leaf blower

stratos

I was out washing the car a while back and I wanted to polish it. However I hadn't got time to wait for it to dry. I didn't fancy using the chamois.
I spotted the leaf blower hmmmmmmmm.
I used it to blow off 95 per cent of the water, a quick round with the chamois and the car was dry. The tyres were dry enough to apply cleaner, and the best part is, my tap water is very hard and if left to dry leaves (pun) loads of water stains on the paint. The leaf blower cured this.
Anyway then the men in the white van came. oh well:)

L-M

Lol... The neighbours think I'm bad enough out cleaned my car for hours at a time. If I had the leaf blower out, FFS, I'd be in 5B haha:D

stratos

lol i live in the countryside no neighbours. You can wash and detail your car all day:). hhmmm maybe I need to move.

stapeler

I use my leafblower to clean my car interior. Open the four doors and blow everything out, crisp bags etc etc. Anything of value I pick up and throw it back in.:D

Stevie Dakota

Classic!

Owen

That's a freaking brilliant idea. I'm off to Woodies later!

BlackWizard

If I haven't got a leave blower or a big hair dryer, what the best way to dry the car?

I normally use a shammy cloth but that's a lot of effort and doesn't dry it completely.

How much is a leaf blower?

Voodoomelon

stapeler wrote: »

Anything of value I pick up and throw it back in.:D

Like the woman! :pac:

Anan1

On the rare occasions when I wash the car I use the 'drive-as-fast-as-you-can' method to dry the water off. Probably not the safest in a city.

L-M

Anan1 wrote: »

On the rare occasions when I wash the car I use the 'drive-as-fast-as-you-can' method to dry the water off. Probably not the safest in a city.

The brother seems to do the same, only for it to leave water streaks up along the car and ending up having to shammy it anyway:P

HashSlinging

great idea.!

rebel.ranter

A guy with a leaf blower was clean the estate this morning destroyed the car with bits of leaves, etc. Was a bit peeved as it was still relatively clean from the Saturday wash!
Anyway that's my car/lead blower story.

Dusted it off, gave it a once over with the Autoglym Aqua Wax & Fast Glass,a quick wheel wash & now it as good a new. Even managed to collectsome parts for it just there.

It's amazing what you'll do to get out of a bit of study! (exam tonight)

L-M

rebel.ranter wrote: »

It's amazing what you'll do to get out of a bit of study! (exam tonight)

Good luck :cool:

afatbollix

because ye are all serious car cleaners.. what do ye use for tar remover? its all over my alloys and annoying the feck out of me...

Anan1

Apparently petrol is good. I had a car valeted last year, the valeter swore he'd taken 100g of tar off the car.

L-M

afatbollix wrote: »

because ye are all serious car cleaners.. what do ye use for tar remover? its all over my alloys and annoying the feck out of me...

I use this stuff they have inside work. Seems to work great, will find out the name. I nearly passed out once from inhaling it lol!

B00MSTICK

And there was me thinking the thread was going to be about turbos!

Nice find though OP

Owen

Picked up a basic one in Argos yesterday for 50 squid, looking forward to power washing it this weekend (If the rain stops)

Gumbo

www.detailer.ie has beein using this method for years now!
he said he used to use it in in garden before he went at it full time with the premise etc etc

great idea!

BlackWizard

There's still something funny about walking out to your car with one of these



^^ 50 euro in Argos.

Seperate

BlackWizard wrote: »

There's still something funny about walking out to your car with one of these



^^ 50 euro in Argos.

That one won't do you any good.

You'd want one with a smaller 'snout' - so the air is more concentrated. I went through 2 or 3 of them before i found one that works good.

If the leaf blower itself is of no use, and you just want to use it on the car, you could pick up one of these. The UK reseller has them in every now and again.

I don't find it very practical for drying a whole car though, especially a car that hasn't been waxed recently. I use it for panel gaps/lights/wing mirrors etc. - mainly because when machine polishing a car, a few dribbles of water getting in your way at 1800RPM makes things messy.

rebel.ranter

Still can't see myself doing this. My neighbours think I'm mental when it comes to my car care regime as it is!

Oh to be living outside the city again with a private yard out the back.....

Owen

Seperate wrote: »

If the leaf blower itself is of no use, and you just want to use it on the car, you could pick up one of these. The UK reseller has them in every now and again.

Jesus, after reading that, I might give the leafblower to the Mother for her garden, and buy one of those. The ones the UK reseller gets in, are they 110v, or 240v, and do you have a link to the UK resellers website?

