Washing by rinse and dry only

[RAG]

Okay, today's detail marks the second black car I've seen in the past few months that had amazinigly little marring, and coincidentally enough, both owners said they wash their cars themselves. Well sort of. Both said they simply rinse off and then dry (one drys with microfiber towels and the other with a shammy). No soap or wash mitt involved. It should be noted that both are garage queens. But still, I would think this method would be a recipe for disaster...but apparently not. Hmmm.

 

[autoprincess]

Being garage kept and possibly little driving, then yes it can be done. This is sometimes a process called touch up. For example, if you just detailed your car's finish and kept it in the garage and drove it around a little, then what they did can be done.



In your process listed above it was probably the other way around, chamois first then MF.

 

[awahl63]

Being garage kept and possibly little driving, then yes it can be done. This is sometimes a process called touch up. For example, if you just detailed your car's finish and kept it in the garage and drove it around a little, then what they did can be done.



In your process listed above it was probably the other way around, chamois first then MF.

Even then I think the "touch up" would marr the paint

 

[autoprincess]

It really depends on the condition of the driver and how long the car sits in the garage. This is something that pertains to light dust that lands on the paint. Not intended for deep cleaning.

 

[the other pc]

The key here is "garage queens." If they never get anything more than light dust and pollen on them rinsing will remove practically all of it and what's left isn't all that abrasive. So as long as the drying towels aren't swirl generators by themselves there won't be too much damage.



Try that with a car that has a nice "crust" on it and the results will be different.



At his Saturday detailing classes Mike Phillips often tells the story of a gentleman who proudly proclaimed that his Rolls Royce was washed with water only and never touched with chemicals like soap. It looked like it had been driven through a Brillo Pad warehouse.





PC.

 

[RAG]

Being garage kept and possibly little driving, then yes it can be done. This is sometimes a process called touch up. For example, if you just detailed your car's finish and kept it in the garage and drove it around a little, then what they did can be done.



In your process listed above it was probably the other way around, chamois first then MF.

Nope - one person uses a chamois and the other a MF.

 

[FreeBIZZ]

For the last few weeks, I have been washing my daily driver, a new VW GTI with only a foam gun sudsy covering, then rinse......no wash mitt. I then sheet some water over it, then drive on my street about 100 yds. to blow away the water beads. Then it's into the garage where I dry what's left with a waffle weave, spraying on my QD of choice as I do so. No marring, no scratches. Every other wash, I finish up with PB S&G. Now, I am using the soap from the foam gun, but no wash mitt. It sure makes the Natty's Blue last a lot longer!@~ With the alloy wheels and tires, they are getting the foam gun, air dry, then I spray the wheels with a QD made up of Klasse AIO, and PB S&W and water, then hand wipe dry with MF. The tires are getting 303.



The car is usually outside exposed to dust, and it has been raining almost every day for 2 weeks straight. Looks like a gem.

 

[shortspark]

My billit silver Honda is a garage queen. I've been retired more than 10 years now and just don't drive like I use to. It is in the garage for days at a time with the occasional drive to the store or post office (I live in a golf community and take my golf cart everywhere else). I'm in Texas too and it seldom rains on me and there is never mud, snow, salt or sand that touches the vehicle. I use AIOx2/SGx3 (or Jett) twice a year. Every day I put the California Duster to it just to get rid of whatever garage dust might have fallen on it during the night. If it does show a little dirt I'll take QEW but most of the time Poorboys SW is all I ever use. Now, I've been using Duragloss Fast Clean and Shine and it does just as well although I think SW is a tad better cleaner. I can't remember the last time I used a shampoo.



After, and sometimes between these "washes", if you want to call them that, I QD with a number of products. During the past year I have used a home brew topper of 3 parts distilled water/1 part SG that has worked very well. In addition, I've now started using Aquawax just to see what the fuss is all about and it works very well indeed. Although not necessary, a day after applying Aquawax, I put some FK425 or Jeff's Acrylic Gloss on and it looks a tad better. I also use Menzerna's HGAS and the Wolfgang Spritz from time to time, also with great success.



