How to wash/clean/polish a Ferrari !

Proper washing techniques for modern scratch senstive clearcoats...

Products Needed

-2 five gallon buckets, each with a gritguard in the bottom (gritguard.com I think)

-high quality car soap (my favorites include Meguiars' NXT or Gold Glass, Mothers Califorina Gold, Zaino Z7, TurtleWax Plat.)

-high quality sheep skin wash mitt (the Eurow brand from Walmart of all places are some of the best on the market)

-several low quality or old wash mitts

-a mild wheel cleaner (EagleOne makes a nice tire/rim cleaner that is very mild and works well, P21's Wheel Gel is the best on the market)

-assorted brushes (I like using an old paint brush, with the brissles cut to about 2 inches in length for rims)

-210 mph leaf blower

-high quality waffle weave microfiber towel

Process

Fill one five gallon bucket to the brim with clean water and the other five gallon bucket with the mixed solution of soap and water. A good tip is to fill the soapy bucket with half of water first, add the soap, then fill the rest of the way. This helps prevents the suds from spilling out of the bucket before you get it full of water. Also, make sure you follow the manufactor's directions, regarding the ratio of soap:water. A common mistake is to add way too much soap, which makes the soap difficult to rinse away with out leaving a film behind.

Another trick I use it to clean the rims, tires first. Since this process can be time consuming, it the rinse water from drying on the cars paint and causing water spots. Spray each wheel with a gentle wheel cleaner, let sit for 30 seconds, then use a brush or cut paint brush to mildly aggitate the cleaner. Then rinse the wheel completely clean. Do each wheel individually. If you are aiming to clean the tires also, you can use a product like Eagle One tire and wheel cleaner which does a great job of cleaning the tire as well as the rim. You can also you an all purpose cleaner.

An alternate method is to clean the wheels using a seperate bucket with soapy water and an a brush and old mitt. If you have have applied a sealant to your rims previously, even the most gentle wheel cleaners will remove the protection. So just go around and clean the rim with the soapy water (if there is sealant on the rim, the brake grim will clean off very easily anyways) and rinse clean. It is also a good time to clean the underside of the body and wheel well lips (inside the fenders).

Now evaluate the surface. Is there a lot of tar or bugs? If there is, then this will have to be removed before washing the car because if your mitt picks up bug remains, they will be dragged across the paint, which is how swirls and marring is introduced into the paint. A good product is Stoner's Tarminatior. Spray on bug remains and any road tar and let sit for a minute. Use a terry cloth to blot and pick the remains off the paint (don't wipe back and forth). After the major grim and been pulled from the surface, vs. wiped on it, we start our rinse.

Spend a good deal of time rinsing the all the areas of the car. Try remove as much dirty and grime as possible to reduce the risk of marring later.

Now its time to start washing. Start with the roof and work your way down using as much water solution as you can get on the surface. The goal here is to literally flood the surface with soapy solution to float away the dirty. Use a lot of solution, frequently dunking the mitt in solution. Wipe the mitt in a back and forth direction, working the length of the paint. Flip the mitt often to reduce the chance of the mitt picking up dirty and scratching your paint.

After cleaning a section, its time to rinse the mitt out, again to remove any dirty that is getting into the fibers of the paint. This is where the second bucket comes in. Dunk the mitt in the bucket and swish it around (if you have a grit guard, gently rub the mitt over the grates of the grit guard) then squeeze out the water before dunking back into the soapy solution. Keep the mitt clean and you greatly reduce the swirling in your scratch sensitive clear coat.

Another quesiton is how much should you clean before you rinse that section. If you mixed the solution properly, you can cover a lot of ground before having to rinse. However its best to err on the side of caution, as you don't want the water drying on the car and leaving soap scum on the surface. Also, the weather effects this if you have to wash outside. On a cloudy, mild day you can cover a lot of ground. If you have the unfortunate luck of washing in the sun, then you have to rinse frequently to keep the water from drying up and to keep the surface cool. Use good judgement, and if you are unsure, rinse the soap off frequently.

