Why doing a DIY car wash on my Fortuner gave me immense satisfaction

December 18, 2023

We know the car cleaners use the same bucket of dirty water for many cars. In our case we use clean water, so it is subjective.

BHPian narayanang76 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Background:

My car is 7-years-younger and has seen enough of hands and materials rolling over its paint surface over the years and has its own left-over scars. Most of the yesteryears the apartment car cleaner guys have swirled, scratched, and marred the paint surface of my car, rather than cleaning it mostly. However, in 2023 I decided to take control to ensure that I try my best to avoid further damages on the car paint surface. The motivations came from reading through discussion threads on Team-BHP, I have to admit, the information and experience that is shared is such valuable here, thanks to many of you have inspired and shared your knowledge. With enough motivation and some learning, decided to start washing my car myself to the max extent possible. I started this journey in May-June 2023, and sustaining it for 7+ months so far.

As first step, I decided to dump the apartment car cleaner guy and purchase few real essential items gradually, as and when I made more progress with this DIY car wash journey. This included some good quality TRC 600 GSM Microfiber towels from The Rag Company, 8L + 1L Kissan kraft water sprayers and a Turtle Wax Hybrid solutions Flex Wax, Turtle Wax All Wheel and Tyre cleaner, Tyre brushes etc. Everything was purchased from Amazon. From my self-washing experience over months, I have also created few templates with instructions for a quick wash, an intermediate wash, and a thorough wash during this learning phase. I apply these DIY methods depending on the condition of the car and also the energy and enthusiasm I have before starting a car washing.

Practicality and reality:

I understand from many expert BHPians who shared the best ways to keep the car paint pristine for years. Like using pressure washer doing a touchless wash, using RO water for car washing, using premium and PH-neutral shampoo and ONR like products, leaf blowers for dusting and stop using Jopasu duster etc. However I strike a lower ground with a more practical approach. My car is parked in a basement car parking of an apartment complex, with limited space and no access to water or power. Buying an expensive cordless pressure washer or cordless leaf blower of good quality, was really an overkill since my car was already old, has enough swirl marks already and I was mainly trying to avoid further damages. Also I am not at all a full time professional detailer, merely an enthusiastic car user having my other life priorities of personal and professional commitments. And lastly I didn’t want to buy more items and add to the clutter inside home. So I still continue to use Jopasu duster for dry dusting once a week, and a regular good quality PH-balanced shampoo for car wash during the process.

Few benefits from DIY car washing which I realized:

Washing is satisfying: It really motivates me to see a neat, tidy and detailed vehicle, with all our effort put in. During drives I started observing and appreciating other well-maintained cars
Washing frequency is reduced. Car cleaners do daily wash and scratch. I do car wash once in 15 days sometimes once a month, and even with that the car looks better than before.
Saved 5K INR in monthly car cleaning so far already in 2023 (my car wash guys charge 700 Rs monthly)
Reduced impact to paint surface, due to reduced number of wash and reduced paint surface interaction
Saving water and environment. We know the car cleaners use the same bucket of dirty water for many cars. In our case we use clean water, so it is subjective.
Some additional weekend workouts done with DIY car washing, burning some weekend calories.
Moving to a need-based washing: I realized sometimes we only need to dust the car, sometimes we only need to do a simple and easy wash, and sometimes we need a detailed wash.
Knowing the nook and corner of the car: I really liked this part of knowing each and every inch of the car exterior and interior. The car cleaners never clean the alloys, Tyres, door beadings, or footsteps nicely.
Water quality: Realized that the hard water used for washing is enough to leave water spots and dull finish to a clean car. With DIY I started to wash the car with RO water with promising results
Washing up to our satisfaction (OCD): We have our expectations and benchmarks and with DIY car wash, I feel satisfied. Whatever we do, others fail to meet our expectations in washing our cars.

Few challenges/cons from DIY car washing which I realized:

Additional spending. I realize that I spent on few items purchased for this DIY, but this was my choice to ease the washing process and also to further up the cleaning game levels a bit.