So if you have a garage queen like I do, chances are there are a number of good spray on detailers/toppers that will prolong the sealant for a long, long time. As I said, I do mine twice a year but only because I like to - I sure don't need to.

 

[miked2]

As an experient over the winter, I took my vehicle outside, pre-applied water, foam-gunned soap all over, let it sit, rinsed, and then dried. The drying rag got pretty dirty. If there's only a little bit of dirt, the surfectants in the soap are probably sufficient to lift the dirt off the vehicle. Anything more, though, and mechanical agitation (wash mitt) is probably required.

 

[Accumulator]

Just depends, on all sorts of things- what kind of dirt, what kind of LSP, how they "rinsed and dried". I sure wouldn't expect it to work out very well in most cases.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

I have been surprised as well by a few cars that I expected to be very swirled that weren't...I simply attribute it to lack of washing. Pretty easy to avoid wash-induced swirls if you never wash. Of course, the paint is usually terrible in other regards.

 

[autobahn]

There was a guy on the local audi site who swore by washing with just water and a sponge, pulled the whole "soap is harsh" argument.



I bet his paint looks like junk.



I don't understand it, these people get these ideas in their heads, like they're somehow doing what's right. I wonder who along the line told them that soap will damage their finish?

 

[Accumulator]

I don't understand it, these people get these ideas in their heads, like they're somehow doing what's right. I wonder who along the line told them that soap will damage their finish?

Some of it goes back to old-school paints, where the wrong soap *was* damaging. The owner's manual to my '85 Jag says to use only clear water when washing



Back when lacquer would readily dry out and check I suppose it was a case of the lesser evil and the assignment of blame- they could be blamed for paint that "went bad" but not for paint that somebody scratched.



The little booklet that came with Malm's brand wax and polish (not bad stuff BTW) said that too...I guess you'd mar up the paint, then use their polish to fix it With enough of their wax on there you could probably get by with a few water-only washes if you're only as particular as some people seem to be.

 

[jimmie jam]

i do this all the time with my garage queens. if you have good wax and are very light and carefull when drying you should have no problems. it is, however, a very fine line as to when you just "wash" instead :scared: .

 

[EMazda3S]

If the car has such light dust/grime that one would only do a "water wash" then why not do it with a product like Spray and Wipe and have similar ease but some surfactants and emulsifiers to give you some protection? Either of these is not necessarily ideal but I would think using a waterless wash product would be safer then drying a car that has just been rinsed with water alone???

The chances of getting more stuff off the paint without marring with the stronger QD and a plush MF seem better to me than just rinsing and drying.

 

[CleanGSR]

My dad's S2000 is a garage queen and is only driven a couple times a month. When he doesn't QD the car he just rinses it and dries it. It never sees bad weather so no need to soap it up. He also pulls it outside during a rain sometimes and then pulls it back inside to dry it off. The car is 5 years old and has no visible swirl marks or marring and has never been polished, only clay barred and sealed/waxed.

 

[beefy z]

" it is, however, a very fine line as to when you just "wash" instead"





It sure is. ironically, i've been trying this alot lately with my 2 vehicles. one is admittedly a garage queen so when i pull it and its only for a short ride or i feel the urge to do a QD, i can get away with using a number of the QD products that we've discussed here. the car is heavily waxed and most of the time i'm taking off only a light dust. the other one is the daily driver. after a complete detail a few weeks ago, the next 2 days it rained heavily but i had not driven the car. i went out there with SW and quality mfs and gave it a light wipe down. then finished with SG and another light buff. NO swirls/marring as shown by the dual xenon. had it been like 4-5 days or the sun had been out storng and baked some of that **** on the finish till a crust was formed, it would have been time for another full wash. as stated, the fine line is being able to tell that.

 

[RAG]

These people made it sound like they wash this way all the time...so some times it's gotta be actually dirty. But I don't know...maybe they don't really drive them anywhere and they only get dustly.