The Rinseless Waterless “Garage Wash”: tips and tricks

[WaxAddict]

More often than not, when I wash my garage-kept cars, I use a combination of Rinseless Washing (RW) and Waterless Washing (WW) techniques, in the relative comfort and privacy of the garage, so I call it a “garage wash”. Those that have embraced hose-less techniques do it for many different reasons. Here’s my Top 5 Reasons For A Garage Wash:

1) Nosy neighbors. “Can you wash mine next?”.
2) The Elements: sun, rain, wind, tree sap, sand, vegetative debris, and fallout are on the other side of my garage door.
3) That gangly water hose, the kinks, and the curse word inducing stuck-under-the-tire.
4) My knees. I literally can’t squat. The Garage Wash allows me to sit on the floor to do wheels, wheel wells, and the very lowest parts of the car.
5) It’s safe and effective.

I’ll talk a bit about products as we go, but in addition to chemicals and soft things, you’ll need portable lighting, and some method of carting around your products. Maybe a detail cart can solve both?





The Waterless Part: This is where I scoot around on my butt, all the way around the car, with all my necessary if not nerdy accoutrements in-tow, and perform a waterless wash on the lower 10% of the car, AND do the wheels and wheel wells as I go. I also spot-clean with WW as I go, assuming I feel it’s safe to do so.

Here’s the kit I drag around while doing The Waterless Part for wheels and wheel wells:



Wheels: If they’re not too bad, or you’ve done a coin-op pre-rinse, all you need to shine your wheels is Poorboy’s Spray & Wipe,which is in the bottle that some of you have already thought was Speed Shine. I like the bottle. Don’t do the Garage Wash method on your wheels with ANY kind of dedicated wheel cleaner that may require rinsing. Save the wheel cleaners for 2BW.

Wheel well cleaning: can be accomplished with a weak APC without need for rinsing. I use PB Bio APC diluted 12:1. I may go through a dozen demoted rags doing this chore.

Wheel well dressing: I get out the CG Bare Bones and give the wells a good going over once a month or less. Otherwise, I just use a water-based tire dressing to freshen things up.

Tires: wiped vigorously with weak APC and an old terry towel, and followed up (in this case) with Finish Kare 108AS.

And here’s the stuff for the lower 10% of the car. I drag along a “tray” to catch over spill, because I apply WW liberally.






My WW method consists of:
A: ONR as a pre-treat, followed by a no-pressure wipe, where the ONR is whisked away using only the weight of an MFT.
B: I then use UWW+ as a WW, doused heavily, followed by a “towel roll” technique, shown below.
C: I always use a pre-soak and a “no pressure” wipe, followed by another heavy product dousing and a “some pressure” wipe. After inspection, I do a lighter misting of product and buff lightly.





The Rinseless Part: This is a fairly traditional RW, using mitts (emphasis on plural) and ONR. I much prefer mitts over towels.
Here’s my RW stuff, ready to go. Emphasis on distilled - it is SO worth the $1.90 for two gallons.




If I prepare my RW ahead of time, even by just a few minutes, I put a lid on it to protect the precious contents within.




I prefer to use a lot of product when doing a RW. To that effect, I don’t wring out the mitt. Instead, I let it drain for a while. A wrung-out, barely-wet towel used by some folks during RW just scares me silly.

Draining, not wringing.....



Again, when doing a RW: pre-soak --> no-pressure wipe --> additional product --> some-pressure wipe. Here’s the "pre-misted" roof....




After the no-pressure wipe…




After the second application of product and the some-pressure wipe…




Now on to my favorite new thing in the world, the Gyeon Silk Dryer.




After one pass of the Silk Dryer with no pressure....




A few light passes around and it’s dry!




Door Jams, panel crevices, engine bays, and so on don’t get flooded using RW methods, and that’s just another reason I like the Garage Wash. I hate opening the deck lid and watching the draining liquid ruining my hard work. Sure, it’s a necessity to flood these areas occasionally, but not always.

Here’s a door jam after the Garage Wash was almost complete. 2BW flooding would have rinsed it out, BUT, would also left standing water and spotting.



