Boy, how did I miss THIS thread?? And after all the abuse I took for chiming in on the Car Wash thread... whew.
I'm certainly not a pro, nor am I the biggest perfectionist on the block - but on average I spend about 6 hours per week washing our two cars (X3 and X5). Until recently aquiring the X3, I had an E90 which was a tad easier to clean, just in terms of square footage and height.
My first caveat is that discussing brands of wax, polish, and other cleaners is like talking politics or religion sometimes, so hopefully everyone is being tolerant of everyone else's brand loyalties....
Over the past few years, I have been using more and more Griot's products. To the point that my garage almost looks like a mini-showroom. I find their products to be of very good quality, relatively well priced, and generally easy to use. One thing I have learned over the years is that car washing/maint is like many things - using the right tools for the job. You can wash an entire car with a soapy bucket and a rag, or you can have a garage that looks like a woman's vanity drawer... or anything between. I have evolved into the latter of these.
So, here is a typical weekly routine:
Rule 1: Wash and dry your car only in shade. Doing it in sunshine will cause the soap and water to dry far too fast and will bake unwanted soap and chemicals into your finish.
Start with a good rinse, use pressure from your nozzle, then leave the car soaked. The more dirt and grime you can flush off without actual 'touching', the better. Don't forget those wheel wells and wheels. Amazing how much brake dust you'll see flowing down the driveway.
Cleanest-to-dirtiest: Which generally means top-to-bottom. So, I start with the roof. For the X3 and X5, unless you are a basketball player this is challenging. I use a two-step stool/ladder to get the height I need. In addition, I use an extendable stainless steel pole washer from Griot's. It is equipped with a microfiber removable "wash mitt" head. This allows me to clean the entire roof, windshield, hood easily where I wouldn't be able to reach very well otherwise. Also, in cold weather this keeps your hands away from the water and makes the job much more tolerable. Although I do also have a special insulated sheepskin mitt for winter.
Next, rinse everything you just washed. Don't let soapy water sit and dry on the vehicle. This also flushes off contaminants that you may have losened but didn't fully remove. Use a flow of water, not a spray. Spraying just continues to make the soapy water suds up... a full flow gives the flushing action and carries everything away.
Now, move down to hood, windows, etc. Door panels are next. Then rear hatch and bumper, rocker panels, and front fascia. Try to wash each panel then rinse the mitt before moving on. Save the dirtiest parts for last (rocker panels and behind each wheel) as you'll collect a lot of grime that you don't want to rub around the rest of the car. If really bad, use a separate mitt or rag for these areas.
Last are the really nasty bits - tailpipes, the far underside of bumper skins, inside painted wheel wells, etc. Again, rinse liberally after each "section" you wash.
I use a couple of types of wash, either Griot's Car Wash (very slippery and concentrated) or Meguire's.
Drying: I start with a dripping wet car, because I continue rinsing and re-rinsing until the whole car is done. I don't like any part of it to naturally dry or there will be water spots. First, I use a Gel Blade to squeegee off the majority of the water, especially on the roof and hood where it can really puddle up. Next, squeegee all the glass. Water spots on glass drives me insane - especially the windshield. Then I take a waffle style micro fiber towel (the ones I use from Griot's actually have little hand pockets that are great) and Griot's Spray Wax... and using a mist of spray wax on each panel, dry gently with the towel in the exact same order the car was washed (top down). For the few areas that did start to dry and spot before I get to them, the spray wax removes those spots, and it also increases the drying life of the towel. One towel can dry the entire X5 or X3.
Next, using a different towel (one that can get a little icky), open all the doors and dry all painted surfaces inside your door areas. Same for rear hatch.
Now it's time to do the wheels. The approach and supplies depends on how filthy they are. First I do the tires. I either use Griot's Rubber Cleaner, or Simple Green (a terrific inexpensive cleaner that is environmentally safe) and stiff brush. For the wheels, I prefer not to use a brush unless absolutely necessary. BMW wheels are painted, and I keep them waxed... I don't really want to scrape my wax off with a brush. I use a dedicated wash mitt for the wheels and get everywhere I can reach - all the way to the back side. For the areas I can't reach, I have a four-finger-mitt for wheels that gets behind the spokes and into other tight areas. For the remaining "back part" that I can't reach with either of these, I use a wheel cleaning tool that is like a barbeque cleaning pad on a long plastic handle. Great for getting that area behind the rotors, etc. I have a special brush for the lug holes, that gets them and the lug heads nice and clean.
Follow with a good rinse (for wheels I spray, not flow) then dry with a towel that I don't mind dirtying a bit. If the wheels are really bad, I will spray them down with either wheel cleaner or Simple Green to help break up the grime and loosen the brake dust.
For waxing, I use several combos. I use a random orbiter, and hand application. I like Griot's Paint Sealant because it provides a fantastic base protection that will last up to a year. On top of a couple coats of that, I generally use a carnuba wax. I also use Turtle Wax Ice on some areas, because you can get it on plastic or any surface and it not only will not show, when buffed, it protects the surface just like the painted portions. Great for the A pilars where you have that black rubber strip running down the middle.
Clay bar when needed... polish when needed... I found that on the new X3, the clay did a great job of removing some of the cosmolene that remained in a few spots, when nothing else would get it off.
Lastly, after debadging, I use "Goo Gone" to remove all the adhesive residue, then clean thoroghly and seal/wax.
Luckily - my neighbor is just as completely insane as I am.