Dirty car syndrome: Worry about taking the car out when its cloudy and roads are dirty. The thought that we have to clean ourselves if it gets dirty is sometimes worrying during those drives.

Water wastage: Being aware of the quantum of water wastage to produce RO water. Only justification is that the RO water quantity used is 10-15L for a wash (monthly once wash at max)

Taking to car wash centers for pressure washing: This year I had to take my car only once to nearby car wash center since it was dirtier after out station drive in rains. This is anyways needed irrespective we are washing ourselves or apartment car cleaners are cleaning.

During last weekend, I did a detailed and thorough car cleaning process as DIY. The car was dirty after few recent long drives, but I was confident I am able to clean it. One good thing was that the Wheels and tyres didn’t need much cleaning, so it was a time and effort saver.

Did the following process as DIY car washing (total time taken approx. less than 2 hours):

Prepping (10 minutes): Filling the sprayers with water, mixing shampoo for wash, carrying MF towels, sprayers and muckets to the car: I used 10L of RO water, in both 8L and both 1L sprayers. Also, one bucket mixed with shampoo had 3-4L RO water. Other bucket was half filled with regular tap Cauvery water, used for soaking & rinsing the MF towels.
Interior cleaning (5 minutes): Inspected the interiors and removed and dusted the floor mats, and dry wiped with MF towel, plastic panels, dashboard and console areas quickly.
Pre-Rinsing and Soaking (5 minutes): Used both 1L sprayers to spray plain RO water on the exterior paint surface first
Shampoo wash (15 minutes): The 3 TRC MF towels soaked in shampoo was used interchangeably to wipe panel by panel, flipping the towel surface regularly and leaving it for soaking later. Used the next towel for the next panel and so on
Post wash Rinsing (10 minutes): Used plain RO water in the 8L sprayer from KissanKraft to rinse the complete car in 10+ minutes. I was surprised to see that 8L water was enough to rinse a car like Fortuner and I was even able to rinse the wheel arches, tyres also with it towards the end.
Wiping Dry (15 minutes): Had to wipe the car twice since the MF towels were getting soaked quite fast. Had to squeeze water many times before moving to next panel. This made me realize the need to hunt for a bigger and better dry wiping towel.
Wiping Door edges, door pads and glass panels (less than 10 minutes): Except the car wash centers, apartment car cleaners never clean these edges and inside panels and glass area of all doors. Always there will be water residues which really needs a proper wiping, for a proper cleaning.
Wiping Wheels, Tyres and footsteps (less than 10 minutes): Finally wiped clean the wheels, tyres, wheel arches and footstep a dry wipe
Polishing (30 minutes): Used Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions spray wax to give additional coating and a glossy look. This is a dust magnet but still I thought of coating it after a detailed touch-based wash. And I had observed few benefits from spray wax, like the next time cleaning is easier, and it provides a good amount of water beading effect and paint surface protection after applying.

Products and Equipment used during the DIY wash process:

Why I call it a premium wash?

Based on my experience with apartment car cleaners and car wash centers, they never take care of your car instead create further damages some way or the other to your beloved car. By doing washing ourselves, far-far better than how they do it, with better quality materials, equipment and tools, taking time to clean every surface area, finally applying spray wax polish, and feeling satisfied about the whole experience, I feel it’s worth calling it a premium wash.

My next advancement plans:

It’s a learning and beginning for me in doing this firstly. I want to sustain this and ensure that I have the motivation to continue doing this as much as possible. However, I am quite happy with my journey, my outcome and the sheer joy of admiring a nice and detailed car.

As next advancement, I have been reading about Optimum No Rinse solution, which is used in the Rinse less wash technique advocated by many leading detailers across the globe. I plan to try it out in future. I also want to invest in some quality Microfiber towels with good water absorption capability, for easier drying.

Sharing some pics of my effort from last weekend: