DFB's Garage

[DFB]

This is one of those things I didn't know how to search for because I didn't know its name. When I finally landed on it through a vague chain of Google searches, I discovered others didn't know the name either. The product in question is called a Bettix 'Bettamix' — a twin-chambered chemical bottle that makes dosing quick and accurate by eliminating the need for a measuring cup.

I've used these for years, mostly in horticulture, where they're common for dosing insecticides and herbicides. They're also handy for mixing 2-stroke oil — not having to carry a separate measuring container eliminates the mess (and the hassle of finding a way to clean it out) on the job.



This style of bottle is sold under a variety of different brand names, along with a range of designs and capacities. I prefer this particular 1-litre version, mainly for the metric measurements — it makes mixing fuel to a 50:1 ratio easy, at 100ml to 5 litres of fuel. Surprisingly, it's Australian-made, too.

10 X 1L Plastic Twin Chamber Bottle & Tamper Evident Cap Chemical Bottle Food | eBay Australia

Over time, the squeeze and release of the bottle causes them to crack, so I buy these in bulk and replace them as needed for herbicide, mixing oil, and detailing supplies. I then buy the chemical itself in larger bulk quantities and refill the smaller 1-litre bottle as it's used.



This may or may not be news to you, but if you've ever wondered, now you know what a Bettix Bottle is.

 

[Tasmania]

This is one of those things I didn't know how to search for because I didn't know its name. When I finally landed on it through a vague chain of Google searches, I discovered others didn't know the name either. The product in question is called a Bettix 'Bettamix' — a twin-chambered chemical bottle that makes dosing quick and accurate by eliminating the need for a measuring cup.

I've used these for years, mostly in horticulture, where they're common for dosing insecticides and herbicides. They're also handy for mixing 2-stroke oil — not having to carry a separate measuring container eliminates the mess (and the hassle of finding a way to clean it out) on the job.



This style of bottle is sold under a variety of different brand names, along with a range of designs and capacities. I prefer this particular 1-litre version, mainly for the metric measurements — it makes mixing fuel to a 50:1 ratio easy, at 100ml to 5 litres of fuel. Surprisingly, it's Australian-made, too.

10 X 1L Plastic Twin Chamber Bottle & Tamper Evident Cap Chemical Bottle Food | eBay Australia

Over time, the squeeze and release of the bottle causes them to crack, so I buy these in bulk and replace them as needed for herbicide, mixing oil, and detailing supplies. I then buy the chemical itself in larger bulk quantities and refill the smaller 1-litre bottle as it's used.



This may or may not be news to you, but if you've ever wondered, now you know what a Bettix Bottle is.

Added to my ebay watch list

 

[Klasse Act]

Hey Deyon, I bought two 32 oz Rags to Riches microfiber cleaner for $20 on clearance from AutoForge as they getting rid of certain brands on your post about trying 3D Towel Kleen, a brand I've been using for years due to price and "thinking" my towels were clean. Thing is, my Griot's Garage PFM's aren't drying as good as they used to and I'm thinking they're clogged up

So the order came in and I doubled the recommendation of 2 oz for large load AND added a small box of baking soda for good measure. In the load are ALL my dry towels, even ones I don't use all the time...stay "tuned" on the results

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[Silly Rabbit]

I will sometimes also add some vinegar to the bleach option for some extra. Works good.

 

[Prange]

We have a front-loader. I always put vinegar into the water softener compartment. Works like a champ. Dry on air fluff, no heat.

 

[DFB]

Hey Deyon, I bought two 32 oz Rags to Riches microfiber cleaner for $20 on clearance from AutoForge as they getting rid of certain brands on your post about trying 3D Towel Kleen, a brand I've been using for years due to price and "thinking" my towels were clean. Thing is, my Griot's Garage PFM's aren't drying as good as they used to and I'm thinking they're clogged up

So the order came in and I doubled the recommendation of 2 oz for large load AND added a small box of baking soda for good measure. In the load are ALL my dry towels, even ones I don't use all the time...stay "tuned" on the results

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Interested to hear how it goes. I'm pleasantly surprised how much of difference R2R made, I had actually bought a couple of replacement towels in case it didn't save the day.

I've also modified my process a little. Any towel used with some form of sealant or SiO2 product goes into the rinse bucket I used to wash the car with. No special treatment, no APC or any other chemical, just thrown into whatever soap and water remains in the bucket and fully saturated. The idea being to completely dilute whatever is in the fibres until I'm finished with the detail, then straight into the washer with R2R.

It's such a fine line between resisting the marketing hype, but also willing to find out what actually works vs what doesn't. When R2R was released, many suggested the product was just a marketing ploy, and that it was too expensive compared to other similar products, or even a normal laundry detergent. Previous to R2R, I was using another dedicated microfiber detergent and immediately noticed a massive improvement in how my towels felt and performed. Like after the very first wash with it. Trying something else when R2R had been doing a great job for me didn't turn out how I had hoped, but it at least confirmed the "hype" and extra cost was justified.

