Wash Brush

T

TravisT

New member
I was at a local body shop last weekend, and the owner was washing a car with a long handled brush. I never really paid attention to this before, but he was able to wash the car in about 1/4 of the time it would have taken to wash with a mitt (as I normally do). I have a GMC 2500 crew cab that I never look forward to washing because it takes soo long. Both of my vehicles are black, and my fox body mustang will eventually be black as well.



Can anyone recommend a brush that is safe on the finish? I noticed the Meguiar's versa angle brush, but this doesn't seem to be a "brush". Would this be better/worse than what I have seen?
 
That's one expensive brush! Is there a cheaper alternative that is still "safe"? If not, I may just be mitt washing for a while!
 
I'm sure you will get some other opinions shortly; my brush experiences have not been happy. I do have some of the (discontinued) Meguiar's brushes, but I haven't used the Body Brush.
 
I use the Meguiar's brush on my full size truck. No problems at all, works great. Only thing I could wish for would be a longer handle for the roof. But I just jump in the bed to get that. Got mine from Big Lots for $10. Last time I was there I picked up 3 spares.
 
Wahing with BHBs can work great, but if you don't do it right you'll get marring- not so much from the brush but from the dirt. There's a great temptation to use the brush to wash very quickly- that almost always results in a lot of marring.



The flow-through BHB from Griot's has pretty rough, coarse bristles and it ends up leaking at the pivoting joint. My first one from them was great, but when I sent it back over the leaking, well, the next four (still have one of them) weren't as soft and they leaked too. I'd absolutely pass on it. Too bad, if they'd build 'em right it could be a great idea.



"Regular" BHBs work best if you shoot suds through the bristles with a foamgun; the bristles gently dislodge the dirt and the suds flush it away. This method works very well if you do it carefully. Jiggling the BHB instead of making wide swipes with it helps too as 1/4" scratches don't show as badly as 4" long ones do. Washing in the regular two-bucket way always results in light marring for me and for the people I know IRL (people whose vehicles I've actually inspected) and making long swipes results in long scratches that are very obvious.



Gotta use BHBs with care; they don't make it much faster or easier when used properly but rather offer very light/gentle contact with the paint, and their free-rinsing nature is great when dealing with large contamination (like gritty winter stuff).
 
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