I like to wash down to the dirt line of the car, and what I mean by this is every car as a beltline that collects more road grime and dirt. If you where to wash from the bottom up, you would risk dragging the dirt over the paint and increase the chances of swirling. Once you get the top of the half of the car washed (down to the dirt belt line), either switch to another mitt or use the same mitt but rinse frequently in the clean water bucket) to clean the dirtier areas. Then rinse clean.

Now its time for the final rinse before drying. A good tip is to open the nozzle to full blast and kink the hose to cut the water pressure down to a gentle stream. Water has a natural viscosity and is attracted to water. Use this to your advantage and gentle stream the water over the paint starting high and working low. The sheeting water will literally sitting water with it, sheeting the surface almost dry! You can remove as much as 75 percent of the water on the surface using this method.

For drying, I like to use a high speed leaf blower to blow as much water off the surface and crevices where water hides. Start from the top down, blowing as much water as you can off. The goal here is reduce the amount of wiping you do with your towel. You guessed it, any time you wipe anything against your car, you increase the risk of marring (its getting old, me repeating that, huh?). Once you removed the majority over water, you can go over your car with a waffle weave micro fiber to absorb the removing water.

A good trick is to blot the paint try rather then wiping across it. Despite our best efforts, we may still have some water that has dried on the surface and left water spots. Give your towel a mist of quick detailer spray to lube it up and to clean any water marks that may have formed. Once the car is dry, clean your windows, dress your tires, fire up the motor, and go enjoy it!

 

"You" should also take some preventative measures. Remove rings, watch. Make sure clothing does not have exposed metal, buttons etc. A belt buckle can do a lot of damage.

 

Todd, Thanks!!

 

The 2 bucket method and the sheepskin mit are very good, you may find these tips helpfull also.

1) I do not wash my car unless I know I can spend the time to do it properly.

2) Don"t use alot of pressure or force for wasing or waxing, I'ts better wash a spot 2 or 3 times with light pressure than forcing the grit into the paint.

3) Always wash, polish and wax in straight lines, never use circular arm motions because they promote cobwebbing. Excption being machanical polishers.

4) Feel your paint with your hand before waxing, if it feels rough and gritty than it is. These "bonded contaminants" must be removed with a clay bar or polish prior to waxing.

5) Once the paint is ultra clean then you can wax. Use one or two light coats of wax instead of one large one, and avoid getting wax in seams and emblems

6) I personally only use clean, soft 100% cotton diapers for application and removal. Make sure they don't have tags.

7) I have never waxed a Ferrari, so I can't say which wax is best, but a good carnuba wax should be used. My favorite wax is Auto Glym, for polishing It's 3M products.

8) Finally, take your car to the beach or a show and make me sick with envy.

 

Agreed with all the wisdom above. Washing/detailing is an amazingly complex and often underestimated process.

I would only add that discarded laundered 100% cotton flannel sheets make the best polishing cloth. They are much softer than even the finest old towels. Particularly the thick kind we need back East here to make it through the winter (prob hard to locate in CA/FL). Take the time to cut/tear them into a thick pile of hand-sized squares, a mindless job tolerable only in front of the TV. Use and dispose at the first sign of soiling.

That with Zaino products, particularly their amazing clay bars, works wonders. Not Ferrari tested (yet) but keeps my wife's 4-yr-old Caribbean Blue G35 (similar to TDF) literally better than new. Good training for the big day...

 

I used to always wash my cars with a good carwash soap until I was told by the owner of the #1 Ferrari body shop in the country (they ONLY work on Ferrari's) never to use soap, but to keep the car well waxed, and to use only a preasure washer to wash. So when the surface is cool, I rinse my cars with a fan of water that is strong but not as strong as full blast. (I do use full blast on the wheels). Then blow dry the car with a leaf blower and finally use a microfiber towel in one hand and a good detail spray (Adams) in the other, and put a fine mist of spray on the car as I wipe it dry. The car comes out spotless...no water or soap spots, no telltale marks from a wash mit, etc. And since soap helps remove wax, I do not need to wax as often. I do this to my red Ferrari and my black Vette. Piece of cake.

