Spray and Wipe: How many ounces does the average vehicle take?

General Lee

New member
I'm a relatively new S&W user, but I am finding I am using (what I feel) is alot of product. I just did my Mustang and used 20 oz. :eek I use a high quality spray bottle on a fine mist. I spray each panel with the an amount I feel should be suffice as to not produce Marring, and it seems it really is not that much product. When all said and done though, I started with a full 32oz. bottle and had 12oz. left. At $30.00 a gallon, 20oz. per wash I imagine it isn't very economical.

What do you guys think? Am I using to much product or is that about right for a vehicle that size?
 
travisdecpn said:
I usually only use about 2-4 oz on my truck.
The 2-4 oz. sounds pretty close to what I use on a minivan or the Grand Prix.
It takes a while to get the feel for how much/little to use. I think we all used waaay too much to start with.
FWIW, even 20 oz. would be less than $5. Not too bad for a clean car.:)

Charles
 
I will say 20oz's sound like wayyy to much to use.

You dont need to totally saturate the vehicle to wear the S&W is dripping off the paint. It takes a little while to get used to it. A little really does go a long way with this stuff. You think you need to totally wet the vehicle to reduce marring, but you need just enough to cover it. I would say no more than 6 oz's with any car/truck should be plenty. I use about 4 oz on my Firebird.

Like I said, you really need to get used to it. Its a hard product to trust, but it really works extremely well. I no longer wash my car the conventional way unless my car is extremely muddy. I usually S&W about every 3 days.
 
General Lee said:
… I just did my Mustang and used 20 oz.
:eek I thought that was a typo…

General Lee said:
… I started with a full 32oz. bottle and had 12oz. left.
…I guess not. :) And I thought I used a heavy hand with S&W. Really, I feel your pain, it takes a bit to get used too. You aren’t the only new user to go overboard with this. I seem to remember the story NattyBumpo (sorry if I misspelled it) told of his first experience, "washing" his Wife's car (IIRC).

CharlesW said:
The 2-4 oz. sounds pretty close to what I use on a minivan or the Grand Prix.
As noted in another thread, I’ve used that much prepping for a QEW wash on a VW NB, and I've been using it for a while now.

CharlesW said:
It takes a while to get the feel for how much/little to use. I think we all used waaay too much to start with.
I think I just repeated CharlesW’s statement

CharlesW said:
FWIW, even 20 oz. would be less than $5. Not too bad for a clean car.:)
:bigups :bigups

At your rate, you'd better go ahead and join the 5 gallon club though.

Edit to add: You didn't mention how dirty your car was. Maybe 20 ounces was needed. If mine are too dirty, I choose a different option than S&W alone.
 
travisdecpn said:
I usually only use about 2-4 oz on my truck.

I'm definitely using way, way, way, to much. I'm not knocking the product in any way, its an awesome product at that, I guess I just need to get a feel for it. Thanks for all the responses.
 
Mr. Clean said:
At your rate, you'd better go ahead and join the 5 gallon club though.

Edit to add: You didn't mention how dirty your car was. Maybe 20 ounces was needed. If mine are too dirty, I choose a different option than S&W alone.

:lmfao You might be right!

The bad thing is the car was only dusty from sitting. Its not a daily driver.
 
Oh wow if its only dusty you did use way too much. My car just gets dusty when I S&W and I use about 3 oz. Just lightly lightly mist the area. Like I said before, you do not need the spray so much that its running down the panels. Just enough so you can see it sitting on top of the paint. It took me about 3 washes with it to truly grasp how much I need to use. It is by far my favorite product of 2004 and BEYOND! haha. This stuff has saved me sooo much time its unreal. What used to take an hour to wash my car, now takes 15 minutes MAX and thats using a QD after.
 
i bought the five gallon S&W from premiumautocare. for a 135 dollars i think it is a good deal. free shipping.

the first time i used it i used twenty four ounces. the car was clean and i sure had a lot more fun than using a wash bucket and rinsing. i am sold on the product but i am sure that the next time that i use it i will use considerably less. i know this because i will do it more often.

but using it more often....hmmmmm...doesn't that mean i will using more product...? :ticked :)
 
i would estimate 1-2.5 oz. i like to use a ZEP sprayer with my S&W, and it takes me a while to finish a full ZEP bottle (25 oz)
 
Back
Top