How long does it take YOU to wash?

A

audio1der

New member
I used to go to the wand wash (no, my car has never seen an automatic) and dry in about 30 minutes.

Now, I wash & dry at home, and it takes me about an hour.

I know I'm doing a better job and being easier on the finish, but it seems like so much work.

And don't get me started on quick detailing that turns into an afternoon...:cool:

Just wondering how much time everyone spends to wash & dry.
 
For me it depends on the size of the car. On my Explorer it's about an hour and 15 minutes on average. Town Car is about an hour and a half. It can be shorter or longer depending on how careful I want to be.



I'm slow. :(
 
If it seems like work, youi're doing it wrong :) Seriously, once I started using cool tools like Einszett Exclusiv Shampoo and the big blue towel for drying, washing became much more fun
 
I know what you mean!! :( I used to think that I spent a long time washing my truck, but now I wash the wheel wells with Pro's degreaser/cleaner, then the tires with EO, then wheels with EO A2Z, then wash the truck(using of course 2 buckets), canopy and boat(on the canopy) and canopy rack. To do this takes 3 different mitts(wheels, upper paint, lower paint). Then comes the drying: I use the CW on my windows, and a mixture of both the Absorber and Meg's new Waffle Weave MF. Finally, I dress the tires with No Touch, and Meg's #40 on everything else that is plastic/rubber.



Total Time: 3 HOURS!!!!!:shocked :shocked



And that is at FULL speed and no breaks!



Cheers

Tim
 
Yep, I'm definitely in the 3-hr (4-hr?) range. 3-bucket method. And I've not really "washed" unless I've also done the door jambs, lip around the trunk and engine bay, under the air dam, wheels and wheel wells, etc. Also takes extra time to keep the car wet til I'm ready to dry the whole thing (to avoid water spots). And blot dry takes more time, it seems to me, than just the rubdown I used to give.
 
Daria gets bathed in 1 hr which includes drying of door jambs and interior cleaning and treatment. If I decided to be extremely anal, it can take anywhere from 2-8 hrs.
 
my car Betty, with the help of S100, takes ~1 hr for a wash,dry, and dressing. Since I wash it every 1-2 weeks it's really easy. It's hard for any water to stay on the car, though, hehe.

now for some of the other cars that I do, 2-2.5 hours for the same thing. The front of the car get be pretty ugly.
 
man, my wash and dry USED to take about 45 minutes, now I am on the hour and a half progam. My old condo had 'softer' water, and my new house has water that is HARD AS ROCK!! I have to re-rinse each panel as I am drying and I fight with water spots like no ones business!! Wax As You Dry helps, and QD helps, but what I really need to do get a mist/pump/spray thing for gardening and fill it up with RO water or soft water and use that as my final rinse....

You shoulda heard me cussin' & swearin' over the weekend while drying the Civic...THEN I thought of the sprayer idea last night-oh well. Thanks whoever posted that idea originally!
 
Straight wash and dry, which I do every week, takes on average, about 1/2 hour. If I have to do anything else, like use 20/20 on the glass, dress the tires, clean the engine etc., then it's anything goes.
 
1 to 2 hours per car. This usually takes up my Saturday mornings. Then I have to mow the lawn and do the rest of my chores!!!
 
The time varies based on where I'm going and how dirty the car is. Roxanne (named that since she trips the red light at the track) takes about an hour or so to wash. If I'm driving somewhere soon, it takes a bit longer since I have to unscrew the front grills to get teh water out of them and open/close the doors several times to get all the water from everywhere. Plus, I always wash down and dry the door jambs and hood/trunk channels.



If I QD right after drying, that adds another 15 minutes or so. The beauty of QS is that I can clean the glass at the same tme as I QD the car.
 
Thanks, everyone!

I feel a little better about leaving the gf inside by herself every Saturday morning now. (I do wash both our cars, but that just compiunds the time, now that she knows what an Autopian-level detail does to her car!);)
 
Actually, my wife said it best when she said "How come it takes you an hour to wash your car when you only spend 15 minutes on mine?"



:D
 
Typically takes me about an hour. Depending on it I get out the leaf blower and blow out all the cracks and what not then it will go about 10 mins quicker.
 
Probably about a half hour. If you stay on top of it then it shouldn't take much longer than that. If the surface is waxed then the water just rolls off when you use "the perfect drying technique". I've got low profile tires so those take little time to dress. Since I covered my sideskirts those don't take any time to take care of either. I'm the only one who is ever in that car so the only part of the car that needs vacuumed is the driver side. It goes pretty fast when you have the right technique and the car is maintained to a standard every week.
 
On my daily drivers I usually average about one to one and a half hours. This includes washing the wheels and tires, a two bucket wash method, and drying with the Perfect Drying Technique. Then follow with with a QD and some exterior dressing.



If I have to wax I am over 2 hrs. Its time well spent..:D
 
Well, it's a Miata, so:



I can wash, dry, and either QD it or wax it, all in a little over an hour. That includes a slow deliberate cleanup that involves rinsing out the towels etc. But, the car rarely gets so dirty that I have to do more than swab it with the chenille wash mitts.



Mosca
 
About 2- 21/2 to do my F150 Supercrew. This is washing and drying the entire truck, doing the door jambs, and dressing the tires only. Add another few minutes if i need to do the windows with IG. My last full detail, polish, SMR, and Souveran pluse chrome polish, wheel polish and the undecarriage and engine took me an entire Sunday and most of Monday morning.
 
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