Drying technique?

[station2station]

I am getting really upset with cleaning my car for an hour and then it have water spots. I have tried:

Letting a million towels jsut sit on the car until dry.
Drying it with towels (which will leave swirl marks) then leaving it in the sun.
4 of those special shammy? cloths that get too wet and become useless.
Thought about using rubber squeegee? (does this hurt the car?)
Maybe using my air compressor?

Any thoughts would be deeply appreciated...

[SR 25 RS]

I just got back from washing my car, I use a squeegee that I bought at Kragen meant for cars(little purple thing, not a regular squeegee). It works fine, but it's still a long and tedious job and sometimes I miss spots.
There has got to be a better way, but I don't know what it is yet.

[Imprezademics]

If there are water spots on it already then it may not be from the washing. Where do you wash your car. If at home, do you have well water? If so you may be getting them from that. If the water spots are there even after drying it thoroughly then they need to be buffed out.

As far as how to dry a car. The way i do it is with a regular chamois. Dry it completely and be sure you are not washing your car in the sun. The sun will dry the water faster than you think and will leave water spots. Especially if you are using hard water (well water.) After i dry it i use an air gun to blow out all the cracks and moldings. Then redry. Takes me about half an hour tops to wash/dry/dry door jambs/do outside windows/dress my tires... my car is also very clean so there isnt much work to do to it. It may take you longer with your first thorough cleaning.

Willie

[station2station]

I tried using the air compressor and chamois and that helped quite a bit.. however i had to get like 4 chamois cuz they kept getting soaked. I was afraid to try the squeege for fear of dirt getting in front of the blade and scratching the paint. Thanks for the posts!

[WCU25RS]

I wash mine with well water in the sun, and Ive never had a problem with water spots. The key is to always keep the car wet until you are ready to dry. I use towels if I am using wax as u dry. No streaks(a little fuzz, but nothing a terry cloth wont take care of). If I am not using that stuff, i use a turtle wax squegee, which works great.

As you can see, it doesnt hurt the car:

[MidnightBlackPearl]

I use that Mr. Clean AutoDry thing, and it really does work. I have a black car, and I don't ever get water spots any more. I still once over the car with a mf towel, but it isn't really necessary.

[SilverSubie2.5]

California Water Blade FTW!

[scooby_snacks]

I have the same problem. Something may be wrong with my paint because I do get waterspots even after a thorough clean but that still dosn't solve my problem. I hate chamois, they always make more mess and leave streaks when I use them. The best method I use is just putting it in the shade to dry.

[TOMIMOTO]

I use a combination of Mr.Clean car wash and my gas powered leaf blower. Works excellente.

[Drakuun]

For those who use Chamois... you do know that they are supposed to be saturated right... just wring them out and carry on.

It's not about drying the car bone dry with a chamois, its about breaking down the water molecules so they are small enough not to streak or leave water marks, and dry faster, It's the same ideal as misting the car when you rinse it.

I add this because I was always dismayed by soaked chamois'.. so one day I was out of towels, and wrung out my chamois, and it was like it was dry all over again, 3 passes, one chamois, streak and water spot free. Drying in the shade helps too.