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Touchless Car Care


musclejunkie

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There's a lot to be said for NEVER touching the finish on your car. My brother, who has moved in with me and who is a total slob, bought a cheap Chevy Aveo a couple years ago and the car has NEVER seen a wash mitt, towel, polish or wax. The interior looked like a garbage dump and was never vacuumed or cleaned. As a friendly welcome, I told him I would detail his car to which he replied not to bother, he sprays it off when he can no longer see out of the windows!

 

I wish I took some before pic's, but I'll try to get some after shots this week. First off, believe it or not, there was not one swirl in the paint after I dawn washed the thing! Next I clayed with Adam's clay (the clay was filthy black after doing his little car) and was going to do a machine polish, but the paint was just so flawless I thought I'd just hit it with Revive. After one hand pass with Revive, some Americana and the undercarraige spray, the car was transformed from a junk heap to a show car! I could not believe the results from the Revive and Americana applied by hand. He had some nasty scratches on the car too and the focus pads, SHR and FMP took them out with a couple passes of my drill. For a guy that totally ignored this car for two years, I just can not believe how it turned out.:drool:

 

The morale of the story? Quit worrying about road salt and grime in the winter. From now on, it's a quick spray off for me when it goes below 32*. Hand washing does a lot more harm than good as evidenced by his car.

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This is what I do... The weather outlook is HORRIBLE... Wet and gross... I just don't touch it. It's not worth washing when it rains every other day anymore.

 

Chris

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My brother is the exact same. He has never washed or cleaned his interior. I think the last time the car was cleaned was last spring. There is an inch of dust and garbage all over the floor. He wants me to clean it, but its so bad I really don't want to spend a whole day just washing and cleaning the interior.

 

Anyways I can't wait for the pics :D

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NE winters suck. I took my brand new Macan (metallic black) to a touchless wash, pulled out, sprayed it down with detail spray, drying rags to dry and I got...scratches and swirl marks!

Would spraying on rinseless and then wiping down have been a better way to go? I see a weekend correction, seal, glaze and wax in my future. But, I'd still like to know the best way to avoid the cruelty of winter..

Edited by slalom38
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Where I live, a lot of road salt and sand is used in the winter. It takes a THOROUGH rinse to remove enough to make rinseless, much less detail spray, safe to use. My bet is this issue is the root cause of the damage.

 

If the facility has a "you pay, you spray" booth, try giving the vehicle a really good pre-rinse. Then run it through the touchless. Then try a rinseless or waterless wash on a panel with white microfiber to test if the touchless left the vehicle "detail spray" safe as a drying aid. 

 

I placed "detail spray" in quotes because diluted Adams Rinseless Wash may make for a safer drying aid.

 

Another approach is to skip the touchless all together. Pre-rinse (plain water) the heck out of the vehicle and follow up with a rinseless wash. Typically, this is what I do. Logistically it is a bit of a pain.

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NE winters suck. I took my brand new Macan (metallic black) to a touchless wash, pulled out, sprayed it down with detail spray, drying rags to dry and I got...scratches and swirl marks!

Would spraying on rinseless and then wiping down have been a better way to go? I see a weekend correction, seal, glaze and wax in my future. But, I'd still like to know the best way to avoid the cruelty of winter..

I'd look into on how to do a "proper" Rinsless wash or even bring regular car soap to the car wash. I've found there's no chance a touch less car wash removes deep embedded winter grime, all you did is grind your paint. IMHO you're better off just leaving the car dirty until you have the time to do it right and Detail Spray isn't meant to deep clean Edited by vobro
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NE winters suck. I took my brand new Macan (metallic black) to a touchless wash, pulled out, sprayed it down with detail spray, drying rags to dry and I got...scratches and swirl marks!

 

Would spraying on rinseless and then wiping down have been a better way to go? I see a weekend correction, seal, glaze and wax in my future. But, I'd still like to know the best way to avoid the cruelty of winter..

 

Just curious, what type of "drying rags" did you use Larry? That can make all the difference in the world as to whether you can get swirl marks and scratches while washing, but I'm sure you realize that.

 

During the winter months, if I can't use my pressure washer at home due to temperatures, I'll go to the local touchless spray wash, using only their water pressure to blast as much of the vehicle clean that I can. Luckily it's only a mile down the road from my house, so then I'll drive back with the wet vehicle, pull it into my garage, and proceed to pre-wash with a Rinseless spray mix and then do a Rinseless Wash with a 5 Gallon bucket of warm water with 2oz of Rinseless Wash mixed in, and about 5 or 6 Double Soft Microfiber Towels, following the method outlined in this older video of ours here:

 

 

For anyone unfamiliar with rinseless washing, you want to make sure that you are constantly flipping to a new clean 'side' of the towel, and do not put the towel back into the wash bucket, so that you minimize the chance of dragging any dirt across the surface to cause swirl marks. I also wipe in straight lines rather than circular motions.

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