I'm a little car retarded, and I know this is a stupid post but...It's time to wash my xB for the first time. I'm very nervous about what brand, and what to use exactly! What do I use and in what order do I use it?

 

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/inf-wash.html

Excellent info.

 

The best way to wash your car is to get it clean without causing any swirling. I know you may be thinking "duh!" but doing this is actually quite difficult.

To start off your going to need a few items. For starters, your going to want to pick up a few sheepskin wash mitts. The eurow brand mitts that you can get @ walmart are great (I use different versions than these but still the eurow brand). 2-3 should be fine, or you could go crazy like me an have 13 that you use for every wash (1 per panel, 2 per bumper, and 1 extra for glass). Next, your going to need a good wash soap. For OTC products, NXT and gold class are the only ones that I would use (i give a nod towards gold class because it's less harsh on waxes than NXT is). Your looking for something that provides really good lubricity. more on that later. Next, your going to need to pick up at least two buckets. I use old 5 gallon paint buckets. One will be for soap solution while the other is a risne bucket filled with straight water.

when washing, I'd say that you use about double the recommended concentration of soap to water. This increases how lubric the solution is. next, when your washing a panel use only the lightest pressure that you can. Also have the mitt dripping wet. The more solution comming out of it the better. The thinking behind this is that the mitt's fibers will dislodge the dirt particles from the paint and then the solution dripping out of the mitt will carry the dirt particles away without being dragged across the paint (which causes swirls). I make only 1 to 2 passes on a panel for each side of the mitt. After both sides have been used, I rinse in the rinse bucket.

I wish you luck in your washing adventures.

 

thats some good info.. good post

 

great and helpful post! can this be done without access to a hose? (no outside water in my apartment building. just a sink i can use to fill buckets but can't attach a hose and run it outside)

 

Ah, an apartment dweller. There is a product that alot of the people up north use during winter (no access to hoses because they freeze up). It's called Quick and Easy Wash. It's made by the ProtectAll company (http://www.protectall.com) Basically, its a blue liquid that you add to water in a 1 ounce of QEW to 1 gallon of water. You can then use either a plush microfiber towel or a wash mitt with this gallon of water to do the whole car. No rinsing necessary.

http://autopia.org/forum/showthread.php?t=32078&page=1

 

The QEW sound like great stuuf. I'll have to give itm a try this winter.