butters

I have a competitors towel with silk/satin band, and though I hear it is safe it still scares me a bit. Is it truly non-marring to the extent of microfiber?

Rather than spraying the tire directly, I spray my brush and then scrub the tire to avoid the overspray question. If any of the APC/water mixture runs down I hit it with the hose quickly.

Yes, painful as it may be. Top surfaces collected water in that pattern, the sun came out, and boom this is the evidence left behind. The spots aren't visible now after fully drying the car, but I was as shocked as you and now I'm concerned.

Last week my car went a few days between a wash and Friday's light rainfall. There was a minor buildup of dust etc over those few days. The rain Friday was less than expected, and the sun came out shortly after rainfall. I cringed, knowing what damage was being done to my black paint, but tried to take solace that it is pretty well protected by LPS and H2O G&G. The weekend was clear but cold and more rain forecast for Monday, so I didn't try to find the time to clean the car. I felt it was too dirty for a waterless or rinseless wash without a good rinse. I didn't think the result would be this bad. Last night I washed the car, and noticed that oddly the water didn't sheet much, where normally it really does (thanks to the LSPs). I now realize that water was clinging/"beading" in the same spots where damage was done on Friday. As I dried the car with detail spray and my gwdt, this became frighteningly obvious. The water spots were still very much there in the streaky haze before all the water was gone. Once completely dry, the paint buffed to its typical shine and there isn't any evidence of the water spots, but I know they're there. I'm just glad that I have not yet done my spring cleaning decon & polish, but now I'm afraid I'll be even more obsessive (didn't think possible) when it comes to water spots. If this happened after polishing for the summer, I would be pretty devastated. I'm wondering what my options would be if that were the case - scrub the paint a little harder with my wash pad? Buff a little harder with detail spray? Something like Revive? I guess this is what I get for neglecting to wash after rain. Photo taken while drying, immediately after that initial wet first pass with the towel. Oh, the horror!

The only downside is that the rinseless seems to kill the suds. Other than that it does feel fine.

+1 Using the wedge on the lowers for the nastier dirt and grit also increases the lifespan of the wash pad that I use for the majority of the car.

In my mind the main positive of a coating is its strength. While I'm sure that liquid sealant and occasional G&G will go very far in terms of duration and durability, I still feel that I'm at risk for etching from environmental fallout - bird bombs, tree droppings etc. I still panic and race to get it off my paint even if I look like a nut job doing so in a parking lot. With a coating, I envision myself using paint sealant and G&G just as I do now to boost the life of the coating, but perhaps I could rest a little easier with the shell of protection as a base layer. I do hope we see an Adam's coating in the future to compliment the rest of the lineup.

For the waterless wash type use, I have stuck with distilled. The streaking isn't an issue during normal rinseless washing, where of course the stuff is extremely diluted, so I'm thinking I need to err on the side of less instead of more concentrated.

I pulled all my products indoors for the winter season to preserve their condition. As far as I can tell it does perform to expectations; it pulls dirt and leaves the car clean, I suppose the test will be the level of marring I see during my springtime detail. In the mean time I'll get my shake on. I really struggle with excessive streaking and haziness at 1:16 dilution for waterless wash and detail spray type application, but I don't use it for that very often. I'm thinking I need to lean out the mixture and see if it improves, but detail spray is just phenomenally better/easier to work with in that regard so I stick with it as my drying aid.

Huh? Care to explain? Sheeting vs beading really seems to depend more on how the water is applied - my paint beads beautifully as I'm sure all of ours does in the rain, but when flood rinsed after a wash the water will sheet away nicely. I can't imagine why you would want a hydrophilic surface such that it causes rain to lay flat and sheet on your car.

So I mixed my rinseless all together in my gallon container and then filled my 16oz from there. Now, the 16oz has separated in the same manner as my gallon. To reiterate, the 16oz had zero separation out of the mystery box. I've attached a photo for reference - sorry it came out sideways but you get the idea. Should I be worried?

I will tighten them up a bit more and see how it goes. If I still have trouble I will get in touch with Dan et co. Thank you

I got a few premium dilution bottles as gifts and I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. I've read a lot of positive feedback, and I agree that the sprayer itself is awesome in terms of spray pattern, adjustment, and overall quality feel of operation. However, I'm struggling a bit with leakiness at the bottle-sprayer seal (the threads). I mixed up some rinseless to use at a waterless ratio, and when I shake it up I get product coming out. This is annoying because we all know that most diluted products need to be shaken often. The tolco head feels pretty tight and snug but should I be really cranking it on there? I'm afraid of breaking it. I'm thinking of applying some teflon tape but it seems that should be unnecessary. I will check my others and make sure it's not isolated to one bottle or sprayer that I have.

