Drying technique

A

ahunt01

New member
I've taken Sal's suggestions in the past and have used nothing but 100% white cotton towels, and stayed away from MF towels. OK, I must admit that I tried MF towels once that I got from Wal-Mart and they just streaked and soaked up hardly any water at all. But...my good cotten towels feel like they're getting stiff, and since I just got my car re-painted and it feels like it's really soft (and crappy) paint, so I want to be a delicate as possible.



Anyways, I ordered the Ultimate Drying Towel from Dave, and I've been reading up on techniques on using the waffle weave towel. Some are suggesting that you should use it to blot only, and then as a final job swipe it across the paint to remove any left-over water. This is similiar to what I do with cotton towels, I take one towel and wisk it around my car to absorb much of the water (yeah I know blotting is better due to less friction) and then follow through with wiping down.



So...my big question is, what process should I use in order to keep my paint free of micro-marring (as much as humanly possible) during the drying process? Blot and then a final rub-down, just blot (ugh that's gonna take some time and the water might start drying on the car leaving water spots before I can finish), or just dry it off like normal and skip the blotting all together.

BTW I make it a point to take the nozzle off my hose and sheet off as much water as I can.
 
I have an Absorber and a 24 x 24 soft MF and I use either held by the corners and I pull them over the main flat surfaces of the car to pull of the majority of the water the hosing left behind. Then I use the 24 x 36 WW towel folded in quarters and I wipe in str8 lines .. not blot.. drying the car down top to bottom. If the WW is a good one and the car is well rinsed there is not much there to mar it. I use a seperate towel drying the lower valances of the car to make sure I don't pick up anything and rub it on the paint.
 
Oh I've heard nothing but praise for the Ultimate Drying Towel, and I should have it by the end of the week so I'm looking forward to using it. I heard someone say on another thread that you have to use ww towels differently than cotton towels but I dunno.
 
If you REALLY want to keep the paint as mar-free as possible, look into the technique of sheeting off the water first and then botting the rest dry with a WW. Look for the old threads by Carguy, as he was one of the first to post about this method in detail. It consumes a lot of water, but you can almost completely dry off your entire car this way. :xyxthumbs
 
Oh I completely agree about the technique of sheeting. I make a point to do it every time I wash my car. I'd say before I started doing this I went through, oh about 5-6 cotton towels to completely dry off the car. With sheeting, I go through 2 towels. I'm looking forward to the ww towel, hopefully I'll only need one.

I know if I tried the blotting technique with my cotton towels, then it probably wouldn't work or would take forever because it's not real absorbent despite the fact that they're very very good 100% cotton towels. I'm guessing the mf ww towel will be real good at blotting?
 
Actually yes, it should be now that I think about it.... One thing I did months and months ago (almost forgot) was to try out the large Autopia WW on my car. I tried to see if it was absorbent enough to dry off my entire car without sheeting or CWB use (what I normally do). Amazingly enough, it almost made it. I nearly soaked up all the water sitting on my boxy 4 door sedan without wringing, and it wasn't that hard either. I wouldn't say that it blots perfectly without a short drag, but it did soak up the water very rapidly.
 
Interesting, so since I only ordered one Autopia ww towel, I wonder if using my older but good cotton towels to blot the car and then following up with the WW towel gently draging it in an up and down motion would be a good technique.

Maybe my WW towel will be able to handle the blotting and then the short drag also without becoming soaked up and just streaking the water rather than absorbing it?
 
One thing that's been working well for me is the CWB followed by the Autopia WW. :up :up

I can no longer use any other types of towels for drying without the WW. Of course with my most recent experience with NXT's sheating action I don't even use the CWB anymore. :xyxthumbs
 
I am getting the CWB with my towel because it came as a package, but I don't plan on using it on my paint. I'll use it for my windows though.
 
I use the water blade from autopia then the ultimate drying towel, i noticed none of you use the blade, is there something wrong with it? thanks
 
so how do you guys move fast enough to not get sunspotting from the water drying on the car? i know most people here have cars and im dealing with one car and two large trucks (suburban and ext cab truck), but i can never seem to dry quick enough.



how does the blotting method work? does it leave just a small amount of water like spray almost that you then follow up on with a MF?
 
bronze2006, some people do use the blade. I've heard that it is safe if you have the car clean, which it should be if you just washed it. But personally, I would never drag something other than a cloth across my paint, and I suspect others feel the same way.

NorCalZ71, I had problems drying my car completely before spotting until I began sheeting about a year ago. You know what that is? You take the nozzle off of your hose and let the water hit your car and run off, it basically "sheets" off the water so only a little is left. This cut my drying time in half.

I havn't used the blotting method. But it sounds like all you do is basically take the towel folded up and set it on your car for a couple seconds and then lift it up and move it over and set it down again, thus blotting/dabbing the surface. Think of it like this. When you have a spill of water at home, you can take paper towels and dab the mess and it absorbs the water, and then you take another towel and wisk away any moisture still there. So the less your towel is dragged across the paint=the less micro-marring.

I too don't know about it completely drying the water off, or if there is a little moisture left behind, and is then followed by you dragging the towel over the car like you normally would to dry. It seems logical that you would want to follow up after blotting with a towel to make sure.
 
My drying technique is very simple. Wash the car, blow off with a leaf blower to get off most od the water and pay particular attention to seams and door handles or anywhere that water will drip from (and to make the neighbors think I am a nut), then dry the remaining water with MFWW from Pakshak. works like a charm
 
Only problem with the leaf blower method (which I would like to use) is that you must have a powerful model. I have an electric one, and it does move water around some but not enough to make it worth my time blowing off the car....easier just to towel dry, and less dust is kicked up that way.
 
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