My standard wash is a foam lance and blow dry with a cordless electric leaf blower. It's very quick (which encourages more frequent washes) and gives 90% of the effect of a full wash, with zero chance of swirls. My black roof looks as good as the day it left the factory. It was paint protected from new though.

Every second or third wash, I do the foam lance, two bucket, blow dry and polish.

Tip: pressure clean your wash mit before use

UFI said:

My standard wash is a foam lance and blow dry with a cordless electric leaf blower. It's very quick (which encourages more frequent washes) and gives 90% of the effect of a full wash, with zero chance of swirls. My black roof looks as good as the day it left the factory. It was paint protected from new though.

Every second or third wash, I do the foam lance, two bucket, blow dry and polish.

Tip: pressure clean your wash mit before use

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Interesting!
Sorry to be pedantic, but which cordless electric leaf blower?

I have a tremendously heavy leaf vacuum (with cord) and can't imagine waving that over the car. I tried using compressed air through a trigger blow gun (I have a retractable air hose and a pretty big compressor) but it was ineffective.

As you can imagine, a drying towel is only useful on a properly clean surface - which is why I've found the snow foam quite useless as it still needs to be followed by a normal wash before the car can be dried (water spots here are horrendous). I'm interested in an alternative method of drying that allows a snow-foam-only wash, so your post is helpful, thanks

-Alex

I use a Makita 18v:

https://www.makita.com.au/products/lithium/lithium-ion-skins/18-volt/dub182z-18v-mobile-blower

No doubt there are others but Makita is what I use generally and it was on sale for $18 for the skin so not a big risk.

It's compact and lightweight, and the rubber hose prevents accidental scratching. It could be more powerful, but for a small car like a 500 it's fine, not so great on the Renault Trafic or Ford F1 though, but I still use it for those vehicles as a 'quick wash' alternative. A single 6Ah battery is plenty for the 500, but a bit too small for the big vehicles.

UFI's white, so water spots (which aren't too bad here) aren't as much of a problem, but if the water beads well, the blower does a decent job. I'll sometimes follow up with careful use of quick detailer since they claim it's ok to use on cars that aren't 'excessively dirty' to take off spots that I've missed.

I also 'pat' the surface dry rather than rubbing it, that way and grit it less of a problem.

UFI said:

I use a Makita 18v:

https://www.makita.com.au/products/lithium/lithium-ion-skins/18-volt/dub182z-18v-mobile-blower

No doubt there are others but Makita is what I use generally and it was on sale for $18 for the skin so not a big risk.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the inspiration... Hopefully the $18 was a typo... lol
I just went to Bunnings and bought this:
https://www.bunnings.co.nz/ryobi-one-18v-5-0ah-cordless-blower-kit_p00295046

Price $289... but my partner paid for half of it as it's my birthday this week

I didn't see the exact Makita version you had but I did find something similar that had less airflow than the Ryobi - I think - though it's hard to be certain as they only quote air volume for some and air speed for others. The larger Ryobi has four times the volume of the Makita but only a little more speed. The smaller Ryobi had the higher speed and the larger battery.

There is a slide switch rather than a trigger, which is probably an advantage (not having to hold a switch on) , and the light weight should help make it all less of a chore.

I don't have any other Ryobi One+ tools yet, but the 5Ah 18v Li-ion battery and charger included with this was a major drawcard, as the battery and charger can then be used with the One+ impact wrench that I'd rather like. The battery by itself is $279! I wish my hedge trimmer or my jigsaw or my cordless drill needed replacing

Anyway, the first task is to finish coating our 500 with Gyeon Can Coat in the hope that this facilitates a foam wash in the future, and then I will get to try the blower. Our 500 is the metallic black colour and I have recently polished it, making a huge improvement by removing the swirls built up from a year or two of regular washing. I'd like to keep it looking nice if we can and I hope the Gyeon coating will help the foam remove more dirt than it otherwise did.

-Alex

Mine was indeed $18 but that was skin only (no batt/charger) and on clearance, they're around $90 normally. Makita do make a 36V version that takes 2x18v batteries, at around $350 (brushless motor too from memory), I was going to get one but now I think it might just be awkward. The 18V is only about 2' long so super easy to direct where you want it.

The Ryobi looks OK but the length and kicked up air exit may not be ideal in this case, though I suppose you can use it without the nose extension, once you protect the edges so they don't scratch.

