Should I use soap when washing the car?

The world has many mis-informed in varying degrees people. On some forums, the discussion can get pretty crazy (absurd) detailing wise since many people what they think. For example, when someone really believes his once a year polish works, who can argue with him. It satisfies. him.

The funny thing is the once a year detailed car may look better overall because the one week detailer takes his ride to a local car wash. The more you touch the paint the better your technique needs to be.
 
Amazing how someone can mix truth and myth in a single thought!!!

it washes off the clear coat and wax over time..think of your car as your face...would you put all that crap(harsh detergents and soaps) on your face?..I wouldnt...just water and the softest towels..
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Yes, harsh detergents will strip wax, but any decent quality car wash shampoo does not contain harsh detergents and they won't strip wax. And I think we're all a bit discerning when it comes to what soap we will and will not use on our faces as well! I won't even dignify the "washes off the clear coat" part with a response, however, as that's just laughable.

We had a guy come down to several our Thursday Night Open Garage sessions a couple of years ago who had followed this advice on a teal green Ford Escort. It was 17 years old and, from a distance, didn't look too terrible. But he had long before heard that just plain water and a soft terry towel was all that should be used to wash a car. Viewing from a distance was one thing, but up close was a different story. 17 years of plain water and a terry towel had left the paint literally scoured. Not just swirled, but scoured as if it had been cleaned with a ScotchBrite pad. Amazingly the car did not exhibit any signs of clear coat failure, but it also didn't really exhibit any signs of gloss or clarity. Maybe even more amazingly, the owner actually thought the car looked pretty good. Until we put a buffer to it. While the paint was beyond any sort of true salvation, it did at least end up with fairly shiny scour marks.
 
That is what I was thinking Mike. Ask him to take a close up picture of his paint with a sun reflection. I bet the paint would look like he ground sand into it. Also, recommend he start washing his face with soap, it might clear up the acne.
 
I really don't want to critique his method, as everyones is different. But I don't want people, who have no idea what they are doing, to wreck their finish.
 
My next door neighbor NEVER uses soap on his car, although he washes it almost weekly.

He hold the hose in one hand and wipes the car with a mitt in the other hand.

His vehicles have record-setting swirls. :banghead: (But you can't tell the guy anything. He already knows it all.)
 
That is some crazy logic

I have been told so many times not to use Dawn to wash your vehicle
because it will hurt the clearcoat and take the wax off. My next thought
is why use wax in the first place. I have been using one sealant since 1992,
and I can tell you that Dawn will not remove it. I worked at a car wash
for around a year, and my boss do not believe that the acrylic sealant I use
would last one year. He washed his black ford truck everyday but sundays
and hoildays, and he could not wear it off.

I wash my vehicle with Dawn all the time and looks great everytime, and I
clay my vehicle once a year and then reapply the sealant.
 
billd55 said:
I have been told so many times not to use Dawn to wash your vehicle
because it will hurt the clearcoat and take the wax off.
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I agree it might take wax of, however I am quite confident it will not take off the clearcoat. For years, all I ever did wash my cars with whatever my wife had under the kitchen sink. We bought a Silver LeSabre new in 2000 and when I turned it in some seven years later the clearcoat was perfect and it shone like the day I bought it. Now being silver, and my washing skills at the time, I am sure there were swirls in it, but the clearcoat was perfect.
When I bought my new car, I did a lot of research on claying, washing, waxing etc. and now only use auto soap on it, only to make the wax last as long as possible. Anyone would be hard pressed to find a swirl anywhere.
It is a black vehicle. I don't own it, it owns me. :banghead: You black vehicle owners know what I mean.:eek::eek:
 
billd55 said:
I have been told so many times not to use Dawn to wash your vehicle
because it will hurt the clearcoat and take the wax off. My next thought
is why use wax in the first place. I have been using one sealant since 1992,
and I can tell you that Dawn will not remove it. I worked at a car wash
for around a year, and my boss do not believe that the acrylic sealant I use
would last one year. He washed his black ford truck everyday but sundays
and hoildays, and he could not wear it off.

I wash my vehicle with Dawn all the time and looks great everytime, and I
clay my vehicle once a year and then reapply the sealant.
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How much Dawn do you use? People always say that Dawn will strip off (carnuba) wax but I think it would take either a really strong concentration of it to take off something like Klasse ,Werkstatt ,or Blackfire.
 
I think the Dawn issue does get blown out of proportion, but why not use a dedicated car shampoo to wash? What benefit is there to using Dawn versus a car shampoo for routine washing?
 
jaredpointer said:
I think the Dawn issue does get blown out of proportion, but why not use a dedicated car shampoo to wash? What benefit is there to using Dawn versus a car shampoo for routine washing?
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When the temperature is 77 degrees and there's not a cloud for 500 miles, every yuppie in my neighborhood gets out the Dawn and slathers away.

Why?

Because it's there and they don't have to go to the auto parts store to "buy" anything!
 
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