car washing

Now we don't want to sound patronising or condescending in any way, but you would be amazed at how many people just don't get the whole car washing thing. It is as simple and as hard as you wish it to be. Wether it is a quick whip around before a cruise, or a luxurious twin bucket bath for your special someone. There are a few simple rules you must follow.

Keep Cool; Your cars surface must be cool to touch or, with the exception of our more southernly located brothers and sisters, out of direct sunlight. If your cars surface is hot, or in direct sunlight, it causes water spots or streaking.

When it's wet, it's wet. When it's not, it's not. Yes I am talking car care here folks! If your car is wet and you have no intention of drying it, then keep it as wet as you can. Don't let it dry naturally. Throw the hose over it as often as possible. When the time comes to dry the car, use a chamois or a large micro fibre towel and dry it as much as you can. First do it in the shade and then out in the light, so you can see all those sneaky droplets that appear when you move the car. On a last note, for those of you without the time, a car collection or unregistered cars, don't wash your car then put it back in the shed. Drive it back and forth in your driveway if you must, then leave out in the sun with all of its openable bits akimbo. Your car must be completely dry before going back to its shelter. Water that is allowed to sit in a motionless car will create rust!

Logic. Don't wash your wheels and tyres first. Don't drop your chamois (if you do, rinse it thoroughly!). Don't wear rings, watches or belt buckles. Don't drink alcohol and attempt to clean your car. It does not work, a friend of a friend told me so!

Friction is bad! Like everything to do with cars, except for braking of course, friction is not your cars friend. If at any stage you feel your mitt clinging to the cars surface, or emitting a high-pitched sound ('singing'), By using an inferior car wash, you can expect it. If you are using the Auto Body Gel at the correct dosage and experience friction, You should do one of two things; either think very seriously about re-waxing your car. Or you should start shrieking madly, because you have picked up some sort of contaminate from somewhere, and you are now rubbing it all over your car!

Wind Problems; Coastal dwellers!! Don't wash your car when it is howling onshore. That's a wind coming from the ocean, as it is dense with salt air. And salt is not good for your wash process, although some of our competitors seem to think very differently.. Country folk!! Don't wash your car when a lot of dust is in the air, as it will settle on the cars surface allowing you to scratch it into your cars surface.

You need a good applicator ; Like our Microfibre Wash Mitt. We prefer to use a mitt as it holds a lot of soapy water and is very gentle to your paint. Sponges, while they hold just as much if not more water, don't have much 'give' in them. Meaning that if you pick up a tiny stone it won't recess into the sponge like it would with a mitt and therefore it scratch's your paint surface. It is also more likely that you could drop a sponge, as it is not attached like the mitt to your hand. So if and when u do drop the sponge you have to rinse it free from any debris.( as well all know this can happen a number of times when you wash your car) One feature we love with the Mitt is the way you can stick your hose into the open end of the mitt, turn it on and as the water streams out quickly, it thoroughly cleans the mitt. This is great for when you have finished and in case you somehow drop the mitt (Yes, that it is possible).

You need a good car wash shampoo . Our custom blend, The Auto Body Gel, is the perfect combination between cleaning your cars surface and still retaining your precious wax.

You need water. D'uh you say, but there are many different types of water. Never use bore or dam water as these are high in nutrients and the salinity content (salt= rust) may be questionable. Even if you have had your bore checked for salinity levels, think twice before you take to your pride and joy with the offending water, salinity levels fluctuate.

Certain areas of Australia, like Adelaide for a classic example, have 'hard' tap water, this is where, for reasons only the water board really know, the water is high in chemical additives. Hard water, like acid rain, is prone to leaving very defined water spots on your paint if it dries. Irregardless of your water source, as long as it is not dam or bore, it will do the trick, but if you have the option of using 'soft' water, the best of these is pure rainwater, go with it every time.

We have special filtered tanks of rainwater just for washing the cars, considering we live in a semi-rural area this is not as extravagant as it sounds. They also double as fire fighting supplies and rogue bush-turkey deterrents.

You need a hose. If you are one of those people who buy those useless hoses that kink as soon as you even contemplate washing the car. You deserve the pain and anguish it delivers. On a return trip back from Sydney we had to wash the old Moffat race car transporter with one of those anaemic things. Never again! Get yourself a good quality medium strength hose. Not too tough so it's inflexible, not too weak so its, for lack of a better word, kinky. Don't worry about a fitting on the end; if you want to spray, which you most certainly do at the start, jam your finger in front of the hose, propelling the water at a more rapid rate. If you want a gentle even flow, which you do at the end, remove your finger and let it flow.

You need a drying tool . We use our Microfibre chamois, certainly never the common garden variety ones you get at the local service station or car accessories store. There are arguments over the pros and cons of using synthetic or real chamois. One party says the other strips wax and scratches, the other party say the exact same thing.

