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4 Simple Car Drying Tips

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Proper drying can be as important as a proper washer to ensure a swirl-free finish. With just a few simple tips you can get ensure you are drying as safe as possible.

1 – Quality Towels: This is, of course, the most important part. Don’t be that guy using a bath towel or the one nice drying towel you bought 5 years ago. There are a ton of great option but my favorite is The Rag Company Twist & Shout.

2 – Sheet Dry: If your vehicle has protection, which it better, you can use the “sheeting method” This is where, after the car is washed and rinsed, you use and open end of the hose and with low water pressure you flood the paint and since the vehicle is protected the water will collect together and sheet off the paint.

water-sheeting-action

Here you can see just after it was rinsed

car-after-rinse

Here is after the sheeting method, you can see the sheer volume of water is much less, meaning less overall to need to dry

car-after-sheeting

3 – Blow Crevices: Using and air blower to blow dry the whole car would be ideal, but at least blowing out the crevices before drying will ensure you don’t have the never ending drips by your door handles or keep re-wetting the surface when your towel goes over a trim piece.

water-in-crevices

4 – Detail spray: After sheet rinsing it is important to use some sort of detail spray. Think about when you are washing you have a ton of lubrication to help prevent swirls. Yet when you are drying you have none, so a quick spritz of detail spray on the panel will add the necessary lubrication for the towel and add a bit of pop. A light detail spray that actually isn’t a ton of protection is the best for this. Something like the Nextett Perfect Shine. This step isn’t to add protection, it is just to provide lubrication.

These tips will greatly improve your end result when drying and be safe at the same time!

Ian Martinez
Gloss Angeles
Irvine, CA
GlossAngelesDetailing.com
Instagram | YouTube

11 comments on 4 Simple Car Drying Tips

  1. Kelvyn Goveo says:

    Hi, what if you are planning to apply a Sealant or wax to a car … would using a spray wax or detail spray asa. drying be suitable?

    • Koehler says:

      You would still be able to apply a detail spray and use it with a clay bar. Do not use the spray wax because you’re gonna wax it at the end.

  2. David King says:

    This is the same procedure that I have used for the last few years and I have had good luck .

  3. Steve says:

    My cars have ceramic coating. Can I substitute Reload for detail spray?

    • Ian says:

      Reload is to add protection and top of a coating, using detail spray in this sense is just to aid in the drying, so this would work on coated and non-coated cars.

  4. Manny says:

    Do you know of good detailer I can follow on YouTube

    • Doug Green says:

      Apex Detailing, Forensic Detailing, Pan The Organizer, Obsessed Garage, there are many more but these are among the absolute best.

      I watch pretty much all of Brian’s Apex Detailing content. It is very good!

  5. Steve says:

    Aside from those found on DI, I like Pan the organizer. Check out his review year end product review.

  6. Clayton says:

    What’s the best drying aid to use on a ceramic coated vehicle that won’t change the characteristics of the coating?

    • Ian says:

      A detail spray will work fine. It’s not going to adhere very well to the coating and it’s so light anyway that it won’t make any difference, but will still help encapsulate the water

  7. pdqgp says:

    I’ll ad in a tip to use a damp MF rag too, not a dry one. I tend to soak one in a bit of rinseless wash and distilled water, wring it out until it’s damp, then I mist the rag with my detail spray of choice, etc. Dry from there.

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