I am no professional detailer, but I am trying to get better at keeping my Crossfire nice. I was discussing cleaning with a very knowledgeable car enthusiast and he told me that he had heard a chamois will strip off the wax. my question is am I harming my finish with the chamois and if it is not a good idea to chamois it, then how do I dry my car. I have a black car and hard well water so I need to dry it to prevent water spots. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

The best thing to use to dry your car, especially with black is a high quality microfiber towel. It will not only remove the water but the fabric will trap any dirt and prevent it from scratching your paint.

 

Rick,
I've not heard of a chamois stripping the wax. I've used the 'Absorber' for years with no ill effects.
However, on the black Xfire I use Microfiber towels to dry it off.

If you have hard water - you might want to install a filter at the hose nozzle. I know Griot's Garage sells them, but I'm sure someone has them cheaper.

 

Good point the MR. Clean Auto dry system is about $30 and it filters out all the minerals in your hard water they guarantee no waterspots and you can buy it at Wal-Mart.

 

Thanks for the input, that was my next question, whether or not the Mr Clean system worked ? Does anyone use it?

 

Haven't used it on the Crossfire, but I've used it on my Accord.
It's OK, but I wasn't 100% sold on it. The Mr. Clean system I have is the first 'model,' and I think they've improved it some.
It's probably worth a shot.

 

I third it!!! Microfiber towel.

 

I bought a big pack of yellow microfiber towels at Costco and was amazed at how well they dry my car. Probably under $10 for a pack of 20 16" x 16" towels.

Happy Wiping!

 

Good info & selection of high quality microfiber towels here.

http://www.autogeek.net/mictow.html

 

You can find micro fiber towels anywhere now, but can someone explain what to look for when shopping for MF towels? What's the best blend? Some are very cheap, and others pretty expensive, but would like to know what we should be looking for.

 

~ it all about density... kinda like a thread count when buying quality sheets.

 

OK, thanks, but what should i be looking for? Blend? Thread count? I know how to buy sheets, by thread count, but MF towels?

 

Check out http://www.autopia-carcare.com/son-dwdt-2.html
The Sonus drying towel works great. I also bought some Sonus Der Wunder buffing and polishing towels. These are very good products, I'm sure you will be happy with them. Check out this special. http://www.autopia-carcare.com/derwutotr.html Looks like a good deal to me. Hope this helps.

 

Yes it does help some, but case in point; this special includes polishing, drying, and wiping towels. What makes them different? I hope I'm not sounding difficult. I just would like to know what to look for, otherwise I can buy a bag of 20 MF towels at Sam's for $20.00.

Thanks for the help.

 

~ some info:

http://www.microfiberplus.com/better.htm

https://www.ultramicrofiber.com/

 

I can tell you that I have some of the cheap mf towels from Walmart but after getting the Der Wunder towels I only use the cheap towels for the dirty work, First pass on the rocker panel's, under the hood etc. I also have some of the Cobra mf towels and they are very nice as well. Buy the 3 towel (2 of ea.) Der Wunder special and I think you will be pleased.

 

Thanks Andrew and Roy, this helps.

 

Ahhh...microfiber. It's too bad I don't know much about the specifics of them, but certainly look for tagless towels as the tags themselves can mar a finish. I have all of the towels made from Sonus, and here are the few comments I have about them:

The Dur Wonder, blue, drying towels is simply awesome. It does a great job at sucking up all the water on the vehicle

The polishing cloths, well, I don't like them too much. They seem to get caked with polish residue very quickly, making them usable for a very short time.

The multi-purpose, yellow waffle weaves with red outlining are great for windows and interior details, as they leave little to no lint behind

The Sonus Der Wonder buffing towels for removing waxes are also very, very nice. Very soft with a very thick, luxurious texture to them, better then the towels I use for my face!

I also have Cobra green, 16x16 microfiber detailing towels and they are some of my favorites as they remove many times more polish residue without becoming caked, and they are very soft as well.

The Walmart microfibers are typically used for dirty areas such as door jams, wheels, and so forth. They leave alot of lint behind.

 

So...you guys don't recommend using bath towels to dry your car?

 

For drying you want what's usually referred to as a waffle weave microfiber. Just as the name implies, the surface of the towel looks like the squares on a waffle. They are of a slightly different weave than other microfibers and are super absorbent. They also tend to be much larger in size. There are several sources for these, my favorite place to buy detailing supplies online is www.autodetailingsolutions.com - the Meguiar's water magnet is a great towel for drying.

Getting back to the original question about a chamois stripping wax - I highly doubt that it would, but the real problem with them is they have no way to pull even fine debris away from the surface, so if anything is left behind there is a very real potential for a chamois to just drag it around.

Here's a little trick for making drying a car faster and easier: After your final rinse take the nozzle off the hose and let just a steady stream of water run over the body panels. This will cause the millions of tiny beads of water to blend together and sheet off the car. You will have far, far less water remaining on the paint, so it's much faster to dry the car. This works best with a well waxed car, better with a properly clay barred and waxed car, and best if you've used Meguiar's Ultimate Quik Detailer between washes. If you haven't tried this stuff yet you really should. It's made with hydrophobic polymers and it sheds water like a duck. Amazing stuff - a buddy of mine shot some video of a demo we did at Meguiar's Garage a few months ago and put them up on YouTube when it was still code named 129D