How do you guys go about drying a vehicle that's never seen wax? I find my waffle weave towels nearly completely useless on a vehicle that has no wax. Without being able to sheet the water, there's just way too much water to blot.

I usually just let 'em air/drip dry in the garage over night, then follow up with a QD before claying the next day. Or on a tight schedule I let it drip dry in the garage and wait a while.

Any better way to do it?

 

Water blade and a terry towel work well.

 

Large, old, soft, several-times washed terry towels work great. New towels don't absorb for crap...but those trusty old towels really do the trick on abused paint

 

On any paint that it already abused, I have no problem using a water blade or a normal terry towel.

Now, on paint that isnt that bad, I would never, but the average car our there can take one more wash/dry with "bad equipment"-- you are about to get rid of the marks anyway.

One further note: Why wait to let it dry before using clay? I typically skip drying and jump right into clay. This speeds up the process and doesnt run the risk of doing any more damage (obviously for this I am talking about cars that are in not too bad of shape).

I am always looking to shave off time-- I am almost always on a time crunch for detailing, thus tricks like this and the water blade save me ENORMOUS amounts of time...It is worth the extra few seconds of paint correction to save the many minutes to do all the other stuff...

 

Well the only time when I've worried about using a something less than I'd use on my own vehicle was when I worked on the black bmw I did a few weeks ago. It was in fairly decent shape to begin with, so I didn't want to induce some issues not previously there.

I guess the majority of cars I'll touch are messed up already and a few extra spiderwebs won't hurt - within reason.

 

Here is what i do when i wash the truck after i have finished washing i give it a quick spray down with QD then use the Cc; Jelly Water Blade to remove all the heavy water then use the WW and keep a bottle of QD handy for touch ups.

 

If it's never seen wax, use anything you have that will blot water. Even one of those stupid Shamwows should work fine. Hit it with the leaf blower first.

 

Sheet the water off, Water Blade, Blower.

 

I can't believe this is a topic...

 

'Scuse me for trying to do the best job I can...

 

Luke, you have to take into account that Attworth has recently been seriously infected by the OCD bug.........I swear some people here seem to be afraid to let their vehicles see the light of day or unfiltered air.

 

Amen to that! lol, I thought that since we enjoy cleaning so much that we should actualy get them dirty first!

 

I'm just trying to make the least work for myself. I find that if I have to wash the vehicles people bring me, it adds a lot of time that I'd rather not spend. I was my own vehicles plenty as it is. My whole family turns to me since I enjoy doing it and we don't have a useable garage.

At the same time, I'd rather not take short cuts and induce issues that I'll need to correct later on - especially on vehicles which don't need much of anything.

 

In a case like that (never waxed), I doubt that you will induce any issues that it doesn't already have by using just about anything that will dry it off, just use the most absorbent thing you have and a leaf blower. You can clay it before it's squeaky dry.