I am shipping my car to Cali today and one of the requirements is that your car be washed before you take it to them. So I went to wash it and I was out of car wash, what I did have though was Palm Olive Aroma therapy dish soap. I've read things online saying don't wash with it but I did anyways. The result is the cleanest car I have ever had, the thing is so clean. It did take all the wax off but that isn't a problem because I am gonna wax it before it goes. I just had a bucket with clean water, a rag, and a hose. I put the dish soap directly on the rag and did my car one section at a time and now it looks amazing, plus it smells like lavender now.

 

I use Dawn dish soap all the time. Never found any issues with it. Good enough to cut grease and grime in the kitchen yet not hurt my hands, how bad could it be on a car's finish?

Palm Olive? I thought they stopped sellin that brand. Poor Madge, I miss her.

 

Yep, once or twice a year I use Dawn to strip all of the old goo and gunk before clay bar and buffing.

Effective. Yet oh, so gentle...

 

And my hands, just feel my hands.....

 

OMG! OMG Twice!

 

Dawn (or Palmolive) is GREAT just before claying as it does remove ALL wax... but that's the only time it should ever be used to wash your cars.

 

the only problem with Dawn is it does strip all wax from your car so if that was your intention then your fine. I have not heard of the other dish soaps Palmolive, or any other that do what Dawn does (strips wax). Mike From Orange could probably clarify this. In your case I'd still put some wax on it when the car gets to California......enjoy that California sunshine.
Pat

 

Wax is essentially a type of grease. Any dish washing detergent worth a darn will effectively remove grease from your dishes. If it does that well, it will also strip wax from your car.

Regular use of a dishwashing detergent can cause issues for the paint, vinyl and rubber trim, etc over time. But, and this is a big but, if you wax regularly (like after every time you wash with the stuff) and apply a protectant of some sort to all the plastic and rubber trim, you won't have as big a problem as those who wash with Dawn (or similar) every week but never do anything else to their car. And there are a LOT of people who treat their cars this way.

Over time you can literally dry out the paint, which can lead to premature clear coat failure. This assumes you NEVER wax or polish the car, however. I'm just a big fan of "best practices" when it comes to auto maintenance (whether that be mechanical or appearance) so I avoid dish soaps at all costs.

Comments like this though "I just had a bucket with clean water, a rag, and a hose. I put the dish soap directly on the rag and did my car one section at a time" just give me the *******!!!

 

Want me to scare you even more? My first PT Ltd was black and for some reason I thought a sponge and the hose were enough, no dish soap, nothing else. Then someone told me probably not a good idea, I've been using Meguiars Gold ever since. Tried Zaino, Mothers, Turtle Wax and Pinnacle products and none come close to the Meguiars product. A shameless plug for you Mike!

 

This thread reminds me.
Time to wash n wax the Crossies again!
Yea! Time with my girls!

 

Well, here's another. Meguiars Gold. The best.


A thought about Dish soap. If it cleans off wax because wax is essentially a grease. Then how does Meguiars Gold clean grease? Explains why some mystery darkstuff just won't come off unless I use Dawn

 

The Meguiars enzymes are essentially smarter than dish soap enzymes. They're bred that way. They know NOT to eat the wax off a car. I think they look like those little Pac Man dudes. Meguiars has all these really smart people like Mike that teach them wax - you don't eat, grease and grime you eat. I mean c'mon if you were a soap enzyme what would you rather be? Cleaning a dirty dish or a nice car? I hear Barry Meguiar smiles at them a lot too. Happy little soap enzymes. Sheeesh!

 

I waxed it right after so it would have some protection on it's boat ride over. Why is it bad to wash a section at a time? I'm just gonna say that I'm moving from Kaneohe, Hawaii (which is cold today at 80 degrees) to Oakland, California (Which is 55 degrees today). Safe to say the California sunshine isn't the reason i'm moving.

 

I had no idea, and now consider myself soundly admonished for my ignorance.

Thanks Pat.

 

Thanks Mike. Yeah I cringed a little at that myself. Straight soap is gonna be hard on the paint. Soap is a solvent. It will keep on solving!

Unless you rinse for like,,,, forever.

BTW Tell Barry thanks. The Meguiars "Ultimate Protectorant" samples arrived for the CAA event this week.


roadster with a stick

 

Kagen - I really do wish you some California heat. Thats gotta be a tough move but honestly what we went through back in February..........40+ gazzilion inches of snow etc. cold, power outages. Well we stole all the warm weather from the west coast. So if it in the 50's in Oakland its probably in the low 60's in Livermore where my brother lives? Its 95 here! Ha ha ha! Too bad ! ( my brother had to tell how nice it was out there when we were snow bound here)
Back to your question about washing your car in sections? I've never heard this. I wash my wheels/tires first (seperate bucket) and then I do the hood, front end, roof, side and rear then rinse. Then I finish the remaining side. I guess this is what you would call in "sections" and after 5 years my car is still in one piece and it still shines a bit. Who told you that?
Far as I know there's no other way to wash a car but in sections. If its a really hot day I may soap up fewer sections before I rinse but for the most part I do as stated above. My neighbors all think I'm crazy but then they always want to know why my car looks new compared to their new cars that look old. (One of my neighbors washes his new Chevy with a push broom) No one else in my neighborhood has Crossfire OCD like I do.

 

Washing a section at a time is perfect. Just pouring some dish soap onto a rag and wiping it on the paint (like doing the dishes!) is what scares me. Washing and drying - incorrectly - is how 90+% of swirls develop. Everybody wants to know how to remove them, but I also like to teach people how to prevent them in the first place. Your described wash method is just..... well..... not right. Sorry.

Pat, you crack me up. Not sure that our soap is any "smarter" than any other, it's just got more common sense maybe???

Franc, for those times when you've got something really nasty on the paint, you need something beyond a safe and gentle soap to fix it. There is no such thing as the "perfect solution" that will cure every ill without causing some negative effect - in this case, remove grease without stripping wax. We do make a product called Body Solvent in our pro detailer line, and it's pretty darn good stuff. But it will strip wax in the area applied. But if you need to use this product, you've got some more serious issues with the paint anyway!!

Oh, and a big "thank you" to all of you for the support and kind words about our products. We love hearing that kind of feedback!

 

I use a product line typically referred to a "Prep-Sol" by most body shops around here. It's essentially the body solvent referred to by Mike-in-Orange. Haven't found anything that it couldn't remove. Just always polish & wax the area where I used it. Usually used by body shops right after sanding a car prior to painting, and between coats when dealing with "orange peel" or maybe a surface defect found later. Makes the surface totally clean so paint adhesion is best.

I've used Palmolive dish detergent for years without any harmful effects on car surface. I always make sure I'm buying the standard or normal version, as anything with a citric acid ingredient (lime, lemon, orange) will most assuredly attack the surface. Over the years, I've sorta deviated from my practice and now I just add a small amount of Palmolive to the car wash soap I'm using. Never have any issues.

 

I can honestly say not one drip of dish soap has ever touched my car.

 

+1 for sure