A quick pass with ONR and then followed up with the Spray & Gloss I keep in the glove compartment (didn’t want to get up if I didn’t have to!!)






Going backwards a bit now, I’d like to show a dirty panel and the progress of washing. At the end, it wasn’t 100% - see the yellow arrows pointing to spots left by tree sap. I could obliterate those spots with QD, but didn`t bother.










Here’s the products I used (quantity of MFT shown does not reflect reality):





But HERE’S the products you need. Rinseless wash, dressing, and an assortment of soft stuff. Keeping it simple might mean a few trips to the utility sink to rinse out the mitt, wringing out the drying towel a lot, and cleaning glass and wheel wells with ONR, which it’s perfectly capable of doing.


OK, so here’s the results. These two pictures were taken right after the Garage Wash, with no QD or spray wax applied.
Got marring? Nope.






THANKS FOR READING !!

[Ronkh]

That looks really nice !!

Now ya gotta vacuum the sand out of it.......

[WaxAddict]

Geez I hope this was read AFTER I did some editing to it, as the forum mangled my words, and the editor wanted to work in HTML mode. Tried two browsers. Editing posts shouldn`t be like writing code.

Thanks Ron! No shoes + MFT still wet with S&G on feet = no sand. Hard to work clutch with no shoes.

[GearHead_1]

Some good advice in that post. Thanks.

[Marc08EX]

Very nice article of your "Garage Wash" method, WaxAddict! I really like the hybrid WW + rinseless wash method.

How many towels and mitts did you use? I guess you laundry them right away after a wash.

Your 370Z looks phenomenal. Breathtaking even. The paint looks so glossy, perfect and a mile deep.

Thanks for writing this. I really enjoyed your article and pictures.

[mikejames]

Excellent write up!!! Thank you it will help many!

[Buster906]

Thorough insight to your rw and ww method. I like the white and blue wash media you have. Thank you for taking the time to post

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[MattPersman]

Great post ! Awesome formatting and information


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[House of Wax]

hell of a write up man, nice work

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[Angus]

Extremely well thought out and presented how to guide- great work! I really enjoyed it and know it will help those on the fence about WW/ RW.

What are you using for a drip-tray? Is that a storage container lid I see? A wet floor is one aspect of garage washing I`ve come to accept - and if there`s an easy way to manage RW runoff I`m all ears

[WaxAddict]

Thanks for all the nice comments all!

... How many towels and mitts did you use? I guess you laundry them right away after a wash. ....

Thanks Marc.
On paint, I used 5 mitts for the RW part and 8 MFT towels for the WW part. I put these in a bag marked "spray product" and I`ll launder them whenever, but don`t wait too long because ONR + dirt will start to stink after a while, maybe 1 to 5 days. Another bag is marked "heavy product" and that`s where I`ll toss towels that were used to remove wax or polish. I only do these two type of loads, which is much less care than many of you take when separating MFT laundry.

Used *lots* of trashy towels, bits of discarded clothing, and shop rags in the wheel wells.

What are you using for a drip-tray? Is that a storage container lid I see?

Yep, that`s an old Tupperware storage box lid. Better, for those with a pool at home, get a few of the trays they give away for free at a pool supply shop to transport your liquid chlorine home. They`re light, cheap or free, and plenty deep.

[512detail]

great post
im going to refer my friends to this if they ask me about rw/ww

[JustJesus]

What a great and thorough write up. Tips and tricks? Not even. More like a great How-To article. Good writing, instruction, and pics.

Since getting my detailing cart, my own "garage wash" has become a bit more efficient and less stress on my back! I like the lighting idea on the cart!

Annnnnd, LOVE the lid for the over-spill I`ve been just letting it fall. But I`m in a rental, and the place isn`t exactly in great shape to begin with. I have a couple of lids I don`t use. (why do I still have them?)

Thanks for this great post!!

[glfnaz]

Very well explained. Thanks!

[LEDetailng]

Good stuff. Very informative and dig your Nissan!