Door Jambs - Pre or Post Wash

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chefwong

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Like wheels, everyone seems to do things their own way....

Just gave the door jambs a uber deep clean. Mainly clean in all areas, except for the bottom edge of the doors as it was a post rainy day driving day with some post sand/salt on the roads that just added to the water muck.

I like to do the jambs after the final wash/rinse as I figure the -exterior panel wash process- is like a prewash in itself and I won't need to do a second pass drying said area if I did a doorjamb wash/clean prior.

Who here prefers to do door jamb cleaning before the exterior wash .
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Your doing it wrong. The right way to do it is door jams first, followed by wheels then the body
 
Definitely do door jambs last. Water always seems to get on the jambs even after a rinseless wash.
 
For regular maintenance washes I'll just wipe the door jambs at the end of the process. If they need more than a simple wipe, I'll do them first.
 
I wipe them after blowing the car dry because water/soap always finds its way into the jambs. Mine has never been dirty enough to actually need a wash, just a wipe down is enough. I should have coated that too.
 
Flash Gordon said:
Your doing it wrong. The right way to do it is door jams first, followed by wheels then the body
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If I’m detailing or even washing a foreign vehicle that’s dirty, this is the only way that makes sense in my mind.^

Because we’re talking about actual dirty door jambs that’ll be dripping dirty water the moment you hit them with the hose nozzle or if you choose to do it with waterless wash & towels it’s going to leave your towels extremely caked with real dirt & grime. And if you do that after you’ve washed & dried the exterior it’s just about as bad as cleaning the engine bay After washing & drying the exterior. Would you do that?

On my own vehicle, it’s a different story because it’s maintained and never really gets to that point where it’s that dirty [maybe once in a while it needs a hose nozzle in there but not often] and that can be done after the exterior wash with a simple towel and some waterless wash/quick detailer spray.
 
I do them as part of the drying process, but that's only on our 2 cars. They're never that bad that I'd do them first. Makes sense to do them first if they're a nightmare. Even when I take the FJ off road, it's not like mud gets in there, a bit of dirt maybe, but that comes out in one of the rinse phases, especially the second one that clears any remaining soap suds out.

Sent from my motorola edge 20 fusion using Tapatalk
 
You brought up a subject I never even had any particular order for until recently. I just started using a new steamer and if I turn it on to heat up I use it for wheel and tires. And then will do the jams with it. Then blow with compressor. Before I would usually do them last on exterior only detail.
 
Here's a question for you

If someone hired you to detail just the exterior would you do the door jams?
 
Flash Gordon said:
Here's a question for you

If someone hired you to detail just the exterior would you do the door jams?
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1.a Would you clean the interior of the windshield? Or would you send them off knowing the interior windshield has somekind of streaky fingerprints going on and obviously it’ll be what they’ll see the moment they sit back in their car.

“Exterior only” lol.

I would clean the windshield.
I might clean the doorjambs. Maybe, but IMO the windshield would be more important.
 
I approach door jambs two ways.

1. For my cars, it's always a matter of maintaining a state of cleanliness. After I have washed the car, I use my blower to blow the car down, this includes the door jambs.



From there, I use a towel and my drying aid or waterless wash (I love ONR for this role) to wipe them down. This same process applies to the engine bay, a quick wipe over keeping them clean and eliminating the need to do a big deep clean.





I have also found these Rag Company drying mitts to be really good for door jambs as they are very ergonomic compared to a folded towel -









2. For customer cars, I approach this task on an as needed basis. If the car is in decent condition, I will do the above process. If they are dirty and neglected, then I will pre-treat the door jambs with APC, agitating if needed with a brush. I then use my pressure washer with the wand at a steep angle to blast away the dirt. During the drying process, I will again use method one to finish them off.






I always hated doing door jambs, I still do to a degree, but once you have a good method and procedure in place, it's a pretty simple process.
 
I really like the grey Supreme 530 towels for door jambs. They’re beefy and they’re grey. 2 great things to have in a towel used for door jamb wipedowns because they can sometimes be hiding more dirt than expected.
 
I always include jams on my exteriors.I look at it as an extension of the exterior. Interior to me Is a whole different ball game. In all honest I'd be happy if I never had to do interiors. I can say my feeling about this must reflect in the jobs I do because I get allot of exterior only jobs and I make twice or 3X's more an hour. Now if the car is in nice shape inside and no hair then I'm totally fine with that.
 
I have been washing them after the tires, but before washing the body of the car. Usually, I will rinse them immediately after washing by taking the nozzle off the hose and using free-flowing water to avoid splashing the interior. Then once the whole car has been washed and rinsed, I will dry them last. Once or twice a month, I will use a spray wax on all the 'reachable' areas for a little protection.
 
Has anyone coated their doorjambs? With a real coating, not the spray on crap, but a real dedicated product. I’m thinking about coating my doorjambs to see if I notice a difference.
 
Eldorado2k said:
1.a Would you clean the interior of the windshield? Or would you send them off knowing the interior windshield has somekind of streaky fingerprints going on and obviously it’ll be what they’ll see the moment they sit back in their car.

“Exterior only” lol.

I would clean the windshield.
I might clean the doorjambs. Maybe, but IMO the windshield would be more important.
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Couldn't agree more... Dirty interior glass on an otherwise perfect car ruins the whole thing. I always do glass inside and out on "exterior" jobs.

The only time you can get away without doing the inside is when they have a dark tint on them.
 
Eldorado2k said:
Has anyone coated their doorjambs? With a real coating, not the spray on crap, but a real dedicated product. I’m thinking about coating my doorjambs to see if I notice a difference.
Click to expand...

Thought about it and (can’t remember) May have used some of the big bottle of CQuartz Lite on my wife’s door jambs. I traditionally use some OPT Optiseal on the jams.
 
Eldorado2k said:
Has anyone coated their doorjambs? With a real coating, not the spray on crap, but a real dedicated product. I’m thinking about coating my doorjambs to see if I notice a difference.
Click to expand...

Go for it, it can't hurt
 
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