Is it me or the Z takes forever to wash?
 

Now don't get me wrong, I love washing my car, I love the alone time, get to know every curve....ok, starting to sound dirty :wtf2:

However I noticed washing my Z took me 1.5 hrs yesterday and I thought I was giving it a fast wash. I know it took long because when I went back upstairs the wife was pissed and didn't think I was just washing my car lol.

- I wash in panels
- Dry with micro fiber cloths
- Meguires on the tires
- Ice spray polish if i have time (didn't use it yesterday though)

Its the drying that takes so long I think. Since water gets in the hatch area and in the door jams, takes a while to dry all that....just wondering if its just me.

I've washed bigger cars in half the time....maybe its because I don't care as much for them lol

It takes me like 10min to dry it. Water sheeting + electric leaf blower... The whole washing, drying waxing process takes me like 4 hrs though lol

Electric Leaf blower...genius. :tup:

Yeah, it takes me about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to wash/dry/dress my car. I don't use a leaf blower, don't trust myself enough, too afraid I might hit my car with it or shoot some debris at it or something.

It takes us about an hour sometime more to wash a car... and we have things DOWN! 1.5 is not bad at all... :)

Takes me an hour, maybe a hair more.

Fill bucket, wash wheels/tires/exhaust, rinse out bucket and brushes, rinse wheels/exhaust

Fill bucket, hose down the car, soap car, rinse car

Dry with leaf blower, follow with microfiber and Griot's Speed Shine

Open hood/doors/hatch/gas door and dry inside them

Glass cleaner on exterior glass, vacuum interior, maybe wipe down quickly with damp microfiber

That's my typical wash that I do every 3 days or so.

i use an air compressor. Its hard to get all the water out of all the little creases especially the rear taillights and around the factory spoiler.

Does anybody else have a lot of water pool at the bottom of the rear glass?

The sport rims take awhile to clean too. its hard to get into every nook and crany of them

has anybody heard of the TORNADOR? its a tool for cleaning your interior and it works unbelievable on the whole interior carpets and everything. Its actually not bad on cleaning out the areas around your lug nuts as well.
here is a video



makes cleaning the inside of the car a breeze.

The outside yeah i agree you can really spend some time on

YES! Super annoying.

Oh c'mon... you think you got it bad... I drive THIS!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...e/4df0218b.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...e/cc23bcbe.jpg

Thats a lot of sq ft to wash and dry.

thats a good looking truck. What kind are the rims. My dads got a 09 White Suburban that I am trying to get him to turn into a StormTrooper like Rob Dyrdeks

Thats a sick truck!

Straight lines though, much easier...I kid, I kid :) Not just size, the black must be a headache though if you're a perfectionist...so beautiful when clean

It takes me around 2 hours to leisurely clean my Z using Optimum No Rinse. I have been using ONR for 3 years as the only product to wash my Saab and now the Z and the part that takes more time is that you must go section by section, however you do not need running water which is a big plus. 2 hours includes the wash, QD or spray sealant/wax, polishing the exhaust tips, and either wiping down the tires or dressing them depending on what I feel like doing that particular occasion.

Having plenty of drying towels is the key to speeding up the drying process, an electric blow is also a god send and I have one just for this purpose.

Ya, If I use the Turtle Wax ICE then for sure its 2 hrs.

I try to use my towels as much as possible, but go through about 6-7 mircor fiber towels and maybe 8-9 when using magic glass cleaner.

Dylan, that is a nice looking truck all polished and waxed. i had a 2001. There is no good way to make all that plastic on the back look good. just might as well remove it.

After you're done washing the z, open the hatch and hood so water wont pool at the bottom.

The actual wash takes me 1 hr but it takes me about 3 hours total which includes going over the car with a clay bar and removing anything stuck on the paint.

It's you. I can wash and detail dry mine in 1 hour. Add an extra hour, I can have it waxed too.

Time to wash/dry is directly proportionate to the number of beers I have during the process. Typically, it's about one hour if one beer is consumed. At six beers, it gets really slow as the beer spills on the car every time you have to extend your reach and you have to keep rewashing the car.

it's you. The Z is a small car.

Wow! It amazes me that others are finishing their cars in as little time as they are and completing as much as they do! I wash, leafblower dry, QD and microfiber the entire car to ensure no spots and clean the glass. This takes me 1 1/2 hrs to complete.

Where am I aging wrong? Maybe I should get a foam gun like what Junkman uses so I can wash the entire car in one fell swoop instead of going section by section, and rinsing section by section. That's probably the biggest time killer right there!

The time consuming parts are preparation (filling buckets, getting out the power washer, etc) and drying. The leaf blower sped things up a lot for me (more importantly, I don't need to touch the car), but my kids got me a Metro Airforce Blaster for father's day and that cuts drying down to about 10 minutes.

:iagree:

eh it takes me probably 30-45 mins to wash and dry :P

The car is pretty small and easy to wash (aside from the constant annoying water drips!)

I think it's you lol... really though I don't think it takes long at all. As long as you have some sort of wax or sealant on your car, a lot of the water is gone before you even finish. The problem here is that the water is SOOOOOO bad with minerals. I just bought a water purifier that hooks up to the hose so if I miss a little water here and there it won't leave stains ... or not nearly as bad.

If you REALLY care a lot about it you can get a cr spotless which is a water de-ionizer and will leave no spots supposedly...you don't have to dry it at all.

45 minutes to 1 hour with out messing with the tires and putting on 1 coat of quick detail spray after drying with leaf blower.

1 hour if I mess with the wheels.

yeah get one of those foam guns, inexpensive and really helps to reduce scratches when washing and really has reduced the time it takes for me to wash the car. from pre rinse to foam to wash then dry (with leaf blower) I would say i am somewhere between 45min - hour. The dressing part after that all depends on what the car needs which can throw in another hour or 2

:iagree:: +1 on the leaf blower :bowrofl:

If that's what you think I do, then you don't understand why or how I use a foam gun.

I will say this. It takes me 2 hours to do a quikie wash on my car, and 3 hours if I take my time and pay attention to detail. I take clean to a whole new level and I take major pride in the finished results. If I watched a lot of people wash their cars, I could find all kinds of dirt on the car afterwards so don't think that how long it takes you is wrong because of the replies in this thread. You are probably just more thorough than most.

I think you might be VERY right about that Junkman! :icon17: My comment, with regard to the foam gun, was not with respect to your how or why but more to the methodology of getting good sudsy foam on the car all at once.

My typical procedure for washing the car first includes a thorough rinse, but for each section that I wash..the section of interest receives another rinse before getting washed. This section then also gets completely rinsed once more after being washed. After the entire car is washed I complete another thorough rinse, then leaf blower dry and a QD.

I am aware that you like to use the foam gun after a thorough rinse to place a lubricating layer of suds down that will further assist in removing dirt.

My thought was to use the foam gun after a complete rinse, and then go directly to a wash of the entire car followed by a thorough rinse of the entire car prior to leaf blower dry and QD.

What say you?:icon17:

I'd say you're good to go with that, including my addition to that statement. I however do not use any QD when drying my car.