 

no matter how hard i try not to leave any wax residue in emblems, nooks and crannies it's hard to avoid. but it's easy to remove with a soft bristle tooth brush. i spray a little speed shine (or equivalent) and then brush the area gently. it works well and doesn't harm the painted surfaces

 

Taking a pressure washer to you car is far more dangerous for your paint then soap or a wash mitt. I'm not disagreeing with you at all, but I will ony add that body shop guys are notorious for having no knowledge on how to care for paint after it they painted.

If you have ever seen a car detailed by a body shop you will know what I mean. This guy is clueless about paint care. Caring for Ferrari paint is no different then caring for any other brand of paint. When I first started detailing, I was happy that body shop owners recommended such careless techniques because it keep me in bussiness fixing thier mistakes.

 

Here's another tip relative to drying. Get a few clean white 100% cotton towels with no edges.

NEVER WIPE. Start with the side closest to the sun and drape the towel over the car. Press lightly from the center to the edge with both hands without moving the towel as if you were smoothing sheets on a bed. Turn over and move to the next spot. Move quickly to avoid water drying marks.

Aside from the leaf blower tactic, this is the best way to avoid swirling while drying.

 

These sites may be helpful :

http://autopia.org/forum/
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/
http://www.detailcity.org/forums/
http://www.detailersclub.com/forums/index.php
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/index.php

 

I wash my TR two or even three times in succession before I dry it....after the third washing the water sheets of as it the car was freshly waxed. It's a pain and time comsuming but the results are great. I don't currently use the 2 bucket method, but do have the grit trap in the bottom of the wash bucket, and I change the wash water frequently. As mentioned I also wash my wheels and tires before doing the rest of the car. I also wash the back side of the wheel, and the brake caliper too, the wheel wells, and fender lips. I cover my engine with a large piece of plastic sheet because it's hard to blow out all the little crevices.

 

You could not be more wrong. Premier does a concourse detail on its cars prior to their release, and I have never seen a better detail job. Furthermore, if his advice was wrong, then the paint on my red Ferrari and Black Vette would show it. But the paint is flawless. Premier is not just another body shop. They ONLY will work on Ferraris and their reputation is 2nd to none. They are so busy that sometimes it takes months to get in.
If a preasure washer is used properly on a well detailed car, the results (with a little detail spray) are as good as it gets. My black Vette is parked outside 5 days a week for 10 hours in the LA sun, and I have ZERO problems washing it weekly.

 

Please don't tell me I'm wrong. You are clueless and only repeating what somebody who has no knowledge is telling you. There are people who would argue human anatomy with a doctor. Most older body shop guys give some of the worst, uninformed opinions on car care. There are so many holes in your orginal statement that I left untouched because I didn't want to turn this into a back and forth thread, but you telling me I am wrong when you have no knowledge of what you are speaking about is funny to me.

Example, wash with a pressure washer? Horrible idea for several reasons. One, most Ferrari's (particularly older models) are not the best built cars on the road and are prone to leaking. You are forcing water into places it should go.

Second, would you take your car to a sand blaster to clean it. Nope, but that is what you are doing when you force high pressure against the dirt on the surface. Water is not a very lubricating fluid, in and of itself (which is why it is mixed with soap) so the pressure you hit the car with is actually abrading the dirt against the surface of your paint.

Third, would you use high pressure to wash a car with fading paint. You would take a pressure washer to the orginal paint on a 250 GTO? I hope not. Its a very aggressive process that stresses the paint and older orginal paint would be prone to flaking off. If you are washing your car, you should always use the least aggressive methods possible, not something aggressive, just because you can.

As far as your paint being flawless, I doubt it. Many of my customers have made the same claim as yours, and when I inspected thier paint under halogen lights, the paint was far from flawless. If you would post a picture of your black Corvette with the sun reflecting on the surface, I would take this more seriously. Of course, I would ask you to wipe the surface with rubbing alcohol first, to remove any silicones and oils that most body shops use to mask imprefections in the paint surface.

