Sheepskin mitt - How safe is it on dirty surfaces?

A

Anzafin

New member
Hi there.



I'm starting to be paranoid with my sapphire black BMW :scared:...



I did a full paint correction few months ago and got some nice results (http://www.autopia.org/forum/click-brag/111474-anzafin-s-sapphire-black-bmw-530d-detailed.html). Of course I want to keep it that way, almost flawless, but...



This early wintertime is a very dirty season here with all the dirt on the streets. I wash my car once a week and always with extreme care and high quality stuff. And with right tecnhiques I hope.



But this fear is growing in me that I'm afraid to touch the car even with the Mother's sheepskin mitt. I prewash the car before touching it as good as I can, but there's still some visible grit on the surface when the time comes to wash the car with the shampoo and mitt. And I'm not talking about HUGE amounts of it, but still visible.



I'm asking how safe is it, the mitt? I know too much pressure and insufficient use of lubricant hurts, and I do it so gentle as possibile, but still... After the wipe the mitt gets dirty so I rinse it, but sometimes it doesn't clean up all the way and the next wipe is just more frightening again. Aargh... Or is it just me?



I use solvent wash sprays as a prewash on lower panels, but I think they will hurt the clearcoat in time. So I try to use them reasonably. And sure they remove the wax too, but that's not a problem. I can wax the car after every wash if it needs it.:chuckle:



Any good tips to remove the excess and stucked dirt? Right techniques to use mitts?

And yes, I use two bucket method and I can wash my car in a warm garage during wintertime.



Sorry for a long post and such a noobie question :(, but I appreciate all the help.



edit: Oh, one thing: are the sheepskin mitt and lambswool mitt the same? :laugh:

Seriously, are they?
 
use a GS. when you wash... you can do a one direction gentle swipe, flip it over and do the same. they rinse out easily, and then just continue on...
 
Noting that I use a foamgun for all washing, I pre-wash with the foamgun and a BHB. Gotta do it right (so gently that it takes a few passes to get stuff off), but once the BHB gets the big stuff off I can switch to a mitt.



This pre-wash is based on the "too gentle" nature of good BHBs; used *properly*, i.e., with minimal pressure and constant flushing with the foamgun, they're just right for the "dislodge and flush" approach to washing but they won't get the surface quite as clean as the mitt, hence the follow-up using that.



Works great for me now that I have my technique sorted out; our vehicles get *filthy* in the winter but I seldom have to do any polishing come spring. Easy on my LSPs too (this is using Griot's Car Wash).



Note that with *any* wash medium, I'd move it in short, interrupted "jiggling" motions. That way if you *do* get some marring, it'll be something minor; a 1" scratch won't show as badly as the foot-long one you could get from long, sweeping motions. And the brief pauses and changes in direction (from the jiggling) make it more likely that the foamgun's output will flush away anything abrasive.



In the absence of a foamgun, I'd fill the mitt with shampoo mix (just hold it under, cuff-up, in the wash bucket). The mix will seep out while you wash, providing some degree of flushing.



One way I evaluate my wash technique is by how dirty my rinse bucket water gets. Even when doing a *VERY* dirty vehicle, I no longer get a lot of dirt in my rinse water; it gets flushed away instead of getting trapped in my wash media (which might've led to marring) before I rinsed it out. IMO it's the moving of dirty wash media across the paint that causes the majority of wash-induced marring.
 
My wash routine w/ 3 black vehicles includes: (if grit is present) a blast w/ an electric power washer followed by a soaking using a sprayer



gilmour362_.jpg




w/ DG 901 and a subsequent blow w/ the washer. I then use 2 buckets and several sheepskin mitts. The key to a mar-free wash for me is to use the sprayer w/ DG once again, panel-by-panel, rinsing the panels as I go and also rinsing the mitts outside the buckets using a firemen's nozzle attached to a variable shutoff valve. This way I can get a gentle wide dispersion spray to hose off the mitts. Lather, rinse, repeat.



Using the sprayer w/ a quality soap adds lubrication to each panel so my mitts don't touch an unlubricated area and don't have to follow a foam gun pushing soap ahead of the mitt. Using quick connects this process is fairly fast.



The short jiggling motion is very good advice and a process I use as well. Just as Accumulator I have very little if any grit in my rinse bucket and use the gallon or so of soap water left to do my tires/rims next wash.
 
citizen arcane- Yeah, I envy you folks who can use a pressure washer for the prewash (my shop's too crowded, overspray and all that...).



