How to approach waterless wash on a dirty car?

[Thomkirby]

For your 49Dodge the rinseless method will resolve the issue around the windshield. For the heavier grit on lower panels soak or spray with hose or even use a hand sprayer. That way you control the water volume an where it goes. Sounds like time to fix that windshield leaks. One last odd thought is to use an airless paint sprayer to give a bit of pressure over the grit. Dallas paint and correction did a video on that for use on wheels.

[Vifa]

Vifa,

If you watch any of the tutorial videos, especially Mike Phillip's videos, they demonstrate a technique that calls for lifting the front edge of the towel up, and only taking one pass per "side" of the towel. Fold the towel into quarters, and you'll have 8 "sides" with which to work (four exposed, and then reverse the towel for four more "sides"). Using this method, my 2007 Lexus ES350 (a mid size to large sedan) takes me 10 or so towels. In the winter, I repeat the process, using VERY little pressure the first pass, and then medium pressure the second. So during the winter, I plan on the process taking me 20 or so towels. But it works well, even with the salt grime my car picks up during the winter.

Hope this helps.

I have watched a lot of his videos but I must have missed that.
Can you please share a link to one of the videos where he demonstrates this technique?

For those of you who use waterless wash products instead of quick detailers - would you still use a waterless wash sprayer as lubricant while claying?

And by the way, thank you for all the great inputs - I appreciate it.

[mk9750]

Vifa, that was a heck of a challenge. I had to spend almost two hours looking, but I finally found what I remembered:

YouTube


Watch the entire video, but the rolling technique I mentioned starts @ 3:20 or so. Although it is true that what I described is even more conservative, the idea is about the same.

I hope the link works, but the video is titled How to do Proper Washing and Drying Techniques (Mike Phillips and Autogeek, date unknown)(I apologize for not crediting more completely).

Hope this is helpful.

[Mike Phillips]

Best way to wash a car is with running water. This is how I wash my own cars.

Waterless and Rinseless washes are for people that DON'T have access to running water. These people exist.

I use waterless wash for most of the "cool" cars I wash because as a professional courtesy to the owners of these cars I don't introduce water to places it can cause rust.

Did you see my Facebook page yesterday?

I did a waterless wash to a 1968 Mustang that was ABSOLUTELY FILTHY.

Mike Phillips - Home | Facebook

[FUNX650]

Let me start telling you that I always
use a waterless wash on my old cars.
This is to avoid water from getting into
places that it is not supposed to.

My Dodge ‘49 would for instance get water
behind the dashboard even if a smaller
amount of water hit the front windows.

Well, I would like to know how you
would approach a dirty car with a
waterless wash method?

Common sense tells me not to do a
waterless wash on a muddy car for
quite obvious reasons. But what then?

When you in my case would avoid using
a hose as you know you practically would
flood the car - what do you then do?

Like the ‘49 Dodge is ever going to
get muddy dirty...Yea, Right!!


•IMO: Steady as you go.
-You’ve already established an acceptable
(to you), and an easily explainable (to any
critiquers), WW cleaning methodology.



Bob

[Vifa]

Best way to wash a car is with running water. This is how I wash my own cars.

Waterless and Rinseless washes are for people that DON'T have access to running water. These people exist.

I use waterless wash for most of the "cool" cars I wash because as a professional courtesy to the owners of these cars I don't introduce water to places it can cause rust.

Did you see my Facebook page yesterday?

I did a waterless wash to a 1968 Mustang that was ABSOLUTELY FILTHY.

Mike Phillips - Home | Facebook

Hi Mike,

No doubt running water is number 1.
I use to first rinse my cars with a hose, use a two bucket method with wash mitts and water towels - but when it comes to my classics, I prefer a waterless approach for the same reasons as you :-)

I have in your videos seen you have used both microfiber towels and wash mitts when you do rinseless washes - may I ask which method you prefer?
And will you please elaborate on the pro and cons between microfiber and lambswool mitts?

Vifa, that was a heck of a challenge. I had to spend almost two hours looking, but I finally found what I remembered:

YouTube


Watch the entire video, but the rolling technique I mentioned starts @ 3:20 or so. Although it is true that what I described is even more conservative, the idea is about the same.

I hope the link works, but the video is titled How to do Proper Washing and Drying Techniques (Mike Phillips and Autogeek, date unknown)(I apologize for not crediting more completely).

Hope this is helpful.

I appreciate it
Probably one of the best Mike Phillips videos I have seen lately - very informative

[Route246]

Best way to wash a car is with running water. This is how I wash my own cars.

Waterless and Rinseless washes are for people that DON'T have access to running water. These people exist.

I use waterless wash for most of the "cool" cars I wash because as a professional courtesy to the owners of these cars I don't introduce water to places it can cause rust.

Did you see my Facebook page yesterday?

I did a waterless wash to a 1968 Mustang that was ABSOLUTELY FILTHY.

Mike Phillips - Home | Facebook

Thank you for putting some perspective on this.

One value I see for waterless wash is many performance cars these days have aerodynamic ground effects engineered into them which makes the rear end very dirty, dusty and otherwise scuffed from the air flows that happen around the rear end of the car. My RS comes back laden with dust and crud on the hatch and rear end while the rest of the car remains relatively pristine. Thanks to great encouragement from Eldo, I spray on a quick and substantial dose of Uber Rinseless using a waterless approach which cleans up the rear really nice and very effectively until the next maintenance wash.