Do you dry your car with a cordless blower?

[AngryScientist]

Never really thought about it, but it's a good idea! I do have an EGO blower.

I rarely wash my cars, but I do try and do it once in the fall to get a good coat of wax on them before the winter, and then again in the Spring to get all the salt off, and a blower would speed up the time between wash and wax.

Thanks for the idea!

[zmudshark]

I've been down that rabbit hole. AMA

I've found that a small blower (I have a Dewalt DCE100, because that is the eco-system I'm in) is terrific, with caveats.

The caveats being how the vehicle is treated. I have ceramic coat on one vehicle, and a blower is all I need. I have ceramic waxes on the other vehicles, and though a blower is handy to get water out of drip spots, it's not something I use every time.

The small Dewalt blower is one of the most useful tools I've ever bought. I use it for grilling, mostly, but also for blowing up the grand kid's pool when they come over. Handy for blowing out the interior of the car , and also light yard work, like porch/driveway and deck, patio furniture.

Buy one and see.

More important than a blower is correct microfiber towels, and proper use.

I'm attaching a picture of my 2005 Mazda Miata, which is ceramic coated, DIY. I use a blower on this and the water disappears.

I used UK Cquartz, which I see has doubled in price. I don't know if there is a better DIY product or not these days.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by sg8357

When it is about to rain, I spray the car with soap.
Science takes care of the drying.

that's a good method, i used to do...

[crcycle]

Originally Posted by sg8357

When it is about to rain, I spray the car with soap.
Science takes care of the drying.

I do use my Ego leaf blower with a shorty nozzle before I microfiber towel dry. I'm kind of a detail nut. If it rains after I wash/detail my car. Oh well, at least I have a clean wet car. Better than a dirty, filthy mess.

[charliedid]

I wash once a week at self serve wash and drive away.

[Spdntrxi]

I use my leaf blower then a chamois

[R3awak3n]

I use my leaf blower because I already have it.

My last car was ceramic coated, I will get this new one done as well but for now just use the turtle wax ceramic spray, $14 and does a great job for a couple months. If no ceramic (either temp or long term) then the air dryer does not work great, with ceramic you will have the car dried in 5 minutes its pretty amazing

[CAAD]

Originally Posted by benb

What is the goal here anyway? Some kind of show car level car-guy cleaning process?

I will admit I have blown a bike off with the air compressor.

I can't really imagine going to that level of effort for a car.

I would be really afraid of kicking up dust onto the car after I just cleaned it, or even micro scratches from something the blower ingested. I hand wash a few times a year and just towel off the parts of the car likely to spot.

Usually I just go to the car wash.

At a certain level I start to think car guy stuff gets pathetic. That said a few weeks ago I spent like 2 hours wet sanding my headlights and then reapplying clearcoat. They came out amazing, so there is a kernel of understanding. That's more about avoiding the $1000 or whatever it would cost if I failed inspection over aging lights and had to pay to have the lenses replaced.

It's actually a huge time saver. Takes me half the time to dry the car and just walk around with a towel to touch up and hit the door jambs. Dragging a towel around the entire car introduces micro scratches. The less contact with the paint the better.

Car detailing is just another hobby. Some take it seriously and some don't. People take pride in their vehicles just like some do with their bikes on this board. I guess if you own a Subaru you just wait for it to rain and throw a rag at it.

[benb]

I'm definitely more referring to the people where "car guy" is almost their entire identity.

Nobody like that would ever be hanging out here. We sometimes go to the local car meets and it's just an interesting crowd.

Anyone ever ceramic coat a bike? I hate the whole "cover your MTB in plastic" thing but if a ceramic coat made dust/mud not stick to it that'd be pretty cool.

[Dude]

I'm either neglecting my car or yall are fastidious.








Both.

[tbike4]

Originally Posted by CAAD

It's actually a huge time saver. Takes me half the time to dry the car and just walk around with a towel to touch up and hit the door jambs. Dragging a towel around the entire car introduces micro scratches. The less contact with the paint the better.

The quote in bold is my goal. I "almost" never wash my car in the bucket of suds and hose way. It lives in the garage and I wipe the dust off once a week with detail spray. If it gets dirtier I use 2 gallons of water with what I call the purple stuff> see link.

I too am in the DeWalt ecosystem so a blower to get the car dry quicker and avoid micro scratches would be nice.

I use a synthetic clay bar twice a year on the flat parts and real clay on compound curves & tiny parts of the car. Once a year I will break out the random orbital polisher to remove micro scratches, swirls.

What about the interior you ask? Don't get me started. I just like for my ride to look good and retain some value if possible. I clean the wife's car as well. It has "Self-Healing Paint" so no rough cleaning.

The purple stuff gets the car clean and has a polymer that feels like some fresh wax.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

[tellyho]

Have I ever washed my car?

[reuben]

This thread boggles my mind.

I guess the Silca Swimming Pool of hot wax that you can just drive your car through isn't too far in the future.

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by reuben

This thread boggles my mind.

I guess the Silca Swimming Pool of hot wax that you can just drive your car through isn't too far in the future.

If you have a nice car and want to keep it nice, then a little care and effort in getting there isnt unreasonable. You wouldnt buy a nice bike with dura ace and lube the chain with motor oil.

I use a leaf blower, but its an old cheap corded one my neighbor bought for $15 and gave to me when he moved. I use it to blow off my deck, garage floor and for car washing.


What I usually do is spray off all the loose dirt, pollen, etc with the pressure washer, blow out all the dirt under all the door/window seals/body seams, then hit it with the foam cannon. If its particularly dirty I'll let that sit for a few minutes, pressure wash it off and foam cannon again and wash it with a few microfiber towels. Rinse and toss in the bucket when they get dirty, so 2-3 small towels per wash. Then blow everything out of the door/window seals/body seams, dry with a drying towel (not a chamois, those things are awful) and chase it with a quick detailer or spray wax plus wiping off all the door/trunk/hood sills, another 8-10 towels there. Then all the towels go in the wash.

Whole thing takes about 30 minutes on my small car, no problem to knock out in the morning before work on a friday in summertime. Add another 10-15 minutes to wipe down the interior.

Here's my little cart - $100 pressure washer and a foam cannon also makes life easy but not really essential. I wish I had more convenient water and power hookups to just leave the pressure washer hooked up to a hose reel, but, its not bad and saves a lot of time.

[Louis]

Only one way to do it: