Hey Folks,

Mike and I just posted our latest How-To video on washing your car without inducing swirls and scratches. It's about 30 minutes and ready to watch right now.

If you've got a black car or dark paint, it's a must see.

http://www.ShowCarGarage.com

Richard

 

Awesome, watching now. Thanks!

 

sweet i dugg it.

 

Great Video! Thanks!

 

If you guys liked the video, could you please vote on it (if you haven't already) for our Google Rankings?

Go to this link.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...07401372&hl=en

In the upper right corner, there are stars. Click the number of stars that you think this video deserves. And that's how you vote!



Thanks!

Richard

 

I was the first one to vote and voted on 3 other computers now too

But I have to say, I dont like the idea of not having tons of soap suds. what's up with that??

 

Great video.
Pretty much the same tools and techniques I use as well (except when I use the mr. clean, with no buckets, and no need to worry about grit...).

Two comments, while he is washing he often rests his idle hand on the car. I wouldn't want the fingerprints!
Also he wringed out the chamois right next to the car! Dirt will splatter up from the ground onto you clean car. Voice of experience there! I walk a few steps away before wringing.

 

If you take a bath, do you prefer a bubble bath or using a soap bar to get clean???

Suds do help, but its the lubricity of the car wash solution that's going to help you lift off the dirt. I washed a customer black Mercedes yesterday. I maintain it a few times a month, but it had been about a month and a half since my last maintenance. The car was filthy, but amazingly still swirl free.

I washed it with a new synthetic lambswool mitt, and for each panel I wiped, I could see the dirt and contaminants in the mitt. So I wrung it out each time letting the grit guard capture the dirt.

When I finished, I rinsed and dried the car and guess what it was still swirl free!

But there was a ton of dirt at the bottom of the bucket.

My point is that suds can give you the impression that they are helpful, but I never feel clean after a bubble bath!
Btw thanks for voting!



I imagine if you had an artifical leg, you would probably rest your hand to stabilize yourself too. As you can tell from the final shots, there were no fingerprints on the paint.

 

I thought the video was great (as usual from you guys).

My only complaint was having to download the Google player. Google is getting as bad as Microsoft as far as pervasiveness. I distrust all these personnal-info-mining, government-helping lackey mega companies.
Perhaps I'm overly paranoid .

Chuck

 

watching now!

nice work!

 

What computer platform are you on that you had to download the player? On the PC it plays right from my browser.

Richard

 

I wanted to keep it forever and ever and the buffering sucked on my connection so it was herky-jerky. So I downloaded the file and needed the player to open it. Took like an hour to download the video (133MB) . Worth the wait.

 

Did Mike rip his pants again (little joke from the tampa class)

Great video and now I know where to buy the grit guard. Couldn't find them in any local stores.

Thanks Mike and Richard

 

if there is someone to wash my back.

JPS

 

I have a pet peeve here... I was checking out those wash buckets online with grit guard and wheels...

They cost $60? For... a BUCKET? And you had *3* of them? Hell, they were even ON SALE, down from the usual $69.99!

Oddly enough, I was suddenly struck by the old analogy of the challenge presented by using a pen in zero gravity... pens need gravity to make the ink flow to the ball point.

When faced with this in the 60's, NASA and the US went out and spent literally millions of dollars designing a pressurized pen that writes upside down. The Russians, however, took a different approach, one that worked almost as well:

They used pencils.

A detailing guy here in Ohio recommended simply giving your cleaning brush a quick shot from the hose before dunking it back in your wash solution. I do this and whattya know.... never any grit in my bucket after washing!

Squirt from hose = extra nickle in water. Nickle of water vs. $180 in BUCKETS (I really have to stifle a laugh when I say that)... "$180 in BUCKETS..." (( snort - insert PT Barnum quote here))... Easy choice, man.

Please, for the love of God, tell me that the site I found the $60 wash buckets on was run by someone smoking crack. I won't say who it was, other than that it's a linked sponsor from here, in case they "accidentally" added an extra zero at the end of the price and they're really $6. Heck, I may pay $16... but $60?

Other than that, great video as always.

 

ImagoX - I bought mine from the US Plastics website. Got some spray bottles as well. I got two grit guards and two buckets for like $25 and they have a bunch of colors to choose from. I think the $60 is really for the wheels, but did you notice that Mike never once wheeled the buckets around to the back of the car !

Oh and Jonathan - good luck with that line .

Chuck

 

Here is the site for the buckets:
Buckets

and here are the grit guards

Grit Guards

 

I can get buckets in that size for like $3 at the hardware store... No wheels but, hey... And even $7 for a grit guard seems a bit much... I can turn a $.50 plastic collander upside down in the bucket... I wonder how they justify the $70 price tag?

I'll give kudos to the grit guard inventor though... those things must cost, what, a dime to make, after all the setup is done? Love it. Thanks for the links!

 

You should by all means get whatever works for you. But if you've ever tried manufacturing an idea securing a patent, to get molds made, and manufactured then sold it to a limited market though channels that also need to make money from distributors, to retailers, sometimes things just aren't as cheap as you would think they would be. Especially if you're hoping to make some money to recoup the costs before some guy decides to mass produce copies of your product and sell them through Walmart for cheap. I know this from personal experience.

Video Feedback
Thanks for the comments people!

133MB isn't bad. My original edited version is 6GB and the version I sent to Google was 260MB, =)

Richard

 

im a dork and bought a Griot's bucket with the grill on the side,
along with the casters. that'll run you about $65 + $14 or so
for shipping. oh, and they have a $13 lid that i might
get.

it's a hobby. who cares (?)

 

OK I voted! woo hoo

 

Not sure about the Griots, should be same, but Grit Guard one--they have a lid that's also a seat so you can use the bucket as a seat to detail from. That's pretty cool to me!

Richard

 

i have a special detailer's creeper for that!

 

Hahah the detail bug has bitten you baaaaaaaaad.

 

So I got in the tub and shaved her back.

JPS