winter wash idea, will it work?

raysaint

raysaint

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So for our new red mazda, I just finished winter prep: after decon, clay, Eraser, got one coat of Klasse sealant on the paint (hope I used enough, it did bead next day), then a coat of 303 touchless sealant on paint, wheels, trim, grille/front end. Black trim had one coat of Perl, 2 coats of old DG bumper/trim dressing.

Probably can't do rinseless washing because no hose to pre-rinse. However, short of a good thorough wash, we have a DIY coin-op wash (4 bays) which isn't always busy. Could I get thru the winter with a few washes where I spray the car with foam (from a foam gun), maybe Carpro Lift, wait a few minutes, hp rinse, then dry with waffle weave or other mf towels? And if so, would a drying aid help? Would the towels rub in the remaining dirt and marr?
 
HP rinse and No Mechanical Agitation ?

How about waterless or rinse less after the HP rinse at the coin op ?
I can't imagine taking a towel unless I know the paint is -clean-
 
raysaint said:
Probably can't do rinseless washing because no hose to pre-rinse.
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Well, it's not exactly rinseless if you need a hose to pre-rinse...right? Most people either go to the coin op for the pre-rinse, then come home for the rinseless wash, or use a sprayer of some sort for the pre-rinse, see Chef's recent sprayer thread.
 
When I was in Kansas, the sprayer route worked well for winter rinseless routine.
 
I just did a foam and rinse at my local coin op. The car got clean enough that I could have followed-up with a RW but I wouldn't have used a drying towel at that point as it doesn't get the car 100% clean. This go around, I used their spot free rinse and called it a day.

I used Griot's foaming surface wash but in the winter, I may switch to something like Ammo Frothe Anti Salt.
 
Bring your own bucket, soap and wash mitt to the coin op on a slow night and wash it like you would at home in the summer.
Just use there water and there heat
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Well, it's not exactly rinseless if you need a hose to pre-rinse...right? Most people either go to the coin op for the pre-rinse, then come home for the rinseless wash, or use a sprayer of some sort for the pre-rinse, see Chef's recent sprayer thread.
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What I was meaning was I thought all the loose dirt should be rinsed off before starting rubbing the paint with the rinseless soap. I can't do that at home. So your suggestion would be an option.
 
MisterSnoop said:
I just did a foam and rinse at my local coin op. The car got clean enough that I could have followed-up with a RW but I wouldn't have used a drying towel at that point as it doesn't get the car 100% clean. This go around, I used their spot free rinse and called it a day.

I used Griot's foaming surface wash but in the winter, I may switch to something like Ammo Frothe Anti Salt.
Click to expand...

Another option to consider, kinda my original idea. What did you use to spray the foam? Would a small pressure pump sprayer work? And no agitation with the foam on the car?
 
One of those YouTube guys promoted an airless paint sprayer from Harbor Freight for pre-spray in a rinseless wash. I bought one, and after letting it age in the box for a few years, tried it out--and it really does work well for the purpose. It siphons out of a bucket. It's probably (definitely?) more of a pain than a pump-up or battery one, I could argue it has a better spray for the purpose. It has a sharp spray for blasting stuff off, but it doesn't spray a lot of liquid, if that makes sense. I also have let it sit with the rinseless (I've only used it with Ech2O) for a year and it started right up after...which is more than you can say for some pressure washers.
 
raysaint said:
Another option to consider, kinda my original idea. What did you use to spray the foam? Would a small pressure pump sprayer work? And no agitation with the foam on the car?
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SPTA cordless foamer. I've had some foam consistency issues in the past where it sputtered. SPTA doesn't offer any parts for it so I replaced the foaming felt disc insert with some from IK and it seemed to work ok. Foam could have been thicker. I took a short video:
SPTA cordless foamer - YouTube

I did not agitate, just let it dwell and then rinsed. My goal was a prerinse so that I could go home and do a contact wash (rinseless) later in the weekend if I wanted to. If you were going to foam, dwell, agitate, and rinse, that may take longer than one round of putting money in the coin op. You may be able to do half a car at a time. If the car is really dirty, I'm going to want a prerinse first.

You could use something like an IK pump up foamer or Griot's has a cordless foamer now as well but I haven't used that.
 
I'll probably keep it simple. Winter is only about 4 months so I'll shoot for somewhat clean. Maybe I can take soap in a bucket and fill the bucket there, wash and rinse and lightly dry. Or spray a foam type product and then rinse.
But if I tried a no-rinse, how many towels would I need? A bunch for washing and a bunch for wiping? I've never no-rinsed washed a car. I don't want to ruin my good waffle weaves.
 
When you're doing a rinseless wash, if you are getting dirt on your drying towels, then you aren't doing a good enough job washing, the dirt should all be on the wash media (hat tip to Bence from another forum for that bit of wisdom). I have never gotten a multi-media method that I like for rinseless, so I'm still using a microfiber wash pad and a rinse bucket, along with the solution bucket. I put a small amount of the rinseless wash concentrate in the rinse bucket so I don't dilute the wash bucket too much with dragout.

