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Living in a 3rd floor flat makes cleaning my Z4 rather challenging to say the least. Using it as my daily it quickly gets covered in filth.

Not wanting to take it to the local hand car wash and spending too long holding up too many cars at the Tesco Jetwash I thought I'd try waterless washing.

About 8 months ago I gave it the full clay, polish and wax treatment but since then I've been entirely waterless on the body. I was naturally quite worried about creating swirls, but using a lot of clean cloths seems to help prevent spreading dirt around.
Obviously the wheels need a bit of help so a couple of buckets of water are used to thoroughly rinse off the alloy cleaner but everything else is cleaned entirely with microfibre's and Autokit waterless wash. Today I added a light coating of AG Aquawax and I'm fairly chuffed with the results.

The finish on your paint work is great, so it's obviously not doing any harm. Maybe if you wanted to do water, the solution would be a massively long hosepipe?

Hell would have to freeze over before I would spray something onto my dirty car and then wipe or rub it into the paint. Sorry just my opinion..

Mike

Ducklakeview wrote: ↑Thu Apr 20, 2017 10:52 pm Hell would have to freeze over before I would spray something onto my dirty car and then wipe or rub it into the paint. Sorry just my opinion..

Mike

I get this but think about it... snow foam pre wash only removes some of the dirt. You then wash the car with a mitt and two bucket wash but you're still rubbing dirt the pre wash didn't remove around on the paint. Provided the car isn't super dirty all ONR does is the same thing as a normal wash but with less water.

If the lower parts of a car are particularly dirty, I tend to wash with a constant spray from a hose pipe as I am removing the dirt. This has worked for me for years. I then do a top down wash as normal.

H.

Maniac wrote: ↑Thu Apr 20, 2017 11:14 pm

Ducklakeview wrote: ↑Thu Apr 20, 2017 10:52 pm Hell would have to freeze over before I would spray something onto my dirty car and then wipe or rub it into the paint. Sorry just my opinion..

Mike

I get this but think about it... snow foam pre wash only removes some of the dirt. You then wash the car with a mitt and two bucket wash but you're still rubbing dirt the pre wash didn't remove around on the paint. Provided the car isn't super dirty all ONR does is the same thing as a normal wash but with less water.

Have to disagree there. I snow foam, then thoroughly pressure wash the car, during which you can see the "film" being removed, before washing ala 2 bucket style.

Mike

Ducklakeview wrote: ↑Fri Apr 21, 2017 7:48 am

Maniac wrote: ↑Thu Apr 20, 2017 11:14 pm

Ducklakeview wrote: ↑Thu Apr 20, 2017 10:52 pm Hell would have to freeze over before I would spray something onto my dirty car and then wipe or rub it into the paint. Sorry just my opinion..

Mike

I get this but think about it... snow foam pre wash only removes some of the dirt. You then wash the car with a mitt and two bucket wash but you're still rubbing dirt the pre wash didn't remove around on the paint. Provided the car isn't super dirty all ONR does is the same thing as a normal wash but with less water.

Have to disagree there. I snow foam, then thoroughly pressure wash the car, during which you can see the "film" being removed, before washing ala 2 bucket style.

Mike

I agree with you Mike and do exactly the same. I never touch my cars paintwork unless it's been snowfoamed and pressure washed off first.

Ducklakeview wrote: ↑Thu Apr 20, 2017 10:52 pm Hell would have to freeze over before I would spray something onto my dirty car and then wipe or rub it into the paint. Sorry just my opinion..

Mike

Yeah I can understand that, ideally I'd snow foam or use a traffic film remover and double bucket like I used to but I've been pleasantly surprised by this stuff. As soon as I move to somewhere with a water supply I'll be back to the old routine.

No chance of running a hose pipe from your flat, out of a window and dropping the end down so you can clean your car, 3rd storey isn't that high.
I have used a watering can with a rose head on it in the past, this allows you to rinse the car without constantly filling buckets that are then thrown over the car.

I think it's a case of don't knock it until you try it. Lots of posts on detailing world singing praises of the waterless wash regime.

Interesting method. Happily I fitted a hose pipe 5ft from the drive way, many years ago, so I'll stick with more traditional methods for now.

I have used it in the past off and on. The idea is to wipe and lift the dirt off the paint with one wipe straight - not the swirling hand movements. Enough liquid on there and enough Microfibres is probably no worse than most average Joes car wash techniques. It's much quicker than water and beads rain amazingly and gives a lovely finish.