Odd washing

[Osok]

I detailed two cars yesterday not a full correction but the customer wanted me to get the cars cleaned up and new MSS on them for the winter.

 

Anyways....on the one car I did the wheels then hosed down the car with the fire hoze nozzle to do an initial rinse. I then laid down a nice coat of foam with the Adams foam gun. I let it sit a bit while I got my two buckets setup. I then proceeded to wash the car, like always, with the wash mitt and so on. Top to bottom end to end. Same old same old.

 

I blew dry it with my leaf blower (same as always) and then proceeded to dry what was left with the GWDT.

 

Here's where it gets odd. After all that as I'm doing the final wipe dry with the gwdt I wipe an area then look and..what the heck..the gwdt is showing dirt..quite a bit.

 

Anyone else have this happen? I'm thinking I did a good wash and apparently it wasn't as good as I thought. So..rewashed it again with the wash mitt.

 

Not sure how or why I had that much dirt film left this time around after the hand wash though.

 

Just struck me as odd.

[Team Adam's]

Could be a couple of things, but I'd suspect you probably needed to strip wash to get it really cleaned. Remember our soap isn't really an aggressive cleaner, its pretty much a foaming surface lubricant as its pH neutral.

 

With cars that haven't had a lot of love and in need of a full detail there is going to be some stuff really caked on the surface. Your options are generally to scrub at it aggressively or rely on a chemical to do some of the work for you. Mixing a few oz's of APC into your car wash mixture for the initial wash would give you an off pH foam that would help break down the stuff on the paint first and then the washing process would remove more of the contamination.

 

Any vehicle that you're not familiar with the history of as far was whats been used or how its been cared for its always a good idea to strip wash to start.

[XQIZT]

Dylan is spot on....also, sometimes you hit some trim or a bit of the wheel well that wasnt cleaned as well and it shows up on the towel. Rubber trim is notorious for leaving marks on drying towel, even if they appear to be clean.

[Osok]

Great points guys...I def should've done a dawn wash or IPA wipedown. I was claying it after the wash so I skipped the dawn. Which in itself is odd because normally I do the dawn wash prior to claying in the past.

 

On a sort of related not to what XQIZT mentions, do you guys have any suggestions on process for cleaning up the rubber trim around the windows/doors/sunroof etc that does turn the towels dark black if you rub them? Should I be washing those seal pieces down with something specific prior to washing or is there no way to ever stop that stuff from streaking black on the towels?

 

Thanks

 

 

Admins..feel free to move this to the wash sub forum. I see i misposted this under waxing.