I'm sure there's a gazillion rinseless wash videos out there, but here's the first ONR video I think ever made, from 2007, this was from before YouTube was popular, Anthony (Orosco) put it on there much later:

Optimum No Rinse Demo - YouTube

And here's one he made after that:

NoRinse2.mp4 - YouTube

I'm sure other members will chime in with their favorite advice.
 
raysaint said:
I'll probably keep it simple. Winter is only about 4 months so I'll shoot for somewhat clean.
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This is my approach during the winter.

If the weather is warm enough, I'll do a bucket wash. If we hit a long cold snap with bad weather and the car is seriously filthy, I'll take it through a touchless car wash. The touchless doesn't get the vehicle totally clean, but it's good enough for winter.

Fortunately, our winters continue to get more mild and we rarely see snow anymore so I'm able to do bucket washes much more often across the winter.
 
But before starting a rinseless wash agitation, am I not rubbing the dirt in, if I don't spray off the loose dirt first? I can't rinse off at home, so the coin op is the only place to rinse before agitation with the one solution.
 
If you could get all the dirt off by "spraying off the loose dirt first", then you would never need to do a contact wash. So regardless of what wash method you use, you are going to be at risk of "rubbing the dirt in". I guess I'm not understanding what you are trying to do. If you are going to spray off the car at the coin op, you can't just dry it because in that scenario, you will definitely just be rubbing the dirt in. You have to actually wash before you can dry.

Many/most people do some sort of pre-soak/pre-rinse before doing a rinseless wash; that might be at the coin-op, that might be at home with a pump-up or similar sprayer. I have never found a normal rinseless dilution, when used as a pre-soak with a pump-up sprayer, to do much of anything, which is why I opted for the airless paint sprayer I linked earlier (which apparently is no longer available--replaced by a more expensive one which is different). Most people who do the pre-soak do it with a higher concentration of rinseless wash, I'm not sure I ever tried it that way.

The point of the rinseless wash is it's supposed to lubricate, emulsify, and encapsulate the dirt so it doesn't scratch your finish. If you go to the coin-op and use the pressure wand there, all you should be left with to remove is some film, so that's a good plan to then rinseless wash at home, or outside the coin-op, or whatever.

PS Rinseless washing is a process that has some learning curve, and everybody seems to have their own preferences, and their own tolerance level for how dirty the car can be which triggers pre-rinse routines or even not doing a rinseless wash. As I have expounded on before (I think), when I first came to detailing forums almost 20 years ago, rinseless wash (QEW at the time) was just something we did out of winter frustration at having a dirty car, people did it in their garage, and it was kind of a last resort, something that you would never do if the weather allowed for a hose wash. Over the years the products have become better, people have become more comfortable with and refined the technique, and some of us now use rinseless as our primary wash method, even during the summer.
 
raysaint said:
I'll probably keep it simple. Winter is only about 4 months so I'll shoot for somewhat clean. Maybe I can take soap in a bucket and fill the bucket there, wash and rinse and lightly dry. Or spray a foam type product and then rinse.
But if I tried a no-rinse, how many towels would I need? A bunch for washing and a bunch for wiping? I've never no-rinsed washed a car. I don't want to ruin my good waffle weaves.
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Recommend you do your pump sprayer foam then power wash off at the spray and pray. Not to far from home drive home and do a rinseless. If not bring it with you. Use warm water.

As for towel amount depends on your level of analness. Fold it in 4ths I usually use half a 4th of towel per pass so 2 pass per side of towel. Flipping after every 2 mins passes.

If not to dirty pretreat in garage with rinseless solution and pump sprayer then do wash


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Appreciate all the good insight. I'll shoot for a better than nothing degree of clean.

Once a month I'll drive it thru the touchless tunnel, just to have the underspray remove grunge I can't spray; hopefully the Klasse and 303 sealant applied a week ago can hold up to the tunnel soaps.

Between that, not sure I can invest in a foamer right now, so if I'm going to do stuff at the coin-op, I may as well do a quick summer type wash; rinse, bucket of soap, agitate, rinse, dry (or spotless rinse). As long as I have the ability to rinse, why would I do a rinseless?
If the coin-op is busy, I could rinse, then come home and do rinseless.

In my novice mind, I can't understand the reason for doing no-rinse if you can rinse.
 
raysaint said:
Appreciate all the good insight. I'll shoot for a better than nothing degree of clean.

Once a month I'll drive it thru the touchless tunnel, just to have the underspray remove grunge I can't spray; hopefully the Klasse and 303 sealant applied a week ago can hold up to the tunnel soaps.

Between that, not sure I can invest in a foamer right now, so if I'm going to do stuff at the coin-op, I may as well do a quick summer type wash; rinse, bucket of soap, agitate, rinse, dry (or spotless rinse). As long as I have the ability to rinse, why would I do a rinseless?
If the coin-op is busy, I could rinse, then come home and do rinseless.

In my novice mind, I can't understand the reason for doing no-rinse if you can rinse.
Click to expand...
Why rinseless? To save water and/or to save time. I don’t drag out a hose unless I really have to.
 
raysaint said:
In my novice mind, I can't understand the reason for doing no-rinse if you can rinse.
Click to expand...

As I noted, a lot of us used to feel that way, but over time decided the opposite. If it makes you feel any better I still prefer a conventional wash for wheels, and of course there are times when you just want/need to flood the car with water, salt crust or pollen, for instance. And after the winter to spray the undercarriage. So if a "summer-type" wash at the coin-op works for you, go for it.
 
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