My College Car Care Adventure

conman1395

conman1395

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This thread is going to be for myself and anyone else interested in my experience taking care of my car during college. I spent last week polishing and then coating my car with Cquartz. I have a 2010 Acura TSX in Premium White Pearl (thank god it's not black!).


I don’t honestly know how often I will be updating this thread, but I’m always on the forum whether it be on my computer or phone so I’ll definitely add things periodically.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve got at my apartment. I brought maybe one fourth of my supplies. Like at home, I’ll be keeping this in my closet so temperatures will be controlled.
Not everything pictured, but:
D101, D114, DG 921, Folex, Eco Touch WW, Mother’s WW, Sponges, Microfiber Madness Incredimitt and Incredipad, detail brushes, and more. I will run to Home Depot across the street to buy a couple more buckets.












I’m going to school at the University of Kansas, so I experience every season to almost every degree – 100 degree summers and cold, sometimes very snowy winters. I will be washing my car doing both rinseless and waterless (I’m curious see which one I end up using most). In addition to the rinseless and waterless washes, there are a few touchless and DIY coin operated car washes around me I will utilize as well. I brought some Duragloss 901 with me as well so I can do some traditional washes if I want.
I am a diehard Kansas City Chiefs fan so I will be driving home for all the home games (except for that dumb London game where the Lions will obviously have more fans than us…). I will have stuff there to also wash my car.

I welcome any and all tips for myself or others. I’m sure the number of Autogeek members in college isn’t that large, but I know there are some and I feel like I can take care of my car just as well as I have at home even though I don’t have a garage and all my supplies.

I’m hoping I can get to the coin operated wash today and get my first wash done. It’s been 7 days since I coated my car and it actually poured rain on my today going home for an appointment I had.
 
Sound cool :)
wondering how you perform rinseless & waterless and your thoughts after coating. I'll be interested if you have time to show your steps.
Do keep us update!!!
 
Mask said:
Sound cool :)
wondering how you perform rinseless & waterless and your thoughts after coating. I'll be interested if you have time to show your steps.
Do keep us update!!!
Click to expand...
Definitely. It's actually been raining all day so if it stops soon enough to allow the roads to dry then I will. I'll need to go to the coin op today first before I'm willing to do rinseless or waterless though.
 
I'm afraid of doing a waterless wash. I guess I'd do one if it was only the next day after a rinseless. My version of a WW is is spraying down the panel and wiping down with a wrung out MF from a RW bucket. I guess that's not really a WW but I just don't feel comfortable wiping with down with a completely dry towel
 
frankprozzoly said:
I'm afraid of doing a waterless wash. I guess I'd do one if it was only the next day after a rinseless. My version of a WW is is spraying down the panel and wiping down with a wrung out MF from a RW bucket. I guess that's not really a WW but I just don't feel comfortable wiping with down with a completely dry towel
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I feel ya, I used to be in the same boat.

Honestly, it takes some trust in the product and practice too. When I worked at the shop in KC over this past summer and winter I got some practice doing rinseless and waterless washes - both of which I wasn't very comfortable doing. Now I can tell the level of dirt appropriate for both and feel safe doing either when appropriate.
 
Correction, I left DG 921 at home. At college I have DG 931.

It rained on and off all last night. I will hopefully get a chance tonight to go wash my car.
 
Fellow 2010 TSX owner here. I have Gloss Coat on my car. Makes life so much easier.

Looks like you have everything you should need to keep everything clean while you're away!
 
This is a great thread for me. I will be going to college next year so I need to be prepared haha
 
frankprozzoly said:
I'm afraid of doing a waterless wash. I guess I'd do one if it was only the next day after a rinseless. My version of a WW is is spraying down the panel and wiping down with a wrung out MF from a RW bucket. I guess that's not really a WW but I just don't feel comfortable wiping with down with a completely dry towel
Click to expand...

In your WW scenario, you could also spray your towel a bit so it's not a dry towel wiping the panel/ww solution.
 
ViperGuy21 said:
This is a great thread for me. I will be going to college next year so I need to be prepared haha
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I'm in my junior year now, but before I just dealt with it and went home on the breaks and cleaned it. This time I'm on a lease so I'm here for at least a year.
 
Heisenberg said:
Fellow 2010 TSX owner here. I have Gloss Coat on my car. Makes life so much easier.

Looks like you have everything you should need to keep everything clean while you're away!
Click to expand...

I almost used Gloss Coat instead (also considered Opti-Coat Pro + since I had that available too) but chose Cquartz because I wanted something I hadn't tried before.
 
It's one of my friend's friends 21st tonight, so I'll either be going to the party and then go out tonight or wash my car.

