Hello,

I'm hoping to get some drying tips to help me more effectively and efficiently dry my R56.

1) It's a total pain to dry the front and rear grills. They're a cluster of cells, and retain so much water. Of course, I have some pretty hard water, so leaving it behind means white residue (calcium deposits?) which aren't good. Currently, I go into each cell w/ a waffle-weave which takes forever.

2) Inside bonnet and trunk lid: I dry the car fine on the outside, but then lift the bonnet or boot and water comes pouring out of all kinds of crevices. Any help on that? Especially the bonnet, where water gets all over the engine.

3) My side mirrors weap...right where it attached to the door. I'll wipe it dry and a few minutes later, there's a long stream of water coming out. I have to continuously wipe both sides, and end up using some Slick later on to clean it up.

TIA for any help!

 

Use either an air compressor or a shop vac in reverse (blow). This will get all the water trapped in the nooks all over the car and especially in grill work where it's hard to get at with a towel. You have to get close to the area you are blowing the water from to really get it out. It's interesting just how much water can blow out of the belt line even though you may have driven it a couple blocks or dried it 2 hours ago.

When I finish drying mine, there is no streaks of water other than the base of the mirrors. Can't seem to get it out completely there for some reason. Works well on wheels too.

 

I open the hatch and doors and dry the sills and all that stuff as part of my drying process. That stops 90% of the drips. If you don't open the hatch, let the water all run out, and then dry it, it'll just keep dripping from wherever it's trapped in there.

As for the honeycomb stuff, use an air compressor to blow it all out.

 

I use my leaf blower to blow off the extra water ( be sure that it doesn't exhaust thru the tube ) or it can leave an oily film ...

Electric ones work well as well as the motorcycle blowers

 

on a car like our MINI's with all these little bits and pieces, definitely
open the hatch as ML mentioned and use a leaf blower/compressed
air.

this is by far one of the most time consuming cars to wash... quite
ironic vs its size. perhaps this is why i stopped getting the car dirty
in the first place.

 

I'm amazed how much water drains from my doors after a wash. I open them and there's a decent drip stream from lower front.

 

For the mirrors, I rotate them and dry. This does two things, it lets the water drain from behind the mirrors and it allows access to the mounting area that have some water collecting areas.
The bonnet issue drives me nuts too. So I dry the bonnet and then open it and put a towel over the engine as fast as possible. Then do the rest of the car while the grill drips. Seams at the A panel, side light, tail light and boot/bumper seam drive me nuts too. Edge of my towel works for the seams and a couple of raps on the side light knocks the water out.

 

Thanks all for the useful tips...I guess it's time to invest in a leaf blower of some sort...

 

+1 on the air compressor - and on turning the side mirrors - those work well for me. I have no more "drip angst" now.

 

If you have another use for a leaf blower, like blowing leaves go for it. Other wise think about investing in a small air compressor, much more useful

Mark