The bib I used was only adjacent to the heater, not off the water heater. I believe it was actually off the cold supply going into the heater.

I rented a townhouse at one point and the basement was adjacent to the garage separated by a block wall. There was no outdoor spigot, or maybe there was all the way in the back of the row, but there was one near the water heater. My landlord was pretty cool, when I asked if I could run a hose through the basement he didn't even realize it was there, and offered instead to put a 1" hole through the block wall to get the hose straight into the garage for driveway use. Worked out very well. Check your basement.

Strange how the 16 oz doesn't have it. I suppose I will go through with my plan to put the 16 ounces into my gallon container, mix it all up, then fill the 16oz bottle back up and see if it still doesn't separate.

Last night I blasted the bulk of nastiness at my local coin-op and then did a rinseless gdwm in the garage with 6 towels. Today I drove to work and picked up the expected dust, but then there was unexpected snowfall that melted and dripped all over, making for an ugly mess of the dust. So I did another rinseless wash tonight after getting home on dry roads, and got away with only 3 towels, folding my quarters in half for double the working towel area. For me, if there is caked on whiteness (salt or whatever it is) anywhere on the car, I won't do rinseless without a visit to the coin-op. I think I could sum up my rule of thumb by saying that if I've driven the car on wet roads - rain or snow or melted runoff - I need a good rinse before cleaning. If I haven't hit any wet roads, the car doesn't pick up so much junk and rinseless is doable. My 2 cents.

I went straight for a gallon a few months back and I do love the stuff so far, especially with this cold weather. It showed about 1/2"-1" of separation (a lighter shade than the bulk, with a hint more green to it) but there is plenty of "shake well" advice so I figured this is normal. Last week my mystery box came and among other things was a 16oz rinseless. I'm very glad to have the smaller bottle for more regular use instead of doling out from the gallon... but anyway, the 16oz appears to have zero separation which has me wondering if my gallon truly is normal. Can anyone comment to put me at ease?

I deal with them on my BMW too. I attempted to put XPel film on the passenger front b-pillar cover - which is at highest risk because of the way people shut the door from the outside. It works well, but I plan on re-doing it in the spring because the cover actually comes off the car fairly easily, and should make for a near perfect installation. As it is now the edges aren't perfect, it was a pain to do with the cover still on the car.

Ah I see. I keep my wheels very clean as well, so that I only need to use an old retired wash mitt to clean them by hand with my car shampoo. I don't take my microfibers to them afterwards in case I missed a corner or in case the towel catches behind a spoke etc. You could use a brush if you don't have the woolie to agitate.

I would blow dry the wheels if you have a leaf blower or a blaster. If you must towel dry, use the oldest most beat up towel in your supply. Honestly I don't even think it's worth using microfiber, just grab whatever clean rag you have - at some point you're going to pick up some brake dust or other grime and ruin whatever it is. I'd use beat up cotton rags on the rough parts of my jams and wheels, though now I have a blaster sidekick and it cuts down on the need to towel dry such areas.

I have to say I may actually like the edgeless gray/orange plush towels more than my double soft towels. The thicker nap is just amazing, such that I prefer it for LSP removal and getting that final shine without streaks after a wash. Plus the lack of edge is somehow... freeing. The double soft is probably equally good but it's pricey, the bulk takes up more room in my towel storage, and I prefer it for cushioning grit while doing rinseless wash as opposed to final wipedowns. I also love the waffle towels for drying (waterless or GWDT), they feel very safe and grab a lot of water. I try to save my GWDT for when I do more than 1 car since it's so effective.

I do this as well, but it can be tedious so I bought a handful more towels to be more relaxed about it. My daily is black so I won't be doing a 2-bucket type rinseless either. I can complete it with less than a gallon of distilled/rinseless wash solution, plus whatever I use for pre-soak.

I've come to use mine for final wipedown / buffing after G&G or rinseless washing. The thickness is added protection against any undue pressure I might apply, and makes it very easy to get that streak-free finish.

Ha! That's probably a good idea actually..