Quote:
Originally Posted by BigNPT
I get the same results in an hour using water inc drying, vacuuming and detailing tyres. So whats the benefit of this?
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I've been washing cars for a long time and this is by far the safest and most convenient method I've ever run across
To Steve33's point
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve33
Some of us aren't fortunate enough to have a hose  |
True - if you're an apartment dweller this is no hose required. I've even taken my bucket full of towels and a little bottle of no-rinse on road trips, bought 2 gallons of distilled water at the grocery and washed the car in the hotel parking lot. Sounds silly, but I'd rather drive a shiny car around for the week instead of one covered in 500 miles of bugs and road grime.
As to this being the safest method - I'm all about giving myself margin for error in such a way where little mistakes won't affect the outcome. This method gives me that in truck-loads
1. I can do it inside. Because there's almost no water hitting the ground I can do it in my garage. That means the car's not in the sun and the car stays cool. That gives me extra time to dry the car which is insurance against water spots. Also, in the winter time I'm the only one with a car not covered in months of grime. Additionally, since I'm not soaking the car down with water, there's not a ton of water caught between the panels that always drip out after you're done drying leaving nasty drip water spots.
2. I can use RO water (or distilled if you don't have an RO unit). The water out of my hose is full of garbage that is counter-productive to washing your car. Primarily it's full of minerals that if left to dry on the car cause water spots. Additionally, city water's full of Ph buffers that inhibit acting chemicals from changing the Ph of the water, which means your soap has a harder time so you have to use more for the same effect which is more garbage in the water that could end up as deposits on the paint - RO and distilled have none of this and it's Ph 7.0 - again insurance against water spots. You can put a filter on your hose and that helps a little, but it's nothing like using purified H20 with a PPM of ~0
3. I'm never rubbing my car with sand-paper. The one bucket method (which you could use with your hose) means that every time you're cleaning a panel, you're using a brand new completely clean rag with clean soap and water on it. If you're dumping your dirty sponge/wash-mitt/towel into your soap bucket after washing a panel all the grit on the towel won't wash off and you'll just scrape some of the grit from the first panel across the second one you wash. This causes small scratches in the paint (swirls if you rub in a circular motion) If you use the two-bucket method (second rise bucket with a grit-guard) it's extra protection, but there's nothing better than a fresh clean towel every time.
And if you're concerned about environmental impact, water usage, soap killing your lawn blah blah blah that stuff to.
My car's Jet Black - no metallic at all. When I got it from the dealer (special order) the dealer had already washed it and installed swirls on the entire car. I had it professionally clayed and polished then protected with Opti-coat 2.0 and it looks like a mirror. I had no interest in having to do that again so I'm super careful with the paint and 10 months later it still shines like a mirror - even under a Brinkmann - no swirls or scratches at all
The detailer posted about it
http://www.autopia.org/forum/click-b...ti-coated.html
I've been washing my cars for years and tried almost everything under the sun and you can get good safe results with a lot of methods. But this one is super easy super safe and does a great job every time and the effort level is crazy low.
That's how I like it - fast and easy