I was chatting with my Zaino guy and he was telling me about drying off the car with a leaf blower. Guess he went to some meet where they were detailing cars. After washing them, out come a pile of leaf blowers to dry the cars off. He said your neighbors might give you weir looks, but it works.

OK. I go out and buy one because I see the leaves will be starting to fall soon, and this baby has a mulcher that compacts 16 bags of leaves into 1. BOUNUS! I thought I can't lose on this one.

I go out and wash the car to test this out. Sure enough, this thing works absolutely great. It’s kind of like driving through a car wash and going past the blower, only this is much better.

Disadvantages:
Look like a weirdo.
A little awkward to use at first.
Pretty noisy. Have to wear hearing protection.

Advantages:
Dries the vents off completely. No running water off of them.
Dries the front and rear grilles off completely
Dries the inside of the mirrors.
Drives off all of the water held up in crack and crevices.
Does an amazing job in drying off wheels.
No scratches from chamois containing possible abrasives.
No swirl marks from drying off too hard with a cotton towel.
No water spots or streaks.
Ready to apply Zaino because no fear of water running off anywhere.

I'm sold on mine. I've used it twice now, and my sons are now using it for their cars.

hahah! sounds like alot of fun!

Yeah, I heard about this trick a couple years ago.
But, at the time I was in an apartment with no place to plug in a leaf blower, so not an option.

Now that I'm in my house, I've been looking for a good deal on a leaf blower to start doing just that.

Been doing this for about three years now after I saw a neighbor drying his 'vette with one. Does work and no scratches!

hey this sounds great

I'll wait for them to go on sale, right after the first snow fall. I won't need mine till spring.

thanks for the tip

It sounds good, but if you vacuum leaves with it you better clean it up very good before switching to the blower... it could be ugly if little leaves particles are blown that hard at you beloved paint.

I have one i'll try it this WE.

I use a "California Water Blade" to get the bulk of it off and then a cotton bath towel. The car still weeps around the rubber molding, so I'm going to try the leaf blower for sure.

One thing I'm going to do is blast the driveway first to make sure I don't bounce any dirt or anything on the car by accident. It sounds promising.

Originally posted by jd62
I use a "California Water Blade" to get the bulk of it off and then a cotton bath towel. The car still weeps around the rubber molding, so I'm going to try the leaf blower for sure.

One thing I'm going to do is blast the driveway first to make sure I don't bounce any dirt or anything on the car by accident. It sounds promising.

I was drying my car off the same way. I was getting frustrated though with the hassle of drying off the wheel vents, mirrors, and front/rear grilles. The first time I used the leaf blower, I got most of the water off with the California blade. Worked great. The second time, I just used the leaf blower. It took just a little longer, which surprised me. I have about 9 coats of Zaino on, and the water just glides off like nothing. It was pretty impressive.

Good idea about the driveway.

Originally posted by f1michel
It sounds good, but if you vacuum leaves with it you better clean it up very good before switching to the blower... it could be ugly if little leaves particles are blown that hard at you beloved paint.

Good heads up! Thanks.

I do something similar, but WAY more fun!! :D :D Just wash her, then take her for a nice FAST drive. When I come home, well, dry and beautiful. Just don't take any dusty dirt roads! :eek:

Originally posted by Spin9k
I do something similar, but WAY more fun!! :D :D Just wash her, then take her for a nice FAST drive. When I come home, well, dry and beautiful. Just don't take any dusty dirt roads! :eek:


That might work in banana belt country but not in Central Canada, its generally always dusty here.

Personally I wouldn't use a leaf blower unless the car was old and I didn't care about the paint. It just to easy to pick up airborne particles and fire them at the car. Not worth it in my opinion especially since driving on the road does the same thing and then you get those nice chips in the nose of the car.

my 2cents