[bmwexecutive]

It's been 9 days since I last washed her and I'm sort of dreading the 5 hours of work I know I'm going to have to take today to give her a bath and spritz some Z6 and Z8. I wanted to make a thread to see how long the rest of you guys spend washing your E90 each week so I can ease the pain knowing the rest of you spend just as much time---assuming you do. My time is usually broken down like this:

2 hours: Washing and Drying
20 minutes: Break
1 hour and a half: Coat of Z6 and Z8 and another coat of Z8 on select areas
10 minutes: Break
30 minutes: Minor interior cleaning (vacumming, dusting, etc)

EDIT: I'm actually leaving in a few days for a five-day trip so I'm thinking I should hold off from washing her until I get back. What do you guys think? Better to wash now or when I get back? I mean the car will obviously get dirty between now and the time I get back between the landscapers moving the lawn and the wind blowing up particles and crap so I'd think the sensible thing to do would be to wait until I get back to take the time to wash.

[nmulax]

Wow... that's a long time for not even applying any Z2.

I did my car on Sunday and spent 2 hours on it.
1 hour - wash and dry
30 min - coat of Z6
30 min - wipe down and vacuum interior

I say do a quick wash of your car before you leave... maybe just exterior wash; don't worry about the Z6 and Z8. Then give it a good washing once you're home.

[picus]

Usually less than 45 minutes. Optimum No Rinse, wash each panel, dry each panel, wash and dry wells, apply tire shine, profit. I used to do a spreay sealant after every wash but it was just wasting product, also with the advent of trim products like Z16pro you can skip dressing a lot of the time. As you get more practice you'll find the time it takes decreases dramatically.

[NFS]

1. Tell guy at the supermarket that I would like a wash - 1 min
2. Buy cup of coffee and panini at starbucks - 3 min
3. Eat panini and sip cappucino whilst reading paper and watching world go by - 25 min
3. Collect car and pay hand car wash guy - 1 min

Total time - 30 mins

[gdnyc]

2 hrs to wash your car and no wax??
If I am doing a regular car wash:
15min - wheels and tires
5 min - bottom of doors, front and rear bumpers
10 min - rest of car
5 min - dry
Wait a few hrs for residual water to dry up from in between doors and bumpers
10 min - Apply Z-6 or Z-8

If I am applying zaino (Z-2, Z-5), then it will take a few hrs

[whippersnapper]

45 minutes, some of you guys need to get a life

[vladinecko]

2 hours just to wash it??? guys, common!! how can it possibly take you this long??

i'm done washing and waxing in 1 - 1.5 hrs, tops (and i wash it twice!!). i only apply one coat of wax (some generic brand) and i'm sure my car is just as shiny and sparkling clean as yours

[vladinecko]

Originally Posted by needforspeed

1. Tell guy at the supermarket that I would like a wash - 1 min
2. Buy cup of coffee and panini at starbucks - 3 min
3. Eat panini and sip cappucino whilst reading paper and watching world go by - 25 min
3. Collect car and pay hand car wash guy - 1 min

Total time - 30 mins

[Gitta]

I don't use any Zaino products. Why do you have to apply them every time you wash?

The sealer I use keeps dirt off the car so washing it is quick and easy. Nothing really sticks to the sealer and anything clinging to it just wipes off with no effort, including insects and carbon on the tailpipes. I use Rejex and it really does reject dirt.

[bmwexecutive]

Originally Posted by needforspeed

1. Tell guy at the supermarket that I would like a wash - 1 min
2. Buy cup of coffee and panini at starbucks - 3 min
3. Eat panini and sip cappucino whilst reading paper and watching world go by - 25 min
3. Collect car and pay hand car wash guy - 1 min

Total time - 30 mins

*Laughs as you drive down the street with four gazillion scratches and swirl marks on your car*

[bmwexecutive]

Originally Posted by Gitta

I don't use any Zaino products. Why do you have to apply them every time you wash?

Look at your car under a 500W Halogen bulb and you'll understand why.

After some Z6 and Z8, it's perfect even under the most extreme lighting.

[bmwexecutive]

Originally Posted by vladinecko

....and i'm sure my car is just as shiny and sparkling clean as yours

I promise that it's not. In fact, I guarentee it.

The reason that it takes me so much longer than you guys is because I'm very detailed about it. I get every nook and cranny. Every possible hold dirt can hide. The only place I don't do is the undercarriage and engine bay. Other than that, after I wash my baby, you could eat off of her she's so clean. No joke. Just look at the pictures in the link from my sig.

