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Hi all,
does anyone have experience with those "waterless" car washing products? do they work ?

thanks
Sam

HI Sam,

I've been looking into this as well, as I'm paranoid about rust . Been onto a few detailing forums to check it out, plus spoken to a few detailers about it . You should see how fussy some of these blokes are when it comes to taking care of their paintwork.

Most don't like waterless washing as it can leave scratches and swirls, especially on soft acrylic, though I know people who use this system and swear by it.

G'day Sam and Cal

I use waterless wash almost all the time and reckon it's great... BUT, the car needs to be fairly clean before I use it. For anything other than dust or light 'smearing' on the paintwork, I wash with rain water first, chamois dry then finish off with the waterless.

If you basically only drive your car on 'sunny Sundays' and keep it relatively clean, waterless is great. No good for daily drivers/work cars though...

It's important to use one microfiber cloth to clean (replace as soon as there's any appreciable dirt on it) and another clean dry one to polish. I do a panel at a time; wash then polish dry, as per manufacturers instructions.

'Polyglaze' brand works well. Just DONT try to remove anything other than dust/very light dirt using waterless, and replace microfiber cloths (both wash and polish) frequently. Cloths can be washed using no detergent and warm water in the washing machine and reused a few times... when they get too dirty they become shed rags. I use new ones for polishing, then after washing them, they become washing cloths, and finally shed rags...

I'd be interested to hear of any other views...

cheers, jack

I have a local carwash that only uses the spray system.
Also has a undercar wash as well and blowdrys at the end
Therefore nothing touches the car.
Works for me... :

Thanks Jack. is yours painted acrylic or 2 pac ? Reason I ask is acrylic (no clear) is as soft as buggery compared to 2pac and depending on how much dust is on the car the waterless wash can leave scratches.

thanks guys.. much appreciated

If it's a light layer of dust/dirt/road grime I use Meguiar's "Final Inspection" and 2 microfibre cloths. Do a panel at a time - spray on Final Inspection, use number 1 cloth to clean off grime/dry up excess moisture then use number 2 cloth to collect remaining moisture/buff paint slightly.

If it's a slightly heavier layer of grime etc I have extra cloths handy - when number 1 gets too grotty I use number 2 as number 1 and then I start to use a spare cloth as number 2.

I've used this method on both acrylic and 2-pak since forever and I'm super fussy about my paint looking respectable. My black FE is 20+ year old acrylic and still looks pretty good - only usually gets washed if I think the layer of grime is too much to shift with Final Inspection only.

I also use Final Inspection on slighly grotty whitewalls, chrome, windows, engine bays, light cleaning for vinyl interiors, removal or bird droppings and as a moisture base for using clay bars etc - pretty well anything actually. Never leave home without it.

I buy Final Inspection in 4 litre containers and decant it - much cheaper option.

ok, great. thanks NosFEratu .

Cal wrote:Thanks Jack. is yours painted acrylic or 2 pac ? Reason I ask is acrylic (no clear) is as soft as buggery compared to 2pac and depending on how much dust is on the car the waterless wash can leave scratches.

Cal, mine was originally painted with acrylic, but has since been done with 2-pack. I've noticed little difference so far with using the waterless wash system as previously described.

And if Nosferatu's ideas on paint care seem remarkably similar to mine, that's because that's where mine come from... some people reckon I'm a bit anal about paint care, but that's only because they haven't met Nosferatu yet...

(on her first visit to my shed, she volunteered, much to my initial delight and surprise, to detail my car - but the cunning bitch only did 2 panels, and with such impressive results that I had no option other than to do the rest later myself using her methods - which I've pretty much adopted as standard practice ever since)

(some compensation for her raising the paint care bar so high was that she left me with a heap of paint care gear; but this was nowhere near as valuable as the lessons I learnt...)

cheers, jack

jack_fc wrote:on her first visit to my shed, she volunteered, much to my initial delight and surprise, to detail my car - but the cunning bitch only did 2 panels, and with such impressive results that I had no option other than to do the rest later myself using her methods - which I've pretty much adopted as standard practice ever since

me? only do part of your car? where's that innocent smiley?

oh, and BTW Jack, I did 3 panels - front guards and bonnet!