Subject: Good idea gone bad (long) Author: sdmike1 as sdmike : member since December, 2005 : 14341 posts Posted on: 2008-09-18 23:47:01

Since I was using my pressure washer to clean tennis ball scuffs off the front of my house (courtesy of my 11 year old), I thought I would wash the e38. Rest assured, I'll never use my pressure washer again for that purpose.

I have a pretty high-end (e.g. "not cheap") pressure washer from sears, and it has a nice reservoir for soap. The idea is that you put solvent/soap in the reservoir, spray the car on low power (which deposits the soap/solvent on the car), then use a high pressure rinse.

Ask me why this took me 2 hours!

Well, it would not suck the diluted soap solution up out of the reservoir and mix it with the spray. I took the back panel off and didn't find any problems. I dug out the instructions and confirmed that I was doing it all right. I was. I pulled the suction tube out of the reservoir and discovered that, in fact, it wasn't sucking at all. After removing 4 or 5 screws in an attempt to take apart the washer to diagnose the problem, I decided "f!@# it", and just put it back together. I'll bitch at sears later. At least they gave me a 800 number to call.

So, I sorta still liked the soap idea, so I mixed a couple of table spoons of zaino car wash with a gallon of water in a pump sprayer I had laying around. I pumped it up, and managed to give the car a nice soaking in zaino suds. So far, so good...I thought. Then it started to spot! I turned on the pressure washer and rinsed the car from top to bottom, removing soap and dirt (assumed) as I went. Then I used my california water blade to remove the large drops, and a microfiber cloth to dry the car.

Uh oh.

The cloth was a little dirty. The soap and pressure did not clean the car, only remove "most" of the dirt...even though it looked clean. So why is this a problem?? Swirls!! After drying, my damned hood was a MESS. You could see big swirls from where I dried the car. Long, curved micro-scratches in the clear coat that looked like shit in the late afternoon sun. So now I'm an hour into this little 15 minute (planned) adventure, and I have a semi-clean car with lots of paint scratches. I also have a pressure washer laying half apart in the driveway, water spraying sorta all over from a loose fitting, and my darling wife telling me I better come in for dinner.

After scarfing down a perfect cheeseburger from the grill, I went back out and fired up my little WEN buffer and my Z-PC. Robert G is borrowing my Porter Cable, and i won't see it until he gets back from Germany. So for the next hour I worked on my hood to get the scratches out. I ran the battery out on that little WEN polishing the paint, then I followed with a quick application of "whateverwaxIhadinthecabinnetbecauseididnotwanttomixupabatchofZ2". As the sun started to set I looked out at my accomplishment...

A mostly clean car, with a shiny hood, and a lot of work left to do to finish the job. Oh yeah, a pain-in-the ass pressure washer that is now missing a screw (cause I lost it)

Sheesh

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1999 Royal Red 740iL (1/99): 16:9/MK3, Basslink, ipod DICE, Mpars, tint, 01 corners, angel eyes, Powerflex, Zaino, 01 tails, 750 porn lights

• Good idea gone bad (long) - sdmike 2008-09-18 23:47:01 (300 views)
  • It's all good man. I think we've all been there. This reminds me of the time - captainsilva 2008-09-19 14:27:47 (80 views)
  • Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, How did you like the play??? (nt) - TxDarth 2008-09-19 11:22:33 (52 views)
  • A screw lost is better than a screw loose... (nt) - Lurcher 2008-09-19 09:17:41 (47 views)
  • Look on the bright side. At least it's clean LOL! (nt) - kingdom7 2008-09-19 08:10:12 (52 views)
  • At least you didn't sandblast your car, like my cousin.... - RobinK 2008-09-19 07:42:05 (89 views)
    • oh no!! Was it the brush or particles on the brush from the house? (nt) - sdmike 2008-09-19 11:22:35 (49 views)
      • Particles on the brush that came off the wall! - RobinK 2008-09-19 12:05:17 (44 views)
        • wow! The person who invented nylon car wash brushes should be shot (nt) - sdmike 2008-09-19 15:43:13 (49 views)
  • Dang your not happy at all I feel your pain, been there done that! (nt) - Edwin 2008-09-19 04:11:15 (35 views)
  • - should have tought it was friday the 13 th! - eismark 2008-09-19 03:42:39 (49 views)
  • Sorry, Mike. Not a great day, huh? Tomorrow will be better! - sealbeach740 2008-09-19 01:22:47 (52 views)
    • I'm actually pretty fond of the water blade. I keep it clean (nt) - sdmike 2008-09-19 01:36:29 (51 views)
      • +1 on the blade.. IF there is loose dirt on the car the blade will float it - R7 2008-09-19 07:59:51 (51 views)
      • but I guess I should get my leaf blower out, huh? ;0 (nt) - sdmike 2008-09-19 01:37:03 (47 views)
        • Well, a leaf blower wouldn't introduce scratches or swirl marks like - sealbeach740 2008-09-19 02:12:41 (44 views)
          • Well, I normally only use the blade when the car is clean - sdmike 2008-09-19 11:20:48 (43 views)
  • Burnnnnn. That sounds like 80% of my out of nowhere projects too! (nt) - Ed 2008-09-19 00:43:51 (46 views)
    • ahh...shadowline. It's all coming back to me now. lol (nt) - sdmike 2008-09-19 01:04:49 (43 views)
      • ; ) Hissssssssssssssssss (nt) - Ed 2008-09-19 01:26:18 (44 views)
  • Well, you can always use the PW to remove the scratched paint. :-))))))))))))))) (nt) - bmw635 2008-09-19 00:18:07 (46 views)
    • awww dude! (nt) - sdmike 2008-09-19 00:24:35 (38 views)
    • bwahahahahahahha Thats just wrong! (nt) - R7 2008-09-19 00:21:20 (45 views)
      • +1 LOL that's terrible! (nt) - captainsilva 2008-09-19 14:14:45 (46 views)
  • :-/ I would think you of all peeps know that water and soap alone doesn't clean - R7 2008-09-19 00:13:27 (63 views)
    • just took this pic. You can see I did a lot of work on it (pic) - sdmike 2008-09-19 00:40:34 (147 views)
      • The work shows, nice! (nt) - Shled 2008-09-19 08:26:20 (48 views)
      • Cexy (nt) - R7 2008-09-19 08:01:18 (51 views)
    • hahaha...nice. Call that the WOT mod?? :) - sdmike 2008-09-19 00:20:55 (47 views)
  • For all their good uses press. washers do not remove grime from cars... - WTH 2008-09-19 00:08:27 (49 views)
  • we are all guilty trying something cool for our 7`s but to find out (pic) - snitch 2008-09-18 23:52:22 (119 views)
    • I'm actually batting 2 for my last 3 - sdmike 2008-09-18 23:54:29 (54 views)
    • yep...but for a while it sure didn't. :P (nt) - sdmike 2008-09-18 23:53:16 (43 views)