I am doing this after few months of break, yet I am still able to do it relatively quicker. I also realized that I didn’t spend more of buying new items for my DIY car washing
BHPian narayanang76 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
After 1.5 years starting this DIY car washing journey, I am happy to share that I am continuing my DIY car washing, even after facing few constraints.
In 2024 Bangalore saw water scarcity and BBMP (Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike) issuing orders for not washing cars during the crisis times. Even though apartment car washing guys were not allowed inside, I saw few of them doing their jobs in my apartment. I stayed away from my DIY car washing mostly during this period and managed with dusting, 3 outstation washes and 2 paid car washes. Outstation washes were done in my hometown where I have access to a powerful water source and the washing process was totally different and involved more water usage. Paid water washes were in Bangalore, at Detailing Mafia (2500 Rs) & Detailing Duniya (800 Rs) in Whitefield, Bangalore, near my place. Both these places are decent, but I only went there because my car was then extremely dirty and I didn’t want to get caught in water wastage issues.
Now since we are seeing more rains in Bangalore, I ventured back into my DIY car washing again last weekend where I managed to squeeze 2 hours on a lazy Sunday morning. Process was a miniature version of washing, where I skipped the interior cleaning and post wash waxing. Kept to an exterior body panels washing merely. I also realized that even though I am doing this after few months of break, I am still able to do it relatively quicker. I also realized that I didn’t spend more of buying new items for my DIY car washing, and I was able to utilize most of the things I had already bought. I had also saved some money by not using the apartment car wash guys and not damaging the paint surface areas of my car by more frequent scrubbing on paint surfaces.
Washing process, is more or less similar to what I explained before with some minor tweaks and improvements in effort/time:
- Prepping Stage: was easy, filled filter water into 8L sprayer and both 1L sprayers. Also filled 2 half buckets of regular water (one for rinsing wash mitt and other for shampoo mix). Carried a ShineXPro Chenille Microfiber Wash Mittone large ShineXPro Puremagic 1100 GSM towel for wet-wiping and other ShineXPro Buttersoft Hybrid towel for dry-wiping. Also carried a rubber wiper for glass areas. Mixed Car wash shampoo in both Foam Generator and bucket water. Primed and pumped all sprayers and foam generator.
- Interior Cleaning: Checked Interiors, floor mats and found them to be neat, so decided to skip that step.
- Pre-Rinsing and Soaking: Sprayed water from both 1L bottles to wet the body panels. Then used the manual foam generator and sprayed foam across all panels. I had to give a good hand workout few times to keep the foam generator to function.
- Shampoo Wash: Using Microfiber Wash Mitt, mixed the shampoo with water in the bucket and started working panel by panel, starting from roof. Wash mitt becomes heavy and the weight itself is good enough to clean panels, no need to apply extra pressure. After doing one panel, I rinsed the Mitt in other bucket with plain water, before mixing shampoo water again and going to next panel surface. Kept the bumper and bottom areas for the last sequence.
- Post Wash Rinsing: Using the 8L water sprayer, started spraying water and rinsing panel by panel, starting from roof. I was surprised 3/4th water from the 8L sprayer was sufficient to comfortably rinse the entire body panels of Fortuner. Rest of the water I used to rinse the tires and wheel arches. Also, this sprayer doesn’t need multiple pumping I could complete the rinsing with only 2 times pumping.
- Wet Wiping: Highlight – I was able to remove excess water completely dry from a large car like Fortuner with just one ShineXPro Puremagic 1100 GSM towel. I didn’t have to squeeze towels to remove excess water or use multiple towels. Great time and effort saved during this process. Also, since this towel being large, I could use both hands to cover large areas and complete wet wiping faster. I also used the glass wiper for removing water from the glass areas.
- Dry wiping: Since most of the excess water was removed by now, Dry wiping was also relatively simpler and quicker. Would have finished dry wiping in less than 10 minutes.
Admiring and wrap-up:Realized I forgot to click photos, went around the car admiring it, took some pics and carried the stuff back home. Spent some time cleaning the equipments and putting the microfiber clothes for washing and drying.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos during the washing process, but managed to click few post-washing. Here it goes:
Cheers,
Narayanang76
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