I enjoy cleaning my car but I feel as though I have to plan way ahead of time and make sure I dont have going on for the next few hours in order to do so. A full car wash plus wax usually takes me 3-4 hours. I spend a good 15 minutes prepping up for the wash. About 1 1/2 hours goes to wash itself plus clean the wheels spoke by spoke. Another 15 minutes to dry, 30 minutes to put on wax, 30 minutes to wipe off and another hour to repeat if I want another coat of wax. Thats not even including vacuuming and cleaning the interior as I usually do that on a separate date because spending that much time cleaning my car in one day will totally drive me insane. How long does it take you?

 

It took me about 2-3 hours on my 240sx. With the size of the S I think it will be the same time or shorter.

 

a "full detail" on our car (includes interior and wheels - cleaned on the car) takes me about the same (4 hours or so)...
on larger cars it takes much longer
wash only takes much less- but that does not happen very often!!

 

I can do a wash in about an hour, wash and wax in 2, and whole car - wash, wax, interior in about 2.5

I find it is all about how quickly you can dry the car. I use plenty of Big Blue drying towels and can dry the car in no time. I have done a wash, dry, wheels, tires, and tips in 45 minutes regularly with the Big Blue in hand...

 

I CAN do a basic wash in 1/2 hr if it's not that dirty (and it seldom is!).

Use the hose to help dry the car and it makes it soo much easier. (a freely running hose (no sprayer attached) after rinsing on a waxed surface will make the water sheet and leave that much less to dry). Use 1 big blue WF waffle weave to clean up the rest, use a cheapie MF towel for jambs and trunk seals, underhood...

To speed it up, have everything laid out, easily accessible and nearby and always work the same way, to be efficient and not waste time going back and forth. Even using the 2-bucket, 3-mitt method I can do it in this much time (2 mitts for the paint, 1 for the wheels and tips).

It helps to have a wheel wax or sealant on the wheels - they clean up very easily without any harsh chemicals or scrubbing (I've got AIO+3xSG on mine).

Add about 10 min. for an after-wash QD, 30 min for a wax/removal (something easy like P21S), 20 min for a vacuum and dusting...

I'd say that I can do the whole she-bang in about 2 hours.

 

On Friday, I took the day off from work to give my car a top to bottom detailing. I started around 9 AM and got done about 2 PM and I took about maybe an hours worth of breaks for lunch and re-hydrating (it was a hot day). Here's what I did in all that time:

-Clean wheels & tires
-Clean wheel wells
-Wash/rinse/dry engine bay & remove accumulated leaves & pine needles
-Clean top w/ 303 top cleaner
-Wash/rinse/dry paint including door jams, trunk jam, and wipers
-Treat top w/ 303 protectant
-Apply & remove one coat of Zymol HD Cleanse pre-wax cleaner
-Apply & remove one coat of Zymol Vintage wax (applied by hand - literally it is rubbed onto the car using your hands) then buff
-Treat all black exterior rubber & plastic w/ 303 protectant
-Apply Meguiars tire gel to all tires
-Apply Zymol wheel coat to all wheels
-Clean inside & outside of windows w/ Sprayaway glass cleaner
-Polish chrome exhaust tips w/ Meguiars metal polish
-Apply Plexus to headlight & tail light assemblies then buff
-Vacuum interior w/ Shop Vac
-Dust dashboard & door panels w/ California mini car duster
-Apply 303 protectant to all red & black plastic & vinyl (I have the red interior)
-Apply Plexus to gauge cluster
-Clean then dry all leather with Imperial Leather Cleaner (seats, door panel insert, arm rest, steering wheel, shift boot, shift handle & e-brake handle)
-Condition all leather using Imperial Leather Conditioner
-Clean all silver plastic w/ Meguiars Interior Quick Detailer (I have an 04)

and that's it!!

 

Drying the car seems to take the longest amount of time IMO.

I used to go over the car with an absorber to get most of the water off, then had my g/f follow me with the blue waffle weave microfiber. That made it have the best finish without any water spots.

 

It takes me about 30 min to an hour max to wash and dry my car. I use 2 buckets, some wheel cleaner and a Mr. Clean AutoDry car wash thingie. The only feature I really use on the Mr. Clean is the filtered water setting though.

First I hit each wheel with Armor All wheel cleaner and let it soak in a bit, then I scrub the brake dust away with a wheel brush and rinse with the Mr. Clean on the non-filtered setting. I just flush the cleaner away as I would with a regular hose. I then wet the rest of the car with non-filtered water

Next I go over each panel with a wash mit and rinse bucket. I dip the glove in the bucket with the car wash soap and clean up a section of the car rinsing the glove off in the bucket with water only any time I need more soap. Generally I try to work from top to bottom, then front to back on the car. So it goes... roof/windshield, hood, trunk, front bumper, each front fender, each door, each rear fender, rear bumper.

After I wash each section I set the Mr.Clean to the filtered setting and flush away the soap. I don't use any high water pressure to rinse the car off, I just let the Mr. Clean do its thing. That's all I really do, it dries about 95% spot free and isn't a lot of work.