Sunday Afternoon Tradition: Washing the Corvette!

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In my view, there’s nothing better than wrapping up the weekend with a car wash for my Corvette. After a week of work and even more work around the house on the weekend, the car wash gives me a chance to play with the Corvette and get her ready for the next time she’s out.

I’m not an obsessive car washer, but I do have my routine down pat. Like a surgeon, I get everything I need from wash to dry ready to go before a single drop of water touches the paint. I’m not really committed to any one product or brand when it comes to detailing products, so no product pitches today. However I am interested in trying Adam’s Polishes when its time to wax again, but that is a blog post for another time.

I’m not going to bore you the details of how some guy washes his Corvette. However, I will share with you something I learned a while back that makes drying a wet car, especially a black car, a piece cake. Your neighbors will laugh at you because this technique totally fits the image of the compulsive car washer.

I wash a section at a time (hood, driver’s side, rear) and then rinse. But when I rinse I always go back and rinse all the sections I washed previously so that when I finish the last section, the whole car is still very wet. Then I pull out my trusty Toro leaf blower and keeping it about 12 to 18 inches from the body, I blow the water off the car, starting with hood and working my way down and to the rear. Black cars are very susceptible to showing water spots, but the blower removes most of the water before it can dry. It’s especially good at getting water from under the emblems and around the lights and exhaust bezels. When I have about 75% of the water off the car, I then finish drying with a couple of microfiber towels.

Washing a 1966 Corvette Convertible Washing a 1966 Corvette Convertible Washing a 1966 Corvette Convertible

Using a blower as part of the drying process you’ll save time and effort and you will use less towels. And best of all, no more water spots!

If there are any C2 Convertible owners out there, I’d especially like to hear how you wash your rear deck where the top folds under. I’m always paranoid that I’m going to soak the interior.

Got any good car washing tips? Let me know!


Related:
Upclose and Personal With the Indy 500 Corvette Pace Car

 



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4 COMMENTS

  1. Use a CA Water Blade BEFORE you bring out the leaf blower. It moves water off the car fast, leaving the surface mostly dry except for crevices, etc. Then the leaf blower can handle the leftover areas & you’ll be done in no time.

  2. George:

    Thanks for the tip. I’ve always shied aways from those as its just one more thing that actually comes in contact with the paint, whereas with the blower its just air. Perhaps I need to take another look at them.

    Keith

  3. Rick:

    Hey bro, have I become that predictable? I’m actually trying to personalize the blog more with an occassional story about me, after all, I am living the Corvette lifestyle, right?

    Keith

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