I've never tried a zero bucket wash technique which is what this appears to be?
Lower left at the bottom of this picture is my "Zero Bucket".
Were you rinsing the sponge out with the hose between panels or did you just wipe down the entire car?
I did use my water sprayer to flush the wash sponge after every panel or so... a bucket of clean water would be better then you just dunk it and then squeeze the heck out of the foam to flush water out and thus dirt particles out.
See my answer above...
I'm assuming this car was not that dirty?
Allow me to bring the ORIGINAL thread for this project back to the forefront since you're asking great questions....
Here's where I extracted this article from, it's just a PORTION of the write-up I did for the 2006 SLK350 we recently purchased. Here's the sign-up thread, located in the forum group for where I create sign-up thread for all the projects done on this forum.
2006 Mercedes-Benz SLK 350 Show Car Makeover
We had not had the car an entire week before doing this makeover. I have no idea what was on the pain if ANYTHING.
The car was washed at the dealership and then we drove it home. We hit rain a few times on the way home and then drove it for the next 4 days here in Stuart, so the car was only lightly dirty.
I'm thinking the LSP has a lot to do with being able to use this technique?
Since we had just purchased the car we had know way of knowing what if any LSP was on the paint.
My guess is the car has not been properly detailed or waxed for years. The paint was in great condition as far as SWIRLS go but it did not feel slick nor waxed.
I describe the
visual condition after inspecting it both the sign-up thread and the pictures and comments thread. I also noted that it needed to be clayed.
In the write-up thread I went into detail how I
chemically decontaminated the paint.
Here's a visual portion of this process...
Removing Iron Particles out of Mercedes-Benz Ceramiclear Paints
Following the steps outlined in my how-to book, the next thing to do is decontaminate the paint. For this I'm using
Auto Finesse Iron Out Iron Remover.
Bleeding-Effect in Mercedes-Benz Ceramiclear Paint
Light Iron Contamination
These pictures show the paint was in fact lightly contaminated with some type of iron particles...
Just to note.... it's
BETTER to see
LIGHT CONTAMINATION in your car's paint than
HEAVY CONTAMINATION.
Why?
Light contamination means your car's precious, thin clear coat is
NOT contaminated.
That's a good thing. Iron contaminants is corrosive to the paint.
Heavy contamination means your car's precious, thin clear coat
IS contaminated. While the
Bleeding-Effect L00kS really
kool... it's better
NOT to see it.
Make sense?
I can see that as being a super fast way to wash a car!
Most wash jobs take me about an hour. I never rush, I always take the appropriate amount of time to do the job right. Especially when I'm going to do things like machine scrub the tires to prep them for TUF Shine.
It's all documented here...
2006 Mercedes-Benz SLK 350 Show Car Makeover Pictures
Cyclo Brush on a Griot's DA Polisher = Best Machine Tire Scrubber
These tires have a lot of very thin or fine lines raised lines in the sidewall so to get into these areas and agitate the tire dressing I'm use a
Gray, Ultra Soft Upholstery Brush made for Cyclo Polishers on a Griot's Garage DA Polisher on about the 5.0 Speed Setting with the
TUFF SHINE Tire Cleaner.
Decontaminate Wheels
Since I've only owned this car for 5 days I have know idea what's been done for maintenance in the past so after machine scrubbing the tires the next thing I'm going to do is decontaminate the wheels using
Iron X and a
Daytona Speedmaster Wheel Brush, to get behind the spokes, the back of the wheel barrels and around the brake calipers. I used an
8" Montana Boar's Hair Wheel Brush to clean the face of the wheels.
Does anyone have a copy of my how to book? If you do, do you remember what it says about the two different ways to wash a car? Can someone post the relevant portions? (I already know what it says)
In hindsight, these to approaches have turned out to be very important for anyone doing their own car maintenance to know and understand.
Great questions Jim...
:dblthumb2:
.. can i buy something to help pressurize the water?
