How long does it take you?

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Emt1581

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Prior to my current vehicle, I never had one that I cared enough about to wash it much. And never waxed one. Just would dip scrub brushes in a single bucket with a squirt of turtle wax soap mixed in, scrub the vehicle down and then rinse it off.

Now, using three buckets and two sets of washboarded grit guards...

I spend about 30 minutes foam gunning the tire/wheel one at a time, brushing the wheel, scrubbing the spokes with a mitt, and then rinsing it off. Then another 30-45 min. using the foam gun on each section/side of the body and a mitt, and finally another 45-60min. drying it off with a shop vac and then towels.

...we're not even into the time of waxing, sealing, wheels, plastics, interior, etc.

For doing one car, should it take 2 hours just to wash/dry it or am I doing something wrong? I'm looking at blocking out an entire weekend day just to do the wax, seal, etc. in the near future. Is that what pretty much everyone does or, again, am I going about this wrong??

Thanks

-Emt1581
 
I spent 3 hours Saturday evening on 2. My xterra and her Escape. They were normal washes. Foam gun. Wash. Wheels/tires. Dry. Quick interior. Dress tires. Things were ok till I noticed sap bombs on her Escape. Spent some time getting them off!!
 
I think it is going to depend on the products you use and how you use them. Once you have a good wax and so on on your car washing is really quick and easy as stuff doesn't stick as well. Same for wheels, as I just posted a question on this. If you spent a couple hours cleaning and then putting on a good sealant on your rims and used a long lasting blackening agent on your tires, well then every time you wash your car you just buzz over your tires quickly with your wash mitt at the end of the wash and tires and rims are clean. You get maybe 4 years of this from spending a couple hours up front doing it this right way.

Here is a link to that thread which has brands and some other links.
https://www.autogeekonline.net/foru...-rims-wheels-does-sound-like-better-plan.html

Then there are other products like say Pinnacle Souveran Wax which is an awesome wax, it is expensive but one can should last you the lifetime of your car. Also As soon as your done washing you simply wash on and wipe right off, no need to let dry. Very easy to work with you only need to apply every couple months.

Then like me this weekend I did a full out detail with clay bar, polish and then 2 coats paint sealant. Roughly spent 8 hours, but I don't have to go through that again for a long time.
 
You are being meticulous, speed up and you might miss something. I try not to look at my watch when washing. Just give yourself enough time and don't sweat it.

To save time when I'm short on time and it's just a light dirt on my cars. I use this method. Initially skip your wheels, tires, and wheel wheels. When done washing and rinsing, dump your 2BM soap water into your wheel bucket and do a quick wipe down of the wheel face with a mitt and tire brush with soap on tires. If using free flowing water you can even dry your entire car and save the wheel faces and tires for last.

I used this method last night on my van. Just removed bugs and light dust/dirt. I skipped the wheel wells. They still looked good.
 
It used to take me 2 hours, I'm down to 1:15-1-:30 or so. So, you're not too far off.

As mentioned, this is a meticulous wash, which on my car is all I can bring myself to ever do. But, that's my perfectionist mentality haunting me, again. There is spotless, or filthy, nothing in between in my eyes.

Now, at the detail shop, you won't make a dime taking that long. So, the process, tools, and amount of hands involved is rearranged. It takes 40-50 minutes at the shop with my friend and I. 38 minutes is our best but in the defense of being meticulous, there were multiple spots missed and I had to grab a QD and go back over them.

Products play a roll, but technique plays a far greater one and over time you will lean-out your process and shave off a few minutes here and there. Then once you get your process pinned, you'll get a new car with new features and places to clean and start alllllll over again. Well, not allll-over, but some.

Good luck!
 
LEDetailing said:
You are being meticulous, speed up and you might miss something. I try not to look at my watch when washing. Just give yourself enough time and don't sweat it.

To save time when I'm short on time and it's just a light dirt on my cars. I use this method. Initially skip your wheels, tires, and wheel wheels. When done washing and rinsing, dump your 2BM soap water into your wheel bucket and do a quick wipe down of the wheel face with a mitt and tire brush with soap on tires. If using free flowing water you can even dry your entire car and save the wheel faces and tires for last.

I used this method last night on my van. Just removed bugs and light dust/dirt. I skipped the wheel wells. They still looked good.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips!

My problem is that my car is around 4 months old now and I've only applied wax once. Other than that I've washed it every 1-2 weeks.

So I've got clay, wax, seal, tire dressing, plastics, etc....all due. I figure I'll block out a Sunday (my only full day off) at my station. Close the bay door and get cracking early in the morning. Hopefully I'll make it to dinner. But I'm thinking that'll be the most attention I'll have to give the cleaning process in one shot for at least 6 months or so. Plus, as replies mentioned...doing the more time-consuming steps means reducing the time it'll take to wash/dry on a regular basis until those applications are needed again.

