0 bucket wash

[Mike lambert]

Thanks, that will be great!

[RDKC]

I tried, and I succeeded a few times but then I finished the video...

How could the zero bucket "sustain significantly less damage" when the results of the 2BMs were "very small, almost insignificant"?

Final Inspection does not offer grit separators therefore has no incentive to present information or skew results in any particular way. As a result of this test, we will continue to recommend using a washing method without buckets for rinsing your washing device.

You kind of contradict yourself there. You sell products for your zero bucket method, so the perceived incentive would be to disprove the effectiveness of a grit guard.

Anyway, before I type more and cause too much drama.

[mjlinane]

I think I`ll stick with my variant on the GDPWM. Similar but different. Bucket is only for holding the wash media prior to use.

[JBM]

If I were to use no buckets it would be with onr sprayed on the mitt.

technology>mumbo jumbo

[Oldfordisbetter]

Mike P doesn`t use buckets does he? Im thinking he sometimes foams the car, then just goes around with his wash mitt and agitates the dirt. I guess he still uses a bucket for the wheels. Correct me if im wrong. I think I remember seeing that in one of his one million articles


really like to see outside the box thinking though.

[heisenberg]

Mike P doesn`t use buckets does he? Im thinking he sometimes foams the car, then just goes around with his wash mitt and agitates the dirt. I guess he still uses a bucket for the wheels. Correct me if im wrong. I think I remember seeing that in one of his one million articles


really like to see outside the box thinking though.

Yep. This was my thought as well.

How to wash a car with a foam gun - Auto Geek Online Auto Detailing Forum

I`ll give this a shot with a foam cannon and see if I get any marring on my car. I was planning on polishing it soon anyway because the coating is about shot on a few areas and I want to see how Essence performs as a "healing" polish. I can`t stand lugging out two buckets every time I do a real wash and all the constant dunking drives me crazy too. I usually HP rinse, rinseless with multiple towels, and blow dry. I rarely bust out the two buckets and soap anymore.

[donbeezy]

Mike P doesn`t use buckets does he? Im thinking he sometimes foams the car, then just goes around with his wash mitt and agitates the dirt. I guess he still uses a bucket for the wheels. Correct me if im wrong. I think I remember seeing that in one of his one million articles


really like to see outside the box thinking though.

i use this method on light/medium soiled vehicle but i rinse my mitt after a few panels or when i feel it gets too dirty.

[Oldfordisbetter]

Thanks for confiming heisenberg. I could see this being a great way to prep a vehicle for polishing. But not so sure about it for maintenance washes. Maybe I should give it a shot.

[Oldfordisbetter]

Breezy, you just rinse the mitt with a hose as you go?

[donbeezy]

Breezy, you just rinse the mitt with a hose as you go?

yes sir, lightly rinse off the areas ive agitated while im at it. i hate standing soap that has already been used

[JustJesus]

Looks reasonable on a clean car. Try it on a 4x4 that has been "muddin` all day!

My friend`s 4Runner is dirty from an off road trip he took two weeks ago!

[Accumulator]

I`ve been washing cars in an Autopian-nutty manner for a good *40 years* and I`m still tweaking my wash regimen. Washed `em for decades before YoSteve piqued my interest in foamguns and changed my entire approach. Ya don`t know how a wash method will work *FOR YOU* until you try it. Maybe you`ll need a few dozen of those tries, or a few hundred, to get it sorted out just right. Maybe after all those tries you`ll find something else that works even better for you. Purely a subjective thing and you`re the Subject so YMMV. That said...

Note that the car in the video was so clean that it didn`t look visibly dirty either before or after the pressure washing. I couldn`t see it "getting cleaner" as the pressure washing progressed. Perhaps that makes all the difference since if there`s no abrasive dirt on the car you don`t have to worry about rubbing that dirt into the paint. I myself could wash a car that`s (apparently) that clean without a bucket: pressure wash rinse it and then use the BHB/foamgun combo, allowing the foamgun to flush-rinse the BHB clean. (I`ve done that to clean off "garage dust" that others simply wipe off with QD. I hardly ever need to actually rinse my BHBs anyhow since the foamgun does that for me. But honestly, I can`t imagine myself washing a car that`s already that clean in the first place (hey, again...that`s just me) and I do question how well that`d work on a car that`s still obviously very dirty after the pressure washing.

