QEW tutorial (NOT 56k friendly) PART 1

[JustinR32]

Written as a compendium from searches I made while looking for advice on how to use it; I decided to put it all in one place, for easy reference for those searching.



If you are an Autopian, you are fanatic about not introducing swirls and scratches and tracers into your paint. This was a tremendous leap of faith for me, to treat my car and hard work this way, with the possibility that I would have to break out the buffers and compounds and start a process all over again. It`s probably the same for any of you who have read about QEW, but haven`t tried it yet, for this fear. I say, fear not.



Quick & Easy Wash (QEW) is from Protect All, a company that makes maintenance products for the camping and RV recreationalists. From the bottle, "Wash anywhere water use is restricted, such as campgrounds, RV parks, gargages, apartment and condominiums...." You get the idea. QEW supposedly leaves no film and won`t remove wax. QEW is a blue watery liquid with a clean smell.



How dirty was my car? Not very dirty, especially for winter, but dirty enough that I wouldn`t use a quick detailer or a Cal car duster on it, nor wipe my finger on it.



This dirty:









I used two 2gal buckets full of warm water, two lambswool wash mitts, a drying towel and a microfiber finishing towel. I put 2oz of QEW in the wash bucket.



QEW in the bucket:







Towels:







Mitts:







I also found the creeper stool useful (notice the dirty water in the rinse bucket):

[JustinR32]

My process was to saturate one mitt, let it drain until it was about as wet as a wash cloth you would use to wash your face, and do the car one panel at a time, wiping in the direction of wind flow. As I finished a panel, I put the mitt in the rinse bucket and let it "bloom" (see the picture/link above), and dried the panel with the grey drying towel first and the blue mf towel second. (You can dry with whatever you usually use.) I then let the first mitt soak while I used the second to do the next panel, and worked around the car in this manner, alternating mitts.





Wet mitt right to dry dirty panel!









Dirty mitt









Just dry the panel after wiping it with QEW.









QEW doesn`t bead, it sort of sheets; it has very low surface tension.





QEW on the hood







I started off using the mitts sopping wet, and using as much water as I could as a precaution against scratching, but as I became more confident I started using less and less water. The dirt seems to get "taken up" into the QEW, and then gets wiped away.





Garage floor/water used on the first side









Dirt on car in suspension in QEW









Contrast of cleaned/not cleaned

[JustinR32]

I think you know that if the stuff wasn`t working I wouldn`t have gotten this far around the car....



I finished up the passenger side, and then I used QEW on the wheels, too, just to see how strong it was; the wheels cleaned up no problem. Here are the "finish up" shots.





Beauty shot across the hood (No, I don`t use the propane heater inside.)









Partial profile showing a wheel









Setting the scene







And, for you who say, "But Tom, I wouldn`t even call your car dirty!", here is a before and after of the side of the wifemobile:









My judgement, if your car is as dirty as the Malibu, is to use a slightly stronger solution of QEW, and keep your wash mitts VERY wet. You may want to spray the panels with a QEW solution and let them soak before using the method I have outlined above. The mitts picked up an awful lot of grit from the sedan. Change the rinse water more frequently. But, it STILL WORKS.



In summary: QEW is as effective, IMO, as a regular wash. No matter what you do, washing your car introduces swirls and microscratches, and the best you can hope for is to minimize them. QEW does that. Even now after having done it, it is hard to get my mind around the fact that I just washed my car with one gallon of water, 2oz of QEW, two wash mitts and two small 16"x16" towels. And it took about an hour, including setup, frequent stopping to take pictures, doing the glass, wheels, dressing the tires, doing two panels on the Malibu for good measure, and cleaning up.



QEW is available on line at Camping World , $7.49 for 16oz, less per unit for larger sizes up to a gallon. It may also be available locally at RV supply stores; they didn`t have it at RV World in my area, but they could`ve ordered it (I asked them to).



I have to say it again, it`s hard to describe the experience. How long has this been around? How come I never heard of it? Why doesn`t everyone who lives in water restricted areas know about it and use it? Do they, and I don`t know about it? Whatever, here it is. HIGHLY recommended.









Tom

[SK2003TypeS]

Nice write up Tom !!! :xyxthumbs

Thanks for taking the time to put that together.

[andriver]

Thanks for a very informative and well written thread. I bought QEW about a month ago and have not used it yet. I think I will try it this week using the method you described. Thanks again.