EDIT: As far as short changing the wheels...not sure if that'll work for me. I have a TON of brake dust and the water running off the wheels onto the floor is a shiny copper/black color...looks like tar! So skimping on that might not be the best for the paint/rotors. However, after a wheel dressing, hopefully I'll be able to take a couple shortcuts.

Thanks!

-Emt1581
 
•This might not provide
much, if any, solace...but:

-So far (for year 2017), I've been
a-washing on our vehicles' panels,
wheels, glass, etc. since April...
and, I'm still not all the way done
with any of them!

-Yet...Am I all awash with guilt
for that shortcoming? Hardly... :)


Bob
 
Emt1581 said:
Prior to my current vehicle, I never had one that I cared enough about to wash it much. And never waxed one. Just would dip scrub brushes in a single bucket with a squirt of turtle wax soap mixed in, scrub the vehicle down and then rinse it off.

Now, using three buckets and two sets of washboarded grit guards...

I spend about 30 minutes foam gunning the tire/wheel one at a time, brushing the wheel, scrubbing the spokes with a mitt, and then rinsing it off. Then another 30-45 min. using the foam gun on each section/side of the body and a mitt, and finally another 45-60min. drying it off with a shop vac and then towels.

...we're not even into the time of waxing, sealing, wheels, plastics, interior, etc.

For doing one car, should it take 2 hours just to wash/dry it or am I doing something wrong? I'm looking at blocking out an entire weekend day just to do the wax, seal, etc. in the near future. Is that what pretty much everyone does or, again, am I going about this wrong??
Click to expand...

On my personal vehicles I have it down to about 1hr to 1:15. Unless a buddy/neighbor comes over to chat then it can go on for hours :laughing:
 
It used to take about 2 hours for me to do a good wash as well. But I've shortened that down by washing bigger sections before rinsing.

30 minutes per wheel does seem too long though. Maybe takes me 5-10 each. That's rinse, spray with wheel cleaner, wash face with mitt, wash barrel with Wheel Woolie, scrub the tire and then final rinse.

Also 45-60 minutes for drying does seem long. But I don't use any sort of blower. I just "flood" the paint, hit a section with waterless wash as a drying aid, then run my PFM towel over it. Maybe 20 min for the entire car.
 
For a simple wash and dry, I am looking at around 45 Minutes to an hour. Rinseless wash is around the same. If I am going to do a wash and wax I would look around 2 to 3 hours. The good thing is I have fun even if these are just guesses in the time thing.
 
A lot of it depends on the size of the vehicle. I can wash and dry my hatchback in 30 minutes, while my wife's midsize SUV may takes a little less that 1.5 hours. Things like removing lots of bugs and/or dressing the tires can add 10~15 minutes to the total wash time.

I agree with several points people have already brought up. Having a well protected vehicle makes washing really fast and easy. With the right tools and products wheels should only take a few minutes unless they are REALLY complex or extremely dirty. I could never take much more than 10~15 minutes to dry as the vehicle would dry itself in that length of time in the summer. Even moving fast, I still get a few water sports which need to be removed.
 
I do a rinseless wash as well. takes about 30 minutes to do the outside, and then about 10 minutes per wheel. The key to a quick wash is in the prep work, i.e. a good wax, sealant or coating on the car. Mike Phillips wrote a thread about this, I'll post in here if I can find. But the idea being is that the better/fresher your wax/sealant/coating is, the easier and faster the maintenance washes are. Keep working at it, used to take me around 1:15 to just wash the car, you'll get more familiar with your process and speed it up.
 
pdqgp said:
On my personal vehicles I have it down to about 1hr to 1:15. Unless a buddy/neighbor comes over to chat then it can go on for hours :laughing:
Click to expand...

LOL, yeah this adds to it. This weekend being outside all weekend probably what took me the longest is every neighbor, every single one on each side of me then directly across the street and on each side of them came over to chat. Plus I have a Labrador who was out with me and like playing in the hose as well. So yeah it probably took me longer than if I just buckled down and got busy.
 
Keep in mind that I have a Fiat 500 Abarth but when doing a RW or WW and COMPLETE wheel cleaning, it takes me about an hour. Ofcoarse I wipe the jams and a quick wipe of the engine bay but that doesn't take too long.
 
I have a chevy tahoe, it takes just under an hour. Wheels, tires and wells first. Then windshield and hood, the topsides. Then the bottm sides and the entire rear is last because it collects the most dirt.

