butters

I'm also itching for something like this. I recently learned that some coatings are advertised at 9H hardness - right after I took a stone to the hood that gouged 1/4" of paint off. Can't help but think 9H would have prevented it...

When was the car last washed, was it pretty dirty? My car is black, but I share the same concern. I carry around waterless wash for freak rain-sun events, and if I can't wash the car at home due to time constraints but there is water on it, I will wipe the top surfaces with rinseless or waterless wash depending on how dirty it is. This prevents those spots from really baking in under intense sunlight / heat.

Langka!!! I can't say enough about how forgiving it is to work with. I would never take sandpaper to my car in order to fix touch-up, the Langka blob eliminator works like magic. I tried it with a slight shallow scratch and it pulled all of the touchup out, it's that effective. The tricky thing is being gentle and subtle with it to remove only what you want - much easier with actual paint chips. But if you're trying to level off touchup, this stuff is amazing. Don't waste your time or risk damage with sanding! Your friend / customer will be highly impressed.

Good point. In my mind, the detail spray has an element of dirt-encapsulation / lubrication that reduces the risk of scratches due to residual dirt. The G&G is an acrylic-type product (if I recall correctly) so it doesn't have that same type of protection while you are spreading it over the paint. Thinking of it another way, you could wipe a slightly dusty car down with detail spray, but you really wouldn't apply wax or liquid paint sealant to a slightly dusty car.

I also would do the G&G then blow out the cracks etc and clean up with detail spray. Mainly because I believe there to be an element of risk as far as the dirt in the cracks that blows out with the water. I wouldn't want to spread that with the G&G and then buff some swirls right into the finish. Going back with DS gives a little protection (spritz with waterless wash would probably be ideal for handling the blown out water).

This is definitely key with black. Don't touch it, most particularly if it's anything but clean. If I was wealthier I'd have a nicer car and it would be covered in PPF.

I see what you mean. I'm guessing that the challenge lies in making something sprayable that will still be as brutally strong. The G&G can last 2 months in the same way LPS can last 6 months. I think most of us will not let it go that long between applications simply because it's so easy, which is another reason why it's more than acceptable to last "only" a couple months. Another thing to consider, it might have been that you used too much paint sealant. It's easy to overdo it, and will make removal more difficult. With the right thin application it's a very easy product to work with.

They did, it's called H2O Guard & Gloss

+1 I use a towel and while it's not "soaked," I like to dab the 50/50 IPA and then wipe so that I'm not overspraying onto rubber or trim. It's probably not necessary, but it's easy, fast and I think it's worthwhile even if it promotes a better "seal" by just a small margin. Also gives you a chance to review your polish job.

This. I'm relatively new and I kind of see what is meant in terms of new things being shared first elsewhere before this forum. However, the times are changing. Web browsers are on mobile phones, yes, but it's far easier to instantaneously share a photo on snapchat or instagram to tease a new product than it is to upload and then create a thread about it. Therefore, products can be teased faster, and outpace the typical timeline for an online post and discussion from the Adam's team. Don't resist the change, embrace it! Improving is impossible without change.

From what I've read, with the big master blaster it's possible to completely dry the car without any detail spray or towel drying. If some spots are still a little wet, detail spray would be spritzed prior to using the towel. After a sheet rinse, what I do with my sidekick is hit all the panel edges, badges, door handles, rain gutters, grills, license plate, wheels and tires, sideview mirrors etc., and then finish up with a detail spray wipedown to pick up the remaining water from the bigger panels, windows and so on. Basically eliminating the bulk of the water for minimal towel use, and preventing those annoying drips.

When you give the wet method a shot you might find that it's easier to control the amount applied. I think if I were to do it after a rinseless/waterless wash, I would use a spray bottle of straight water to allow for a wet application - wet the panel then use the G&G. This stuff really goes a long way - on my sedans I can get away with 1-2 sprays per door, a spray for each half of hood and roof, a spray for each fender and quarter panel plus the top of the trunk, and 2 sprays per bumper. The wet method seems to more easily show you where the product is as you wipe, distinct from the wiping of plain water. I feel like I could get 10-15 applications pretty easily, especially if it's being done more frequently than the maximum 2 months duration.

Amazing results. It sure does look like bare metal in the way that it oxidizes.

If you have a cannon, you really don't need Adam's foam gun. Instead, invest in the blaster sidekick - it's cheaper and I'm in love with mine. I only ever use the great white towel when doing 2 cars at a time, because with a good sheet rinse (pool rinse) and hitting the cracks / biggest water drops with the blaster, I can dry my car with the smaller waterless wash towels and the aid of Detail Spray, and not come close to soaking the towel. One other thing to note - microfiber towels do really well with being wrung out and continuing effectively. In fact I think consensus is that they work better when "damp." So next time if you're finding the towel to be soaked quickly, give it a good wring to get the bulk of water out, and then keep going.