Seperate

ned78 wrote: »

Jesus, after reading that, I might give the leafblower to the Mother for her garden, and buy one of those. The ones the UK reseller gets in, are they 110v, or 240v, and do you have a link to the UK resellers website?

I would imagine 110V.

These guys are the UK distributors - they do specials on them every now and again.

Similar 240V device here - Only £15 too.

Owen

Seperate wrote: »

Similar 240V device here - Only £15 too.

Do you think that's fast enough compared to the American one to do a good job?

L-M

I wouldn't buy one of those. Simply because I enjoy washing the car too much. I'd nearly throw dirty water over it just to have to clean it again:P:D

Sean Quagmire

rebel.ranter wrote: »

Still can't see myself doing this. My neighbours think I'm mental when it comes to my car care regime as it is!

Oh to be living outside the city again with a private yard out the back.....

Ha and I thought i was the only one who dreamt of having a secluded country house with a nice big garage and a cupboard full of car cleaning products...:P

a man can dream

DJ Hafez

afatbollix wrote: »

because ye are all serious car cleaners.. what do ye use for tar remover? its all over my alloys and annoying the feck out of me...

Petrol does work very well alright but can leave some streaks so you'd have to give it a good clean after. Theres some stuff in halfords that comes in either a black or blue bottle. Works very well too

Seperate

ned78 wrote: »

Do you think that's fast enough compared to the American one to do a good job?

It would be plenty powerful. As i said before, they're only really practical to dry out panel gaps/lights/mirrors etc. - which make it easier to go around with wax/polish afterwards.

You'd be all day drying a full car...

Owen

Cheers separate, I've ordered one up now, and a few of their gorilla buckets too. They look pretty handy. I'm not going to look for a bone dry finish, but I think it'd be handy for getting the majority of water off my car, and I can chamois dry the rest.

Sean Quagmire

Imagine the face on the missus arriving home with a huge 'Leaf Blower 300'.

'aww your gonna clean up the garden?'
'nah love, not for the garden...' *points at car
'WHAT?'

:D

Seperate

ned78 wrote: »

Cheers separate, I've ordered one up now, and a few of their gorilla buckets too. They look pretty handy. I'm not going to look for a bone dry finish, but I think it'd be handy for getting the majority of water off my car, and I can chamois dry the rest.

Good stuff. Let me know how you get on

buzzard

Brought a leaf blower for drying the car, but storing it in the apartment is a pain in the hole

stratos

buzzard wrote: »

Brought a leaf blower for drying the car, but storing it in the apartment is a pain in the hole

Turn it off when not in use:).

HJL

afatbollix wrote: »

because ye are all serious car cleaners.. what do ye use for tar remover? its all over my alloys and annoying the feck out of me...

The W5 stuff in Lidl 'Insect Remover' is very very good at cleaning your wheels, spray it on and leave it for a while and it will soften the tar so you can wipe it off.

SAABMAN

buzzard wrote: »

Brought a leaf blower for drying the car, but storing it in the apartment is a pain in the hole

No, no, no. The whole idea is that you can leave the car outside and dry it there:D

Owen

Seperate wrote: »

Good stuff. Let me know how you get on

Well, I only got it last week because Kingdom tools omitted half of my address on the package, and it was returned to them. I got this lower for about 20 Euro :



I haven't used it on my car yet, but did use it on my bike. The airlow is okay - not out of this world or anything, but it's an improvement on the airline and gun I was using from my compressor, and the flexible rubber hose won't damage the paint either. The trigger locks into the on position, so all you have to do it hold it rather than have fatique from squeezing the trigger all the time.

All in all, not bad, and well worth having IMO.

E39MSport

To remove tar, I use this: -
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_catalogId_10151_storeId_10001_partNumber_914259_langId_-1

To get the bulk of the water from your vehicle before leaf blowing the gaps etc, I use this: -
http://www.the-absorber.co.uk/

I also use the california water blade before wiping dry but some people don't like using them. I have had no problems with it.

Owen

E39MSport wrote: »

I also use the california water blade before wiping dry but some people don't like using them. I have had no problems with it.

The issue with water blades, is they can, and usually do scratch paint. Any tiny bit of debris, or an imperfection on the blade will do it. A new blade won't, but one that's been used a few times will very quickly destroy the paint finish on a car.

franksm

WD40 will remove just about anything. No idea how, or why, but it does

Owen

franksm wrote: »

WD40 will remove just about anything. No idea how, or why, but it does

WD40 will also destroy your paint.

franksm

ned78 wrote: »

WD40 will also destroy your paint.

I am not advocating covering the car in it, but when used with discretion it will remove tar etc. Petrol is worse when spilled on paint !