For hard water, you can also get one of these:

http://www.wolfgangcarcare.com/deluxefilter.html

Mila said:

They look like 15" wheels? Correct?

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14" steelies. The car is on 30mm lowered springs which mite make them look a little bigger.

alexGS said:

Yes!
I figured this out when I found how easily the paint 'mars' when trying to buff off a coating...

I think the biggest challenge, now that it is polished, will be how to avoid scratching it during regular washing. Supposedly, brushes are a no-no, but mitts can be just as bad at trapping dirt and scratching. You can go to the extreme of using a snow foam gun to rinse some of the dirt off first, but it will still need going over with a mitt to actually clean the surface.

-Alex

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Snow foam, microfiber mitt, 2 water buckets with grit guards and a mix of decontamination sprays, shampoos and detailer spray wax.

The guy who did the work was quite keen to inform me on how to wash the car properly. He gave me some samples with a 1900:1 dilution ratios, so they'll last ages.

Tom

UFI said:

Mine was indeed $18 but that was skin only (no batt/charger) and on clearance, they're around $90 normally. Makita do make a 36V version that takes 2x18v batteries, at around $350 (brushless motor too from memory), I was going to get one but now I think it might just be awkward. The 18V is only about 2' long so super easy to direct where you want it.

The Ryobi looks OK but the length and kicked up air exit may not be ideal in this case, though I suppose you can use it without the nose extension, once you protect the edges so they don't scratch.

For hard water, you can also get one of these:

http://www.wolfgangcarcare.com/deluxefilter.html

Click to expand...

I tried it out today on my Golf, after a mitt wash with Gyeon Bathe+ (adds a very light coating). Also, the roof was already coated and the windows have Rain-X.

The Ryobi was easy to manipulate and the battery lasted the whole 20 minutes (a Mk7 Golf is 'only' a hatchback but quite a bit bigger than a 500). I didn't use the flicked-up end accessory on the pipe. The '250km/h' airflow didn't seem too amazing after all, I suspect volume is more important than speed!

Yes, it took me 20 minutes to dry the whole car... the roof, windscreen, and bonnet were by far the most annoying, as little balls of water were chased everywhere. The sides, windows, window rubbers, mirrors, and front/rear grilles were very easy to dry, as were the wheels. Some of these areas are difficult to dry with a microfibre towel and it was particularly satisfying to eliminate the usual dribbles of water from around the tailgate and mirrors which a towel never quite gets.

Therefore, I think I will refine the technique by using the microfibre towel to dry the large areas (roof, bonnet, windscreen), perhaps using quick detailing spray if the car has only been snow foamed and not mitted. Then I will use the blower to dry everything else.

I also wonder whether I sprayed down the car with the wrong spray pattern from the hose gun - if the coating does what it's supposed to, then most of the water is supposed to sheet off the surface. I just had a million tiny beads to chase around Suspect that if I'd used a jet, then less water would have remained.

In summary I'm very glad to have this new technique - it does a fine job of blowing out the annoying tiny leaves and petals that descend into my window rubbers etc. even in the few minutes after washing (I have to wash in the shade under a tree), the wheels look great, and I can't stress enough how good it is not to have those dribbles from around the tailgate etc.

The water filter is a good idea and I will look out for that. Thanks again.

-Alex

Kekybobo said:

Here's a more natural shot.

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That's a lovely looking 500 - apart from the wheels it's almost identical to my '58 1.4 Sport in crossover black but considerably shiner! Mine still shines up pretty well after a 2-bucket wash, clean and seal (Carlack 68), topped with a layer or 2 of Colinite 416 but direct sunlight reveals plenty of minor swirls and a few scratches here and there. It only gets this treatment three times a year. In between it's just standard washes finished with a spray of Megs Ultimate Quik Detailer (great product), which gives it a decent wet look that seems to last a week or so. No time for anything more than that with my 50-hour working weeks and kids!

Would love to get a proper polish n' protect on her - maybe one day.

alexGS said:

I also wonder whether I sprayed down the car with the wrong spray pattern from the hose gun - if the coating does what it's supposed to, then most of the water is supposed to sheet off the surface.

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For the final rinse, I take the head off the pressure washer so that the water is just coming out in a gentle solid stream. It's perfect for sheeting the water off a coated/waxed surface.