[2012nerosport]

In the winters, i hand wash my car with a rinseless car wash. Never do i take my cars through ANY type of automatic car washes. All it takes is ONE wash in an automatic wash to scratch the paint, swirl it, etc etc.

Anyway, I start the process by going to the coin operated wash, and using the high pressure water(not soap....) to blast away the major loose dirt, wheel wells, etc etc.

Drive the car directly home(no drying...) and pull it in the garage. Fill up my 5 gallon bucket with hot water, drop my grit guard insert in there, and add about 2 1/2 ounces of Optimum no Rinse.

From there, you wash one panel at a time. Dry one panel at a time(and always overlap panels). Doing it the right way will not harm the paint.

ANYWAY. Pics:

 

[smark]

Your craftsman work bench, looks like mine in your background. I usually just go to a high pressure spray to was the cars. Like to get under the wheel wells good. Nothing touches the paint but the shammy when drying it off. You got one shiny car there, as much snow you get in Illinois.

The white spilt level home in the background looks some what like the home I grew up in too.

 

[2012nerosport]

Your craftsman work bench, looks like mine in your background. I usually just go to a high pressure spray to was the cars. Like to get under the wheel wells good. Nothing touches the paint but the shammy when drying it off. You got one shiny car there, as much snow you get in Illinois.

The white spilt level home in the background looks some what like the home I grew up in too.

Spray wash only gets off so much though, and the soaps they use there are god awful, will strip waxes and degrade sealants. Im not a fan of them. Touchless washes are far worse though.


Not a fan of shammies either. When i do wash my car with traditional wash soap and water, i blot dry with "the absorber", to remove most of the water on the surface, and then give the car a spray with either quik detailer(made from optimum no rinse) or a quik wax, and finish drying with a microfiber.

Im a detailing freak lol.


The white house in the background is an exact copy of the house im living in now, minus the color and some of the shrubbery lol.

 

[2012nerosport]

That doesnt include my wash buckets, mitts, wheel cleaning brushes, etc etc. Expensive hobby, but worthwhile lol.

 

[smark]

I use synthetic shammy's for the last 45 years. They don't scratch the finish. You take a bucket of water, and wash them out, as you dry. When I work in a new car get ready, that all we used to. I've always used Meguiars product. Don't use orbital buffers, they aways seem leave a lot of swirl marks. Doesn't need polishing unless it's really scratched up. Keep you clean coat clean. Meguiars Gold classic is my favorite choice. Meguiars scratch remover is about as abrasive as I will get. The spray washes we have here, don't take the wax off our cars. They do get the dirt out of every crack, where hand washing won't. I have a issue with dirty wheel wheels. Even the back of tires bug me dirty. Only hand wash on nice summer day, with less grime on my car finish. My cars always have a glass shine to them, no matter how old the car is.

 

[Fiat49]

excuse me
what is wateess about this? am I missing something????


Sent from my Argento 500

 

[2012nerosport]

I use synthetic shammy's for the last 45 years. They don't scratch the finish. You take a bucket of water, and wash them out, as you dry. When I work in a new car get ready, that all we used to. I've always used Meguiars product. Don't use orbital buffers, they aways seem leave a lot of swirl marks. Doesn't need polishing unless it's really scratched up. Keep you clean coat clean. Meguiars Gold classic is my favorite choice. Meguiars scratch remover is about as abrasive as I will get. The spray washes we have here, don't take the wax off our cars. They do get the dirt out of every crack, where hand washing won't. I have a issue with dirty wheel wheels. Even the back of tires bug me dirty. Only hand wash on nice summer day, with less grime on my car finish. My cars always have a glass shine to them, no matter how old the car is.

no, a shammy wont scratch the finish, but any dirt, dust, airborne contaminants that make their way onto the paint between rinsing and drying can. Dragging anything over a surface increases the chances of cauing swirling or micro marring. Id rather not take the risk.

Meguiars makes good products, there are quite a few brands out there that are better though. HD/3D has been good to me over the past few years. Their UNO/Poxy combination has always kept my paint in showroom condition.

As far as "orbital" buffers go, i dont use them either. I use a Dual Action random orbit polisher. It spins roughly at about 6200RPM, and has multiple speed adjustments, depending on what you are using and doing. Sure, if you use the wrong combination of polisher/pad, it will leave holograms, ive never had a problem though. Also depends on how hard/soft the clearcoat is.

As for automatic washes, i refuse to use them. I have a foam cannon for pre-washing decontamination, coupled with the 2-bucket hand wash gets all of the dirt and grime off.

excuse me
what is wateess about this? am I missing something????


Sent from my Argento 500

More rinseless than waterless. You can mix ONR to be sprayed onto the paint, and wiped clean. Polymers take care of any potential marring and scratching. I dont like to do it that way though.

 

[andyandrews]

I got nice results from using a half-inch diameter garden hose and h2o. It's old vinyl one and it's kind of frozen into a j-shape, so I can get under the rocker panels pretty good. I find it dries sparkly clean in the low humidity conditions without any wiping. You don't want to spray or splatter, just douse with a kind of sheeting action. I keep the hose end close but without touching of course.

 

[2012nerosport]

I got nice results from using a half-inch diameter garden hose and h2o. It's old vinyl one and it's kind of frozen into a j-shape, so I can get under the rocker panels pretty good. I find it dries sparkly clean in the low humidity conditions without any wiping. You don't want to spray or splatter, just douse with a kind of sheeting action. I keep the hose end close but without touching of course.

Sheeting water off the paint definitely helps, but the water here is loaded with minerals, among other things. When it dries, it spots, not to mention the extreme range of temperatures and humidity we have.