Don't use a leather to dry the car.....

T

true-blue

Member
.........Use a super plush drying towel.

I got my for @ £10 (can provide a link to the company if required)

It really is amazingly soft and deep and it is absorbent enough for me to dry off the wife's vw touran without even wringing it out!!

So quick and easy to use, highly recommended ;)


Sorry if I'm preaching to the converted :D
 
I have a ton of detailing products and have one of those towels. I think it is made by sonus if i can remember.

Great product.... Just dab it on the wet bodywork and it dries the car without causing swirl marks from grit and a leather.
 
true-blue said:
.........Use a super plush drying towel.

I got my for @ £10 (can provide a link to the company if required)
Click to expand...

Can you provide the link please?!

I swear by the auto-glym leather which offers a good level of absorption and lasts an age, but I am open to better/different products too.

Thanks.

Darren
 
Hi Guy's, can you provide us with a list of products that is best used for our car's to keep them in showroom condition. Plus the harsh weather is starting to creep back in and i want to be prepared. :cool:
 
really, if you've washed it properly, then the leather shouldn't do anything... Don't use a blade, though, you really will scratch if there's *anything* left. I use a "leather" Microfibre and it's very effective.

Dealers:
I've good experiences with elite - www.elitecarcare.co.uk
i4detailing were also OK, even if they did use a strange courier - www.i4detailing.co.uk
Polished bliss and cleanyourcar have *very* good reps over on detailing world.

I personally really like Bilt Hamber's Autoclay and Colly 478. The colly did the 307 5 times, the Octy three, my car twice, a C-class twice and it's still not empty :)
I have a kestrel rotary, too, with pads from elite. Nice machine, bit fast but you can't have everything.
I think the session I do at christmas will be 2-bucket wash, fix stonechips / trim, AG bumper care (diluted!), rinse, clay, mask, machine with care with Menz glaze, AG's EGP, then a couple of layers of colly. That should do it. I'd like some snowfoam for the soak, but I can't guarantee a pressure washer, so I think it will be a handheld job FTM.
I use a Vileda MF with "pick-up pockets" for applying wax (doesn't eat wax...) and an AG perfect polishing cloth for taking it off again.

Oh, and if you need touchup, paints4u.co.uk. Managed to get four tins over here inside 4 days. I just need an aerosol now... :)

Bret
 
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I've just tried to find the link fro the company I bought mine from and It's not in my favourites :mad:

Can't remember the company name, but it will come back to me.

I was using the Meguiers Waffle cloth to dry, which was good, but this towel is so soft and absorbent - far superior to a natural leather.
 
Its actually the Autoglym leather i use mostly and an ocassional 'real' leather. Have used a blade in the past until one day some grit got in the way.......
 
Adrian888 said:
Its actually the Autoglym leather i use mostly and an ocassional 'real' leather. Have used a blade in the past until one day some grit got in the way.......
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I'll admit to using a blade regularly on both cars. Its good quality and very soft surgical rubber and I am meticulous about making sure the cars squeaky clean before use and rinse the blade off regularly - cant say I have ever had any problems with scratching the paint. :)
 
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I was recommended a blade about 10 years ago by a professional valeter who worked in a new car dealers and who was very good at his job hence I bought one. maybe I need to look at what is now on the market because it certainly made car claening quicker especially if you haven't time to do a thorough job.
 
I agree with "Manhatton" Clean your car is a great site and the products and service are excellent and provide good un biased advise
 
bretti_kivi said:
really, if you've washed it properly, then the leather shouldn't do anything... Don't use a blade, though, you really will scratch if there's *anything* left.
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Ditto. Used the Autoglym blade on a previous car, sounded a great idea, and did work a treat. However, one day I was a little careless and must have picked up some grit or something. Instructions were to sweep the blade over the large panels in one movement. Result - nice long, deep scratches on the bonnet before I realised what was happening :mad:

If you do use one, I suggest 2 buckets - sweep the car with blade, rinse blade in one bucket, then again in another bucket. Always use the buckets in the same order. OR, rinse blade under running water.
 
If you do not want to expend the effort in drying a car, use RO water (reverse osmosis) to rinse the car and there will be no residue left as the water dries, as it has no contaminants or dissolved minerals.

One of the main reasons chamois leather is used to dry a clean wet car is that it also polishes the paint. Jewellers use chamois for final polishing of metals, so if you use a chamois, you remove the "contaminated" water and polish the car at the same time.

The last black car I owned used to stop peeps in the street it was so shiny, and I did it by never brush cleaning the car, (even with good quality soft brushes) unless it was going to get a proper wax polish afterwards (so no scratches ever appeared in the paint). Then, although it never got a chance to get really dirty, I used to wash it as often as I could (say two or three times a week) with a pressure washer, and then ALWAYS dry the car with a clean chamois.......so in a nutshell, never brush and always leather.

We do show car quality paint jobs in our workshops, mainly because every single one of the cars we make is doing just that....going on a show stand somewhere! Only today I was holding a black spoiler that was fresh out of the paint shop having been attended to with everything 3m's finest products could achieve. It was just like looking at glass. We tend to put way more clear coat on the cars than a production car would get so we can then polish them to within an inch of their lives, so watch out, as if you go through the clear coat and into the colour coats you are in the proverbial doo doo's.

The clay cleaning systems are really good. If you have not tried them yet, you should. I've got the 3m's one. Another good detailing tip is to take a good fine acrylic polish and polish all the plastic lenses on the car, but make sure you don't get any polish in any grooves that you cannot remove it from! They come up better than new.
 
I have used the anti-staic cloths for years to dry my cars they are super absorbant and leave the car streak free, i use two one wet and one dry it works so much better that way, the wet one is dipped in Very HOT water just cool enough for you to dip it to clean it and ring out and when you wipe on the car it steam's even in the summer then the other cloth is to help polish and dry the extra off, works wonders on the glass, inside and out and i never use glass cleaner, i only put rainx on the outside glass

Phil
 
true-blue said:
.........Use a super plush drying towel.

I got my for @ £10 (can provide a link to the company if required)

It really is amazingly soft and deep and it is absorbent enough for me to dry off the wife's vw touran without even wringing it out!!

So quick and easy to use, highly recommended ;)


Sorry if I'm preaching to the converted :D
Click to expand...

Just got mine today from Elite Detailers. Like a kid with a new toy!

Will get a chance to use it once the snow goes!
 
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