Detailing for winter season

[PaulMys]

Rinsless maybe your only option for winter. When I lived in NH, out door washing in winter was out of the question. Hoses were put away to prevent line freezing. Plus not to mention working with water in sub freezing temps causes hypothermia. I actually had that working on an Acura late in November. Took two days to get warm again.

I would to a touchless then get home and to a 2bm of rinsless. I still have Meg’s D114, but just picked up a gal of M914.

I prefer ceramic coatings, but a good wax for winter is Collinite 476 double wax.

Of course now that I’ve moved to AZ, I scratch my head and say, what’s winter????? On a nice 75 - 80 degree February day, the only thing I’m shoveling is sunshine

Or just move to AZ, where your winter routine won’t be different than your summer routine.

Before (NH) Winter car-care:

After (AZ) Winter car-care:

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You just HAD to go there, huh Paul........ :bat:.

Lol

 

[acuRAS82]

Paul is outlining AZ’s strong season for detailing in his post. Im sure he has stories about summertime detailing in AZ that are less than desirable.

 

[LSNAutoDetailingLSNAutoDetailing is verified member.]

Paul is outlining AZ’s strong season for detailing in his post. Im sure he has stories about summertime detailing in AZ that are less than desirable.

So the last major detail (full correction and coating) had to be done at night. I started at 5pm with the typical stuff, wheels/wash/clay and went right through to 1AM.
I started the next morning at 8am so I could get to the coating before temps exceeded 100. By the time I finished the vehicle, next day afternoon, it was close to 112.

So yeah, If you can deal with 3 or 4 months of excessive heat, late September/October through April is where the bread and butter weather is. But luckily it doesn't change too much. Products react much differently in extreme heat, polishes and compounds will dry out... Even GG FCC which is dustless will dust.

You just have to make provisions, adjustments and try to do stuff at night. But I'd rather deal with that than bitter, bone chilling cold. At least I don't have to clear 4' of snow.

Regarding winter routines, once it gets below freezing there really isn't many choices.. Your hose lines must be disconnected or they will freeze and possibly burst... And laughably turning on the water will freeze in the hose. One time trying to get a car done before temps dropped, I could see the liquids freezing on the vehicle. Your done.

Using High Lubricity products like Megs D114 (discontinue), McKee's N914, or Optimum NRW (ONR) are all great rinsless washes. What you can do is a touchless carwash to get bulk of the crap off. Those are good because they get the undercarriage. The only word of caution is if you have a light colored vehicle and have clear-bra. Some of the strong detergents and cleaners in the car-wash can stain PPF.

When you get home, fill a couple of buckets with water from say the bath-tub or utility sink and in one of them add your rinsless wash solution concentrate. I prefer chenille wash mits vs. microfiber. I start with the top down and do a typical two bucket method wash, except you wont be hosing the car off, as the products say "rinsless". Make sure your buckets have gritguards and you frequently change out mitts and rinse water before going to the bucket with the concentrate with the mitt.

You can do this all in your garage since you will be dropping water all over the floor, but not like a hose the concrete or epoxy floor should be fine. Then use your MF towels and apply your QD, or what have you.

I have some old posts about winter maintenance with pic's... I'll have to search or dig through those. I think in the pics snow is still on the ground...

 

[acuRAS82]

I just got into the Rinseless this past winter. I have a one car attached garage. So with the door shut, it slowly warms to above freezing in there. I had started with doing waterless which would take about 2-3 rounds to get the salt off.

When it dawned on me to use Uber Rinseless as a rinseless rather than a WW, I was shocked at how easy it was! Car completely clean after only one pass. From there I became a firm supporter of winter Rinseless washing. Water does get on the floor but it never froze, and they weren’t large puddles so they evaporated usually by morning. No hose needed. Cleanup of two buckets was a breeze. I looked forward to doing it 1-2x per week.

 

[KBsToy]

I just got into the Rinseless this past winter. I have a one car attached garage. So with the door shut, it slowly warms to above freezing in there. I had started with doing waterless which would take about 2-3 rounds to get the salt off.

When it dawned on me to use Uber Rinseless as a rinseless rather than a WW, I was shocked at how easy it was! Car completely clean after only one pass. From there I became a firm supporter of winter Rinseless washing. Water does get on the floor but it never froze, and they weren’t large puddles so they evaporated usually by morning. No hose needed. Cleanup of two buckets was a breeze. I looked forward to doing it 1-2x per week.

It never freezes in the Burgh

 

[LSNAutoDetailingLSNAutoDetailing is verified member.]

So the last major detail (full correction and coating) had to be done at night. I started at 5pm with the typical stuff, wheels/wash/clay and went right through to 1AM.
I started the next morning at 8am so I could get to the coating before temps exceeded 100. By the time I finished the vehicle, next day afternoon, it was close to 112.

So yeah, If you can deal with 3 or 4 months of excessive heat, late September/October through April is where the bread and butter weather is. But luckily it doesn't change too much. Products react much differently in extreme heat, polishes and compounds will dry out... Even GG FCC which is dustless will dust.

You just have to make provisions, adjustments and try to do stuff at night. But I'd rather deal with that than bitter, bone chilling cold. At least I don't have to clear 4' of snow.

Regarding winter routines, once it gets below freezing there really isn't many choices.. Your hose lines must be disconnected or they will freeze and possibly burst... And laughably turning on the water will freeze in the hose. One time trying to get a car done before temps dropped, I could see the liquids freezing on the vehicle. Your done.

Using High Lubricity products like Megs D114 (discontinue), McKee's N914, or Optimum NRW (ONR) are all great rinsless washes. What you can do is a touchless carwash to get bulk of the crap off. Those are good because they get the undercarriage. The only word of caution is if you have a light colored vehicle and have clear-bra. Some of the strong detergents and cleaners in the car-wash can stain PPF.

When you get home, fill a couple of buckets with water from say the bath-tub or utility sink and in one of them add your rinsless wash solution concentrate. I prefer chenille wash mits vs. microfiber. I start with the top down and do a typical two bucket method wash, except you wont be hosing the car off, as the products say "rinsless". Make sure your buckets have gritguards and you frequently change out mitts and rinse water before going to the bucket with the concentrate with the mitt.

You can do this all in your garage since you will be dropping water all over the floor, but not like a hose the concrete or epoxy floor should be fine. Then use your MF towels and apply your QD, or what have you.

I have some old posts about winter maintenance with pic's... I'll have to search or dig through those. I think in the pics snow is still on the ground...

Found the old pics and uploaded them:

Of course any winter outdoor rinsless washing needs to be done mid-day, at highest temperature. The sun (warming agent) helps keep things from not freezing. If you wait until the early evening or early morning, you'll be fighting liquids freezing. Then of course your hands... and body temps need to be monitored. You'll be surprised when you work outdoors in freezing temps how warm you get, so layers of clothing start coming off... Then you go inside and start shivering.... even after a warm shower. That's not good. Layers of Polypropylene are your friend.

This is typical after going through the touchless car wash and the ride home. Roads are typically wet with melting snow, and ice-melt on the roads. Note, in the background you can see some snow on the grass and driveway. So, temps were cold enough where no hose could be used.

This is after doing the 2BM with rinsless and McKee's Waterless Wash Mitts and some D114

Rinsless solution before:

After:

 

[acuRAS82]

^^ Interesting the Rinseless solution got that dirty despite the 2BM