What`s in your mobile detailing kit? (non-pro)

bennylava

bennylava

New member
Hi all. I wanted to stop by and ask everyone what your mobile detailing kit would look like. Pros can feel free to chime in, but this isn`t about your work van. This is about what you`d take in your nice convertible, on a road trip. You`re taking a vacation, but when you arrive you want your car to look real nice. But you`ve got limited space so you need only the essentials for keeping your car looking good while you`re enjoying driving it around and showing it off.

What`s all in the detailing kit you take with you? I`ll assume we`ll be going to the local power washing bay for washes, so obviously a nice little bag of quarters will be necessary. And the microfiber cloths you wash with. But what else? What else do you stuff in your mobile detailing bag so you can look your best and impress the locals?

Thanks!
 
For me just a 16 oz. bottle of waterless wash wrapped with a 16x16 waffle weave towel in the rear door bottle holder. I use it for removing bird bombs and our seasonal love bugs. If I am planning to do more I pack up my mobile detailing supplies or ship stuff ahead.
 
What do you think about the Chemical Guys waterless wash?

So you`d just do spot removal for the most part? I guess that would be necessary even with the local power wash bay, cause those kinda suck at getting rid of tough bugs and road tar.
 
bennylava said:
What do you think about the Chemical Guys waterless wash?

So you`d just do spot removal for the most part? I guess that would be necessary even with the local power wash bay, cause those kinda suck at getting rid of tough bugs and road tar.
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I have not used the CG WW, but I am sure it is fine. The most economical thing is to make your own waterless wash from a rinseless wash. I make it by the gallon, with distilled water so it will not get gunked up when it sits.

Yes, I will clean the front bumper and mirror caps after a drive. The love bugs will come off after a short soak if there is good protection on the surface. Other stuff I leave until I get back home.
 
Normally I don`t take anything at all. On a road trip, too much grime/brake dust and too many bug splatters make a quick wash or wipe down not a good idea. It would take a good bucket wash to make the car presentable again. I wait until I get home and give it a proper bath. Anything accumulated along the path of the trip is a badge of courage similar to a car after the 24 Hours of Le Mans or the Rolex 24 at Daytona being covered in bugs, rubber, tar, etc.

If I was to pack something, I`d have a bottle of bug remover, a bottle of QD/waterless wash and a couple towels.
 
Window cleaning stuff.

I do take a little spray bottle of IUDJ and a MF, but I can`t recall actually *using* them. I basically don`t give such stuff any thought until I get back, and then I do whatever`s called for. Since I don`t get etching any more if I leave bugs/bird-bombs on there (famous last words.. :o ) the vehicles are just "transportation" to me when we roadtrip.

(I do, of course, keep my Emergency Kit handy for situations like the Deer Incident..)
 
Just for a road trip? Id take a 32oz bottle of ONR mixed as a WW, that can do the inside surfaces of the car as well as the outside. Maybe some bug spray depending on the area and season of travel. If your car is properly protected (wheels, paint, glass) you should be able to make it come back to where you like it with just WW.
 
Accumulator said:
Window cleaning stuff.

I do take a little spray bottle of IUDJ and a MF, but I can`t recall actually *using* them. I basically don`t give such stuff any thought until I get back, and then I do whatever`s called for. Since I don`t get etching any more if I leave bugs/bird-bombs on there (famous last words.. :o ) the vehicles are just "transportation" to me when we roadtrip.

(I do, of course, keep my Emergency Kit handy for situations like the Deer Incident..)
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But don`t you wanna look like a million bucks to the locals? :cool: ;)

I guess you guys don`t really use the local power washer. Sounds like I`ll be good with some kind of bugwash, a bucket and a little scrub brush and some towels. I think that bugwash and wash and towels are the key takeaway from this thread. I don`t know about all that waterless wash stuff... sounds like you`re cutting corners somehow. Like the car won`t come out looking quite as good. I`ve seen some of those kinds of things make parts of the car look like they were shiny, and parts were a bit on the hazy side. Then again, that may have just been that spray and wash stuff. Or was it spray wax? Yeah I`m not nearly as good at all this as you guys are lol

dcjredline said:
Just for a road trip? Id take a 32oz bottle of ONR mixed as a WW, that can do the inside surfaces of the car as well as the outside. Maybe some bug spray depending on the area and season of travel. If your car is properly protected (wheels, paint, glass) you should be able to make it come back to where you like it with just WW.
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Thank you for the reply! I assume ww means waterless wash, but I guess I`m not up to speed on the lingo. What does ONR stand for?
 
Just a bottle of CarPro Clarify and some microfiber towels. If I did a non-winter road trip, probably some 3D Bug Remover as well.

I have Chemical Guys Waterless Wash, but I only use that if I notice something while the car`s parked in the garage that I want to wipe off. Seems to work okay, but I don`t have anything to compare it to. I`ll often use it to wipe exhaust soot off of the 360`s bumper in the summer.
 
PoisonTheWell said:
Just a bottle of CarPro Clarify and some microfiber towels. If I did a non-winter road trip, probably some 3D Bug Remover as well.

I have Chemical Guys Waterless Wash, but I only use that if I notice something while the car`s parked in the garage that I want to wipe off. Seems to work okay, but I don`t have anything to compare it to. I`ll often use it to wipe exhaust soot off of the 360`s bumper in the summer.
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So the waterless wash... I don`t have to worry about that just pushing dirt down into the paint? Maybe I`m overthinking things again. But it seems like you want the water to help move the dirt away and off the car.

Accumulator said:
Heh heh, you mean like..."other people"? Only person whose opinion matters to me can`t see it from behind the wheel ;)
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Yeah I wanna "wow" people lol

It`s kinda fun sometimes. But sometimes it backfires and... strange people want to talk to you. That`s not as fun.
 
bennylava said:
So the waterless wash... I don`t have to worry about that just pushing dirt down into the paint? Maybe I`m overthinking things again. But it seems like you want the water to help move the dirt away and off the car.
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I have it mixed in their atomizer pump sprayer. Usually only use it if I have bird poop or something and need to get it off quickly. Haven`t used it to try to wipe down the whole car. I think a lot of that depends on your towels and technique. There are some pretty extensive threads on that here.
 
bennylava said:
So the waterless wash... I don`t have to worry about that just pushing dirt down into the paint? Maybe I`m overthinking things again. But it seems like you want the water to help move the dirt away and off the car.
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If you`re worried about the dirt with a waterless wash, which you should be, you can take a look at some of the Ammo Frothe videos. While Ammo Frothe is supposed to be a very good foaming cleaner, I am more talking about the process used to roll the towel. So that can help with a waterless wash but I do a modified waterless/rinesless wash. I essentially do a rinesless but spray down with a waterless right before I do a rinseless wash on the panel. I also use one towel per panel so no need to worry about a wash mitt being dirty. Hope that helps.
 
bennylava said:
Yeah I wanna "wow" people lol

It`s kinda fun sometimes. But sometimes it backfires and... strange people want to talk to you. That`s not as fun.
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Heh heh, yeah I hear you on the "strange people"! The other day somebody told me he liked my "vintage" car the other day, and it was one of our newer ones!

As far as the "dirt into the paint" aspect of a RW, that`s why I basically never use such stuff unless the car is already what others would consider "clean". On the rare occasions that I do use such stuff to clean something off, it takes me *forever*, and countless swabs before I switch to a MF. Hence my use of LSPs (e.g., FK1000P) that don`t need stuff cleaned off between washes.
 
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