Any Tricks to Washing these Cars?

[efnfast]

Originally Posted by AC Cobra

Efnfast, I think we're talking two different things here: washing any car or truck and washing our Cobras. And, I don't mean those Mustang Cobras.

You make some very good points about washing the general family vehicle. I wash my truck at a Laser car wash and no brushes every touch it. It even sprays the under carriage as you drive in. Works well. But I have my Lexus gets detailed monthly at a car wash with lots of suds and rinsing with plenty of water. Dryed with soft cotton cloths.

My Cobra is a different story. It's only been washed with water two times in the 7 years of its existance. Bug removal is the harshed cleaning. Other than that quick detailing spray and a soft cotton cloth. I put a coat of wax on it every spring.

- laser wash doesn't work as well as you'd think. there's still a good amount of dirt on the paint. I could stand in one spot with my pressure washer for 5 minutes and it still wouldn't be perfectly clean - you need to rinse, lubricate, then aggitate, not just spray.

- Drying with soft cotton cloths really doesn't mean anything - if it's done wrong it will swirl/micro-marr the paint. Depending on how soft your clear is (IIRC lexus/toyota can be soft depending on the color), rubbing it with towels will really do the paint no good. You need to BLOT using a micro-fiber waffle weave (most effectivE). not a chamois or similar, but BLOT with a m-f waffle weave like
http://www.autogeek.net/cobra-guzzler-hd-towel.html

Of course I'm probably crazy because I spend an extra 4minutes drying my car by blotting with 4 waffle weaves versus rubbing and marring my paint =)


The cobra is not anything special; it's just another car, but this time without a roof. Thinking it's this super special car that you can't touch or wash or let get wet is just as dumb as the people on viperalley who think they can't drive their viper when it rains, or that vipers are super-duper hard to control (funny, I never crashed mine, in whiteout or in rain, lol). It's exactly the same as washing a z06 or viper or whatever you want to insert here, the main differences being that since it has no roof you don't start at the top, and you have to adjust your angles. Oh yea, and also be careful not ot damage the exposed radiator and block off the hoodscoop (atleast in my case since I'm using Bruce sssssupersnake hood) so you don't get too much water in the enginebay.

Originally Posted by Garage10

efenfast
Thanks for the detailed description. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.
Brent

Feel free to ask any questions you want; always good to share the knowledge