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My car is black. It was paint corrected early 2015, has C quartz and has never seen a wet towel... only, spray and foam. What the blower doesn't get, I use microfiber towels (same ones in your bucket) that have been laundered a maximum of 5 times.
I STILL GET MICROSWIRLS
It's a 2-3 hour ordeal for me to leave my downtown Chicago home, travel to a DIY spray wash, dry and return home.. almost all in bumper to bumper traffic. I did that once a week all last year. Forget that noise. I'm going ONR in my parking garage this year and will see how that shakes out.
A goddamned leaf landing on the car will scratch it. But so what? You polish it once a year and go your merry way. Or bubble park it and GTFO.
I love ONR. I have been using it for about two years now on all of my cars and I think the shine beats any of the other high priced washes that I have tried. However, I use it as a traditional wash and have yet to try the intended "no-rinse" method.
For those of you that are seeing marring with ONR, are you prespraying the car with a mixture of ONR and water before you begin washing the car? I don't mean a light mist but rather a soaking spray(I say this because I sometimes see guys use a quick detailer on a dry car and they barely get the car wet). I think the instructions on the bottle recommend that you to simply fill a bucket with water/ONR and then start washing the car with a microfiber towel that you dunk in the bucket. This means that you would be wiping a dry car with a wet rag. This has to be a bad idea and I would never do it this way. I can't believe the instructions don't recommend prespraying the car before washing but I guess they want to keep it as simple as possible. I think you need to prespray a panel before you wash it as this will help to pre-loosen the dirt and lubricate the surface before you wipe the car with your towel. Also, use very light pressure. I'd bet if you do it this way and use some common sense you will have good results(assuming the car is not excessively dirty before the wash). Some day I'll get the nerve to try this method...starting with my wife's cars.
Foam cannon coat and rinse, chenille microfiber wash mitts, grit guard in the soap bucket, and giving the mitt a good rinse-and-wring between panels has kept my paint as close to being swirl-free as possible. I still get micro-swirls here and there, but it's hard to tell since I'm Arctic Silver. There's a nice touchfree wash nearby that I go to for winter washes. I just skip the towel drying service at the end and pull into a nearby Autozone parking lot to dry any wet spots myself with quick detailer and my own microfiber towels.
My previous car was a nonmetallic Jet Black, and avoiding swirl marks was an almost futile gesture, driving it year-round.
Nate, there are a few decent touchfree washes in Chicago, and a few hand-washes that use proper detailing equipment to get the job done. There's one on Sedgwick and Orleans, but boy are they expensive ($25 for a simple exterior cleaning, iirc ).
Sedgwick and Orleans? Aren't they parallel? It's at the nexus of the universe then? Still probably easier to get to a black hole than avoid swirls washing myself.
Idk about any of the other products but I did see that one demoed in person at Autogeek's studio when they had Wayne Carini there. It seems to be some really awesome stuff. The only vaguely similar product I've used is Meguiar's Spray Detailer but that's not really a wash and not recommended for a dirty car. As my car sits outside all day and it rains here almost every day, the only time my car has ever been washed is when I have it in for service and they do it as a courtesy.
Sedgwick and Orleans? Aren't they parallel? It's at the nexus of the universe then? Still probably easier to get to a black hole than avoid swirls washing myself.
That's what happens when you live in the suburbs for too long.
It's on Superior and Orleans. River North Hand Car Wash, right next door to the city Dept. of Administrative Hearings building on Sedgwick.
That's what happens when you live in the suburbs for too long.
It's on Superior and Orleans. River North Hand Car Wash, right next door to the city Dept. of Administrative Hearings building on Sedgwick.
Went there three times. Once with my car, twice with a long term loaner Jeep from a friend.
It's actually $30 now and it's half assed for $30 (same towel on wheels as body(!!!), didn't vacuum under seats, didn't dry inside door seams, etc). Won't go there again with my car.
Went there three times. Once with my car, twice with a long term loaner Jeep from a friend.
It's actually $30 now and it's half assed for $30 (same towel on wheels as body(!!!), didn't vacuum under seats, didn't dry inside door seams, etc). Won't go there again with my car.
When I used to live in Chicago I used to go to 'strictly by hand.' I believe it's on Van Buren, just west of the loop. I don't recall it being horribly expensive, but it definitely wasn't a surgical process. Better than average though. I want to say it was $20 for exterior and vacuum.
Myself, I use waterless period. Chadwicks Triple Play (no affiliation). Not so sure I'd use it on a black or extremely dirty car but I am totally impressed with the results on my silver, and have used it for a couple years now. First time I used it was after winning it in a St. Judes charity auction on another car site and I was sold.....super easy. Another plus it that it saves you from getting sunstroke washing your car in the Phoenix sun!
I use the Griot Garage Waterless car wash product. It works nicely as long as you have plenty of microfiber towels to use. Liberal spray the product on a panel. Dirt wipes off with one towel. Then a 2nd towel to wipe off any excess and buff.
The more I think about this, the more I think it is just as safe, if not safer than a two bucket method. You presoak the panels, so the lubrication is there, then you use a new side to a clean microfiber with every swipe, until you finish the panel. I don't see how any additional exposure to scratching is taking place so long as you're not washing caked on mud or pressing super hard, which would also be an exposure to scratching with a two bucket method.
02-22-2016, 02:38 PM
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