kesmit

I guess I'm in the minority here.  I do have a three bucket system like the previous poster, but I don't do two-bucket washes very often.  I typically use a foam gun and wash pad.  I pre-soak the car with foam, then rather than using a soap bucket, I just spray foam into the pad as I'm washing the car.  It takes a little coordination, but I feel like I get a better wash that way.

I use both.  I like the feel of clay alternatives, but I think that Adam's clay does a good job with less marring.

I sometimes use an aerosol trim dressing on the deeper lugs on my tires rather than trying to spread the tire shine.

The fact that I can get free shipping for two gallons of product, plus 15% off is pretty amazing.  It would probably cost me about as much just to ship two gallons of liquid as I paid for my last two gallon order.

I really like the new tire and rubber cleaner, but I noticed something when I used it on my truck tires that have white letters.  It looked like the white letters were being dissolved.  It was dripping white around the letter area when I scrubbed the tires.  Is this cleaner supposed to be safe for white letters?

Including polishing, 7 hours isn't much.  When I did my 1999 Chevy truck, it was the first time it had ever been done and I probably spent18 hours on it.  That's a lot of neglected sheet metal though.

One other thing you can do to make white pop is to make sure that anything black (trim, tires, etc.) is very black.

Waterless wash in a Colad 32-oz sprayer with about 4 microfibers (I use the edgeless).  This is what I use 90% of the time when maintaining my car.  I have a dark blue Mazda 6 that has very soft paint, and I have no swirling after 8 months of this method of cleaning. The trick is to not drag dirt across the surface.   As you wipe a panel, curl the towel backwards so that the dirt is pulled away and you are only dragging a clean surface on the paint.

I like H20 G&G on my white Z4 as well.  I wasn't a fan of white cars for a long time, but it really depends on the lines of the car.  If a car has good lines, it can pull off white.  But if it's a boring body shape, the white just makes it even more bland.

I just got a bottle of that and tried it today too.  I haven't been happy with any of the tire cleaners I've tried, but this stuff seems to work quite well.  It's also the first time I tried the Tire Shine.  It goes on a bit shinier than I like for my Mazda 6 (I like how VRT looks initially), but I'll give it a day or two and I bet it will dull down.  However, on my white Z4, I prefer more shine, so I think it will work great there.  I do like the fact that it is a spray.  I very much prefer using towels to apply products than foam applicators.

I find that blow drying alone just isn't fast enough to stop spotting and streaking most of the time.  What I do is quickly blot the whole car dry, then blow out cracks and crevices, then a quick wipe down with spray wax or detail spray to get the spots.

I second that on the Mazda 6.  I just bought a 2016 and the metal seems really thin compared to the 2004 Mazda 6 I trade in.

If you're truly paranoid, use a two bucket wash.  Slightly less paranoid, use rinse-less.  I just bought a 2016 Mazda 6 in February and I use waterless wash on it a couple of times a week, even after driving in the rain.  It really boils down more to technique than anything.  With good quality microfibers and good technique (rolling the towels away from the leading edge as you wipe), you can water-less wash without marring the paint.  The paint on my Mazda (which is known to be quite soft) has no marring on it yet (knock on wood).

APC and waterless wash in mine.  I do get tempted to get more from time to time.  They are really great quality bottles, but a bit overkill for most product applications.  But doing a waterless wash is so much easier with these.

Someone had one on here made from a cloth CD case that worked really well.   I have the 4 bottle show bag and the American Pride Bag.  I plan on using the American Pride bag for shows, and the smaller 4 bottle bag to keep supplies in my daily driver.  You never know when that occasional bird will decide your car would make a nice porta-john.  

I think this may be what you are referring to. 

http://www.adamsforums.com/topic/29828-new-product-idea-emergency-roadside-kit/

I was wondering this as well.  Would letting your heavily soiled microfiber towels soak in a bucket of water with some AP cleaner do as well or you think spot treating right before washing is better?

