Easiest and quickest way to wash a car....

[dave_s13]

I'm after a lazy way to wash my car that doesn't involve a 30000psi pressure washer at the local eastern european place but also doesn't involve 2 buckets, clay bars, polishing, waxing on, waxing off, micrometers etc etc.

Is there a product that exists that allows you to:-

1. Hose car down to get the muck loosened up.
2. Put magic product in bucket of water, apply to car with a sponge, give it a good massage.
3. Rinse off with hose.
4. Quick dry with a drying towel.

Does the magic product exist? If so what is it please.

[paintman]

Wait till it rains & you don't have to do step 1.
Think of the effort I've just saved you.....

[Ahbefive]

Hosepipe,
Bucket with warm water and autoglym shampoo with meguiars wash mitt.

Rinse car, wash car, rinse car, dry car with microfibre towels.

Every now and then I add autoglym super resin polish and extra gloss protection to the list.

Interior: Meguiars glass cleaner and microfibre for windows, damp j-cloth over dash and plastics etc and then hoover.

[Dave.]

You could try ONR - http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/washing-and-drying/o...

You can add it to your usual mixture & it shouldn't swirl your paint.

Do your own research though, as misuse will kill kittens, etc.

[R1 Dave]

Here’s my routing for a quick wash;

Spray wheels with Trolls Breath
Snow foam the car
As those two are doing their work I fill the two wash buckets
Jet wash off the snow foam and trolls breath
Wash with a lambs wool wash mitt
Rinse with the jet wash
Dry with Water Magnets

Takes about 40 minutes.

[PositronicRay]

dave_s13 said:

I'm after a lazy way to wash my car that doesn't involve a 30000psi pressure washer at the local eastern european place but also doesn't involve 2 buckets, clay bars, polishing, waxing on, waxing off, micrometers etc etc.

Is there a product that exists that allows you to:-

1. Hose car down to get the muck loosened up.
2. Put magic product in bucket of water, apply to car with a sponge, give it a good massage.
3. Rinse off with hose.
4. Quick dry with a drying towel.

Does the magic product exist? If so what is it please.

This is what I do, and what everyone used to do before 'detailing, grit guards, 2 bucket method' became a thing

Rinse with hose
Slosh on some Halfords shampoo with a mitt
Rinse
Dry with microfiber towel

Wheels are treated to an old sponge.

[Andy 308GTB]

PositronicRay said:

dave_s13 said:

I'm after a lazy way to wash my car that doesn't involve a 30000psi pressure washer at the local eastern european place but also doesn't involve 2 buckets, clay bars, polishing, waxing on, waxing off, micrometers etc etc.

Is there a product that exists that allows you to:-

1. Hose car down to get the muck loosened up.
2. Put magic product in bucket of water, apply to car with a sponge, give it a good massage.
3. Rinse off with hose.
4. Quick dry with a drying towel.

Does the magic product exist? If so what is it please.

This is what I do, and what everyone used to do before 'detailing, grit guards, 2 bucket method' became a thing

Rinse with hose
Slosh on some Halfords shampoo with a mitt
Rinse
Dry with microfiber towel

Wheels are treated to an old sponge.

I hate washing cars. I have much better things to do... so I get it over and done with as quick as possible.

Hose car.
Wash car with yellow sponge & bucket of water with some car shampoo in it
Hose car.
Wash wheels with yellow sponge and what's left of the clean water
Hose wheels
Chamois leather to dry

Once a year I might apply some Autoglym polish but I find that a really tedious task.

[Ninja59]

It depends where you want to cut time.

Wheels - a good spray with an iron remover, tar remover and full clean and then sealed will save time down the line for normal washing

Body wise - Snow foam or a citrus product in a sprayer as a pre wash, then rinse. Then wash and rinse, followed by open hosing with pure water from a DI or RO.

If the DI and RO is kept in top condition you won't get any water spots, the drying process is the most dangerous stage of the process really because you are effectively removing the lubricating layer. You can also use protection products like Carpro Hydro to provide the spray on rinse off protection after rinsing if wanted (3 months protection) followed by an open hose rinse to finish drying the vehicle.