Instead of the quick-disconnects, what about having more (dedicated) hoses? I have two of them (for the water and foamgun) on each side of the washbay, and a third hose on one side for the CRSpotless. I find it a lot more convenient than swapping out nozzles, more so than I'd expected.
 
Accumulator said:
Instead of the quick-disconnects, what about having more (dedicated) hoses?
Click to expand...



Sounds like it works fine for you but as stated, quick connects for me only adds maybe a coupla minutes to the wash time. I don't want to complicate the process any further. Now maybe if I had that CRSpotless.....
 
citizen arcane said:
.. I don't want to complicate the process any further. Now maybe if I had that CRSpotless.....
Click to expand...





Roger that :xyxthumbs Different people see different things as complicating/not :D



For some reason switching the sprayer/nozzles/whatever was driving me nuts whereas having all these hoses all over the place (getting twisted together, for instance :o ) doesn't bother me a bit!
 
Anzafin, in Kajaani, Finland you might have problems locating a Grout Sponge like we're using here in the U.S. Obviously you can find sheepskin mitts so they should work fine for you, but you might want to consider using more than one. That way you can use a different mitt or mitts for the lower portions and/or dirtier parts of the car.



After a good rinse I like a good pre-soak with a foam gun, but if you don't have one consider the tip that Accumulator gave: ".....In the absence of a foamgun, I'd fill the mitt with shampoo mix (just hold it under, cuff-up, in the wash bucket). The mix will seep out while you wash, providing some degree of flushing......"



Also an important point to remember is that your car will shed dirt easier with an LSP (wax or sealant) that is in good condition. In your situation I think it'd be hard to beat Collinite 476 as a long lasting winter wax. If you have problems finding it over there I'm sure one of us could ship you a tin.



I don't think think there is a difference between sheepskin and lambswool mitts.
 
Eliot Ness said:
..I don't think think there is a difference between sheepskin and lambswool mitts.
Click to expand...



I *have* noticed a difference that can be functionally significant..not sure if it's a matter of sheepskin vs. lambswool, but it sorta strikes me that way (well, just intuitively :o ):



My Griot's mitts are type of wool that's less like "straight hair" than my other mitts. Yeah, they're "real"/natural but it's more like a fuzzy, curly type of fur than straight hair (think poodle vs. collie). That type of fur somehow makes me think of "lambs" (which in turn gets me thinking about killing them so we can make carwashing mitts outta them, but I digress...). While these fuzzy mitts are *very* soft and hold a lot of liquid, it's a lot easier for dirt to get trapped in them, which can lead to marring. My mitts with straighter hair are a lot less hassle to use for this reason.



Again, this is far less of an issue with the initial passes being done with a BHB as that gets the "big stuff" off while rinsing clean a lot easier than a mitt does.
 
Does Groit's still sell a lambswool mitt? The only one I see listed as lambswool is a four finger mitt? The only full size mitt I see is referred to as a sheepskin.



The only lambswool mitt I've actually felt are from Mother's. I bought one last August at a show and it just feels like all my regular sheepskin mitts. My mitts all feel about the same (straight hair?). These include sheepskin (Eurow & Patagonian), wool (Autopia), and lambswool (Mother's). I suspect that manufacturers take some liberties on what they actually call their mitts, much like we have polish that actually polishes and polish that is actually a sealer (Zaino).



The only fuzzy or curly mitts I've seen were those synthetic mitts.



Anyway I digress. I think the OP was using a Mother's mitt, hence the question about lambswool vs sheepskin. In my experience my Mother's lambswool mitt is just like my other sheepskin mitts.
 
Eliot Ness said:
Does Groit's still sell a lambswool mitt? The only one I see listed as lambswool is a four finger mitt? The only full size mitt I see is referred to as a sheepskin. ..
Click to expand...



Eh...beats me :nixweiss I didn't reference their catalog before posting :o As you noted, manufacturers seem to call stuff whatever they want anyhow.



FWIW, the little mitt Griot's sells for wheels (which I *really* like for the back sides of spokes) is kinda like their "regular size" mitt, being a bit more fuzzy/whatever than my other (straight-hair) ones. The two Griot's mitts aren't really the same, but they're kinda similar and different from my other ones.
 
As long as you preseaok and use two buckets with a grit guard you're fine.



I always thought the sheepskins were supposed to release stuff easier than other mitts once rinsed.
 
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