Soap is used to lubricate the water and prevent marring from rinsing. Many of the older bodyshop guys are behind the times and say that washing with soap can strip wax, dry out paint, ect... This was true 20 years ago, but the world moves on and most auto wash soaps are ph balanced and actually add to the protection on the paint. Soap is a lubricate the water by breaking surface tension and help encase dirt particles so they can be safely floated away from the surface, instead of aggressively blasted off and abraded against the paints surface.

You talk about telltale washmitt marks, those are not from mitts. The only marks in your paint come from materials harder then the paint surface itself (not mitts). If you get marks from washing with a mitt, then the problem is your washing technique, not the mitts fault.

Again you mentioned soap removes wax. Perhaps a small amount (unmeasurable amount since wax is a few molecules thick when bonded) but much less then the abbrasive nature of pressure washing a vehicle. Infact, as a test, we have stripped sealant from paint by using a pressure washer.

Please understand that I am not knocking the bodyshop guy. But his priorites are painting cars (and from your praise he is amazing at it) not caring for the paint after being painted. I am an expert in paint correction and paint care. Its apples to oranges.

 

Here a couple photos to prove my point. Case in point one, the first photo shows a direct sunlight shot of well cared for Maserati that was described to be in perfect condition. However, you can see swirl marks in the paint. The second photo is the car after being expertly polished and wiped with alcohol to make sure the paint correct was perfect. That is perfect, flawless paint. The third picture is the car after being properly detailed, that is all surfaces have been polished level so the paint is super reflective and looks much better then it did when it rolled of the factory showroom.

The fourth picture is the reflection of the sun on a not perfect surface. The 5th picture is after the hood has been polished, you can make out the crystal clear reflection of the sun with no refraction or distortion. The six picture is the car outside in the morning, you can see how well an older paint job and look when it has been polished to perfection.
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Please don't tell me I'm wrong. You are clueless and only repeating what somebody who has no knowledge is telling you. There are people who would argue human anatomy with a doctor. Most older body shop guys give some of the worst, uninformed opinions on car care. There are so many holes in your orginal statement that I left untouched because I didn't want to turn this into a back and forth thread, but you telling me I am wrong when you have no knowledge of what you are speaking about is funny to me.

Example, wash with a pressure washer? Horrible idea for several reasons. One, most Ferrari's (particularly older models) are not the best built cars on the road and are prone to leaking. You are forcing water into places it should go.

Second, would you take your car to a sand blaster to clean it. Nope, but that is what you are doing when you force high pressure against the dirt on the surface. Water is not a very lubricating fluid, in and of itself (which is why it is mixed with soap) so the pressure you hit the car with is actually abrading the dirt against the surface of your paint.

Third, would you use high pressure to wash a car with fading paint. You would take a pressure washer to the orginal paint on a 250 GTO? I hope not. Its a very aggressive process that stresses the paint and older orginal paint would be prone to flaking off. If you are washing your car, you should always use the least aggressive methods possible, not something aggressive, just because you can.

As far as your paint being flawless, I doubt it. Many of my customers have made the same claim as yours, and when I inspected thier paint under halogen lights, the paint was far from flawless. If you would post a picture of your black Corvette with the sun reflecting on the surface, I would take this more seriously. Of course, I would ask you to wipe the surface with rubbing alcohol first, to remove any silicones and oils that most body shops use to mask imprefections in the paint surface.

Soap is used to lubricate the water and prevent marring from rinsing. Many of the older bodyshop guys are behind the times and say that washing with soap can strip wax, dry out paint, ect... This was true 20 years ago, but the world moves on and most auto wash soaps are ph balanced and actually add to the protection on the paint. Soap is a lubricate the water by breaking surface tension and help encase dirt particles so they can be safely floated away from the surface, instead of aggressively blasted off and abraded against the paints surface.

You talk about telltale washmitt marks, those are not from mitts. The only marks in your paint come from materials harder then the paint surface itself (not mitts). If you get marks from washing with a mitt, then the problem is your washing technique, not the mitts fault.

