Next bang for buck for weekly washes?

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seanyb505

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First, long, detailed post coming up.

I’m looking for the next logical, bang for buck solution for maintaining two vehicles. The two vehicles are a black 2005 Subaru Legacy wagon and a black 2008 Infiniti FX35. Two black cars was not on purpose.

I experience the same frustrations with both: dirt after precipitation, seasonal pollen, and light scratches are permanent. Not swirl marks, scratches like when someone uses the car as a crutch to walk in a parking lot, but not quite “my car has been keyed” deep.

Last year I did my first wax/M105/M205/LSP with a DA polisher after years of only washing with Brand name car wash from Walmart. After both cars were done I ordered some ONR rinse and wash to put a little more care into routine washes.

I just finished the ONR bottle, and need to think about next product/tools/process. My goal is to make weekly washes less painful for me. I’ll describe my routine for maximum context.


  • I have some detailed image great white microfiber towels I use to wash with Optimum No Rinse wash and shine. The towels are not treated particularly well – they’re thrown in with normal towel laundry loads.
  • I use one bucket. Not the two bucket method, as I’ve not found it to be “worth it”. The benefit of not introducing more micro swirls between major wax days (9-12 months) hasn’t gotten under my skin enough to change.
  • Using a Walmart hose nozzle I try to sheet water off after entire vehicle is wiped down.
  • Aging, dying battery powered Black and decker leaf blower to help in the drying process. Sometimes it doesn’t quite make it all the way.
  • A random, thick microfiber towel and diluted ONR detail spray solution for drying. When the sun is shining, I have to work to remove dried water spots.
  • In warmer months I have daylight and energy to wash more frequently. There is also less dirt to be wiped off in those months.
  • Winter months see longer time between washes, with more road crap accumulating on the cars. It makes me hesitant to wash too frequently, to avoid grinding the salt/dust into the paint.

I’m working to decide what will be the next purchase to make life easier in terms of washing frequently. In order of willingness to purchase:

  • I’ll need a new wash solution anyway – what’s best for my washing habits and black cars?
  • Should I just suck it up and wax more frequently?
  • Plug in leaf blower for drying – less towel drying required
  • Dedicated wash mitt/material
  • Pressure washer to mitigate effort to wipe off road grime

Other areas I see every wash but see as less important to the overall washing process:

  • Wheels are washed with generic car wash solution. The wheels on both cars are already beat after so many years; I’m not going to cry if they’re not perfect.
  • The FX has a decent amount of black plastic trim. I’ve not addressed it in 5 years and 70k miles.

With all that in mind, what should be my next purchase to make weekly washings more enjoyable?
 
A pressure washer and electric leaf blower would be a good start for less swirls.

A coating does help debris rinse off better.
 
spazzz said:
A pressure washer and electric leaf blower would be a good start for less swirls.

A coating does help debris rinse off better.
Click to expand...

Agree the metro sidekick is a must have performs better than a leaf blower.
 
I used to have a black subie. I swear the paint would scratch by blowing on it.

I'm a big fan of cheap electric pressures washers. The more dirt you can remove at the start the better off you'll be.

For washing with ONR, I think your wash towel is fine. Fold it so you have multiple clean sides and keep changing sides/refolding until all sides are dirty. Have a few extra towels on hand. "Ideally" you'd have enough towels that you'd never have to rinse a towel, you'd just grab fresh one from your bucket and set the dirty one aside for laundry (look up garry dean wash method)

Now my opinion: If you're going to wash with a hose/pressure washer (especially if you rinse after washing), I would personally just use any of the great shampoo's sold here. I'd do this:

1. Wheels first, one at a time with their own bucket and tools
2. Rinse car thoroughly
3. Wash with shampoo (change wash media for lower parts of car)
3. Rinse car
4. Dry carefully with detail spray, ONR, whatever (there's a million things you can use as a drying aid)

Rather than go into detail, just check out this article by Mike Phillips:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/52981-how-wash-your-car-kiss-style.html

I think you can get great results with that method.

As far as water spots, there really is no free lunch. Wash early, late, or in the shade. Personally I'd towel dry the car before blowing out cracks, mirrors, etc. Yes, you may get a little splatter on a part you've already dried. But I find if I blow dry first, I'll already have spots forming on the body panels before I get to wiping them down. (Note: I'm assuming the water spots are forming during the wash and not from driving through sprinkler or something earlier)

OK there is a free lunch. It's called a CR spotless and it filters your water...but it's not cheap :)
 
To make it more enjoyable? Do you enjoy washing 2 cars weekly?

Have you tried the one bucket ONR method with multiple towels? You pre-rinse with a sprayer, use a towel soaked in ONR solution, then dry the section you just cleaned. Move onto next section with the next towel in the bucket and repeat. You may be using 3-6 towels per car. This would eliminate your drying problem as you won't have a lot of water running between body panels and saves you some time.

So maybe buy more towels if you wish to try this method. Here is a demo video I just found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57BDoJjZAA4

One product I'm very impressed with is Meguiar's Ultimate Detailer and it works amazing on black paint. Really fills in the swirls and imperfections for a clear reflection. For enjoyment, you can try a bottle for very little money. Any protection won't last long however.
 
Single bucket. ONRWW. Big red sponge. High quality drying towels.

Pre rinse with hose if really bad.
 
Tempest45 said:
Single bucket. ONRWW. Big red sponge. High quality drying towels.

Pre rinse with hose if really bad.
Click to expand...

+1 doesn't get much simpler than this. Can use standard ONR too if you chose


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Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I'll stick with the ONR, and pick up an electric pressure washer to knock as much dirt off before touching the cars.

I'll definitely switch to a separate bucket to wash wheels first. I'm probably drying too hard with the towel trying to get dried water off instead of immediately hitting the car with the leaf blower.
 
seanyb505 said:
Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I'll stick with the ONR, and pick up an electric pressure washer to knock as much dirt off before touching the cars.

I'll definitely switch to a separate bucket to wash wheels first. I'm probably drying too hard with the towel trying to get dried water off instead of immediately hitting the car with the leaf blower.
Click to expand...

If it gets old dealing with the leaf blower (or doesn't want to disturb neighbor), try drying with a damp/wrung out microfiber. Doesn't have to be a big one, a 16x16 or 16x24 rag is more than enough to get the job done.

Gently go over the panels & wring out the towel as you go. Let the haze evaporate by themselves. Inspect later for streaks. Chances are you will find very little to none. Blot those if you do.

I've been doing this for a while and man does it saves me time, not to mention feels better than dragging a dry towel (even with drying aid) atop of the paint.
 
It coat with mckees paint coating and the use a rinseless of D115 or ech2o when you can. I've had good results on this black Stang

It was coated in August and I've only had the chance to wash it 5 times since, the last wash was with ech2o. The coating is holding up great, when it came in we had just had the most rain in like 14 years and while it helped the area it killed the cars shine, but a quick rinseless and it was good as new


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Tempest45 said:
Single bucket. ONRWW. Big red sponge. High quality drying towels.

Pre rinse with hose if really bad.
Click to expand...

It's close to where I'm at right now, too. I don't have the Big Red Sponge (BRS) yet. I'm using the Blue waffle one and a Lake Country blue BRS knockoff. I like both. I will get the BRS soon.
For black I would wipe in BF Midnight Sun Spray Wax every month or two and Wolfgang Uber Rinseless at detail strength in between. My current method is: Metro Sidekick to knockoff 80-90 percent of the water; mist wax or Uber; Sidekick in left hand, pre-misted drying towel in right - using both together to finish to a shine.
The Sidekick will actually allow you to float the towel to lighten the pressure while finishing (Plus get all the hidden water out). The Sidekick and sponge have turned washes into a one towel operation (for most washes) If I don't find a better system soon, I'll probably get the Metro Revolution Master Blaster to replace the Sidekick.
 
seanyb505 said:
Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I'll stick with the ONR, and pick up an electric pressure washer to knock as much dirt off before touching the cars.

I'll definitely switch to a separate bucket to wash wheels first. I'm probably drying too hard with the towel trying to get dried water off instead of immediately hitting the car with the leaf blower.
Click to expand...

Since you already have the pressure washer out just use Meguiars Car Wash Plus. No bucket needed and will remove your light scratches. Much faster than ONR since you can wash the whole vehicle before rinsing --- With your method if you spray off the car first and then use ONR, the water left on the car dilutes the ONR solution and could cause scratches from lack of lubricity
 
Something that has helped me more than ANYTHING is having a 2-3 gallon chemical sprayer.

I'll pre-spray the vehicle with ONR, all over, and double up on the heavy spots. This will help break apart some of the dirt and grime, allowing you to have less to worry about when it comes to washing.


If you want, you could get some boar's hair brushes, to be meticulous with grills, tires, badges, and what have you.


As far as drying, I use Griot's speed shine, if I'm doing a rinseless wash. If I have access to a hose, I'll take my time, and sheet the water off.

After that, I'll usually use Meg's X-press Wax, if I know the car has a coating/sealant on that's fresh. (Truly works on any surface, including trim... It actually helps lock in your gel/coating on the trim, so it doesn't appear/feel sticky.)
 
Real Riders said:
Since you already have the pressure washer out just use Meguiars Car Wash Plus. No bucket needed and will remove your light scratches. Much faster than ONR since you can wash the whole vehicle before rinsing --- With your method if you spray off the car first and then use ONR, the water left on the car dilutes the ONR solution and could cause scratches from lack of lubricity
Click to expand...

meguiars car wash plus strips wax off the car
 
Real Riders said:
Since you already have the pressure washer out just use Meguiars Car Wash Plus. No bucket needed and will remove your light scratches. Much faster than ONR since you can wash the whole vehicle before rinsing --- With your method if you spray off the car first and then use ONR, the water left on the car dilutes the ONR solution and could cause scratches from lack of lubricity
Click to expand...

The lack of lubricity stands out to me, since I usually do rinse the car completely again before drying. Need to figure something out there.

As a general update to the point of this thread:

I bought a generic Home Depot pressure washer. I decided I could justify it for other projects around the house. 1600 or 1750 psi I think. It didn't add too much to the car washing, except I knew I was removing a slightly increased amount of dirt/debris before wiping with the ONR wash and a soft microfiber rag. How much of an increase, I can't really tell.

Then I got a generic corded leaf blower from walmart. That was huge. I don't really have to put a drying towel on the car at all. Yeah I have to deal with extension cords, but I already have them out for the pressure washer anyway.

The pressure washer was about $150 and the leaf blower was $30. I should have done the leaf blower first, and a long time ago.
 
I use a one bucket with grit guard and optimum car wash (not the no rinse although I do plan on getting some ONR to mix in to help with the hard water we have here). If you don't like waxing look into a synthetic wax, sealant, or coating. Personally I use Meguiars ultimate wax and quik wax after regular washes but there are lots of great options. If you don't want to get a new leaf blower look at the Griots PFM drying towels. I can do my entire Silverado 2500 with one and could probably dry part of another car as well. Pressure washer is great to knock off a large amount of dirt before hand washing especially on my truck that gets driven on dirt roads and to jobsites daily. For trim I use 303 aerospace, Doesn't last forever but it looks good.
 
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