My friend and I stopped by Home Depot and picked up three buckets. They're less than $3 each.... Why would you buy other buckets??!!
 
conman1395 said:
I'm in my junior year now, but before I just dealt with it and went home on the breaks and cleaned it. This time I'm on a lease so I'm here for at least a year.
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Yeah,nit just a rising HS senior but since I've gotten into detailing so much so early I know I won't wanna just deal with it. That would hurt my OCD haha! I'm really hoping for a single room in the honors dorm so I have plenty of room for my stuff(and don't have to deal with possibly having a bad/dirty/irritating roommate)
 
ViperGuy21 said:
Yeah,nit just a rising HS senior but since I've gotten into detailing so much so early I know I won't wanna just deal with it. That would hurt my OCD haha! I'm really hoping for a single room in the honors dorm so I have plenty of room for my stuff(and don't have to deal with possibly having a bad/dirty/irritating roommate)
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I started my senior year in high school too. I had DG 105 on my car freshman and sophomore year and that lasted each semester easily. By deal with it, I mean I only did touchless and the do it yourself car washes. Unfortunately a Lincoln Navigator hit my 2005 Acura TL 2 months into my first semester, blew out all the side windows and totalled my car after I spent 15 hours correcting and doing the Leatherique system on it before going away. So when I got my TSX all I had time to do was do a paint cleaner then DG 105. I corrected it the following summer and put a coat of 105 on it again. That stuff really is amazing.

Honestly, I'm only happy being in a one person apartment because my 8 closest friends are in the same complex. I'd have been miserable in a one person in the dorms. It makes it so much harder to meet people. I was in a four person suite and those three guys are some of my best friends. Do you plan on joining a Fraternity?



I did wash my car today. I have two (crappy, rant filled) videos I took and pictures. I'll try and get everything posted tomorrow, but I can't make any promises.
 
Good luck in school and keeping that TSX clean! I have a Crystal Black Pearl 09 and it has been easily the best car I have ever owned. Just rolled 132K...

When the time comes, I would definitely buy another. I have a feeling its going to be tough to find another 6MT though!

Funny thing about college is that every day I think about something that brings me back to those days. Best days of your life. I know they were mine!
 
damaged442 said:
Good luck in school and keeping that TSX clean! I have a Crystal Black Pearl 09 and it has been easily the best car I have ever owned. Just rolled 132K...

When the time comes, I would definitely buy another. I have a feeling its going to be tough to find another 6MT though!

Funny thing about college is that every day I think about something that brings me back to those days. Best days of your life. I know they were mine!
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I wish mine was a manual transmission. I wouldn't have wanted CBP though...
 
So I did my first wash since I’ve applied Cquartz on my car last night. I made two videos, and I will say ahead of time, in bold capital letters:

I RANT AND GO IN CIRCLES IN THESE VIDEOS

It’s not that I don’t like washing my car like I did, it’s that I did not like washing my car like I did considering I’m not at home. I washed my car like I would if I was at home, and honestly I feel like the Garry Dean Method or Waterless washing would be easier than dealing with even a one bucket method doing a rinseless wash because I still have to rinse the sponge and it takes a little bit more time. Another reason I didn’t like the method I chose is because I felt like I was rushed, even though I wasn’t in any way. I also didn’t like using my regular sized Dry Me Crazy towel outside of my garage. I honestly would have preferred doing it with a damp towel followed by a dry towel (such as my DMC Jr.). Something about the nasty ground made me terrified I might drop my favorite towel. Again, kind of stupid anyway because if I ever dropped my regular sized DMC towel outside – whether in my driveway or even in my garage – I don’t know that I’d ever use it again because I can’t demote it to anything else.

The cleanup wasn’t terrible once I got back, but I’d have rather done the GDM or a waterless wash and just thrown towels in the washer than go clean the buckets in my bathtub/shower. I will never use a bucket more than once without cleaning it out from the previous wash.

I think every now and then I’ll do a traditional wash late at night, but I’ll stick with either waterless or Garry Dean Method. I’m sure my opinion will change a few dozen times so time will tell what I find I like best. Also, the wheels do not get done as well as I’d like no matter how I think of it. That’ll be something I continue to research and think about.

Last night I was rushed, I had to do stuff this morning and I witnessed a car accident on the way to the car wash last night so I stopped to make sure everyone was okay and stayed around until the cops got there so that took 45~50 minutes and it was past midnight by the time I got back. I plan on doing a better job with pictures and videos next time I get a chance. Even this post is kind of rushed because I’m trying get some things done before I go out tonight and I won’t have time tomorrow to post (CHIEFS GAME!!!!)

Here’s some pictures and the two videos:

















https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHfNVI0rK6U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztxF897ruOg
 
Hey conman, thanks for posting those videos. Honestly, I think you are being to hard on yourself and I don't think you ranted at all. In fact, I found them helpful and I picked up a couple nice tips.

BTW, your sponge review was great and I'm going to try a rinseless with a sponge for the first time tomorrow to see how I like it.

Keep it up brother.
 
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