I picked up a real sheepskin chamois (pronounced "shammy"...) this past week and my 12 y/o nephew volunteered to help wash and wax the Maxima.

He knew the basic idea behind the chamois, and just after rinsing off the soap, the phone rang in the house. I went to answer it while he started to dry the car.

When I came back out, the nephew was looking very worried. He showed me some black streaks on the car (of course,it's white) and on the chamois - we'd missed a few little grease spots just behind the wheel well.

Cleaning the grease marks off the car was relatively easy. The question is; how do I remove the grease from the chamois? Would regular (liquid) laundry detergent dry the skin out? I'm thinking something like baby shampoo might work OK....

Any thoughts? All suggestions/advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

Hmm, good question... Maybe try something made for delicates and things with oils in it like Woolite.

Better yet, ditch the chamois. In order of increasing effectiveness, performance, and saftey I've found:
1) Chamois (sorry!)
2) Those felt-like miracle/wonder/etc cloths sold at fairs
3) Synthetic sponge cloth/chamois substitute (Absorber and its many clones)
4) Waffleweave microfiber towel

... 2 and 3 being closer to each other IMO.

 

I agree. Natural chamoises are no good at all. I used one for a very short time when I first bought the car and was not at all impressed. Use either 100% cotton (bathroom quality!) towels, a synthetic chamois like the absorber or, best of all, waffle weave MF's.