OK, the topic is "Zero Bucket Wash" huh? Let`s see..

I really only use my buckets as Wash Media Repositories and could probably get by without them. I do get by without Grit Guards; don`t see any need for them since I never seem to have any dirt in my Rinse Buckets.

One of my primary intentions is to *NOT* get dirt stuck to my wash media lest it then get dragged across the paint under some degree of pressure. I "dislodge and flush" the dirt away instead.

Wash Buckets- OK, soaking a BHB or sheepskin mitt in a bucket of wash solution is an effective and efficient way to soften and saturate the BHB/mitt. Not any big deal with a MF wash mitt but for the BHB and sheepskin it might make the Wash Bucket necessary after all. But once filled with shampoo, I work with the same Wash Buckets (one on each side of wash bay for convenience, same with Rinse Buckets and even foamguns) for many, many washes. The Wash Buckets don`t get dirty since no dirty things get put into them.

The wash media do get nicely saturated with shampoo solution from being in the wash buckets (one BHB/mitt might be in a Wash Bucket while I`m using the other), but I can/do often accomplish that via the foamgun`s output instead. If a BHB/mitt were in a Rinse Bucket when I reach for it, I`m just as likely to suds it up with the foamgun as to dunk it in the Wash Bucket; same thing gets accomplished either way (though the foamgun`s output is stronger than my Wash Solution, perhaps making that a *better* choice).

Rinse Buckets- The foamgun flushes my BHBs *so* clean that I don`t really think there`s much "rinsing" going on in the functional sense when I toss BHBs into a Rinse Bucket. I don`t need to agitate them in the Rinse Bucket to get dirt out of them. I do think that my mitts, being far less free-rinsing than the BHBs, might get some functional rinsing in the Rinse Buckets, but you can`t tell because there basically isn`t any dirt in the Rinse Buckets at the end of the wash. It appears that the BHB/foamgun step gets things so clean that by the time I switch to the mitt/foamgun there`s virtually no dirt left. Also, how you hold and work the mitt/foamgun combo factors in heavily with regard to how well the mitts get flushed clean and thus how much dirt is retained to possibly end up in the Rinse Buckets (much trickier than with the BHBs).

SO with my foamgun-centric "dislodge and flush" approach (perhaps aided by my boosted water pressure) I`m basically able to wash without the buckets really contributing much other than a quick and easy way to prep the BHBs and sheepskin mitts for use, and a convenient place to stash whatever wash medium isn`t in my hand at that moment.

[JustJesus]

geeeeez, Accumulator. Now THAT is a wash process! Thanks for sharing!

[Accumulator]

geeeeez, Accumulator. Now THAT is a wash process!

Four Steps:

1) Pressure Washer rinse
2) BHB/foamgun, repeat until vehicle appears clean
3) mitt/foamgun, repeat until confident that vehicle truly *is* clean
4) approximation of GDWM with IUDJ as the "dry" step

Of course, that`s leaving out the wheels/wells/undercarriage/engine compartment/jambs which also get done in multiple steps (at every wash). Heh heh, and people wonder why it takes me so long to do a maintenance wash

[GearHead_1]

I was going to respond to this thread a few hours ago but went to the Dentist and forgot. At this point there isn`t much I can add. Accumulator expressed my opinion fairly well. In short, can I see a car being washed well using this process? Yes, depending upon how dirty the car was to begin. Do I believe this to be a better manner than a 2 bucket with Grit Guard`s, defiitely not in many circumstances. Once again depending on how dirty the car is. The cars that are brought to me most often NEED to be washed and not simply water dusted. I guess the definition of being washed well needs to be defined as clean, not incurring damage during the process.

Accumulator and I have never communicated directly but I like him have been washing cars for 40 years and our washing processes are scary similar. I don`t use the Infinite Detail Juice but I use other products in a like manner. If your car is well maintained and the dirt doesn`t "show" I don`t see how giving this process a shot would hurt.