If the shampoo solution that you dip your wash pad into is still slippery/slick and clinging to the paint as you wash, then that's okay. If your solution is going flat in terms of color and slickness, and when you wipe the car it streaks with water beads and not much else, then you aren't adding enough shampoo. I think 2oz is a lot, so you might just try adding straight to the bucket instead of the pad. The main thing is to fill slowly at first to avoid splashing/spray, but make sure that all of the shampoo gets picked up off the bottom of the bucket so that it can mix properly.

When you say running out of suds... Can you be more specific? I'm not clear on whether you're running out of bubbles ("suds") or running out of water/shampoo solution altogether. If you're not getting enough bubbles/suds/slickness to last the entire car, you need to use more shampoo with your water in the bucket. If the bucket is running dry, you need more water and probably more shampoo too. Adding water to get more suds is counterproductive, as you're diluting the bucket. Suds is really not what you want, it's just a visual indicator and a byproduct of the process.

Ditto, and top with guard & gloss. Same regimen as the rest of the paint on my car.

+1 I can't imagine that the fluid is as safe as we'd like. If my windshield is really that bad I'll pull into a gas station for a good squeegee. Otherwise I'll deal until I get home. The nozzles aren't perfect so there's bound to be overspray all over the roof, a-pillars, and maybe even the trunk if used while driving. At that point the car would need a complete wash..

Why? My thoughts are that the wash soap is a very different animal compared with the rinseless. Wash soap works with the wash pad or other means of agitation to break up and dissolve dirt, where rinseless relies on the chemical solution to encapsulate dirt for safe removal via wiping with a MF towel. Maybe it could be done with a MF wash mitt, but as long as you have the hose and foam equipment out I can't help but feel that traditionally washing with the good old wash pad really is quite simple compared with the somewhat tedious nature of a rinseless-type wipedown. Plus you can rinse-foam-wash versus the possible rinse-foam-rinse-foam-wipe routine. Don't get me wrong I love rinseless for what it is and in the appropriate instances when the car isn't totally filthy and I haven't driven through rain. I simply love the traditional wash and its safety factor knowing that 100% of all nooks and crannies are good to go. More simply put, I wouldn't try it, unless maybe I had a white or silver car. With my black paint I won't risk wiping a dirty, albeit wet and sudsy car without the polymer protection of rinseless wash solution. I don't see a scenario where it makes sense to break out the foam cannon for a rinseless wash.

+1 for sealant and car shampoo to clean wheels. I am cleaning the car at least weekly so it never builds up. I only used a little wheel cleaner for paint decontamination, so what I do is dilute it 1:1 with water and use it to clean my girlfriends as of yet un-sealed wheels or those of friends who stop by and want to do a wash. The stuff is pretty strong, I would only use it at full strength for really trashed and neglected wheels. I don't use it on my wheels because I want to maintain the sealant and G&G.

I was curious to check out the latest pricing on menz 400, and it turns out it's actually priced right in line with this new 8oz size of PCP, and in some places a couple bucks more. Just FYI.

I agree it can be love/hate. I justify it by reminding myself that if I'm going to be addicted to the shine and spend all this energy perfecting my paint and maintaining it, I may as well get the maximum benefit and wow-factor, and I don't think there's any denying that black simply looks the best when it's well cared for. Nothing beats the depth and reflectivity. My DD is black, while my toy is white... go figure. Mine is metallic black also which definitely reduces the frustration a bit. My girlfriend recently got a jet-black car and I have to temper my expectations, though I still care for it as best I can. Makes me appreciate my metallic.

Yes I use distilled and the cars have had LPS as well as G&G. The car I have more experience with is black too. I almost wonder if something is up with my batch... You might recall I posted about the unusually high level of separation (nearly an inch in the gallon container), and it also seems to cling to the inside of my 32oz sprayer in an odd way. It rinseless washes fine, but I do typically follow with detail spray to help with the streakiness. I hate to be "that guy" so I never went back to Adam's with a complaint or anything, just the forum.

I've struggled with 1:16 - 1:32 diluted rinseless being very streaky, so streaky that it appears to be almost like fog of condensation even after I think I've buffed it all away. I might need to try the new stuff just for a solid comparison.

I finally used up my 16oz car shampoo so I installed the pump in my gallon replacement, and put it to use. I really love the simplicity and speed of the pump, for filling my foam cannon as well as the bucket. However, as I tidied up after a carwash I noticed that there was shampoo running down the gallon container, which had clearly dripped from the output end of the pump. I pulled up on the neck of the pump and found it was still compressed a little, so maybe that caused some of the leaking? This morning when I left my garage, I saw that there was more that had dripped though not as much as initially. Bummer. Am I doing anything wrong, should I check the assembly of the pump, could there be pressure built up inside the gallon container?