Vacuums - Not Just For The Interior!

[Michael Stoops]

I know a lot of you use a leaf blower to blast water out of all those little cracks and crevices where it likes to hide, only to show up several hours later as spotty streaks down the side of the car. I tried that once, but our water is so dog-gone hard that it left streaks all over the place.

So......since I always have to vacuum up at least the driver's floor mat when I wash the car, one day I figured I'd pull the brush off the end of the hose and see about sucking up water from some of these places. Like the lower edge of the headlights, or the base of the rubber trim on the door windows. But where I really love doing this is on the wheels around the lugnuts (mine are the exposed variety) and even on the lowest portion of the tire/wheel bead and the edge of the tire tread at the top of the tire. Too many times I thought I'd wiped these down, only to apply tire dressing and have it catch the water I didn't know was there and run down the sidewall.

If I'm going to be getting close to the paint, I hold the end of the hose with my index finger jutting slightly below the hose itself so that my finger contacts the car rather than the hose doing so. In my experience a quick go-around of the car (with a clean MF towel in the other hand) takes far less time than cleaning up all the water spot trails caused by the leaf blower. Plus it's one less tool to take out and put away.

[Shiny Lil Detlr]

This sounds like a good plan; but you'd have to have a VERY powerful vacuum to do the job -- most vacuums' suction wouldn't equal the force that a leaf blower has, as far as I'm concerned.

[BJClarke001]

Re: Vacuums - Not Just For The Interior!

Originally posted by Mike-in-Orange
........... I tried that once, but our water is so dog-gone hard that it left streaks all over the place.

Mike-in-Orange,

Cool on the use of the vacuum. If it works for ya, go for it.

As far as the leaf blower and having hard water I want to say a couple of things. First off, the leaf blower works best on a waxed surface. I have done friends cars with little to no wax on their surface and it is nothing but a pain. On my vehicles, it kicks butt and I use it (the blower) every time I wash the vehicles. In fact, I just washed the Explorer just seconds ago (I am not working today due to Christmas shopping). I use NXT wax and water drops just fly off the surface. I finish dry with a Water Magnet which really never becomes soaked because the leaf blower does a darned good job.

As far as your hard water; I wonder if you have ever tried the NXT Car Wash. I too have somewhat hard water and find that the NXT seems to minimize or eliminate water spots. It is hard (pun intended) for me to know if your water is harder then mine, but it might work for you as it does for me. Keep Shining and Happy Holidays.

[Pete-FWA]

There's always compressed air, if we're talking about different techniques.
Think of it as a concentrated effort similar to that of the leaf blower.
Follow the spray tip with your choice of drying towel as you blow the air in the crevices.

[SiriusRIMZ]

I keep about two or three dozen cans of compressed air. I work with computers in most of my free time (thats not spent here or washing my car) so I need to be OCD about dust.

I will often times break out a can of compressed air for the small crack in the doors and lugnuts on tires. It also works well if you have an air compressor to get a small blower attachment. I have a little Pancake compressor that I can get about 40 PSI out of a small nozzle without overheating it. Works wonders when drying.