 

[Coatingsarecrack]

Wash Bucket Update - Part 2
To recap, I bought some larger 20-litre buckets, swapping from white to black in the process. I also got new red and blue gamma seal lids, colour matched to the carry over bucket dollies and grit guards. From here, I wanted to mix things up.

If Obsessed Garage still offered those original red and blue decals, I'd probably have just bought a fresh set and called it done. But OG recently redesigned their bucket package too. The red, blue and black on white is gone — replaced by a monotone look across black, grey or white buckets with black and grey labelling. The new labels look slick, but there's no colour recognition, which I always thought was the whole point of the decals. I hate to say it given how much influence Matt has had on my detailing over the years — but I feel like it's time to stop promoting someone else's brand. So, I decided to go my own way...........

After some time online, I landed on a basic logo and a font I liked, then worked through several colour combinations before settling on crisp white lettering set against red and blue backgrounds. The decal designations also got a rethink to better reflect how I actually use them. Blue for RINSE, red for WHEELS, red for WASH (laundry) — and a new addition, blue for RINSELESS.

From there, I took the design to a local sign maker, colour matched the decals to the gamma seal colours, worked out the sizing and finalised the shape. I'd originally planned to go rectangular, but asked them to mock up circular and hexagon options to compare. I'm glad I did, the rectangle looked bland, the circle a bit "me too." The elongated hex looked fresher, more personalized.







Yesterday I picked up the decals from the printer and went ahead and installed them on the buckets. The smaller sizing of the decal was deliberate. While I like the impact the larger OG decals make, on my shorter buckets they were partially hidden by the bucket dolly. So, smaller, less in your face, fully visible. And because I've kept the colour deviations, they are easily identifiable.







Did I need to have a dedicated RINSELESS bucket? Not really, I just thought why not. The WASH bucket is for holding used towels, basically a dedicated laundry basket. I guess I could have gone with LAUNDRY, but I felt like sticking with WASH because that's what its for........washing towels.



With anything custom, you never truly know if it will meet the vision you had in your head. And while this wasn't totally what I'd originally planned — it's actually better than I had anticipated. But more importantly, this time it's mine.

Not gonna lie. Previous post w/o decal I wasn’t sure of black buckets. They look amazing with the decals.


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[DFB]

Not gonna lie. Previous post w/o decal I wasn’t sure of black buckets. They look amazing with the decals.


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The only drawback of the upgrade and change to black is that I can't see what dirt has collected at the bottom of the bucket.

 

[Coatingsarecrack]

The only drawback of the upgrade and change to black is that I can't see what dirt has collected at the bottom of the bucket.

I was thinking that. But unless it’s the truck I’m never worried of your cars ever getting that dirty.


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[DFB]

I was thinking that. But unless it’s the truck I’m never worried of your cars ever getting that dirty.

Ha ha, true.

The main concern for me is rinsing out the bucket at the end, as in making sure I get it clean for the next wash. Anyone who has gamma seal lids will know that dirt tends to collect around the rim, black buckets tend to hide that. This mostly applies to my wheel bucket, the wash/rinse bucket less so because of how much cleaning is done before the actual contact wash, ie rinsing, pre-wash foam etc.

 

[Klasse Act]

Deyon, I washed a 2nd load of my mf towels, this time the 16 x 16 Eagle edgeless ones, as well as my green ADS towels and my God are they fluffed up and soft️

I used 4 oz of R2R in the machine, hot water to ensure all the past LSP's were out. I use these towels for 1BM RW's and to apply LSP's, so they were long overdue

I'm still going to use my 3D Towel Kleen but maybe a stronger ratio, although most loads I use medium load, warm water and 2.5 oz of it, maybe I'll look at it as more of "maintence product" right now because R2R really impressed me here. I know I've used it in the past, maybe the combo of more soap and hot water did the trick here

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[DFB]

Deyon, I washed a 2nd load of my mf towels, this time the 16 x 16 Eagle edgeless ones, as well as my green ADS towels and my God are they fluffed up and soft️

I used 4 oz of R2R in the machine, hot water to ensure all the past LSP's were out. I use these towels for 1BM RW's and to apply LSP's, so they were long overdue

I'm still going to use my 3D Towel Kleen but maybe a stronger ratio, although most loads I use medium load, warm water and 2.5 oz of it, maybe I'll look at it as more of "maintence product" right now because R2R really impressed me here. I know I've used it in the past, maybe the combo of more soap and hot water did the trick here

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I think it's a combination of the soaking process with R2R and hot water, then maintaining with R2R that makes the difference. In this case, the before and after difference using R2R is pronounced. But the degradation from using 3D Towel Kleen was so gradual that it crept up on us. So, I'm not sure what I can do with the remainder of the 3D Towel Kleen, perhaps alternate between the two? I've also got a heap of Bowden's to get rid of as well, a product I haven't touch since I switched to R2R many years ago.

