This DIY will help you perform a great completely waterless car wash on your car.
Q: Why do this instead of washing your car?
A: Lets say you just washed your car over the weekend and then come monday, BAM there is a light rain or sprinkle or a windy dusty day. Now your previously clean car is now dirty looking again. This will allow you to get the benefits of washing your car but without breaking out the buckets, soap, hose, water, etc...
Q: Again.....why not just wash it?
A: Where I live, we have extremely hot days and very VERY hard water. When I wash the car, I literally have to run around the car washing and rinsing extremely fast. If i let the soap or water sit for more than a few seconds on the paint, it will dry and start to etch the paint. This method will allow you to forgo all of the necessary speed in washing and to take my time in the cool, shaded comfort of the garage.
Q: What will I need to perform a completely waterless car wash?
A: You'll need the following items: (you can find the links at the bottom of this DIY for these products).
1. A Really Good Quality Detailer. For this DIY I used Chemical Guy's Synthetic Quick Detailer
2. 8-10 Really Good Quality Microfiber Towels. For this DIY I used a 12 pack of Chemical Guy's Premium Microfiber Super Towels, 16"x16"
--- DIY Walkthrough ---
The other day I washed my car, then we got hit with a brief rain storm while I was out of town and the car was at the airport. Sigh....now I have rain drop and dirt spots all over the car and I JUST WASHED IT!!!!! I didn't feel like washing the car AGAIN this weekend so I figured, let me try out a method of waterless washing that I read about in my detailing book from AutoGeek.net
Assemble the items you'll need for the job
Grab one of the towels and fold it into fourths
Folding your towels into fourths allow you to use one side for wiping the wet detailer off the car and the other side dry(er) side allows for buffing the streaks out. This method is also used for cleaning windows or removing polish or buffing wax. It basically allows you to be able to use the same towel multiple times by just folding over the dirty quarter sections of the towel
Start at the top of the car (THIS IS IMPORTANT!!) and work your way to the bottom of the car. Since you are working with a liquid it will run down the sides so start at the top (roof) and work your way down the sides of the car first. While you don't "have" to do it this way, it will definitely keep you from having to redo sections of the car due to runoff from the detailer.
Thoroughly and completely saturate a section until the detailer is running like water and the entire section is completely wet. Do relatively medium size sections at a time.
Take the microfiber towel, that has been quartered as described above, and start wiping with one quarter until the bulk of the detailer is wiped off the section. Flip the towel over and buff out the rest of the detailer. The section should be dry and completely clean at this point.
If you have some gunk (bird poop, tree sap, bug guts, etc) still stuck on the paint, use a two to three time, saturate, scrub, wipe type method.
1. Saturate with quick detailer
2. Give it a light scrub with your fingernail in the towel lightly picking/scraping/scrubbing at the area.
3. Wipe the area clear with the towel then flip and buff
If need be repeat another time or two, lengthening the time of saturation each pass. If you have some type of gunk remover, I would recommend diluting it 1:1 with water and then use the detailer to clean up the area again.
When the towel gets dirty or extremely damp, its effectiveness on that side is going to be greatly reduced and you might start just moving dirt around. Take the towel, lay it down and flip it over in half's again. Now you have two clean sections of towel and you can continue on the next section of the car.
You will probably burn through about 7-9 towels by the time you finish your car, depending on your detailer saturation. My breakdown was like this:
Roof - 1 Towel
Hood & Bumper - 1 Towel
Driver side - 2 Towels
Passenger side - 2 Towels
Trunk & Bumper - 1 Towel
Also, I used about 24 oz of my Chemical Guys Quik Detailer. And I liberally sprayed it on there to make sure each area that I was washing was completely soaked.
Outcome when done (at this point you can do the rest of the car, windows, wheels, interior, etc):
Notes:
1. Make sure to work in small easily managed sections
2. Rotate and flip your towel often
3. DO NOT wipe into areas of the car where you haven't sprayed/saturated yet, you don't want to risk scratching your paint.
4. Use a good quality detailer/detail product and make sure you have enough. You will be using close to 30 oz.
5. Total time to clean the car was roughly 1.5 hours
Towels: http://www.chemicalguys.com/SUPER_TO...mic_506_12.htm <--- 12 pack for $18.95
Quik Detailer: http://www.detailedimage.com/Chemica...220/128-oz-S2/ <--- 128 oz container (believe me you will use this stuff for EVERYTHING and it smells really good too)
Feel free to post up any questions if you have them.
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Originally Posted by danewilson77
