You are very circumspect.
I want to see an ordnance passed where they take leaf blowers away from retirees. For one they obsess about every leaf, and they have far too much time on their hands. On my street, they mostly come here to retire and the only damn skill they bring with them is to be in the leaf blowing business.

 

LOL as it is a skill. Besides how are we supposed to get the leaves off so we can practice our golf chipping. The bigger problem is when the working folks come home they cut their grass at 6:00 at night. That's when we're having our second round of cocktails.

 

As I posted previously... imagine having 4 black cars to wash with this issue.


The only answer is a DI Resin Vessel connected into your hose line. Softened water has salt replacing the hard particles. The salt leaves residues when the water droplets dry, almost as bad as the original particulates it's replaced whilst softening the water.


A DI Resin filter vessel will remove 100% of particulates... water droplets evaporate leaving nothing behind on the paint.


However, you do need to replace the resin in the vessel regularly (every few months) to keep the particulates at low levels.


I measured the particulates in my tap water at 350/ppm. After filtering through a carbon based water filter 250/ppm. From hosepipe attached to fresh DI vessel - 0/ppm.


Seriously, if you live in an area with hard water and don't want to wipe/wax all that dried droplets crap off you car every wash... get a DI Vessel.

 

...or you can rinse with distilled water. This guy uses distilled water and a Worx Hydroshot. I'd still follow with a drying waffle weave towel but the distilled water would give you more time..

 

I've used these for years - never a scratch.

I work the glass first, then the roof, hood, sides, back and front in that order, then I follow with micro towels to dry.

No spots left behind. Sacrilege I know, but I'm happy with it. No need to buy water shipped in from sacred springs in the Andes mountains and blessed twice by a Shaman on the holiest day of the year....

 

now that's funny

 

This Mr.clean clown should not be teaching others.
He has made many mistakes- it may work in his area, but wont on others.

When you let the sun dry the car, all the water that is on the car starts attracting dust, as it should.
Water that pools in the crevices wont come out till much later, as streaks.

This is the important part.
Never wash your car in the sun- never. You will bake soap on before you can reach for the water.
Dont use a electric or gas pressure washer to wash the car- you first drive the dirt further into the paint and then you drive water into areas its not supposed to be.

Tip for XK coupe owners. The second best thing you can do to make drying easier: apply a easy sprayon product like netshield, to the door jambs and especially the track of the hatch. Water will never sit there and drip slowly, nor will dirt build up.

 

Agree on all counts.
I wash in the shade with regular water and dry with a waffle weave. My car is white but I make sure there are no spots. The distilled water would certainly help with spotting issues though.

Also, that hydroshot is low pressure. I don't have one but it looks pretty cool.

 

He did introduce me to that cool gadget. I can think of a lot of uses for that.
Mainly portable foam cannon. Foam would kill just the broadleaf weeds.

He mentions that normally he uses an electric pressure washers.

The thing to keep in mind is that you pretty much have to fail pretty bad at all sciences in life to become a detailer. Just a grade better in physics, and he could have my gig, lol. It is an art, and I am sure he is an artist, commercialized.

 

I can't see what the video is showing at work, I assume some kind of rinsing with pump type setup to do a final spray with distilled water. But the same principle as a DI vessel... using water with no particulates means no way water can leave spots and runs.


When the hosepipe is delivering what is effectively distilled water, you don't need to touch the paintwork after washing the car, just walk away and let it dry itself to a spotless finish.


The resin is not cheap (£75 for 25kg) but worth every penny in my book for the hassle it saves, and cloths, and finishing sprays etc...

 

No, this isn't how water softeners work.
They use the same resin you speak of, but then those resin particles get rinsed clean with the brine solution which removes all the hard water particulates from the resin. The resin is then flushed clear of the brine by a copious amount of water during the Rinse cycle. No salt actually gets into the water system. What good would a water softener do if it made your drinking supply into sea water?

 

Not quite. Quick google reveals:

The process of softening water means there is a small amount of extra sodium in softened water. ... If you live in an area where your water hardness is 400 mg/litre as calcium carbonate you must have a separate hard water drinking tap.

You’re Seeing Spots from Sodium in Soft Water
You may be wondering why a water softener can’t reduce TDS when it is removing minerals like calcium and magnesium.
That’s because water softeners use an ion exchange process to replace hard minerals with sodium ions. You can learn more about how a water softener works here on the Water-Right blog.
Since sodium ions are being exchanged for calcium and magnesium ions, the TDS of your water isn’t directly affected. For every sodium ion taken out, a sodium ion is put in. The higher the mineral content in your water, the more sodium is exchanged to soften it. The sodium content of softened water completely depends on how hard it was to begin with.
Softened water is certainly better for cleaning and bathing, and will extend the life of appliances like your washing machine and water heater. However, the spotting you notice from soft water may actually be sodium spots.
When water evaporates from your clean dishes or after washing your car, a powdery sodium residue could be left behind.
The good news is, sodium spotting can be very easily wiped off with a towel. The same cannot be said for soap scum and limescale spotting. You can also avoid sodium spots by thoroughly hand drying your car or dishes instead of letting them air dry.

Regeneration – How Water Softeners Keep Working
Regeneration is how a water softening system cleans and recharges itself so it can continue providing your home with soft water.
All water softeners will come with some kind of secondary storage tank. This is where the home owner will need to add water softener salt. Water is added to the tank to create a salt solution called brine. Therefore, this component is known as the brine tank.
During regeneration, the water softener will take the brine solution into the softener tank and the ion exchange process happens again, only this time in reverse.
The media gets a bath in the salt solution. Hard minerals caught in the resin (or zeolite) are released and the media gets replenished with sodium ions. The water softener is also cleaned and disinfected during regeneration. Finally, water containing the hard minerals and other waste gets flushed out of the system.

 

I'd take that "with a grain of salt". I live in a very hard-water area and have had my softened water tested several times. It's always <120 ppm of sodium. My system flushes at six days max, or at 1200 gallons. No separate consumable supply recommended or required. My softened water has less sodium than a lot of 'Spring Water' bottles.

 

I'm not sure what part of that you would take "with a grain of salt", water softeners remove particulates by replacing them with sodium. Which will leave residue if you wash your black car and let it dry in the hot sun. How much residue depends on the original hardness of your water.

And I'm sure that if you sprayed a bottle of Evian over your hot clean car, it would leave water droplets marks behind. Probably horrendous ones.

 

Precisely what I was about to suggest folks try. But not with Evian for heaven's sake. Save that for washing your best shirts. It has high amount of mineral content- I believe artificially added. When you look at a bottle of Evian in the mirror it spells naive.

Not joking about the shirts, they wont yellow.

 

We must consult Hyacinth Bucket on the proper manner in which to wash a luxury Jaguar....when the neighbors are looking.

 

And even then, should say we were doing it wrong. Love that show!

 

This water has heavy mineral content:

 

I have just bought a black car...what have I done to myself)


I am hoping a ceramic treatment will help me keep the swirl marks away.


will it?

 

Car paints are not that soft that a DIY pressure washer pushes dirt into the piant!!
I have been using pressure washers for 20 years on my cars and never had a problem!