[Bill D]

I liked what I heard about QEW so much I bought a gallon last fall. Got it here: http://www.dyersonline.com

[raymond_ho2002]

After using QEW for the first time, I wrote a lukewarm review of the product, as I was skeptical as to whether or not I caused any damage. I now feel that I didnt give a fair review, as it takes more than just one use to warm up to it. Now that I`m more experienced with it, I feel comfortable enough to use it just like I would a regular soap and water wash and have drastically cut down my wash times to about 20 minutes, including time to thoroughly clean out the wheels and to qd the car afterwards.



The more I use it, the more amazed I am at how well it performs. Protect-all needs to hire a new crew of marketers; they must be doing something seriously wrong for it to take so much time to pick up popularity on here, let alone the rest of the world. I`m amazed this stuff isn`t more readily available, and that I haven`t heard more about it before. This stuff would definitely be a hit with the lazy, non-enthusiast car-cartakers.

[imported_Luster]

Thanks Mosca.........



I use the exact method that you do. I use this for my personal cars and customer cars in winter.



I actually did 4 cars last weekend in my garage. No snow but very cold in KC!



The only difference in my method is that in place of QEW, I use 1 capful of Zaino Car Wash and 1 capful of Z6 Detail Spray in the wash water.



Works great for me.....



Thanks for the detailed explanation of your procedure. :xyxthumbs :xyxthumbs :xyxthumbs



Bill.........

[imported_Larry A]

I tried QEW for the first time last month. I.m.o. it is a super product. It does everthing it says it does. Two weeks ago my son bought a beater car to drive around with. It look like it wasent washed in months so we decided to wash it . It was freezing out we didnt want to go to a car wash because we didnt want it to freeze up . I use QEW and the car came out great. It even had a little shine to it. QEW is great stuff.

[spotter]

I use QEW almost exactly as you described but have added a couple of things to the process. If the car is not very dirty I usually add a capful of QuikShine to the wash and don`t even do a QD when I finish...now we are really saving some time. I also take a sprayer bottle and fill it from my wash bucket before I start and use it to spray the rocker panels and other particulary dirty areas to make sure they are wet and have a chance to soak for half a minute or so.



There is definitely a confidence curve involved with using this stuff but I keep using it on dirtier and dirtier cars and it keeps performing without marring the paint. It is really nice to drive a detailed car when it has not been above 20 degrees. People definitely notice and scratch their heads.



Of course I should have known that any product that Scottwax has used for years must be worth trying.

[stevet]

Luster,



Am I reading your post correctly? Are you not using QEW in the water and replacing it with Zaino Car Wash?



QEW is made to be used without a pre-rinse and doesn`t need to be rinsed off the car, you can dry with a towel and it doesn`t leave a residue. Regular car soaps are not made to be used this way. How do you manage not to swirl your paint and not leave soap residue all over the car?

[Pats300zx]

Awesome write up... Bookmarked...:up

[DefBringer]

I have learned quickly how to use QEW. I would say I`ve used it perhaps 8 or 9 times now and I absolutely love it.



However, something I noticed Mosca is that you have an awful lot of water on the floor of your garage. I think you might be leaving uneccessary amounts of water/qew solution in the rag before you go to wash a dirty panel. Of course, having too much won`t HURT, but it does make for a messier job of cleaning up.



I have a black car, and I squeeze most of the moisture out of the rag before applying it (except in areas that are especially filthy), and I don`t have any detectable swirls or scratches anywhere in my paint.



In fact, I like QEW so much I`m not going to do "normal washing" again. I washed my car with the good-old bucket and soap method a few weeks ago and it took me longer to wash my car plus I have to mess around with hoses and nozzles, which are just a hassle. The quarter-wash places are great for getting most of the garbage/salt off from the car and getting at the wheel wells. Those combined with QEW are a winning combo, IMHO.

[DefBringer]

One thing I would recommend is to use a smaller microfiber towel instead of one of those giant towels for this process. Use smaller towels to both wash and dry the car. Also do section by section. For example, half of your door would be a "section". And of course, work from the top down!

[JustinR32]

Yeah, for the first side I was really paranoid about putting tracers and marks in the paint. On the passenger side, it was almost dry. Also, if you notice in the first picture of the bucket, a line of water? My first rinse bucket had a crack in the bottom, contributing to the total amount of water. But, yeah, I used a lot on the first side until I felt confident in the product`s action.



For drying, I used a waffle weave drying towel folded into eighths, and re-folded as I went around the car, following with the 16" square mf. That worked really well; the waffle towel gets the panel almost dry, the mf gets it dry. I used only one of each, but I was doing a Miata; Escalade owners, YMMV.





Tom