Ascend

I would like to start washing car by myself but not mentally ready to get all the bells and whistles. My plan is to use soap gun? to spray soap all around the car and let the dirt and grime just get loose and spray them off with high pressure water. Then dry off with a towel. What product should I get? Any recommendations?

LexVan

Yes. This is how you wash the wheels.:

cdk4219

I have tried this many times, and gave a pressure washer with cannon soap and it’s never good. It never gets the dirt off so when you go to dry it with a towel it scratches the clear coat. The touch less car wash has lots of high pressure and high flow nozzles and seems to do a better job. Best not to do this lazy method of the car is black.

linderpat

I have yet to find anything even remotely close to being as quick, easy and efficient as a touchless car wash. It even blows it dry, and my 997 has yet to melt or explode from such horrific treatment

Ascend

I heard touchless car wash uses some harmful acidic chemical? Am I overthinking this?

Ascend

Or I am thinking just soap, let it sit for 5 min. Blast it off with high pressure water. Drive highway for 5 min and get that water off.

Optionman1

I go to the self serve bays. Quick rinse, quick blast of soap, final rinse. My car has been ceramic coated and the water mostly beads off, what remains blows off when I drive fast on the way home. Total cost $3.00

ADias

Try your own touchless wash bay:

Pressure washer - need a decent unit like a Foam cannon with Griot's Boss Surface Wash
Pressure wash rinse with deionized water - Griot's Deionizer
No need to towel dry. Drive away.

Ascend

Thank you. That sounds good. Is it cool to wash car on driveway? I heard it can be frowned up. No HOA thank god.

cdk4219

Yes but not in direct sun. If you are that lazy, I would suggest a car wash, my wife is lazy and that is what she uses. This touch less home washing is like showering by standing under the shower nozzle and letting the water clean away the dirt. It doesn’t work well.

You could always do it like my grandfather, and wait until it is raining, pull an old grimy rag out of the car and proceed to rub the dirt around letting the rain rinse it off. He also believed I’d the car used a quart of oil every 500 miles he would be changing the oil every 2500 miles or so, no need for an oil change.

Greg2010

Foam cannon (Chemical Guys honeydew snow foam), followed by two bucket wash method (Chemical Guys, Mr Pink) microfiber mitt and cloths to wash and dry once a month. Then high pressure wash (no soap) and spotless rinse (air dry) once or twice a month in-between to wash of bugs and brake dust.

Motopilot

I do it myself using my powerwasher and foam cannon. It’s awesome and easy.

850tgul

Honestly, the first move would be to have a full paint correction done and then followed up with a ceramic coating. The coating will make future washes infinitely easier as the water will sheet off the car.

Maintenance washes as needed would then look like this:

1-separate wash bucket and pads for wheels and wheels only. Never use the same pads on your paint as you do on your wheels.

2-good rinse down with a power washer with the correct specs to wash a car, i.e. ~1,000 psi and ~2.0 gallons per minute. You don’t want too much psi when washing a car. There’s a few options out there, but the 2 best seem to be the Kranzle 1322ts or the Active VE52 pressure washer. They both have similar specs but the Kranzle is about $1,000 and the Active about $200. I just picked up the Kranzle about a month ago and it works well but seems a bit high maintenance. The Active just came out and I probably would have bought that had it been out when I bought my Kranzle.

3-snow foam the car. No need to “let it sit” as any decent car wash will be ph neutral meaning it’s not going to break down anything, which is what you want. Harsh detergents on your paint is a no go, you’re simply looking for lubrication with the soap/foam. You remove the dirt in the rinse down and then in the next step.

4-wash the foamed car using the 2 bucket method (1 bucket with only water to rinse the wash pad and 1 bucket with the soap and pad).

5-dry off the car with a battery powered leaf blower. Ego are the best out there for this. They are cheap and work well

6-optional, wipe down with a drying aid like P&S bead maker.

You should really check out obsessed garage on YouTube. Anyone who watches his videos will be very familiar with what I laid out above.

sandwedge

Excellent. Wonder if you could leave the tire on standing it upright instead of laying it flat.

hatchetf15

^^^^No can do Sandwedge! Just picture the unsightly oval residue ring left over and baked in on the bottom inside of the rim. Baked in, no less. Those measly residential dishwashers just don’t clean wheels like the commercial restaurant models do. When it comes to wheel washing dishwashers, you get what you pay for. And you absolutely must use the proper dish/wheel soap or why bother. Not many good dual use, non-toxic varieties.