Anyone Hand-Wash Their X6??

[midwest 340xi 6sp]

Man, this thing is big and lot's of surfaces to dry...A tough hand wash!!

[DoctaM3]

You thnk the x6 i big, you should try washing the X5 LOL. An when I had mine, it was ALWAYS spotless---by HAND!

[shenard]

Yes. Just finished washing with dawn, claybarring, washing again with Zaino car wash and applying first coat of Zaino. Will try and post some pics tomorrow before I take her to the track for the first time on Tuesday. My dealer rented out the track for the entire day and for $100 I can drive around as many times as I want with instructors from the Skip Barber Racing school.

Pretty cool!

[dmlgc]

yes on my left hand is Juan and on the right is Jose , they do a very nice job.

seriously I take it to a car wash that does hand wash (no brushes) and blow dry (big nozzles nothing touches car). About every 8 weeks have them do a hand wax and detail.

[motex]

Almost every weekend, takes me about 3 hours to full detail the car and I enjoy every minute believe me !

[dmlgc]

Originally Posted by shenard

Yes. Just finished washing with dawn, claybarring, washing again with Zaino car wash and applying first coat of Zaino. Will try and post some pics tomorrow before I take her to the track for the first time on Tuesday. My dealer rented out the track for the entire day and for $100 I can drive around as many times as I want with instructors from the Skip Barber Racing school.

Pretty cool!

I haven't had the opportunity to do this (track not wash) I would be very curious about your impressions.

[flz9636]

I can tell you it not fun at all. It took me 4 hour to wash it and it still not clean. I went on a road trip when i got the car and it got bug all over the place... Now I'm having trouble removing the bug from the vent. Should have bough the nose mask.

[kahunacanuck]

Originally Posted by dmlgc

I haven't had the opportunity to do this (track not wash) I would be very curious about your impressions.

If you haven't driven on the track, I highly recommend you try it sometime...it is a blast! There is a good one in Parump north of Vegas where you can drive Z06/ZR1s, and probably some excellent ones right around you. I first tried it in 2003 and couldn't believe how much there is to learn, and how much fun it is to take a car to the limit safely!

[chonko]

Originally Posted by DoctaM3

You thnk the x6 i big, you should try washing the X5 LOL. An when I had mine, it was ALWAYS spotless---by HAND!

I have both and I wash them myself.

[shenard]

Originally Posted by dmlgc

I haven't had the opportunity to do this (track not wash) I would be very curious about your impressions.

It was the coolest experience I have ever had driving and the X6 impressed not only me but everyone else at the track, especially a few M3s and 335s when i was hanging with them and right on their bumper on several occassions. I was accelerating faster than the E36 M3 and hanging with the E46 M3 and about the same as the 335 but was definitely able to hold the same lines that the 335 was taking with speed. Was definitely a great experience. I have posted a few pictures of my X6 but these are from my Blackberry camera and not high quality. I will post better pics when I get back from being out of town and can wash the car. I went straight from the track to the airport.

[shenard]

Originally Posted by kahunacanuck

I first tried it in 2003 and couldn't believe how much there is to learn, and how much fun it is to take a car to the limit safely!

That is definitely true! I couldn't believe how important braking is. I would be going about 115-120 on the straight away and then with about 300 feet before a 90 degree hairpin turn you would mash hard on the brakes and then let off brakes completely right before the turn and then punch it to accelerate threw the turn.

It was really cool because we had professional drivers ride with us and they drove about 4 laps first and showed us the correct lines to take and then I would go and drive about 5-6 laps and then come in and have some classroom instruction time and then go back out and do another 5-6 laps. We had 4 sessions and it would a blast and I learned so much.

This is the track we went to: www.eaglescanyon.com

Check out the second You Tube video towards the bottom where the guy sets the track record. It is intense!

[kahunacanuck]

Very cool! What a great looking track...wow i am sooo jealous, we don't have a lot of great tracks in the Pacific Northwest...layout looks very interesting. How were your brakes?

[shenard]

Originally Posted by kahunacanuck

Very cool! What a great looking track...wow i am sooo jealous, we don't have a lot of great tracks in the Pacific Northwest...layout looks very interesting. How were your brakes?

Actually, brakes completely impressed me and I would do about 5-6 laps in a row and and would be very hard on the brakes going on multiple occassions from 90-100mph to 30-40mph in very short time periods and they held up very well and I did not notice much brake fade from them heating up. I probably went thru about a 1/3 to a 1/4 of my pads but that is what BMW free maintenance is for!

Truly an amazing experience and well worth it.

[archwerks]

Originally Posted by shenard

Yes. Just finished washing with dawn, claybarring, washing again with Zaino car wash and applying first coat of Zaino. Will try and post some pics tomorrow before I take her to the track for the first time on Tuesday. My dealer rented out the track for the entire day and for $100 I can drive around as many times as I want with instructors from the Skip Barber Racing school.

Pretty cool!

X6 is quite a dish but Dawn is for washing grease/fat off of dishes isn't it??

[shenard]

Originally Posted by archwerks

X6 is quite a dish but Dawn is for washing grease/fat off of dishes isn't it??

You are supposed to wash your car with Dawn as a first step before you claybar and apply show car polishing products like Zaino. The dawn removes any previous waxes on your car before applying stage 1. Check out www.zainobros.com IMO they make one of the best car products to give your paint the highest shine and protection.

[dmlgc]

Shenard,
ok have to ask did every car that participated get a star or is this a Texan thing it it's always there Hopefully the stickers in the lower windshield corner same off easily (my dealer use to put a little sticker in the corner "I was just serviced by blah blah BMW" until I told them to stop, got tired of scrapping them off).

[TTBear]

Yep. We used to own an '02 M3, '02 M3, and 06 Z4 M Roadster all at the same time, and ALL BLACK in colour.

Hand washed all of them, every time they were the slightest bit dirty. I'm also a big Zaino fan. Detailing cars is my down-time thing. I can easily start at 6am, and finish at midnight on a Saturday when I have nothing else on the cards, and enjoy every minute of it.

And yes, Dawn is safe to use, infrequently, for a surface preparation step only. I've used the Zaino process religiously, and none of our cars has so much as a single swirl mark, even though they are black.

X6M on the way - looking FORWARD to detailing it!