I know a lot of people soak their microfibers with some dilution of APC or microfiber detergent.  I don't merely because I have about four classes of microfibers that I wash separately and I don't feel like having four separate pre-soaks going on.  I do think that soaking is probably a bit better, but I've had good luck with just spraying with a pre-treatment before laundering.

^i do rinseless washes all winter and it gets my wheels 98% as clean as if traditional washing, just need to get your hands a bit dirty or get creative to clean out the barrels.

 

If the temps are favorable though I'm always preferential to traditionally washing the wheels and tires.

I do the same.  The wheels on the Z4 are so open though, I can easily reach the entire barrel by putting my hand between the spokes.  I usually wipe them down with a waterless wash every week and they look great for the next week.

I have a very garage kept 2011 BMW Z4 that I generally only take out if the weather is nice.  I hadn't had time to get it out much during the week and was feeling the itch to drive it, but there was light rain in the area.  I figured it was worth risking it.  Needless to say, I did see rain and got the car pretty filthy.  Normally I can get away with a waterless wash, but this was far beyond that.  It was definitely on the far end of rinseless territory, but I figured I'd just go all out and do a two bucket wash on it.  

It had honestly been a few months since I'd done a two bucket wash the Z4, so I broke out the foam gun and all.  While I really like the convenience of waterless and rinseless washes, sometime it's just a cathartic experience when you take your time and do a thorough job.

I think I might use more APC on pre-treating spots on microfiber towels before washing them than anything else.

I really love this tool.  I do mostly rinseless washes now, so it doesn't get a lot of use on the body areas as much, but I do wash wheels with a standard bucket wash more often.  The sidekick is great for getting water out of the lug areas and other crevices.

I would have to respectfully disagree there my friend.  These drying towels get rough just as the OP has described.  Which is why many detailers have moved to a plush drying towel...

For what it is worth OP, the great whites make great shelf liners for your detail cart.

I like to think it's a bit of both.  I've got some great whites, but I use a plush towel and do more blotting than wiping.  I figure the less wiping of the paint there is, the chance of inducing scratches reduces as well.

They may not be out of the bag new but if washed, dried, and stored properly they should function fine and still be ultra soft for paint wiping.

 

Some of my double softs have been washed a bunch of times and besides not being as bright as they were out of the box they still work amazing.  In order to keep them 100% new you'd have to wash them in cold and air dry.  I'll take 95% of their new feel and be able to know that I am washing in warm to get all the grime out -

 

I do tumble dry on low for 15 min cycles (15 min low, then 10 min no heat) twice and then they are basically 90% dry

 

You just dont want them in the dryer on low for an hour.

Mine aren't unusable or anything like that, they just don't feel anywhere near as fluffy as new.  I wouldn't put them at 95%, maybe 80%.  I just want to make sure I stop doing whatever it is that I'm doing to cause it.  I don't see this issue with any other towels, but those don't have fibers nearly as long either.

I second this.  Definitely air dry if you have the space.

Air dry. Use the dryer sparingly.

So are my older ones stuck like this or will they get better after a while of not using the dryer?

I have some double soft towels that are a few months old as well as some newer ones.  I've noticed that the older ones don't look nearly as plush as the new ones.  I use them primarily for rinseless washes, so they do get somewhat dirty.  I generally pre-treat with APC and wash with Adam's microfiber detergent in warm water and dry on low heat.  It almost looks as if the newer towels have more split fibers whereas the older one look like the split fibers are joined into single strands.

I realize that over time, they won't be as white since they're being used for washing a vehicle.  However, I'd like to keep them in as good of condition as possible since they are rather pricey.  I took a couple of the worst ones and put them in boiling water with vinegar as documented in the care instructions, but it didn't seem to make any difference.

Just to see what would happen, I tried brushing the towel with a pad brush to see if that might fluff them up, but it didn't seem to do a lot either.  It mostly just created a lot of lint.

If anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear them.  Or if this is just the way things are, it would be nice to know that too.

I finally got out and got some fresh pics.