Bev & Tom are great people, glad you had fun! I have a lot of unlearning to do as well...

 

Hey Ed, thanks for posting. This is very timely as we just bought a black, 14k mi, 993 yesterday and certainly need to understand how to keep it looking good. We have very hard water and the sprayer/distilled water idea is excellent!

Gary

 

Concours to me is too much like inspection in the army.

 

Absolutely nothing, Paul. I use a soft spray nozzle to rinse and I have yet to find any water spots after drying.

The one thing I did learn just recently was not to use paper towels to clean windows.

I just cleaned my windows as per usual; clean...at least I thought they were till I saw the streaks when the sun set. Usually, I'd just clean them a second time, but reading the label on Invisible Glass had me switch to using micro fiber towels to clean windows. Wow!!! Not a single streak. I then did the house windows and they truly are ïnvisible".

 

I think you nailed it, all the fancy color soaps out there in the market are actually doing more harm with cheap chemicals ingredients.

A friend suggested I watch this guy videos, good info IMO. Check out some of his other stuff on polishing, paint correction too eg. black 356 speedster.

 

He has a good one on cleaning glass; i like his inside glass technique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4WwOrkgXlc[/url]

 

Paper towels have additives to help them stay together and last longer and those compounds leave streaks, I have used newspaper to clean glass for ages and was surprised to see that the instructions on Invisible Glass state "Some pros prefer crumpled nhewspaper"!!!

 

Once again, you are so awesome. I, for one, am impressed. Now, you are a water expert on all of North America too.

If you'll actually take the time to read, you'll see that in post #4, that I cite "not all water is hard, but ours is". What is true in one area, isn't in another. As one who has worked with water-fed commercial food service equipment for years, I also know that a given area's water supply can also vary over the course of the year, beyond the generalities of the Southwest and many mountain areas, etc, having hard water as a rule.

The presenters actually cited some water spots at a Concours in Idaho, that were so tough to get off, they required a polisher.

So, to reiterate, I'm giving this system a try. I'm not saying it is gospel or the only technique.

 

Funny, I actually just went back to that technique, after not having done it for 10 years.

I think that the paper towel formula for my blue shop towels may have changes, as I've been fighting streaks for the last few months, after years of none. I've tried different cleaners. Back to newspaper, and all of the cleaners are fine.

 

Hard water is not the problem but it becomes one if you let the water dry out on the surface, especially if the car is in direct sun light.

The other thing is that even if this method of using very little water (distilled as you said) is very green and effective, I still think it's not good to save on water when washing a car. The more water you use, the better the surface is lubricated and the better the dirt is dissolved and moving away from the paint.
i.e. the less water you use, the more chance you have for scratching the paint.

Also reading between the lines, this method you were taught was for concourse cars. Hell, do they even drive those ever?
I mean it's one thing to have a little dust on you car but completely different situation when you have sand, tar, iron etc. particles on your car. The more water the better the result...

 

In our relatively warm weather, cars dry pretty quickly, even in shade/cloud cover. If I had been driving cross country and gas full of bugs and road grime, or my car was hit by grit or dust when parked somewhere, yes-I'll hose it down.

You can also arrive a lubricity with copious amounts of soapy water, if done diligently and thoughtfully. The basic fact is my car stays pretty clean, save for dust that may hit it sitting in the garage.

When it comes down to it, the biggest thing I learned was horizontal strokes ONLY for anything, Scrubbing, drying, applying anything and buffing; and what a variety of towels can do. For instance, closed loop microfiber for wax removal. The loops have more tooth to grab the wax.

I'm sure I'll evolve to my own NEW technique, but in the end, it was great to hear what some successful people apply to their Concours, and some other nice older cars of theirs.

 

These are all half-measures. When my car gets dirty, I have it re-painted. This way, there are never any fine scratches or swirl marks in the clearcoat.

 

That had crossed my mind.

 

That's a good method. I'm trying to figure out a way to drive around with one of those car bubble/storage thingys attached.


Good info Ed, and like you clearly explained, this was concours style cleaning tips from people in your specific area. Different climates and varying conditions will call for different measures. Thanks for taking the time to post!

 

At the end of the day, no matter how great the wash or the water, in a week or two the car is dirty again. For that reason, I tend not to worry about getting it 100%, because the results don't last anyway. Kinda like making your bed perfectly; in 12 hours, you're gonna mess it up anyway. For me a 90% or a 95% great wash is just as good as a 100% perfect wash, and that extra 10% stuff isn't worth the effort too much. Diminishing returns.

I'd think the things you wanna make sure of are that you're not using any methods or products that might rub grit into the clear coat or harm the car in any way. Hard water really only matters if you're allowing it to dry on the car, which usually most folks don't. Using products that minimize any chance of scratching the paint/clear coat are the most important things you need to know. The rest comes down to one's degree of perfection, I'd think.