doors, the rocker
> panels, the nose and the tail.   Also, it's a good idea to hold the wash MIT
> at arms length and rinse it with a jet of water out of the hose after each
> section.  Most people just rinse the MIT in a bucket of water, but why add
> all that grit to the water that you're going to ultimately throw back up on
> the car?  There's a good reason to go from TOP down to:
>
> A) keep from rinsing dirt and soap over areas you've already cleaned.
> B) to keep your wash MIT as clean as possible (the lower parts of the car
> have the most dirt, thus if you cleaned the rocker panels first, you'd drag
> the crap all over the upper parts later).
> C) to allow the pre-rinse water to soak and loosen as much of the caked on
> crap on the lower portions of the car a possible before going over it with
> the MIT.
> D) I do the nose last because I like to let the bug guts and such soak as
> much as possible - softens them up so I don't have to rub so damn hard.
> Always get bug guts off you paint thoroughly.  Bug guts are caustic and will
> eat tiny little pocks and dents in your paint.
>
> ABOVE ALL - NEVER LET YOUR CAR AIR DRY AND DON'T DRIVE AROUND THE BLOCK TO
> BLOW THE WATER OFF!!!  Letting water dry on your paint will result in WATER
> SPOTS - just like on dishes in the dish washer.  Since you shouldn't use
> Cascade on your car (I know a lady who tried it - her paint was nearly
> ruined) you should always towel dry your car.  Water spots can only be
> removed by compounding, and they will stain glass, paint, chrome, you name
> it.
>
> Rinse and repeat once a week or so would be my suggestion.  Everyone will
> have a different opinion on frequency.  My suggestion is just to weigh the
> pros and cons.  There are contaminants in the dirt (salt, pollution, etc.)
> that are bad for your paint, but everytime you drag a MIT over your car, you
> drag abrasives over the paint.  There's a happy medium that you have to
> find, and it depends on weather, climate, contaminates, and energy level,
> but keep your car waxed, wash it regularly, and keep it out of the sun
> whenever possible and you should be fine.
>
> I welcome any comments, criticisms, suggestions on my technique (and clearly
> there's more to discuss but I'll save that for the web page).
>
> Dan Sinclair
> 1988 Audi 90, 67K mi.
> Picture and details online at:
> http://131.107.68.28/a4.org/registry/details.asp?car=761
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-quattro@coimbra.ans.net
> [mailto:owner-quattro@coimbra.ans.net]On Behalf Of J. Kris Baca
> Sent: Friday, February 05, 1999 12:26 PM
> To: quattro@coimbra.ans.net
> Subject: Brakes:too much washing?
>
> As a pride-ridden Audi owner I wash my new Audi whenever it gets dirty,
> which is about 4-5 times a week.  I use Mequire's soft gel wash and just
> soap the thing down and rinse it off with a hose (no spray, but not a
> trickle either).  Recently, however, I was told the this can be bad for
> the car (disc brakes, body, vent system, etc).  So is this overkill?  I
> like my Audi to shine, but if it's going hurt it in the long run I'll
> quit.  any thoughts?  thanks.