Using an open hose on a vehicle even with some protection floods the panels and effectively dries them as the water flows away.
Adding that method to pure water with no minerals means not water spots as there is no minerals to form those water spots.

Edited by Ninja59 on Tuesday 22 May 13:16

[Belle427]

Single bucket here too!
Autoglym Shampoo and conditioner is good as it’s low suds and easy to rinse.
Their aqua dry cloth is very good too, never really understood using a towel on a car.

[dave_s13]

Belle427 said:

Single bucket here too!
Autoglym Shampoo and conditioner is good as it’s low suds and easy to rinse.
Their aqua dry cloth is very good too, never really understood using a towel on a car.

That sounds just the ticket.

- Hose it down.
- Quick shampoo with that stuff.
- Hose off and dry with a cloth.

I reckon that would be a 15min job.

Sorted.

[dave_s13]

Ahbefive said:

Hosepipe,
Bucket with warm water and autoglym shampoo with meguiars wash mitt.

Rinse car, wash car, rinse car, dry car with microfibre towels.

Every now and then I add autoglym super resin polish and extra gloss protection to the list.

Interior: Meguiars glass cleaner and microfibre for windows, damp j-cloth over dash and plastics etc and then hoover.

You got in 1st to be fair.

I'll be off to buy some of the autoglym stuff this week sometime then.

[Sheepshanks]

Belle427 said:

Single bucket here too!
Autoglym Shampoo and conditioner is good as it’s low suds and easy to rinse.
Their aqua dry cloth is very good too, never really understood using a towel on a car.

I don't understand drying it at all! Is that a hard-water thing? Ours is very soft. I take the car around the village to dry the brake discs and that has to do for the body too.

My only nod to 'detailing' is to use a wash-mitt - I have a microfibre one. It's useful as it holds a lot of water, although I can feel it in my shoulder after doing a couple of cars.

[Ninja59]

Sheepshanks said:

I don't understand drying it at all! Is that a hard-water thing? Ours is very soft. I take the car around the village to dry the brake discs and that has to do for the body too.

My only nod to 'detailing' is to use a wash-mitt - I have a microfibre one. It's useful as it holds a lot of water, although I can feel it in my shoulder after doing a couple of cars.

Drying is down to a multitude of things. But usually most of it is down to lack of lubrication.

Many people forget to open hose rinse flooding panels, this massively helps as essentially you are pushing water down the body of the car. It leaves far less to dry irrespective of water quality. You can probably dry most cars to 70-80% with open hose rinsing.

No MF if done with the above should you be having issues (unless the car has so little protection, but then I would advice sticking some quick detailer like Meguiars last touch to aid lubrication or the MF is near the end of life/mistreated in a washing machine).

Hard water causes all sorts of problems - it does make open hose rinsing harder, as the water flows more slowly. Furthermore the ppm content the greater it is the more difficult for products to mix properly and efficiently as something else is interfering with it. Using pure water can reduce the usage of chemicals massively for example 2 caps instead of 3 for your usual shampoos spread that over the bottle starts to become fairly significant.

The other issue with hard water is water spotting giving less time to dry, but then again open hosing should be your aid here. As I say you can virtually dry most panels on a fairly well protected car (you effectively overload the beading effect forcing sheeting, the speed of the water then should allow you to get it dry).

Regarding drying technique there is multiple methods, from the lie flat on the panel and pull slowly from the other edge. I prefer the "pat" method effectively patting down on the water to dry it.

Something like this essentially (it takes some practice and a top tip to save time if you have some old hose to save dismantling your normal one cut a bit off with a straight edge and put the fitting on the other, clip on when you need to dry it)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s-JE4Rc19I

Edited by Ninja59 on Wednesday 23 May 17:08

[PositronicRay]

And don't forget a quick squirt around the wheel arches to get rid of crud.

[Spare tyre]

I pour car shampoo on large sponge

Wait for rain

Get out there

Give it all a wipe

Hope that the rain washes it off