Recommendation for Maintenance Wash Car Soap with 2-Bucket Method

L

Lonnie

Active member
I am asking my fellow Autopians what they use/prefer for car wash soap wit a 2-bucket method.


 


I am currently using Optimum's Car Wash soap and it's O.K.  If the car is real dirty or has a lot of bugs on the front and windshield, I will add as small amount of Optimum's Power Wash to the mix.


I have used Meguiar's Professional Carwash Shampoo and Conditioner No. 62 in the past, which I think is a great soap for maintenance washes.


I do not use a foaming lance, so the soap-and-water is in a bucket, along with the other bucket of rinse water for my wash medium (hence the 2-bucket method I learned about within this forum).


 


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and reasons why you like the soap/detergent you use. If you use wash-and-gloss or wash-and-wax soaps, let me know about them and why as well.


 
 
Lonnie, what LSP is on the vehicle now?  Are you looking for a boutique product or something cheap in industrial sizes??
 
tom p.:


The cars I own/wash have Collinite 885 Fleet-Wax on them as an LSP. I may re-wax them during the summer with S100 after about 5-6 washes because it's such an easy wax to use (wax-on-wax-off).


I am open to ANY soap suggestions, but, if some soap is available in gallon sizes, I am more prone to use/buy it because of "economy of scale". I am washing 2 vehicles (and occasionally some of the neighbors) weekly from about April to mid-November (it's outside and above freezing temperatures in Northeast Wisconsin), whether they need it or not. (Remember I am an obsessive-compulsive detailer)


 


If you have suggestions for soaps for car polishing-prep work, you can add your comments about that. I KNOW Accumulator and Ron Ketcham are big advocates of ValuGard's (Automotive International) 3-step de-contamination wash chemicals.
 
IMO it's hard to beat Meg's gold class. It's better than most boutique stuff and is on sale all the time. I keep meaning to try hyperwash but keep finding deals on GC. Target gives the stuff away in Sept.
 
Lonnie, much of this can be reduced down to personal taste/preference.  I think the Optimum soap is very good, for example.


 


The two conventional soaps at the top of my list today are:


 
<ul>[*]Ultima Paint Guard Wash (expensive)
[*]Chem Guys' Mr.Pink (cheap)
[/list]

 


I could see myself picking one of these shampoos for washing a sealant like the Collinite or FK's 1000p  and getting a great result, year-round.  I wash 52wks/yr and find the Ultima, with its tremendous lubricity, to be a real benefit during the worst months when the cars are covered with the horrible filth they throw on our roads.
 
Duragloss 901 is just about all I use.  It isn't super foamy, which works for me, it just leaves the car looking really good.  Don't know if it's available in gallon size or not - one of those things I keep meaning to check but never do.  The NAPA store near me stocks it, along with a lot of other DG products. 
 
I'm not a big fan of foam, even when using my foamguns.  To me it's just a lot of air mixed in with the shampoo and I don't see the upside to that.  But then I'm all about that "dislodge and flush" approach and maybe that gives me a different viewpoint.


 


Lonnie- The Optimum oughta be pretty good and the Duragloss should be swell for an OTC.


 


I usually recommend Griot's, but recently I've been using a mix of Griot's and 3D (or is it "HD"? I can't keep 'em straight...) Pink and that's working OK too.  The straight GG was easier on the LSP but the mix cleans a little better (I think...hard to tell).


 


What I'm *really* liking is doing a rinseless wash with IUDJ after I've finished my conventional washing.  If the vehicle wasn't too bad to start with I move right from my BHB/foamgun passes to the IUDJ, otherwise I still do the mitt/foamgun step.  Adding the IUDJ makes a difference;  maybe it's just from the polymer stuff that it leaves behind (but I don't think so because I'd usually use a QD anyhow when drying and I also notice the diff if I rewax after the wash), but whatever's going on, I like it.


 


I found Gold Class to be decidedly mediocre, not enough lubricity for me.  If you gotta use Meguiuar's I prefer their M62.


 


Heh heh, you already know my preference for pre-correction cleanups!
 
E-Jag said:
<strong class='bbc'>Duragloss 901 is just about all I use. It isn't super foamy, which works for me, it just leaves the car looking really good. Don't know if it's available in gallon size or not - one of those things I keep meaning to check but never do. The NAPA store near me stocks it, along with a lot of other DG products. [/b]
Click to expand...


You can get a gallon online. Its known as 902 in the gallon.



It's one of my go to soaps that works very well
 
Thanks for the responses, fellow Autopians:


When a true OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Detailer) considers a car was soap/detergent , there are a number of things to consider:


1) How does it clean?


2) Does it provide adequate lubrication to prevent marring with a wash medium?


3) Does it rinse off well?


4) Does it last through a whole wash or does the cleaning and lubrication break down quickly after being in water for any length of time?


