Is it a must to dry your car after washing?
 

Because the last three times (after washing with soap and high-pressure water at a coin-op car wash), I've driven away without even drying the car. Is that a dumb thing to do? If so, why?

yes, very..........only unless you want a poke-a-dotted car from water spots[IMG]i/expressions/laugh2.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/laugh2.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/laugh2.gif[/IMG]
make sure the windows are dry too......
you might not have hard water like we do here in portland, but still recomend it.
[IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/IMG]:)

OH NOOO..we have extremely hard water here. I'M F*CKED.
*goes to wash car again immediately*

i wouldnt say its dumb, per se...but you are very likely to get water spots if you dont dry your car off after washing it. i hate waterspots, but i am almost never able to dry my car after washing w/out getting them (if you do get them, you can go back over them with a wet towel to get rid of em).

btw, the best thing ive found to dry my car is a 'California Water Blade'...works very well. :tup:

I drive eternal blue pearl and if i decide to neglect the drying process after washing, I'll have nice little brown spots and lines all over my car from where the water was... it sticks to the dirt and when it dries it leaves a nice coating of dirt wherever it was. Very annoying.... thus, I dry when I want my ride to be lookin spotless. However in the winter its pretty pointless to try keeping a spotless car (especially around here)... so i don't bother to dry for the winter months

Here in charlotte, nc, alot of us have wells and thus end up with very hard water. I have always battled water spots no mater if I dried the car or not.

My new civic is black so I decided I better do something. I just washed her and did it this way. I washed the roof and the windows and then dried them. Then, washed the hood and fenders and dried them. Proceeded this way for the entire wash. No water spots and she is beautiful! A nice coat of wax helps to as not much water gets left on the surface.

Also, Meguiars car wash shampoo and conditioner seems to work very well for sheeting the water off. Just bought me a gallon for like 10 bucks

Yah its like getting out of the shower without drying yourself with towel dat's nasty[IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-puke.gif[/IMG]

ive always been told to never use high pressure, just let the water trickle onto the car, thats just what ive been told

yup one way to sheet water of your car is to use HVLP (high volume low pressure) stream of water like water straight from the hose without a nozzle of any sorts spraying it hard ... on a properly waxed and maintained car after washing it should jsut collect all the water and sheet right off and then it'll leave a few water drops that you can finish up with a chamois