[E90Brian]

Originally Posted by bmwexecutive

I mean the car will obviously get dirty between now and the time I get back between the landscapers moving the lawn and the wind blowing up particles and crap so I'd think the sensible thing to do would be to wait until I get back to take the time to wash.

For me it's the following:

Wipe down interior (with a dry MF towel), vacuum carpets and floor mats, apply leather conditioner (Meguiar's Gold Class, I think) to drivers seat (the only one usually occupied), 20 mins.
Spray tires with Griot's rubber cleaner and agitate with brush, prep wheel wash bucket with zymol Clear (being a recovering zymolholic I have a ton of it left), clean wheels (no additional wheel cleaner) with what seems to be 20 different brushes/tools (damn 162s), roll car to get behind the brake calipers,40 mins.
Prep car wash bucket (zymol clear again), wash car with boar's hair brush (makes the experience somewhat exotic, eh?), dry car with waffle MF towel, dry underhood/trunk/doors/wheels with cotton towels, 60 mins.
Clean interior/exterior glass with damp waffle MF towel used to dry car, 10 mins.
Dress tires with Griot's Vinyl and Rubber dressing (rolling car again to get all of the tires), align wheel emblems such that the "M" in "BMW" is opposite the valve stem (and you thought you were OCD), 10 mins.
Clean up, put everything back, 10 mins.
Admire work under garage fluorescents, wonder how the hell it can take me 2-plus hours to wash a car, 2 mins.
Total time approximately 2.5 hours.

I do not using Zaino, favoring Klasse AIO/SG instead, so no Z1-Z100 products involved. This takes long enough already!

bmwexective: do you not keep your car in a garage? How can you stand it if not?

[bmwexecutive]

Originally Posted by gdnyc

2 hrs to wash your car and no wax??
If I am doing a regular car wash:
15min - wheels and tires
5 min - bottom of doors, front and rear bumpers
10 min - rest of car
5 min - dry
Wait a few hrs for residual water to dry up from in between doors and bumpers
10 min - Apply Z-6 or Z-8

If I am applying zaino (Z-2, Z-5), then it will take a few hrs

Are you mad!? What do you do, take one swipe at everything and that's it? There is no way is HELL you can apply Z-6 to an entire car in 10 minutes. IM-POS-I-BLE! Also, if you're drying the car properly, 5 minutes ain't gonna happen. Takes me 30 minutes to dry the car and that's with the help of a 205MPH leaf blower.

[bmwexecutive]

Originally Posted by E90Brian

bmwexective: do you not keep your car in a garage? How can you stand it if not?

Unfortunately, the priority for the garage does not go to me.

And the way I justify it is that, okay it will get dirtier sooner if it's outside, but at least it won't get scratched or dented when the cleaning lady that doesn't even speak english drops the pole she uses to clean spider webs in the garage on my car. I've seen her do it before and luckily there wasn't a car there when it happened but I'd rather clean my car more often than have to deal with a series of scratches or dents from the cleaning lady.

[E90Brian]

bmwexecutive: just looked at your pics. Car looks great. And from what I could see you are OCD enough to line up your wheel emblems with your valve stems. But you need to rotate them 180 degrees. Look at pretty much any car ad in a magazine--emblems are pointed away from the stems. Obviously this is my opinion (and that of people who sell these cars), but try it once to see if you think it looks better.

[XxLancaxX]

Takes me about 1hr 30 mins to wash/dry and apply the z8.

[E90Brian]

Originally Posted by bmwexecutive

Unfortunately, the priority for the garage does not go to me.

Sorry to hear that. My garage is the only thing that maintains what little sanity (car-wise) I have left.

[XxLancaxX]

[QUOTE=bmwexecutive]

Originally Posted by bmwexecutive

I'm actually leaving in a few days for a five-day trip so I'm thinking I should hold off from washing her until I get back. What do you guys think? Better to wash now or when I get back?

Wash and spray the crap out of it with the Z8 polish. Youll be shocked to see how long your car will stay clean for. And even if it rains it will just bead right off and look clean again lol... I did this before I drove to Michigan and the only thing that got dirty were my rims but the car looked decent just fool of bugs....

I just actually bought new rims and put them on yesterday I need to get some photos and Ill post em.

[oneshare325]

I would say the whole process takes about 2 to 2 1/2 hours! interior and exterior!

[Brunotheboxer]

wash and dry with a spray on wax: about an hour; every 2 weeks.

wash and dry then conventional wax: about 2 hours; every few months. im sure that your car looks better than mine but i'm not going to spend that much time using zaino, z8 z6 zetc. i have tiag and the car is always garaged so to me it looks perfecto.

[bmwexecutive]

Wow. I thought all of you guys took a lot better care of your Bimmer's.