4a) Does it soften the water if you have hard-water issues? (Durability and rinsing issues are compounded by hard water)


5) Is it economical to use? (Well, to some price may be no object)


6) Is it available over-the-counter OR do I need to buy it off the internet, (which may add to cost with shipping)?


If you're using a foam gun/lance you could add:


7) Does it foam/suds up adequately?


8) How much do I have to use with an application? (leading back to the economic-use question).


 


I am not big on wax/gloss agents within a wash, as I feel the-left-behind chemicals make it more difficult to dry and cause streaks. Maybe it's based on old-school products and experiences, so a newer wash-n-gloss, like Chemical Guys Citrus Wash-and- Gloss, would be a good product for me to try.


 


I really like Megs Professional Car Wash and Conditioner No. 62 and the only reason I switched to Optimum's Car Wash was because the internet place I bought my car-care products from did not carry it, so I went with what I thought would be similar.  OCW is O.K., but  for me, Meg's No.62 just cleans better and doesn't leave a film behind that I notice on windows with OCW after drying. Maybe is subjective (my personal feeling) rather than objective (based on actual empirical data and experience), but what car-care chemical isn't subject to that judgment by any detailer? Like someone here within this forum says, " If you like it, use it, and use it often."
 
Lonnie- NIce to see the M62 getting some appreciation!  I was all about that stuff until I switched to Griot's and IMO it's *very* good by any measure.  Never gets any real attention for some reason...maybe it's pricey?  I haven't bought it for so long that I can't remember...
 
 if you want a nice mild soap (great for maintenance) that cleans well and smells good, give the 3D Pink Soap a try. works well in the foam gun and foam cannon too. did i mention it's under $15 a gallon?
 
Accumulator:


Yes, Megs Wash No.62 is pricey; about $30.00 Gallon direct from Meg's. I think it's about $35.00 from a local car-parts shop with their mark-up.


 


IF I remember correctly, Meg's used to offer a 16 oz bottle called Tech Wash designed for use as lubricant to be added to water for wet-sanding. I know some of the Autopians who did wet-sanding say they miss it. Days gone by.......
 
Lonnie- I thought the Meguiar's shampoo for wetsanding was the (now discontinued, IIRC) M00.  Lemme check my old Meguiuar's catalog....yeah, Tech Wash was M00.  Man, it's kinda scary that I remember such stuff!


 


At $30/gallon for the M62, guess I won't be revisiting the scent after I use up my last stockpiled jug of it.  Yeah, days gone by indeed, the scent of certain shampoos can sure trigger my Wayback Machine.
 
Let's see, Kevin Brown may still have some of the Meg's #00.  I bought a bunch of bottles from him last year.
 
I have a soft spot for Optimum due to the smell, cleaning,  and great suds but the downside is it seems to not rinse as easily a some soaps.  When used in a foam cannon, suds will last for quite some time.


 


Griots does not seem to have much cleaning power to me. It seems to be optimized for not very durable waxes.   Griot's Wash and Wax was much better the two times I used it (had a sample).


 


If you like suds and cleaning, Adam's is good (better than the CG Maxi Suds that some claim is the same). 


 


Meg's Hyper Wash seems to a good balance: economy, suds, cleaning, rinsing. 
 
Bunky- Interesting that you found the GG to not have much cleaning power...maybe I'm just mixing it up extra-strong (99.9% of mine comes out of the foamgun).  Or maybe that's why I noticed such a diff when I started mixing it with the 3D.
 
For me two things are must haves...it must be a strong cleaner, and it must rinse spotless. I couldn't care less about suds, smell, etc. I find most soaps weak or aesthetic marketing gimmicks.

The CG citrus soaps are great cleaners and I always select those without any gimmicky gloss enhances or for goodness sake's...wax.
 
Been using Griots car wash for years now and haven't had a reason to change. Substantial upgrade coming from Meg's Gold Class
 
I like both Griot's and Megs Gold Class.  However, recently I have found a jack-of-all-trades kind of shampoo that I am liking a lot - CG's Citrus Clear.  It is cheap and works extremely well in foam guns.  The maintenance wash ratio only calls for one ounce in four gallons of water, it is PH neutral and will not strip your LSP at this ratio.  In fact, it is called "Citrus Clear Daily Car Wash with Extreme Suds" so you can use it safely every day if you wanted.  


 


If you do want to strip you LSP it works fairly well at a concentrated ratio of two ounces per gallon of water.  I say "fairly well" because it does not do a great job of stripping sealants and I usually have to add a couple ounces of P21S Total Auto Wash to the bucket to help strip.  I often use Griot's Pro paste wax and it does a good job of stripping that.  Clear is not the slickest of the slick but slick enough.   It contains no wax (which I like), just soap which cleans as well as any of them.  Because of Clear's versatility and price point (it is often on sale in gallon jugs), it will probably become my go-to shampoo from now on.
 
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