Like everything to do with car care, we have done our own personal tests and found our Micro Fibre version is by far the best in that if used correctly, it neither strip wax or scratch's surfaces... Simply it is just excellent to use and works brilliantly.

You need a wash bay . A carport is perfect, but anything out of direct sunlight that has a tap right next to it, is what your ultimate goal should be. If your designated area also has a slight incline, to allow water to run from the car freely and onto the lawn, then NO EXCUSES, you have the ultimate wash bay!! Lets get washing.

So now you have the perfect bucket, mitt, hose, water supply, car wash shampoo and wash bay . You, young grasshopper, are ready to wash!

Your bucket is ¾ full (not you, the bucket!) you have used the correct dosage of shampoo and there is a nice layer of suds up to the rim of your bucket. You have thoroughly drenched the car. Your mitt is clean and immersed in the bucket. Holding as much water/suds content as available, you start at the top of the car, commonly known as the "roof", going from panel to panel working your way down.

At the completion of washing each panel, you rinse and while you're at it, you keep the rest of the car wet too . The reason you start at the top is to minimise contamination of the bucket. The lower the panel is on the car, the more it collects road grime. The more road grime you get in the bucket, the more hazardous it becomes to wash with.

You have now washed and rinsed every panel on the car starting from the top and working your way down. A great tip for rinsing the car, is to let a gentle stream of water cover the car; It catches all of the water beads and lessens the amount of water that sits on the cars surface, allowing you to dry the car faster. It also acts as a good final rinse.

Now its drying time. Make sure the car has no visible road grime, dirt or oil. Again start at the top and work your way down, frequently wringing out your chamois. On the large flat panels (roof, boot and bonnet) hold the chamois like you would to throw a blanket across a large bed, throw it out and then pull it gently back towards you. This minimises time, nothing else, so if you are comfortable with how you already use a chamois, do with this advice as you wish.

What about the wheels and tyres you say?! Now is the time to give them a good seeing to. Unless you are washing a 'Hummer' or a Mack truck, you should have enough left in your bucket to scrub them thoroughly with a cloth or our purpose made microfibre wheel cloth .

If the water is pretty dirty, tip it out and fill up with some clean water and half a capful of the Auto Body Gel. Yes, you will get water on the car again, just rinse and chamois it off. It's a small price to pay for not having to do the wheels and tyres in a rush, while the rest of the car dries.

Depending on how thoroughly you wash your round friends depends on whether or not to use your chamois on them. If they are sparkling, then by all means dry away. If you have multiple spokes and you can think of better ways to spend an afternoon than scrubbing them, then fair enough! But unless your wheels are very clean, don't soil your chamois by using it on them. Use a clean, dry rag, or if you don't live on a dirt road, nothing at all. Generally wheels that are easy to clean have a large 'face' and water spots are an issue, they benefit from getting dried. Wheels that are hard to clean usually have no large surface areas and therefore don't benefit greatly from getting dried. Just ask yourself "Will they benefit from drying?"

Your done!! Does your baby gleam? Don't you feel better now! To make you and your precious machine feel even better, why not take him/ her for a drive, this will help get rid of any water left in cracks or recess's most cars seem to have. Please don't to put your car away straight after washing it, as leaving water sitting around in these places is a huge no-no. This only invites every cars biggest enemy, rust.

For the real fussy ducks out there, or the people who have original coats on their ageing cars, you will want to use the "Two-Bucket Method". There is no real gimmick, you just minimise the chances of washing your car with contaminated water/ wash.

You get two 9 litre (roughly) buckets, one is ¾ full of water with car shampoo mixed in, the other is ¾ full of pure water (warm water is good!).

Start washing the car in the prescribed manner above. Once you have finished a panel, submerge the mitt into the pure water bucket and rinse it by shaking it vigorously, before placing it back into the wash bucket. Gather as much water and suds as your mitt can carry, then reapply to the next panel. Repeat this process, washing every panel on the car.

That's the mysterious two-bucket method! It does make good practice; we use it on certain cars as a rule. It dramatically minimises your chances of accidentally picking up some debris from one part of the car and rubbing it all over the rest.

And that is how we wash our cars at the Bowden household. All of these methods and tips have been pooled together by 3 generations of car freaks. As every motoring enthusiast has different needs for their different cars and locations around our large continent, none of this should be taken as pure gospel. If any of what has been written goes against your regular methods, then think about it, weigh up both of the options and go with the one that is best for your car.

REMEMBER: When you find yourself running low on our product, please drop into your friendly local AutObarn store, where our core range is stocked.

For any questions about anything to do with Bowden's Own, please give us a call on 07 5445 5065, or alternatively email at;