Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 6
Avoid water spots - The fast and simple way I dry my cars by Mike Phillips
Recenty I washed a 1957 Oldsmobile Fiest Stationwagon to test out some new products. Part of the process but a part that didn't get much fanfare was drying the water off the car.
We meaning most of us wash our cars more often than we do any other car care step to them to keep them clean. This is especially true for anyone that has a daily driver that wants it to look great all or at least most of the time. That would include me. I like to keep my wife's SL 500 clean and shiny and I like to keep my truck clean and shiny. (The truck is due for washing).
However you wash your car one thing you must do after the final rinse and that is dry off the water to avoid water spots. In my opinion and experience, Type II Water Spots and these are crater etchings, where whatever corrosive crud is in the water actually eats into and etches a crater into the clear layer of paint on your car. In order to remove crater etchings you normally must compound the car. Compounding a car takes hours as does all the other follow-up steps.
So to avoid water spots it's a really good idea to dry the standing water off your car's finish, trim, glass and any other surface.
There's a lot of ways to dry a car and they all work if you use good technique and common sense. The easiest way I know of and also about just as fast as any way is to keep the process simple as in,
KISS = Keep it Simple Simon
So what I find myself doing the most is simply grabbing a couple of the 20" by 40" Guzzler Waffle Weave Microfiber Drying Towels out of the cabinet in the Show Car Garage and then use them to dry the car.
The majority of the time I wash and dry a car I don't take pictures of the drying process because... well... it's kind of basic knowledge. That said, if you're reading this and you want and need a simple solution to drying your car after washing then check out the pictures below.
I dried this HUGE car off after rinsing with only TWO of these 20" x 40" Guzzlers. I didn't need a third towel. Not even for the glass or the wheels. I use one to grab the majority of water which is on the horizontal surfaces (and this car has a lot of horizontal surface real-estate), and the other towel for the sides of the car. By the time I've dried all the water off the body panels, glass and even bumpers, (this car has a lot of glass and HUGE bumpers), my second towel was still able to blot the water off the custom one-off wheels.
I'll walk you through what I did below...
Here's the wagon all foamed over, ready to wash...
That's me, yep I do all my own work and write all my articles based upon my work. There's a lot of detailing gurus in the blogosphere but I never see some of these guys detail any cars? Let alone take pictures and then write a step-by-step how to article they will stamp their name to.
Final rinse
Sorry, not pictures of me rinsing the car but it's not hard to imagine, looks like the pictures of me rinsing the Camaro I washed the day before for yet another how-to article.
No water beading
I took this shot just to document it's been a while since the paint on this car has had any real attention. It also means the water won't release off the paint like paint that has incredible water beading.
Step 3: Dry car
To dry this huge car I'm going to use two Guzzlers from start to finish.
Completely dry
And yes... both of the drying towels are completely wet with water removed off the car but the car is 100% dry and I didn't need a third towel.
Here she is 100% absolutely surgically clean and ready for the next steps...
The Guzzler family of towels are made from microfiber material so they are soft and gentle to your car's scratch sensitive clearcoat finish.
You can wash them and dry them like you would normal towels except wash them together and use a dedicated microfiber laundry cleaner.
Fold them and store them someplace where they'll stay clean and you will probably be able to use them until the day you leave this earth or quick washing your own car.
You can purchase these 20" x 40" towels as singles or there's a three pack and even a six pack if you own an RV or something else that's huge.
If you're just washing a drying one vehicle then get the three pack, as you can see from the pictures above this will be more than enough.
On Autogeek.com
3 pack
3 Pack The Supreme Guzzler Waffle Weave Towels 20 x 40 inches
Single towel
The Supreme Guzzler Waffle Weave By Cobra, 20 x 40 inches
6 pack
6 Pack The Supreme Guzzler Waffle Weave Towels, 20 x 40 inches
Keep it simple... keep it safe
KISS - Keep it Simple Safe
Recenty I washed a 1957 Oldsmobile Fiest Stationwagon to test out some new products. Part of the process but a part that didn't get much fanfare was drying the water off the car.
We meaning most of us wash our cars more often than we do any other car care step to them to keep them clean. This is especially true for anyone that has a daily driver that wants it to look great all or at least most of the time. That would include me. I like to keep my wife's SL 500 clean and shiny and I like to keep my truck clean and shiny. (The truck is due for washing).
However you wash your car one thing you must do after the final rinse and that is dry off the water to avoid water spots. In my opinion and experience, Type II Water Spots and these are crater etchings, where whatever corrosive crud is in the water actually eats into and etches a crater into the clear layer of paint on your car. In order to remove crater etchings you normally must compound the car. Compounding a car takes hours as does all the other follow-up steps.
So to avoid water spots it's a really good idea to dry the standing water off your car's finish, trim, glass and any other surface.
There's a lot of ways to dry a car and they all work if you use good technique and common sense. The easiest way I know of and also about just as fast as any way is to keep the process simple as in,
KISS = Keep it Simple Simon
So what I find myself doing the most is simply grabbing a couple of the 20" by 40" Guzzler Waffle Weave Microfiber Drying Towels out of the cabinet in the Show Car Garage and then use them to dry the car.
The majority of the time I wash and dry a car I don't take pictures of the drying process because... well... it's kind of basic knowledge. That said, if you're reading this and you want and need a simple solution to drying your car after washing then check out the pictures below.
I dried this HUGE car off after rinsing with only TWO of these 20" x 40" Guzzlers. I didn't need a third towel. Not even for the glass or the wheels. I use one to grab the majority of water which is on the horizontal surfaces (and this car has a lot of horizontal surface real-estate), and the other towel for the sides of the car. By the time I've dried all the water off the body panels, glass and even bumpers, (this car has a lot of glass and HUGE bumpers), my second towel was still able to blot the water off the custom one-off wheels.
I'll walk you through what I did below...
Here's the wagon all foamed over, ready to wash...
That's me, yep I do all my own work and write all my articles based upon my work. There's a lot of detailing gurus in the blogosphere but I never see some of these guys detail any cars? Let alone take pictures and then write a step-by-step how to article they will stamp their name to.
Final rinse
Sorry, not pictures of me rinsing the car but it's not hard to imagine, looks like the pictures of me rinsing the Camaro I washed the day before for yet another how-to article.
No water beading
I took this shot just to document it's been a while since the paint on this car has had any real attention. It also means the water won't release off the paint like paint that has incredible water beading.
Step 3: Dry car
To dry this huge car I'm going to use two Guzzlers from start to finish.
Completely dry
And yes... both of the drying towels are completely wet with water removed off the car but the car is 100% dry and I didn't need a third towel.
Here she is 100% absolutely surgically clean and ready for the next steps...
The Guzzler family of towels are made from microfiber material so they are soft and gentle to your car's scratch sensitive clearcoat finish.
You can wash them and dry them like you would normal towels except wash them together and use a dedicated microfiber laundry cleaner.
Fold them and store them someplace where they'll stay clean and you will probably be able to use them until the day you leave this earth or quick washing your own car.
You can purchase these 20" x 40" towels as singles or there's a three pack and even a six pack if you own an RV or something else that's huge.
If you're just washing a drying one vehicle then get the three pack, as you can see from the pictures above this will be more than enough.
On Autogeek.com
3 pack
3 Pack The Supreme Guzzler Waffle Weave Towels 20 x 40 inches
Single towel
The Supreme Guzzler Waffle Weave By Cobra, 20 x 40 inches
6 pack
6 Pack The Supreme Guzzler Waffle Weave Towels, 20 x 40 inches
Keep it simple... keep it safe
KISS - Keep it Simple Safe
