Washing a Black Car in Direct Sunlight

CV355

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There is growing hype about methods to wash a black car (or any car for that matter) in direct sunlight without winding up with baked on suds and water marks. The claim is that if you wash the car in direct sunlight, allow the car to air dry, mist it with diluted spray wax, and rinse the car, it appears spotless. I've watched several videos on it and it appears to work.

Curious if anyone else has tried this and what your thoughts are. I'm sick of having to wash my cars at 6am or 8pm to avoid that big ball of angry in the sky.

***EDIT: Debunked as fake***
 
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Revvv

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There is growing hype about methods to wash a black car (or any car for that matter) in direct sunlight without winding up with baked on suds and water marks. The claim is that if you wash the car in direct sunlight, allow the car to air dry, mist it with diluted spray wax, and rinse the car, it appears spotless. I've watched several videos on it and it appears to work.

Curious if anyone else has tried this and what your thoughts are. I'm sick of having to wash my cars at 6am or 8pm to avoid that big ball of angry in the sky.
You will find yourself washing again, and likely stripping any wax so you can start over.

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850SNCobra

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I've gotta check some of these videos out on youtube, I don't believe this is true for any black car lol. For my Alloy GT500, I had an interesting run-in with this yesterday. I woke up later than expected but still needed to wash the GT500. Then by the time I finished washing the car, the sun was coming up in almost full force and beaming on the drivers side of the car.

I planned to spray on the Meguiar's hybrid wax and then rinse it off per instructions since I had applied a basecoat a couple weeks ago. Once I was nearing the end and getting ready to spray the car down with the meguiars hybrid wax, I noticed water spots all over the driver door. I went ahead and re-sprayed the door with the hose, sprayed on the hybrid wax, rinsed it off then dried the car like normal and there weren't any water spots.

I'm a noob in detailing so not sure why it was rather easy to get rid of these water spots, I remember on my old Cobra I made the mistake of washing in the sun once and had the hardest time of my life getting the water spots off.
 

Norton

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Never a good idea, but risk can be mitigated with good quality, pH neutral shampoo and detail spray, along with proper technique. Best idea is to wash in the shade. If not possible, car should be wet (starting on shady side), foamed (starting on sunny side), washed, rinsed (starting on shady side), detail sprayed (starting from sunny side), and dried (starting from sunny side). The idea is to minimize the time you have plain water sitting on the paint in the sun.

As I said, the best idea is to wash in the shade. I have, however, seen and done the above done with no spotting. There are probably a number of products suitable to the task, but the ones I've seen/used were from Adam's.
 

black92

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The only soap I've used that really did a decent job in direct sunlight on my black car was Mckee's 37 Si02 auto wash. McKee's 37 Sio2 Auto Wash

Edit: I used this on my car and it isn't yet coated (came with the coating kit I bought).
 
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HudsonFalcon

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CobraBob

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I wasn't sure if this was a serious question. LOL. I understand your curiosity because you read/see all kinds of stuff on the Internet, and often you have to filter out the real/truth from the untruthes. That said, NO!!!! Do NOT wash your car in direct sun. That's a no-no if you care about the paint finish. Shoot for around 8:00 AM on Saturday or Sunday if you can't do it during the week. Or late afternoon as the sun drops. Just be sure you don't have direct sun, especially on hot days. Or wash in the shade if shade is available. As @NastyGT500 said, you want a cool surface, not a hot one. I had to decide on Saturday afternoon whether to wash my G70 around 5:30 PM or at 8:00 AM on Sunday. I chose the latter because it really is the best time to wash when you don't have a shade tree. And the sun was hotter than I preferred late afternoon.
 

rolive

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I had a neighbor in 2002 who would only wash his new M5 when it was raining. ‘Pure rainwater is the best rinse’ he told me. He would also occasionally serenade the neighborhood with his best Santana guitar riffs on Friday nights. Now that I think about it I believe he was on meth...


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CV355

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I wasn't sure if this was a serious question. LOL. I understand your curiosity because you read/see all kinds of stuff on the Internet, and often you have to filter out the real/truth from the untruthes. That said, NO!!!! Do NOT wash your car in direct sun. That's a no-no if you care about the paint finish. Shoot for around 8:00 AM on Saturday or Sunday if you can't do it during the week. Or late afternoon as the sun drops. Just be sure you don't have direct sun, especially on hot days. Or wash in the shade if shade is available. As @NastyGT500 said, you want a cool surface, not a hot one. I had to decide on Saturday afternoon whether to wash my G70 around 5:30 PM or at 8:00 AM on Sunday. I chose the latter because it really is the best time to wash when you don't have a shade tree. And the sun was hotter than I preferred late afternoon.

I'm an "open minded skeptic" about halfway between Mulder and Scully haha. I see some weird claims on the internet, and I love poking holes in them. Especially click-bait Youtube videos. I got tricked into watching one video with the method I mentioned in the first post, but then saw a whole string of videos claiming that it worked. That's the only reason I didn't put it to rest immediately. There was even a video I watched of the Ammo NYC guy using a clay bar with soapy water. That got a big "hmmmm."

Granted, I avoid washing my car in direct sunlight, but unfortunately the only good shady times are about 6am to 8am and 7pm+. I have to scramble. Someday (was supposed to be this year, but...) I want to build a small garage in the back yard with a car wash bay on the side. Then it won't be an issue anyways.

It's all a big difference from my CT days. I could spray down a car with filtered well water, middle of summer, direct sunlight, go get a coffee and wait for it to dry. No spots, no runs, nothing. Then, I moved to SC, needed to wash my Volvo after the 1200mi drive down, and the water boiled off the car before I could put a sponge on it.
 

Revvv

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I had a neighbor in 2002 who would only wash his new M5 when it was raining. ‘Pure rainwater is the best rinse’ he told me. He would also occasionally serenade the neighborhood with his best Santana guitar riffs on Friday nights. Now that I think about it I believe he was on meth...


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I've been guilty of washing my car in the rain. Drying it is a challenge though. Lol

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SSCOBRA03

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Not very good at linking websites but search "CR Spotless Water Systems." I use it to wash my black Challenger Hellcat with no spots left behind. Not cheap but works perfectly.
 

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