Detailing in freezing temps using waterless + rinseless wash methods.

[DMiglio]

Hey Geeks! Wanted to make a thread on how I’ve been doing waterless + rinseless washes over the past few years in frigid temps and on my daily driven cars. They are still covered in salt, snow and even ice in the wheel wells!

The method is inspired from a post by Mike@dedicated perfection and the thread from a recent post by Hoyt66.

This is my first in-depth informative post, so bear with me and enjoy! Questions and critiques welcome!

Chicago has been under freezing cold temps lately and right before that cold spell hit we were lucky enough to get snow and with that lots of salt and brine, an Autogeekers nightmare! We finally got into some decent temps today where even though I’m fighting off a bad cold/flu I decided it was time to get the car cleaned.

The time and conditions were around 11 am, 10-12 degrees and light snow(garage was upper teens to 20 degrees).

Before:


I then pulled the car inside and was ready to get to work. I break my basic cleaning into 3 sections.
Section 1)Wheels and wells. Section 2)Washing and drying body, jambs and glass. Section 3)Finishing touches

Section 1)
Starting with the wheels, tires and wiping wheel wells, I used Meguiars APC, a stiff tire brush and MF towels to clean and remove salt, snow and ice.
Attachment 61463Attachment 61464Attachment 61465Attachment 61466Attachment 61467

Section 2)
After this his game time for the paint and glass.
I started by pre soaking the panels in sections as I went around the car. This works amazingly well to encapsulate the dirt and salt accumulated on the paint, it runs off the paint and I tried to capture this in the pictures. Honestly you don’t hear any rubbing when the wash mitt or towel wipe across the surface, since there’s no pressure involved except what’s needed to keep the mitt or towel on the surface, there shouldn’t be any marring from this method! I used ONR mixed with Optimum Instant Detailer to persoak and had ONR in my bucket. This combo smells like Wildberry Bubblegum btw!


Here’s a picture to show the massive difference between a washed panel and dirty panel.


Also don’t forget the door jambs! I use this time to wipe the door sills and any areas prone to pick up dirt.



Now that the wheels, tires and paint are washed and wiped clean, I move on to Section 3. I use a drying aid, spray wax or quick detailer to make drying the paint easier and safer. This adds some protection as well as gloss, it boosts a wax, sealant, or coating depending on your product used at this point and whatever your LSP was previously. For this step I used Carpro Echo2 and Reload, mixed at Merlin Magical Elixer ratios, 20 oz distilled water and 2 oz each of Echo2 and Reload.

I then sprayed the wheels with Meguiars Xpress Spray Wax. I love both of these sprays and will use them religiously! I then dress the tires with McKee’s Gloss Tire Gel. Guys and gals, I haven’t seen many reviews for this product and that’s a shame. It works very well for me and creates an intense shine for something water based, I feel it might be too glossy and need to be wiped down after about 20 minutes or so to knock that gloss down a bit. The applicator used on the tires will be used on my wheel wells which were wiped down in Section 1.

Also part of Section 3’s final touches include a wipe down of the paint with a MF towel with a few spritzes of my drying aid to catch any last bits of water or streaks and wiping down the glass. I’ve been using McKee’s glass cleaner and it’s an awesome product on dirty or clean windows.


And thats all it takes! I’m lucky that it only takes around 45 minutes to clean and shine up my wheels and car with this level of dirt and salt everywhere in freezing temps, but that’s the trade off of having a little Miata and soft top in the winter! My wife’s Corolla though would only take me about 1 hour and 15 minutes tops.

For all of you that have made it this far, thank you! In my next post I will bless you with my crappy photography skills of some beauty shots!


Thanks again for reading through! Sorry about the sideways pictures I couldn’t figure them out.
-David

[DMiglio]

Aww man idk what I did, seems I’m missing so many pictures. Mods if needed please delete. I tried editing to add pictures but it’s saying I can only have 25 attachments per post and I’m not sure what steps to take as it may be easier to start from scratch. Thanks!

[MattPersman]

Looks good man ! ONR sure works well in winter


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[gti14]

Good job! I feel you pain here in ny right now.... -11* today. One question though would you still consider it detailing in freezing temps if you pull the car inside first?


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[DMiglio]

Matt-it absolutely does! I saw your posts too and that’s more confirmation on how well it works and also how safe it can be without pressure washing, a hose or going to a coin op before doing a rinseless.

Gti14-I’ve done them outside before but honestly, never in -11 or anything quite so bad, for that I’ll definitely wait til air temps are at least upper 20’s. Otherwise I just can’t habdle it as at that temp I tend to work slower and smaller sections cause I feel products may become temperamental when it gets that cold. But I know yesterday my car thermometer only registered upper teens to 20 degrees for garage temps.

[fightnews]

If its in the teens below freezing in the garage then why isn't the rinseless/waterless wash freezing?. It freezes on my car even if its only a few degrees below freezing.

[fightnews]

Good job! I feel you pain here in ny right now.... -11* today. One question though would you still consider it detailing in freezing temps if you pull the car inside first?


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It wasn't -11F in New York it hasn't gotten that cold. Maybe if you are factoring in the wind chill? 1 degree Fahrenheit is the coldest its ever gotten in New York on record and that was in 1917, Lets not go crazy here

[gti14]

Yea I tried doing a rinseless the other day and the onr froze before I could dry it lol


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[Mantilgh]

Gti14 and Fightnews, I’m wondering the same thing.

I end up with spray and freeze any time I try this below freezing.

The other day I could have done the half of the car that was facing the sun because I could feel the warmth on the panels, but I’m sure the north side would have froze right up.

[gti14]

It wasn't -11F in New York it hasn't gotten that cold. Maybe if you are factoring in the wind chill? 1 degree Fahrenheit is the coldest its ever gotten in New York on record and that was in 1917, Lets not go crazy here

I’m not talking about NYC, even then the record for NYC is -15.

Central Park Reaches Lowest Temperature in 118 Years - Business Insider

The low record for New York State is -52 according to Wikipedia.



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