ledger64

Just to put in my two cents supporting VRT and in and out spray, I use them to detail my truck engine and absolutely love the results.
It sees a LOT of dirt, dust, and the usual road grime but with those two products, I find that it stays cleaner much much longer than if I left bare plastic. 
They both do a fantastic job at repelling water and dust, and make subsequent cleaning really quick and easy! Very impressed 
 
 
As for shooting the hose in the engine bay, Ive done it a lot of times on a lot of cars and its totally fine. In fact, I hose out the engine on my trucks every four months or so with no issues. Its better than leaving them caked in dust and grime!  As long as you don't shoot the hose at the fuse box and electrical stuff for 20 minutes you'll be fine! haha

Jay You are such a dick....lol. thats why we need you here for a sanity check every once and awhile. Slapping some sense into some of the users. Really folks there should be no worries about engine bay cleaning
 
ill take option one get me the hose. Option two sounds like a PIA

^let me pick your brain and I mag sound like a dick.
 
What is so special about your engine bay that would harm it? I've rinsed these engine bays over the past 6 months with APC and a hose:
 
-Toyota RAV4 2011
-2013 Highlander
-2003 X5 (mine)
-2014 VW sportwagen (wife's new car)
 
In the past cleaned my 99 Jetta and 2008 GLI. Never an issue.
 
If you want to go completely hose less, you can. Here is a "waterless method" of cleaning the engine bay:
 
-spray down engine bay liberally with APC
-let dwell for 2 mins and agitate with a brush
-take a dampened towel with Rinseless solution mix (1 oz per 2 gallons) and wipe down the engine bay to encapsulate the grime and clean the surface of the APC and dirt
-take a dampened with water towel to get any residual
-let dry and dress with VRT and in and out as usual
 
With that method you should be able to get 98% as clean as you would rinsing down with a hose.
 
Hope that helps

So... I'm probably a minority here... but I don't use my washer's at all. Winter time I
 
On the GTI the washer fluid tank is used for water/methanol injection. The nozzles are shaved off the hood. And I will be doing the same on the CC when I get around to putting it back on the road.

Its all that sweet jersey livin.....

So big bump needed on this thread... the tolco sprayers are so much better than the stock ones esp with hgg

If your going to do it your way why bother asking?
 
Like Dave said do a test panel.  Most cars come back surprisingly well with just an orange froam and PCP.  Why do more work then needed? 

Northern NJ, sussex county.
 
 
Yes, I had Modesta applied at Phil's shop Detailers Domain. I'm not too far from them and once I saw the work they do there was no other choice.

Damn thats a friggin massive explosion.
 
I would think a stronger concentration of pre-soak Rinseless (8:1 or 6:1) should probably be able to break down the bug guts just as well as the RTU Waterless.  However, I agree, the "QD ratio" 16:1 Rinseless is more of a pre-soak on panels before rinseless washing, you do need something stronger to break up bugs.
 
Not sure about the chemistry of each product but I would think Adam's Rinseless in the higher doses should break up bugs well.
 
I do use another polymer product though with no wax additive and at the diluted ratio it is awesome on breaking up bug guts, but it is more concentrated than Rinseless or Waterless.

So to sum it up use your pw with a little common sense and you will be ok

So to sum it up use your pw with a little common sense and you will be ok

For the thousandth time 2000psi out of an electric is perfectly fine.  Those electrics are low gpm at 1.2 to 1.4 so for total cleaning units you are under 3000.
 
Don't be a dummy and use a 0 degree or turbo tip 6 inches from the paint though with 2000 psi.
 
Plenty of people using 3000 psi+ gas machines to wash their cars, they are using them smartly however.
 
I have 1700 psi and can use the turbo tip if I need more power to rinse the car and it doesnt harm a single thing as long as its 2-3 feet away from the paint.  The 15 degree tip I use regularly to rinse it and can get closer if needed.
 
 
To go back to your soap tank, before storing the machine, I would run some distilled water through the soap tank to clear out any surfactant buildup from the soap and clean the detergent lines out (run the soap tip so you can get all the soap/water mix out)
 
Also, use a pump protector you can get from HD/Lowes if storing for a while.  Its cheap insurance to keep the seals lubricated.
 
I already have probably 10 hours of use out of my 1700psi, 1.2gpm Ryobi I bought this year and its an absolute beast.

Like Jason says about a dilluted APC to your liking usually somewhere between 5:1 or 6:1 works well for intereior cleaning.
For dressing anything other than leather on the interior i highly recommend using a 16oz bottle of Detail spray with about a half to 3/4 of an oz of rinseless.  Works amazing.

If your gonna use apc just rember you will need to reapply your lsp of choice

Pictures would be beneficial in helping to determine what you are seeing

If I was a professional doing that for a living, I would have run and hid when "mom" brings in the family van that the 4 kids were in while they were on vacation the week before.  That would be my nightmare. 

The term "detailer" is an easy one to slap on when in reality there is a substantial amount of guys out there that aren't much more than hobbyists. Theres almost a running joke that the majority of 'detailers' out there bought a PC last week, detailed their cars, and decided to open a business this week.

True, actual, experienced professionals running a legitimate full time detailing business are far more rare than people realize. I'd say there are hundreds of hobbyists posing as pros for every actual pro in the industry. Hang out on any car enthusiast forum for long enough and you'll see theres always a dozen or so guy who 'detail professionally'. Dig a little deeper and you find out they are generally uninsured, unlicensed (business), and working out of their home garage on weekends. Not that there is anything wrong with that - but it does present the issue you're dealing with.
 
Its easy to start a business FB page, start a basic DIY website, and claim you're a detailer, but when you have a regular 9-5 and only detail when you have spare time the business and service aspect of it fall by the wayside and sadly the perception of real detailers and full time pros suffers. The business is flooeded with them. Most likely you just happend to pick 4-5 of these types to call.
 
To answer your question - no. The most successful detailers I know hardly ever work on high proflle cars b/c they understand as a busienss everyones money is the same. If someone shows up with a cheap economy car, but wants to spend the money to have it detailed it pays the bills in the same way a Ferrari would. A smart business person looks at it in terms of whats out there - there are probably tens of thousands of average cars out there for every high end exotic, so the market is huge for those cars.

I know a lot of guys in this business. Get me a city/state and I'll put the feelers out there for you to get a real professional for you.

I have been switching out some of the bottles to the new pump.  For a few products that don't get used very often like polishes and sealants, I placed 5/16" vinyl vacuum caps on the nozzle to keep them from drying out.  This would also work to keep the thinner products from dripping out of the pump.
 

 
I bought this set.
 
The black 3/8" ones fit the gallon pumps.
 

put the water in first then the soap

either move or pave your driveway

If you have lots of money you want to spend, the pick of a few of these!
 

I will sometimes apply trim dressings using a MF as opposed to an applicator. It allows me to rub the product in to all of the grooves and crevices and after dressing all of the trim you can easily come back using a cleaner side of the towel to buff it down. I find this helps to cut down on product usage/waste and because the MF will absorb some products allows you to apply only as much as you need to dress it and no excess.

^Agreed.  I think OP needs to hit the weights so he can scrub harder LOL

Have a picture? I have a general understanding of the composition of this product and between all the things you've done it should be degraded at the very least.
 
We have tested and continue to test a tire coating in the background so I'm a bit skeptical its held up to all these steps - especially considering I have some of the exact product which was applied and removed in comparison testing.

very cool