Hand Washing Advice

If your car is PPF’d considered two bucket Xpel rinse free. All of your concerns are then taken care of .

 

I'd be more concerned with the depreciation as soon as water hits the car. I've heard there can up to a 5-10% loss on the value.


*** Please note the sarcasm in this post. just adding a little humor ***

 

This is pretty good. In general, this is not about elbow grease, anything you are rubbing or using any physical effort to remove, will end up scratching the clear coat, or PPF. You want the chemicals to do the work of cleaning.


Using a power washer and foam gun is very helpful.

If you can use an automotive level air blower to dry.

Anything that touches the surface can end up scratching the clear coat/ ppf.

Best to wash in the shade, not in the bright sun.

when using pressurized water/ air/ take care around joints and seals. On a modern car like your 296 this isn't as important, but the older the car, the more important it is. If you've gotten water inside your windows, it's too much pressure.

If the soap is not removing bugs try a specific bug and tar remover. DO NOT try to rub out the bug debris. It will scratch.

 

A clay bar will also do wonders with the bugs...but it might remove wax or ceramic coatings...

 

I only hand wash mine. Use the old school 2 bucket method with ONR in the bucket. The Stream Solutions Topper is used as a drying aid/topper.

Get great results. Car has XPel film Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login and ceramic coating, FYI.

 

My pleasure

The key thing, I cant say this enough, cleaning a car is not about the physical pressure you exert. Its about letting the chemicals do the job, and anything you use to rub on the car's finish, whether thats the clear coat or the ppf, no matter how gentle you are... you are, in fact, creating scratches. They might be super tiny, some can call them micro scratches, but they are happening. So- a bit counter intuitive- the more you wash your car, the more you are going to make it look a little dull. The key thing is to not let too much debris build up. This depends on usage.

So if you can go with an automotive power washer, foam gun, air drier, these are all ways to do it, but also some of it depends on the amount of debris.

If there is a good detailer in your area you can go see how they do it and then you can do it yourself. The 2 bucket system is a great place to start if you are going to do a hose. My own system isn't far off from that video I posted, so thats kind of what I do, and then every 2 years or so I give my detailer my cars to really really get into and he goes bananas. I just do maintenance cleanings.