I spend a lot of time washing and drying my MINI, but over the three years of ownership I've gotten my time down from nearly one hour to about 20 minutes and that is pushing it. I guess I feel a bit of guilt--that I should be spending more quality time with the wife and kids instead of my car, so I've tried to get faster, less ****. I need about half an hour to do it right. How long does it take you on average?

 

I have only owned my '05 MC for five weeks and I have washed it five times, waxed once. It takes me an hour to an hour and a half to wash, dry and clean the interior. I don't rush it because I really enjoy doing it and it gets me away from XBox and Mac games.

MTFBWY,
--Will

 

if its a simple exterior wash that i do weekly, about 45-an hr... depends on a few factors, but my main routine every week would be cleaning wheels, and cleaning exterior, i dress the trim every 2 weeks, clean the interior once ever month, zaino once about eveyr 3 months...

 

As I was reading that part, I was thinking you were going to say you felt guilty about not taking your time to clean the MINI like you once did.

 

Depends how dirty the paint is. 1/2 an hour if just dusty, over an hour if caked on grime.

If the car is really dirty, I let the soapy water sit longer before I wipe at it,I ring out the mitt on the car rather than wipe the grime around, this lets the soap lift the dirt. This takes 2 buckets worth.

Then I go at it again with a new bucket of soapy water.

Drying takes me about 10 minutes. I use a 2'x3' microfibre drying towel, blotting the water off, rather than wiping.

I always QD after washing.

 

It pretty consistently takes me 1.5 hours....one hour if I'm going fast. Drying seems to take the longest.

 

Having less surface area does help out compared to washing our family car (a Freestyle), and it usually takes me around 45 minutes or so to do a basic hand wash and dry, longer if I have to clean a lot of caked on dead bugs off the front of it.

If I have time though, I'll spend closer to 2 hours on it, using a microfiber towel to dry off the door jams and engine compartment, and often using a QD for any water spots or hitting it with an extra coat of NXT spray on wax. It's hard to find time to wax the entire car at one time too, so lately I've been waxing one part of the car (front end, roof, etc) every time I wash the car.

-Keith

 

I wash the MINI once a week on a pretty regular basis. I'm down to about 20-30 min unless I'm going all out with rain-x, tire dressing etc. Then maybe an hour or so. Wax every three months or so.

Off topic (sort-of) For those who use rain-x I have found (by accident) a method that cuts application time by one half! Rubbing/polishing it off of the glass used to keep me from using it more than absolutely necessary. Not any more. I'll do one window each time I wash the car.

Try this: in a spray bottle mix approx one part alchohol (rubbing kind) with ten parts water. After you have applied rain-x, mist window with mixture in spray bottle and wipe with micro-fiber or paper towel or terry cloth, whatever and voila! Done! No buffing, haze, or streaks. Works well and so quick and easy.

 

Afternoon all,well just got back from washing Jr. it just seems no matter
what i do wash,wash-wax,wash-qd it takes a minimum of 2 hrs. it just
seems the most time is spent cleaning the X-lite wheeles,they just happen
to be white,they collect alot of crud.But its not all bad,i enjoy seeing a clean car,i think how a person keeps his or her car speaks for the person

 

for a quickie hand wash and dry takes me about 45 minutes

 

I have been testing a new Ultimate Drying Towel that Mothers will be distributing soon. It is essentially a thin synthetic foam chamois covered in a waffleweave microfiber. This dries my car to about 90% in about two minutes. Then I follow up with a standard waffleweave. It's fantastic!

I then use a second smaller waffleweave for the inner sills and trunk, etc.

 

Standard wash and dry takes me around half an hour at the self-service bay. But then I have to add in the extra time over the next hour or two wiping away those dribbles that keep coming out from behind the license plate.

 

Yeah, I haven't figured out that problem yet. I guess I could remove the plate before washing. The gas cap area was a problem until I started using a straw to suck up the excess water. The straw also works below the tail lights and the reverse light.

 

A leaf blower works great here--some people use compressed air or air tank. Just a few minutes of blowing will get all the water out of the crevices--it's kinda cool--you just see the water bead up and travel a distance before disappearing.