I also will use waterless wash or detail spray in between washes.
I have Adams sealant on as a base coat. And every 3rd wash i use Adams H2O Guard and Gloss to maintain high gloss and great protection and its an extremely fast drying procedure!!

Clay once or twice a year, polish when needed, but i just do it in little sections at a time, since it takes a while on a big truck.
 
Just finished for the night....

Took me 3.5hrs to prep, wash, dry, dress the plastics and wheels, vacuum the interior and wipe down the interior with detailer.

Only thing that pissed me off was that I scraped the edge of the hood facing the windshield when a guy at my station asked to see the engine....and I forgot to put the wipers down!!

-Emt1581
 
I'm pretty slow with my own car, but I admire how fast the pros can detail a car. My wife doesn't care much about her car (Honda CRV), but I still try to polish it once a year for her. So last weekend, good weather, it was the perfect situation to take some of the tips from this forum and try a more "production" approach.

I loaded the car w/ towels, a bucket of soapy water w/ a grit guard, my garden sprayer w/ ONR, brushes, and chemicals, $1 dollar bills and off to the self-serve bay of a car wash. I felt like a mobile detailer. Process:

Pre-treat w/ my own tire cleaner, wheel cleaner, and de-bugger.

$4 for 5 minutes, high-pressure soap wash w/ emphasis on lower panels, wheels, wheel wells. At one-minute warning, soak car with pre-wash, including wheel wells.

Time expires, boar's hair brush on paint, appropriate brushes for wheels and wheel wells. Keep car wet w/ ONR sprayer as needed, but not a big issue in the shade. Boar's hair brush cleans great (and fast), but leaves micro-marring, but I don't care because I'm polishing later.

Another $4, blast everything off w/ high pressure soap, and again end w/ pre-wash.

Time expires, clay using sponges. The pre-wash I left on the car is a perfect clay lube.

Another $4, blast everything off, end w/ no-spot rinse.

Dry car. Spray Tarminator to lower panels and wheel wells, apply trim dressing (complete coverage and sloppy, if it gets on the paint, that's OK). Wipe tar, spray Tarminator again. Drive 4 blocks home slowly.

Last bit of de-tarring. Since it's dwelled so long, tar comes off easily. Then a spot ONR wash mostly on lower panels. Remove de-tar and trim chemicals from paint, and any grit from drive home.

This has all taken me about 90 minutes, cost me $12, but I've debugged, detarred, decontaminated paint, treated trim and I've got a clean canvass to polish. I've done a 90% good job on everything. No Iron-X, didn't want to stink up the car wash bay, and wife doesn't care enough.

Now it's polisher to paint w/ an AIO, dress tires and wheel wells, wipe down interior, interior glass, and vacuum. Another 3.5 hours - total time exactly 5 hours.

Wife was thrilled, may actually be less annoyed when I order more car care products from Autogeek.

The key to speed for me was "make it better, not perfect." No engine detail, minimal interior, only did the roof in front of the sunroof. Swirls still evident, kind of killed me to not do a cutting polish step, but again, my wife doesn't care enough and it still looked pretty damned good. Still gonna' take my time with my car, however.
 
I just do it as a hobby, never really timed it. I usually do bucket washes, setup, wash wheels, car, dry, about 45 minutes. Probably an hour if I use the foam cannon. I stopped using grit guards, got tired of scrubbing the mitt. When I was looking into RW's and saw some videos using multiple MF towels, I started using multiple mitts. After a panel flip it, another panel, toss in a bucket grab a fresh one. On the rare occasion the car is dirty, one mitt per panel. That's my weekly wash. Then all the extra's after.

Sorry for asking, but I noticed you said you spend 45-60mins. drying with a shop vac?
 
Hammer77 said:
I just do it as a hobby, never really timed it. I usually do bucket washes, setup, wash wheels, car, dry, about 45 minutes. Probably an hour if I use the foam cannon. I stopped using grit guards, got tired of scrubbing the mitt. When I was looking into RW's and saw some videos using multiple MF towels, I started using multiple mitts. After a panel flip it, another panel, toss in a bucket grab a fresh one. On the rare occasion the car is dirty, one mitt per panel. That's my weekly wash. Then all the extra's after.

Sorry for asking, but I noticed you said you spend 45-60mins. drying with a shop vac?
Click to expand...

hammer77 - I too am giving up on the two bucket wash and scrubbing mitt on grit guard. Moving to using one bucket with many wash mitts. I'm to old for carrying two water filled buckets around the car. I'm figuring about 10 wash mitts will be sufficient to wash a Maxima. On my 370Z 8 should be enough. How many do you use?
 
On average I would say 6-8. Total I believe I have 14 mitts, just in case.
 
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