Drying the Car

[Habhide]

Hey all,

Although I love spending time working on making my car look great, I absolutely hate drying it. I have used the Mr. Clean auto dry with decent sucess. There are just two problems I have with it. First, I don't like the soap. Second the filters are expensive.

I read somewhere about using Jet Dry along with your final rinse to help the water sheet off without leaving water spots. What do you all think?

Could you also offer some suggestions on getting a nice spot free finish?

Thanks

[Tim Lingor]

Hey,

Welcome to Meguiar's Online!!

To dry the water, my best advice is to use Meguiar's Drying Towel (waffle weave microfiber). I have found that this towel dramatically reduces towel marks and water spots!

Here is a link to a review:

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1318

As for using something like Jet Dry, I would stay away from it. What ever chemical that is added to the product that helps it with sheeting water is now being placed on your paint. As such, you may get a cloudiness and at worse, it may eliminate your wax/sealant.

I would stick to the Meg's Drying Towel.

Tim

[2000]

heres alittle something to think about.
look at this

[Estranged]

Re: Drying the Car

Originally posted by Habhide
Hey all,

Although I love spending time working on making my car look great, I absolutely hate drying it.

Could you also offer some suggestions on getting a nice spot free finish?

Thanks

Man I wish everyone would try the 3-step method I use, because I find it works so very well:

1. CWB right after rinse--people either love or hate this thing, but I've been using it with great success for several years, first on a black '96 Cobra and now on my black Denali. Gets 90% of the major water off of your car.

2. Leaf Blower--gets all the water out of cracks, crevices, contours (that the CWB cannot reach) from wheels, tires, etc...

3. Spot dry/finish up with a MF or 100% cotton towel.

Not only did this cut down my drying time by over 50%, it never leaves streaks--the leaf blower removes the remaining water around enough so that what's not blown off is a very very thin "sprinkling" of water--that is--no large drops that will saturate a towel quickly.

[mopar]

I have found that a car with a good coat of wax will sheet like mad after washing.I wash the vehicle and then take the sparyer off and just let the water run off it and cuts my drying time more then in half.

[IceColdOne]

My process is pretty similar to the one Estranged mentioned...

California Water Blade, then Microfiber Drying towel / Meguiars Drying towel for final wipe. This gets just about everything.. I've been toying with the idea of the leaf blower, but if I'm not waxing, I'll usually just take the car for a short drive and them come back and go over it again with drying towel.

[Rick]

Instead of a leaf blower you could double invest in a shop vac that doubles as a blower. I have tried this but thus far have found that I still get water spots. I'm deffinitely going to try the wiper blade micro fiber vaccum blower combo next time.

Btw I'm thinking something like this would be good for a quick wash and add a little shine:

Wash
Wiper blade
Blower
Last Touch spritz
Wipe with MF

[gb387]

Originally posted by mopar
I have found that a car with a good coat of wax will sheet like mad after washing.I wash the vehicle and then take the sparyer off and just let the water run off it and cuts my drying time more then in half.

There is the key! I have found this to be VERY true. Once you have done a final rinse of the vehicle with teh sprayer removed from the hose you will find very little water left on the vehicle, then a couple quick swipes here and there with a WW towel and you are done! Works for me.

[thejazzguy]

Originally posted by gb387
There is the key! I have found this to be VERY true. Once you have done a final rinse of the vehicle with teh sprayer removed from the hose you will find very little water left on the vehicle, then a couple quick swipes here and there with a WW towel and you are done! Works for me.

Originally posted by mopar
I have found that a car with a good coat of wax will sheet like mad after washing.I wash the vehicle and then take the sparyer off and just let the water run off it and cuts my drying time more then in half.

I agree with gb387 and mopar.

I turn my spray nozzle to the "shower" setting and rinse the car. It is important to keep the nozzle close to the car so that you don't get small droplets or spray on the surfaces. Rather you "chase" most of the water off the car with this smooth stream.

Then I follow up with a nice 6.5 sq. ft. Simoniz microfibre drying towel. (Unfortunately, it's is hard enough to get Meguiar's waxes in Canada let alone the other detailing accessories!) This procedure is very fast and very effective on my Saturn. One other note: I've found the microfibre is much more effective then a natural chamois.

[Rick]

Well, I decided to give my car a wash at 10:30 last night (yes I'm crazy, but it was actually semi nice outside for once). I used the wiper blade then pulled the car in to the garage, spritzed each panel with last touch and then wiped the remaining water off with a micro fiber. It was too late to use the vaccum to blow out the cracks and crevices, but this method seemed to work really well. It was quicker this way compared to a chamios dry plus I snuck in a final touch in there which added a little gloss.

[fiberrich]

Easy as 1-2-3!

1. Dry the car with water!!!! Take the nozzle off the hose. Keeping the hose end close to the car surface, use the high volume/low pressure water to sheet the water off the car. (Very little water is left behind!)

2. Give each panel a spritz of EO Wax-as-U-dry and wipe with a MF towel. One large MF towel easily dries any remaining water. (I use the big blue one from Wal-Mart)

3. Use an older terry cloth towel and some WAUD or QD and wipe dry all door jams, trunk and under hood. Finish by wiping dry each wheel/tire.

This really doesn't take that long since the water sheeting eliminates nearly 95% of the water. The WAUD gives the finish a nice "just waxed" look.