Wednesday 21 October 2009

How to wash a car with $3

This only applies in Australia. Many people refuse to wash their car because they think its too expensive to pay someone to wash. Yes it is and i agree too. A hand wash will easily cost $25 and above, and a machine wash,( those at petrol kiosks where you drive thru) will cost $9 for a basic wash with the latter usually being useless as your car will still be dirty. To make things worse, with current water restrictions being enforced, noone is allowed to wash their cars at the luxury of their backyard. So what do we do?

Those are not valid reasons! Washing your car is like washing your clothes. Do you really want to drive around in a filthy car? One with bird droppings and tree saps all around? Also, taking good care of your car paint will not only prevent your paint from fading and eventually rust, it will also ensure you fetch a higher resale value of the car when you eventually decide to sell up. Why so? Because when you look for a car to buy, your 1st view of the car will be the paint work...so how do we do it at a very affordable $3 at a local self-wash centre?

Easy...
Apparatus:
  1. 2 Microfibre cloths
  2. Car shampoo (I'm using Meguir's now)
  3. 1 pail
  4. 1 $1 coin and 1 $2 coin
 
STEP 1
Insert $1 for this step to buy 2minutes of water time. (SELECT HIGH PRESSURE RINSE)
Thoroughly jet down all foreign objects especially on the bottom half of your car (Do this for 90seconds)
Then with the remaining 30seconds or so, fill up your bucket. Make sure there is a cloth in the bucket for you to point the jet outlet to prevent water from spraying all over.
Once done, add car shampoo into the pail and you are ready for the TLC.

STEP 2
With car still wet, use the microfibre cloth to scrub down your car starting from the upper section of your car and slowly working down your way to the lower section. I usually do the bonnet, roof, and boot 1st. Followed by the doors, and bumpers.
(this is because the lower part of the car usually has heaps of tiny sand particles and it will create microswirls if you contaminate your cloth with it)

STEP 3
Once you have washed down your car, use the left over soap water to clean the wheels. Start off with the rear wheels and then work your way to the front wheels. This is because front ones are usually dirtier and hotter and you don't want the water to dry up before you can rinse it off.

Once done, Proceed to step 4

STEP 4
Insert the $2 coin and rinse the car starting from the section you first applied soap on. Give each wheel a good splash as you work around the car. This should be done in around 2 and a half minutes leaving another 1.5minutes.

RUSH back to the mode selector and select "SPOT FREE RINSE" and systematically rinse from top to bottom to remove the recycled water you used in steps 1 to 3. If you don't do this, especially for those who are not planning to wipe dry the car, you will get water spots everywhere. So just do it!

Ok your car should be completely clean right now. First timers might miss out a few spots so make sure every panel has been cleaned!

STEP 5
This is an optional but a very advisable step. WIPE DOWN THE CAR!.
With the other clean microfibre cloth, dry your car! Don't be lazy. A wet car will collect dust and dirt as you drive thru the dirty air. JUST DO IT! Don't Ask too many questions! its YOUR CAR FFS!
LOL

STEP 6
Another optional step. Open up all doors, boot, bonnet, and petrol lid and wipe dry the insides where water has seeped in. If you have a 3rd microfibre/rag, that will be better because there are heaps of dirt and sand hidden in these places and you don't want your next wash to be done with a contaminated cloth.

STEP 7
this is a SUPEROPTION. Buy silicon based tyre shine. Spray onto a sponge and apply it on your tyres. After all that hardwork, this is the icing of the cake. Do it if you can.

STEP 8
Open up a can of Coke. Find a spot to sit. and watch your car shine in style!

NOTE TO ALL: Not all car wash centre allow bucket washing. In fact most of them do not allow. BUT if you go when it is not busy, it is completely fine. Just make sure you are not hogging the washing bay if there are other cars waiting.

REMINDER: Quanzilities recommends you not to use any soap, wax, or brush provided at the carwash. They are cheap and really abbrasive soap. And the brush provided are usually contaminated with soil particles.

I will post up on "How to detail your car Quanzy style" soon.

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