Drying: MF or Waterblade

L

langod

New member
HI All,



Was having a discussion with a friend and we started discussing the best way to dry a car.

I use MF towels. My friend uses a California Water Blade.



What do the Autopians here prefer, and why?
 
the vast majority on here use high quality waffle weave towels (i only use the ultra-soft ones) and/or an x-large microfiber drying towel. don't really care for the CWB, there's the risk of scratching the finish if there's any dirt caught underneath it...
 
I will never use a waterblade on any vehicle I touch...



Any thing that may be on the finish that would normally get lost in the MF nap has no where to go and in my mind would cause marring.



I'll let the water sheet off and then use a blower to get the most of the water off the paint and out of the cracks. Once that is done I blot dry with a WW
 
I will dry with a waffle weave microfiber towel.



I will sheet the car off. Dab the whole car dry with Wal-Mart WW Towels.:clap:
 
I use the sheeting method which works great when backed with the Megs UQD.



Other than that, I use a Megs SYN chamois and megs water magnets. Gives a good streak free finish.
 
Great! Thanks for your opinions -- all your thinking goes along with mine.

I wanted a sanity check -- my friend has a gorgeous 1969 Mach 1 (compared to my comparatively lowly '02 Mustang) and I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.
 
I have been using the water sheeting followed by a MF WW to dry. I am fairly new, but spent a lot of time searching these forums and got the general consensus that using a blade gave you the likely potential of marring.



chris
 
Definite Sonus Der Wunder Towel for me - covers a huge area, and does the whole car with one towel.



Tell your friend not to despair with the blade, they do have their uses......cut the silicone end off and use it to "spread" paint into stonechips - it cuts away a nice flat finish, the left-over can be removed with polish later :xyxthumbs
 
See on the other hand I have a CWB and have never had a problem I will sheet the water off then use the cwb to do the whole car then the windows then I will go over it all again with a water magnet. The water magnet barely gets wet enough to wring out there is hardly any water left on the vehicle by the time i am using the magnet. I keep my cwb in the plastic case it came in and every time before I use it I shoot it with a hard stream of water to make sure there isn't anything stuck to it. but it never touches anthing but my car paint and windows. Never had a problem. I think its a matter of opinion.
 
99BlueAngel said:
See on the other hand I have a CWB and have never had a problem I will sheet the water off then use the cwb to do the whole car then the windows then I will go over it all again with a water magnet. The water magnet barely gets wet enough to wring out there is hardly any water left on the vehicle by the time i am using the magnet. I keep my cwb in the plastic case it came in and every time before I use it I shoot it with a hard stream of water to make sure there isn't anything stuck to it. but it never touches anthing but my car paint and windows. Never had a problem. I think its a matter of opinion.
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Surely by dragging something across paintwork is gonna cause some form of micro-marring at least ? :confused:



No matter how well you look after these things, it's really how much dirt / debris is left on the car after washing that makes the difference, which can be quite surprising.



Like you say, it's all down to a matter of opinion in the end. Each to their own I guess :)
 
NO ww, NO mf, NO blade, just 100% terry cotton towels touch my car. I say why spend more money on a product trying to replicate an existing product - just buy the original. I don's use the cheap a$$ terry towels from autozone, pepboys etc - I use bath (human) quality towels. I have yet to see anything out perform the original.
 
I use a three step approach depending on the weather.



If if its really hot and sunny I first get the water blade out and do the windows and the horizontal surfaces making sure to wipe the water blade on a MF after each pass.



I then get the leaf blower out and blow out all the cracks and crevices.



Then I take a MF and dab or gently swipe what is left.



I have been using the water blade for over 8 years and not once has it scratched or marred the surface. If you are worried about getting debris caught under it you really should re-evaluated your washing technique.
 
My newest drying technique is water sheeting followed by blowing off whatever is left with a leaf blower. Finally... my touchless wash system is complete! *pinky finger to corner of mouth*



Waterblades were the source of several RIDS in my last Charger. And I don't think anyone is more anal (except maybe Accumulator ;) ) during the wash than I am. In other words, there was *nothing* left behind on the finish. Waterblades are evil, evil, evil.



It's pretty cool to watch the sheeting method followed by a leafblower on the Vintage. It looks like the car is spitting the water right off the finish.
 
After much lurking and my own experience I would have to concur with the no CWB mantra. I am still a noob but the streaky results combined with the screeching noise the CWB made has turned me off. I plan on buying some WW towels to replace my Absorber and have been using the leaf blower after sheeting to minimize the drying required.



I have to admit that AFAIK the CWB never scratched the paint, I just feel like the less is more approach to drying makes more sense.
 
Gizzsdad said:
OK - Something new for us newbs. What exactly do some of you mean by 'water sheeting'?
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d2mini said:
Let the water run gently out of the bare hose end, no sprayer attached.
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Gizzdad -- by doing the water sheeting, you'll notice that the majority of water flows directly off of a well-waxed car. The trick is to minimize any splashing of the water so it flows smoothly over the paint as it comes out of the hose. You want a good volume of water, but not a great deal of force.
 
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