Re: Satisfying DIY premium car wash @ my basement car parking During last weekend, I did a detailed and thorough car cleaning process as DIY. The car was dirty after few recent long drives, but I was confident I am able to clean it. One good thing was that the Wheels and tyres didn’t need much cleaning, so it was a time and effort saver.
Did the following process as DIY car washing (total time taken approx. less than 2 hours): - Prepping (10 minutes): Filling the sprayers with water, mixing shampoo for wash, carrying MF towels, sprayers and muckets to the car: I used 10L of RO water, in both 8L and both 1L sprayers. Also, one bucket mixed with shampoo had 3-4L RO water. Other bucket was half filled with regular tap Cauvery water, used for soaking & rinsing the MF towels.
- Interior cleaning (5 minutes): Inspected the interiors and removed and dusted the floor mats, and dry wiped with MF towel, plastic panels, dashboard and console areas quickly.
- Pre-Rinsing and Soaking (5 minutes): Used both 1L sprayers to spray plain RO water on the exterior paint surface first
- Shampoo wash (15 minutes): The 3 TRC MF towels soaked in shampoo was used interchangeably to wipe panel by panel, flipping the towel surface regularly and leaving it for soaking later. Used the next towel for the next panel and so on
- Post wash Rinsing (10 minutes): Used plain RO water in the 8L sprayer from KissanKraft to rinse the complete car in 10+ minutes. I was surprised to see that 8L water was enough to rinse a car like Fortuner and I was even able to rinse the wheel arches, tyres also with it towards the end.
- Wiping Dry (15 minutes): Had to wipe the car twice since the MF towels were getting soaked quite fast. Had to squeeze water many times before moving to next panel. This made me realize the need to hunt for a bigger and better dry wiping towel.
- Wiping Door edges, door pads and glass panels (less than 10 minutes): Except the car wash centers, apartment car cleaners never clean these edges and inside panels and glass area of all doors. Always there will be water residues which really needs a proper wiping, for a proper cleaning.
- Wiping Wheels, Tyres and footsteps (less than 10 minutes): Finally wiped clean the wheels, tyres, wheel arches and footstep a dry wipe
- Polishing (30 minutes): Used Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions spray wax to give additional coating and a glossy look. This is a dust magnet but still I thought of coating it after a detailed touch-based wash. And I had observed few benefits from spray wax, like the next time cleaning is easier, and it provides a good amount of water beading effect and paint surface protection after applying.
Products and Equipment used during the DIY wash process: Why I call it a premium wash? Based on my experience with apartment car cleaners and car wash centers, they never take care of your car instead create further damages some way or the other to your beloved car. By doing washing ourselves, far-far better than how they do it, with better quality materials, equipment and tools, taking time to clean every surface area, finally applying spray wax polish, and feeling satisfied about the whole experience, I feel it's worth calling it a premium wash. My next advancement plans:
It's a learning and beginning for me in doing this firstly. I want to sustain this and ensure that I have the motivation to continue doing this as much as possible. However, I am quite happy with my journey, my outcome and the sheer joy of admiring a nice and detailed car.
As next advancement, I have been reading about Optimum No Rinse solution, which is used in the Rinse less wash technique advocated by many leading detailers across the globe. I plan to try it out in future. I also want to invest in some quality Microfiber towels with good water absorption capability, for easier drying.
Sharing some pics of my effort from last weekend.
Hope you enjoyed reading through my experience.
Cheers,
narayanang76
Last edited by narayanang76 : 6th December 2023 at 17:01.
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