How Much Dawn Dish Soap to Wash a Car?

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Because they're noobs who don't know what they're talking about.��Lol.

Nothing wrong with being a newb or "someone that is new to detailing"

In fact we were all new to car detailing at one point in our life. I remember when I first got into detailing and back then I don't remember seeing any car wash shampoos, only dish soap.

I think I mention the dish soap I used in this interview with Dennis Gage...

Dennis Gage interviews Mike Phillips​

[video=youtube_share;ZnBKqGQSc3I"]Dennis Gage interviews Mike Phillips[/video]

Back in 2002 when I first joined Autopia, everybody talked about using Dawn to strip off LSP from vehicles...they were not noobs, nor was it urban legend...

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2002 is my join date for the original Autopia also. I agree that washing with detergent dish washing soaps at least back then and further back would strip wax off paint.

That's because technology has improved so many, not all but many car waxes and synthetic paint sealants (plus coatings, another product not invented back then) are not more detergent resistant.

Things change... usually for the better but not always....

It may have started when Zaino was all the hype. I believe their first recommended step is a Dawn wash...

I think there were lots of the big retail car wax manufacturers that as a standard recommendation stated not to use dish soap detergent to wash a car.

I do remember that Zaino recommended Dawn to remove polishing oils off the surface to prevent them from hindering either the performance of Zaino products or the bonding of Zaino products. I think Z1 was supposed to be applied and left on and then Z2 or Z3 would be applied directly over it. So if there were polishing oils before Z1 that would mean they would be intermixed with the Z1 and thus present when the Z2 or Z3 was applied and this would not be the optimum process for best results. That's from memory I could be wrong.

I remember a post when someone once said, "Dawn is for dishes, keep it in the kitchen" and I agree.

As a general rule.... detergent soaps for cars with finishes in good shape, then detergent dish soaps are overkill.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I don't believe that IPA is really the ideal product as it does not have any lubrication on its own, thus has potential for marring your beautifully refined finish.

I believe it was Mike who convinced me of this.

Could be this article I wrote where I documented at least to my own eyes that wiping a perfectly polished clearcoated black finish left light marring when using Isopropyl Alcohol.

The the logical conclusion is that is wiping with IPA induces marring on a black finish it's likely happening to all color finishes it's just human eyes will have a more difficult time seeing the marring due to the lightness of light colors.


Hologram Free with a Rotary Buffer


Now you can see some light marring, but that's because IPA isn't a very good lubricant, in fact it's a horrible lubricant. I think of all the people that have been told by others to wipe their car down with IPA before going to the next step and it's pretty easy to understand that when they did this they likely marred their car's paint and this is called working backwards. It's also likely that if the people taking this advice were working on light to medium colored cars they never saw the marring.

So there's a bit of a Catch-22 conundrum when stripping paint. The original goal for most of us is to create a beautiful finish. The secondary goal is to protect the finish. The process of protecting the finish with some protecting procedures can bring with it some level of risk to move backwards in the process. That is to undo some of the beauty created in order to add the protection.

Tough problem to have in light of everything else going on in the world.


Of course I'm all about doing a great job but at some point I hate to see something that should be very simple, i.e. washing and waxing one's car turned into something very difficult and tedious or in other words taking something very simple and turning it into Rocket Science.

 

[Eldorado2k]

Nothing wrong with being a newb or "someone that is new to detailing"

You're right, you're right... I didn't mean to come off like that.. I should do a better job of being nicer, my bad

 

[tuscarora dave]

I want to find Dawn dish soap in the 5 gallon buckets for washing these cruddy buses and vans when they come into my shop. Combined with a prespray of Zep Purple Industrial degreaser, nothing works better.

For the cars and mini vans I still detail from time to time I keep a gallon of Duragloss 902 on the shelf.

 

[shagnat]

Since I can't post a link because of the form rules...type Google in your address bar, and once Google opens type in Zaino. When the Google results are displayed, you will see Application Tips...it's in there. It is also listed under the FAQ topic: What should I do before applying...it says this; The first thing you should do is wash your vehicle thoroughly with Dawn (or comparable) dish soap to remove any wax, grease, and oil from your paint

Okie doke.... didn't realize I had to jump through so many hoops..... but my curiosity makes me wanna' see it. Thanks!! :xyxthumbs: