Waterless washing in garage messes

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animescreen

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So just being prepared for coming rainy days and will be doing waterless/rinsless wash through the gary dean way (which requires lot of mf towels which im prepared for). However my garage is tight and bit dark but will make it work.

1). I'm concerned about water being all over the floor (as the method has lot of mf towels soaked in water) Is there any way device or method to catch all the water dripping and some how collect it without getting it saturated on the garage floor?

2). If I'm doing this method it will eventually cause swirl marks as nothing is perfect but doing his 1-2x a week when its raining consecutive days bad idea? I calculated that I'll be taking this car out 2-3x a week. And do my usualy 2bucket / foam gun cleaning 1x a week.

3). Let say I come home and was raining a lot and lot of dirt and mud got splattered everywhere etc.. Probally best I rinse it off with garden hose much as i can before doing the waterless/rinseless right?

4). What is most waterless washes people do in a week? (It depends on my situation and driving but rains here a lot)

I have this ocd where I'm going to bed and don't like having dirt or anything on the car. Only cause it gets dried and crusted on there making it hard to get it off as oppose to immediately going back home and getting rid of it. My mind says just clear it everytime I take it out (which is only 2-3x a week).
 
Wow you are really overthinking this. i’ve Used the Gary Dean method a couple times a week. I certainly have had several cars done without scratching. It doesn’t get much water on the floor at all. Use your common sense if it needs to be scrubbed off first because a lot of crap on it. If you are loading up a towel with mud/debris, it needs to be rinsed first.
 
Yeah i will get to my zen soon just newbie getting my feet wet. Learning as I go here. haha. Doing this in garage will be nice cause neighbors keep staring (despite not caring) . They just don't get it lol But common sense is good here lol
 
If your using a waterless wash you'll be using 12-24 ounces of liquid, you should have zero water on the floor. Even if you dropped the ww on the floor there will be hardly any mess

Rinsless wash using the GDWM you'll use a gallon of product, again minimal liquid on the floor. Should be less then when you pull in with snow or rain on car

Yes if heavy mud is on car rinse first. The more you wash the more chance you'll induce marring, imho rinseless wash is safer for every situation but light dust.
 
animescreen said:
I'm concerned about water being all over the floor (as the method has lot of mf towels soaked in water)
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I don't mean to be pedantic but it sounds like you are discussing a rinseless wash, not a waterless wash?
 
vobro said:
If your using a waterless wash you'll be using 12-24 ounces of liquid, you should have zero water on the floor. Even if you dropped the ww on the floor there will be hardly any mess

Rinsless wash using the GDWM you'll use a gallon of product, again minimal liquid on the floor. Should be less then when you pull in with snow or rain on car

Yes if heavy mud is on car rinse first. The more you wash the more chance you'll induce marring, imho rinseless wash is safer for every situation but light dust.
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So light dust I can wipe off anytime with meguiar quick detailed or waterless wash easily right anytime I drive and see the dust or light marks . But not sure if that’s good idea as sometimes brake dust can cling to the paint and seems it gets smeared elsewhere causing swirl marks? (But heard that the waterless is good lubrication so it’s save for the one stroke method)

So how often you think I can get by doing rinseless wash without causing more swirl marks? Not saying I’m gonna do every time but if your in Seattle or that rains a lot it really sucks when you get drenched with rain and then leaving it in garage where you get random things cling to your car and have rain drop minerals after it dries up. Then you clean it up and next day rains again lol. I don’t mind a light quick rinsless wash doing it proper way ... just don’t wanna cause swirl marks which destroys the purpose

And isn’t polishing only like 1x a year thing as doing it more will always take some clear coating off right? Or no


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There should be minimal drippings on the floor of the garage. I go waterless in the dead of winter and never had any slip and falls from frozen water.
 
I wouldn't worry about the floor, it will dry up. As far as leaving swirl marks, well, it's all about technique. When making a pass inspect your square, there should be a single line of dirt, then just roll that section out of the way and keep using the square till the square is exhausted and move the the next, clean square. Pre-treating is VERY important, so make extra cleaning solution for this purpose exclusively.

Don't sweat it

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Mike Phillips has a video here at Autogeek that shows how to do a wash like this safely (without inducing swirls). Effectively, folds a microfiber in quarters, and holds the front of a towel and "rolls" it to present continually new towel surface as he is making a wipe. Once he reaches the end of that section of the towel, usually one swipe, he turns the towel over and uses a fresh side. So he gets eight swipes from a towel, all without touching the paint with a dirty section of towel. For me, doing the hood of my Lexus ES350, I take 2 towels plus 1 swipe with a third towel. Works great.

As to water on the floor, I do this process in my garage, all winter long, and don't get 15 drops of water ever hit the floor. I wring the towel out so that it is just drier than dripping. None of the solution (I use ONR or N-914 - I go back and forth) that I put on horizontal surfaces ever gets to the floor, and only a few drops of solution applied to vertical panels ever hit the floor, usually from my front doors, as they are bigger surfaces, and I don't dry them fast enough to avoid a drop or two. To me, if you're getting wash solution on the ground doing a rinseless wash, you're using too much solution on your towels.
 
I usually wash my cars in the garage with a bucket of ONR and wash mitts or towels. This is not a waterless wash, just a rinseless, so there is more excess water dripping of the car than the waterless, but it is minimal. Probably the most water that gets on the floor is when I wash the side mirrors and my mitt drips directly on the ground, but I just wipe it with my shoe to spread it out so it evaporates faster.

Driving in the rain and then parking in the garage results in more puddles than my rinseless wash.
 
Simple answer is. Wash your car whenever you feel you need to.

The more you touch your car with any method of washing the more chance you have of marring the surface.

Don’t worry about the garage floor too much. Buy yourself a floor squeegee and squeegee the floor if it gets too wet.

Try not to overthink it. Just have fun at it and don’t worry so much. Lol
 
DirtyCanuck said:
Simple answer is. Wash your car whenever you feel you need to.

The more you touch your car with any method of washing the more chance you have of marring the surface.

Don’t worry about the garage floor too much. Buy yourself a floor squeegee and squeegee the floor if it gets too wet.

Try not to overthink it. Just have fun at it and don’t worry so much. Lol
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Well ideally I don’t wanna touch it much. But since lot of rain debris get attached to the car so I’ll wash it off and probably will crest light swirl marks here and there. I’ll be polishing away the swirl marks and use the special lighting I purchased to find them. Question is how often can I polish? I know it might take the clear coating slightly off but let say my method of waterless or rindless somehow creates more swirls after freshly polished car using porter cable (just small section i can see on light)

Am I able to just take the porter cable and polish only that part? Or would it stick it out from the rest of the panel (I have white car)

I will get better as I’m newbie. I plan on polishing and doing test runs with my Mazda 3 (sorry buddy) then get better and do it on my x3


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animescreen said:
Well ideally I don’t wanna touch it much. But since lot of rain debris get attached to the car so I’ll wash it off and probably will crest light swirl marks here and there. I’ll be polishing away the swirl marks and use the special lighting I purchased to find them. Question is how often can I polish? I know it might take the clear coating slightly off but let say my method of waterless or rindless somehow creates more swirls after freshly polished car using porter cable (just small section i can see on light)

Am I able to just take the porter cable and polish only that part? Or would it stick it out from the rest of the panel (I have white car)

I will get better as I’m newbie. I plan on polishing and doing test runs with my Mazda 3 (sorry buddy) then get better and do it on my x3


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How often you can polish depends on the thickness of your clear coat ultimately. Lol.

I wouldn’t do any heavy correction more than once or twice a year if that. If I where you I would consider using a one step cleaner wax like HD Speed as long as your marring isn’t too deep and aggressive.

Yes you can polish out just one panel. I do scratch removal on a per panel basis occasionally if someone doesn’t want to pay for a full correction job or they only truly need correction in one small spot and it always looks great

Absolutely get the practice on the Mazda. What makes you good at something is time behind the tool.
 
DirtyCanuck said:
How often you can polish depends on the thickness of your clear coat ultimately. Lol.

I wouldn’t do any heavy correction more than once or twice a year if that. If I where you I would consider using a one step cleaner wax like HD Speed as long as your marring isn’t too deep and aggressive.

Yes you can polish out just one panel. I do scratch removal on a per panel basis occasionally if someone doesn’t want to pay for a full correction job or they only truly need correction in one small spot and it always looks great

Absolutely get the practice on the Mazda. What makes you good at something is time behind the tool.
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Well that sucks. I was hoping if I created some swirl marks after a nicely done polished car, I can just go ahead and use my hand and polish that area only. But considering that polishing is 1-2x a year thing, guess it's really up to me in terms of the swirl marks caused by me in washing it properly.

What are the heavy correction you are talking about. Just polishing, claybar, and/or iron removal? I think waxing you can do like every three months etc.. right I wanted to do lot of claybar too like use it as eraser when i see specks lol (with lot of lube though)

If polishing removes clear coat each time, are some cars that have been polished a lot easily shown naked of clear coat? And you can get it re- clearcoat spray from paint specialist down the road I'm guessing, but probally will be like 5k $ or so
 
animescreen said:
Well that sucks. I was hoping if I created some swirl marks after a nicely done polished car, I can just go ahead and use my hand and polish that area only. But considering that polishing is 1-2x a year thing, guess it's really up to me in terms of the swirl marks caused by me in washing it properly.

What are the heavy correction you are talking about. Just polishing, claybar, and/or iron removal? I think waxing you can do like every three months etc.. right I wanted to do lot of claybar too like use it as eraser when i see specks lol (with lot of lube though)

If polishing removes clear coat each time, are some cars that have been polished a lot easily shown naked of clear coat? And you can get it re- clearcoat spray from paint specialist down the road I'm guessing, but probally will be like 5k $ or so
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When I say HEAVY polishing, I mean just that. For example a whole car 3 stage polish job. Not so much polishing with a one step, but a one step is still moving clear coat to a minor extent.

I really think your overthinking this.

Just be careful when you’re washing. Fix paint when it NEEDS it. Have fun with you’re new car. Don’t worry so much. You can easily manage to go a couple years without a major correction job if you’re careful with your car.

Wash it when it needs it, and wax when it needs it, and fix paint when it needs it .
 
DirtyCanuck said:
When I say HEAVY polishing, I mean just that. For example a whole car 3 stage polish job. Not so much polishing with a one step, but a one step is still moving clear coat to a minor extent.

I really think your overthinking this.

Just be careful when you’re washing. Fix paint when it NEEDS it. Have fun with you’re new car. Don’t worry so much. You can easily manage to go a couple years without a major correction job if you’re careful with your car.

Wash it when it needs it, and wax when it needs it, and fix paint when it needs it .
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Seconded, be as careful as possible and don't try to worry about perfection. Perfection doesn't exist on a daily driver.

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DirtyCanuck said:
:whs: That’s what I’m trying to say. Well put sir!
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I try my best Haha. And I get it we all want perfection, myself included but my car is the literal definition of a daily driver seeing as how it's the only car I own. Get driven if it's 90 and sunny, if it's a nasty thunderstorm or if it's 0 degrees with snow, ice, slush and salt on the ground. Being perfect is literally impossible. That being said other than rock chips on my front bumper and hood it's about as close as possible.

I like what a lot of other have said. Don't over think it. Be smart and be careful using quality products and techniques. Takes a machine to it once a year if you want and go from there.

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Don't worry too much about the solution dripping on the floor. I often do rinseless washes in the garage and there is always a line of water on the garage floor that eventually goes away even in the winter.
 
DirtyCanuck said:
When I say HEAVY polishing, I mean just that. For example a whole car 3 stage polish job. Not so much polishing with a one step, but a one step is still moving clear coat to a minor extent.

I really think your overthinking this.

Just be careful when you’re washing. Fix paint when it NEEDS it. Have fun with you’re new car. Don’t worry so much. You can easily manage to go a couple years without a major correction job if you’re careful with your car.

Wash it when it needs it, and wax when it needs it, and fix paint when it needs it .
Click to expand...

Yeah thanks. I know I worry too much but this is my first luxury car and feel sometimes, I'm not ready for it. But more I practice, I do feel It's the right ride. I need to let go of perfection especially something I won't be able to take to heaven anyways hahahah Guess, when I see showroom cars you get inspired.
 
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