Either way, I learnt a lot from this experience. Firstly, that SiO2 does in fact effect towel performance over the longer term, something I had been immune to ever since I started using R2R. This little deviation away from R2R has only strengthened my belief that it's the best on the market at keeping towels in a serviceable condition for longer. Also, adding up the replacement cost of my drying towels kinda shocked me, as in I have a lot of money tied up in towels, so spending the extra on R2R is a no brainer.

 

[BLM]

I had some Griots PFM towels that I foolishly allowed to become hydrophobic and I had been using R2R, at least for several months. I was using some si02 detailers/ sealants/waxes. The R2R washes was not cleaning out the residue. So I decided to soak in R2R for 24 hours. As far as that goes I soaked them for 24 hours twice. They were still hydrophobic. I then gave them a 24 hour soak in Simple Green followed by a R2R machine wash and that knocked some of the accumulated residue out but still pretty hydrophobic. Finally I soaked for 24 hours in vinegar followed by a R2R machine wash. That was enough to get them to be absorbant again

So since that event I made a vow not to use my drying towels with protection products. When I do use protection products I use them with 350 gsm towels. I'd rather deal with protection product residue in a 16 x 16 350 gsm towel than a 24 x 36 1100 gsm drying towel. In addition any microfibers I use with protection products get soaked in simple green for 24 hours before they are rinsed and hung to dry. When I have accumulated enough towels used with protection products I'll wash a load with R2R. I don't wash anything used with protection products with other microfibers. Prior to taking these measures I was washing everything used in a single wash together in one load, wash mitts/drying towels/16 x 16s with si02 residue. Everything was getting a dose of residue.
As a little insurance I add a cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle.

 

[Coatingsarecrack]

Deyon, I washed a 2nd load of my mf towels, this time the 16 x 16 Eagle edgeless ones, as well as my green ADS towels and my God are they fluffed up and soft️

I used 4 oz of R2R in the machine, hot water to ensure all the past LSP's were out. I use these towels for 1BM RW's and to apply LSP's, so they were long overdue

I'm still going to use my 3D Towel Kleen but maybe a stronger ratio, although most loads I use medium load, warm water and 2.5 oz of it, maybe I'll look at it as more of "maintence product" right now because R2R really impressed me here. I know I've used it in the past, maybe the combo of more soap and hot water did the trick here

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50/50 the towel Kleen with R&R


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[Klasse Act]

Deyon, this morning I dried the car with one of my drying towels that I washed with R2R, whole box of baking soda and hot wash...dried perfectly

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[DFB]

Well, it got the better of me. I managed to track down a set of blue and red Snappy Grip handles. The black ones will be repurposed elsewhere.







A small change, but having them match the decal, gamma seal, and bucket dolly makes quite a difference.

 

[DFB]

Got the Ranger and Mustang washed this week. Tyres cleaned with Brake Buster, wheels and body with Carpro Reset.

On the Ranger, after the wash I decided to apply Reload 2.0 to the paint and plastic trims. I feel like this product gets a bad wrap, but the latest formula is easier to apply and has exceptional gloss and slickness. I continued the Carpro theme inside by using InnerQD for the wipe down. InnerQD was my favourite interior QD for quite a while, but I mostly grab ADS Pilot these days as I prefer the scent and how is behaves under the towel. For the glass, I went with P&S Reflect, a product that I really like. I then wiped the wheels down with Amplify, dressed the tyres with OG TD.

For the Mustang, after blow drying with the EGO, I went with a very light go over with ADS Amplify, which was also used on the door jambs, engine bay, exhaust tips and wheels. Glass got the Reflect treatment, interior wiped down with a damp towel. The final job was a fresh layer of OG TD.





Two clean cars, and my little boy.

 

[Tasmania]

Just bought some P&S Rags to riches because of your write up.

Let's see if we can breathe some life back into these old drying towels,
But don't have the hot water connected to the washing machine so I will dump a load in or can cold water do.

 

[DFB]

Just bought some P&S Rags to riches because of your write up.

Let's see if we can breathe some life back into these old drying towels,
But don't have the hot water connected to the washing machine so I will dump a load in or can cold water do.

Soak them in a bucket of hot water, then leave them there for 12 - 24 hours. You can then run them through on your normal washing cycle, temp doesn't matter here because the hard work will have been done during the soaking phase. You may need to add an extra rinse and spin cycle to fully purge the detergent from the towels. Also, I attempted to do all of my Gauntlet and Chipmunk towels in one load, the machine had trouble spinning out that much saturated weight. So if you have a lot of high GSM towels to do, split the load or you'll have to mess about like I did.

 

[BLM]

AIneg

Let's see if we can breathe some life back into these old drying towels,

If they are hydrophobic the best thing I have found for trying to make them absorbant again is to soak them in white vinegar for 24-48 hours.