Again you mentioned soap removes wax. Perhaps a small amount (unmeasurable amount since wax is a few molecules thick when bonded) but much less then the abbrasive nature of pressure washing a vehicle. Infact, as a test, we have stripped sealant from paint by using a pressure washer.

Please understand that I am not knocking the bodyshop guy. But his priorites are painting cars (and from your praise he is amazing at it) not caring for the paint after being painted. I am an expert in paint correction and paint care. Its apples to oranges.

 

Also, you mentioned adam's detail spray, which is a very good product. If you would like to save a little money, chemical guys (at chemicalguys dot com) is the producer of Adam's products (Adam's just relabels CG products and has actually gotten a lot of flack since the deny this) and they sell them same exact detail spray in bulk for less then what Adam's charges.

 

Dude I am sorry to dissagree with you but I dont think I have detailed a car without a pressure washer but a few times (and they were my cars),and I have never had a problem in about 13 years now...dont get me wrong but you can use a pressure washer several ways..up close and full powerful and from some disance and wide angled..I say if you are going to use one use it to use one do it in a fan setting and get back a few feet. dont get any more than four feet or so..and use a mitt or something with a means of trapping dirt away from the surface of paint and the washing material you are using.NEVER wash a car in sun it makes the soap dry qiucker and causing soap sopts..I would recomend a Mr. Clean wash system or a pump sprayer with distiled water very cheap either way then no need to dry at that point ...then you can work on the inside while the outside dries...on the outside you can then work on polish and then wax if you like.

 

Have to dissagree..not to be ****** ...sorry a pitcure is worth a thousand yea yea words...the pictures are not the same different angles just dont prove your point... sorry once again..

 

Not sure what pictures you are referring to at all. The Maserati is black and in full sun reflection so of course the angle isn't going to mask swirl marks. I would assume you know this. Black in full sun doesn't hide anything, besides the angle of sun reflection looks about the same to me.

Here is a 360 modena under bright halegons from the same exact angle. The first is before, you can see the hazing and swirl marks.

The second photo is after being polished and wiped with alcohol to check the work. Is the picture lying also?
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I have seen people wash their cars with pressure washers, and know it can be done safely. I am just worried that someone will take their 3000psi, 11hp Honda pressure washer with the wrong tip to their car with catastrophic results after reading this thread. I would also use caution when spraying a repainted surface. But hey, if you know your equipment and like the results, there is no reason to change. Everyone has thier own system. This should give people just starting out, some options.

 

Luckily you wouldn't be detailing my cars. I am not disagreeing that you can use a powerwasher, sure you can if its fanned out and I have used them on several hummers that where in bad shape after being offroaded.

My point is that it is far more gentle to wash a car with soap then to use pressurized water to abrade dirt off the surface, do you disagree with this? Most detail shops that use pressure washers focus more on quanity vs quality (this is broad generlization). On many of the exotics I detail, I would never consider a pressure washer as it is not neccessary and I focus on quality vs. quanity.

I am not sure of your qualifications or the point you are trying to make. Will I agree that you claim to be a professional, and probably have greater knowledge then the guy who is going to wash his car himself. Sure, I hope so if you are taking people's money for detailing. This thread was asked from a point of view of a car owner who is doing it themselves, and from that point of view, I would not recommend pressure washing a car unless it needs it. So you would take a pressure washer to a vintage 250 GTO to clean it?

 

Sure it can be done and in some times it is neccessary for a mydrid of reasons. My point is that there is a much better way of doing it from a consumers point of view. As I stated, blasting dirt and grime off the surface is not the most efficent or safest way to do it. Water is not very slick, which is why soap is used to break the surface tension of the water and make it wetter if you will. This extra lubrication provides a margin of saftey between your vehicles paint and the grime/dirt you are removing.

 

Detailers get judged when the sun comes out!

 

Exactly, which is why I posted the pictures of the Maserati in full sun. On black, you can't hide!