We all love the feeling of driving a clean and spotless car. Applying easy cleaning and drying tips leaves your vehicle looking brand new again, and this shows how much you value your ride.

A good cleaning is just as good, but is it enough? Not really; drying the car also plays a significant role in keeping it clean and preserving the car's exterior paint. Allow me to highlight a few basic car cleaning tips before we get to how to dry the car after washing.

Cleaning Your Car

Car wash Adelaide prefers to purchase suitable car washing soap or shampoo and washing tools such as two microfibers, chenille wash mitts, or sponge and wash buckets with a grit guard, and you are ready to start your cleaning. You may prefer to start with the wheels as this is the most notorious place with dirt. And most importantly, do not use the water used in washing the wheels to wash the car's body.

Also, adapt cleaning the car from top to bottom, which greatly helps avoid redoing the cleaning. You might also consider parking the car in the shade to prevent it from drying up so fast and leaving behind soapy spots. For this, you can check this list for professional options.

A two-bucket system is the best way to go in washing the exterior of your car, as one bucket keeps the soapy water and the other a clean rinsing water. This will help you to avoid re-applying dirt and grit on the washing sponge; thus, no damage or scratch is done to your precious car exterior.

After washing your car thoroughly, you may now rinse it with clean water or a high-pressure hose pipe and let the water drip off as you get your drying tools ready.

Drying the Car

Now we get to another critical but straightforward process. Most people do assume that once the car is washed, that's the end of it. Though I tend to differ with it knowing that drying the vehicle is important because;
  • a) It helps check on the parts you might have missed cleaning well; after all, we are not 100% perfect.
  • b) After rinsing, there might be remains of water droplet spots or soapy spots, so it is necessary to get it spotlessly clean.
  • c) The water used to clean the car might be mineral water; thus, it can be risky in harming the paint; drying the car further just shows how much you value its durability.

There are various ways of drying up your car, and this depends on your preference but it allows me to list the simplest common ways that apply universally.

1. Blower

Another great drying component is a dryer/blower. This blows water off the surface of the car using an air compressor in a cylinder. They work great in getting off even the smallest details of water droplets within cracks and also can be used by motorcycles and any machinery that needs to be totally dry from water. For perfect results, dry your car with blower.

2. Microfiber Drying Towel

Drying using Microfiber does not leave swirls on the paint, and they are most common in the market though prices might vary from point to point. I love this type of towel because you can find a big size that makes work easy as you can dry a more substantial surface at once and absorb water faster; they are also safe to the surface as they leave no scratch.

3. Waffle Weave Drying Towel

They are equally soft as microfiber towels, but these ones absorb water even five hundred times more than microfiber. You can dry a whole SUV with one take without squeezing the water out of the towel.

4. Synthetic Chamois Towel

The synthetic Chamois towel has been there for quite a while. It dries the surface really quickly, though, unlike Microfiber and waffle weave; Chamois towel needs to be wet first to dry; I know that sounds funny, but yeah, just as I said, make it wet before use, or else it's going to leave a scratch on the paint. Another thing that you need to know about it is that after use, you only wash it with warm water and not soapy or cold water; that makes it quite a hassle, but it works just well in drying.

An essential caution when either washing your car or drying it using towels is to always use a straight line cleaning technique and never use a circular motion. This will leave swirl marks on the sweet paint and also, just like when washing, always start from top to bottom when drying too.

5. Non-towel Method

Other non-towel methods include the use of a safe-paint water blade/squeegee. Unlike regular window squeegee, this one is a unique design t-blade for paint, and it is even flexible in wiping the second direction, thus drying the water out quickly.

Although one has to be cautious while using the squeegee that keeps the surface clean from any debris piece of rock to avoid scratching the paint. For the windows, a safe-paint squeegee will do just fine with a single wipe though you may follow up with a microfiber/waffle weave drying towel or a synthetic chamois.

Final Verdict

Many people concentrate too much on washing their cars and forget about drying, which is also crucial. After reading this post, I believe you know how to properly dry your vehicle after washing. From washing to drying your car, every step matters a lot in maintaining that fantastic first look.

About the Author

David Williams is a Networking Engineer by profession and blogger by passion. He’s quite excited about his involvement with Gearspie Blog. He devotes himself to learning new stuff, exploring new places and spreading whatever he learns through his blogs.