*** Car Wash / Valet / Detailing Thread ***

I've been washing my car by using Bilt Hamber Touch-Less foam, rinsing it off and using some Autoglym Pure Shampoo (PH netural/no wax) for the contact wash then jetwashing it off and finishing it off with with Bilt Hamber Touch-On then towel drying.

Car looks nice when after washing given its not been clayed/polished but once it rains one gets the nice beeding effect that tbh I dont care much about but sometimes when the car dries its left looking like this:

5GFx2YF.jpeg


tbh its looks horrible to the point where its kinda pointless washing the car when there's no protection left on the car this doesnt seem to occur.

Is their something I'm missing here or is this the nature of Touch-On and I need something that sheets more then it beads? Other cars dont seem to get this bad though next time I wash the car instead of using the Touch-On I'll use the rest of the TurtleWax Seal 'n' Shine and see if it still happens though the main appeal to the Touch-On was that I could spray it on with a snow cannon and not apply it with an applicator like other car protection products.
 
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G J said:
I've been washing my car by using Bilt Hamber Touch-Less foam, rinsing it off and using some Autoglym Pure Shampoo (PH netural/no wax) for the contact wash then jetwashing it off and finishing it off with with Bilt Hamber Touch-On then towel drying.

Car looks nice when after washing given its not been clayed/polished but once it rains one gets the nice beeding effect that tbh I dont care much about but sometimes when the car dries its left looking like this:

5GFx2YF.jpeg


tbh its looks horrible to the point where its kinda pointless washing the car when there's no protection left on the car this doesnt seem to occur.

Is their something I'm missing here or is this the nature of Touch-On and I need something that sheets more then it beads? Other cars dont seem to get this bad though next time I wash the car instead of using the Touch-On I'll use the rest of the TurtleWax Seal 'n' Shine and see if it still happens though the main appeal to the Touch-On was that I could spray it on with a snow cannon and not apply it with an applicator like other car protection products.
Click to expand...


It’s not specific to touch on - it’s due to the water beading on the car. It’s worse in the summer because the water evaporates more quickly and you’re more likely to encounter it/notice it since it’ll otherwise stay clean.

Basically, as the water evaporates it leaves behind any particles suspended in the water.



Any product which leaves a hydrophobic finish on the paint will result in the same problem.



I can’t think of any products which sheet only. They all exhibit water beading at first, and even as the hydrophobicity decreases, smaller droplets will still bead - it’s the larger ones which won’t.



I’ve got the same thing on my car from the rain we had the other day :-)
 
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Mine does something similar, especially at this time of year when you get days when that 'Sahara sand' effect happens then a bit of rain.

FWIW - I use Koch Chemie Protector Wax as the third/final stage of my wash and then gently towel dry it off. So as @MrRockliffe says, likely not specific to any particular brand.
 
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Draeger said:
Mine does something similar, especially at this time of year when you get days when that 'Sahara sand' effect happens then a bit of rain.
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Entirely agree with this. The warm breeze up from the continent at this time of year brings a lot of sand with it. Beading water evaporates and leaves this behind. Nothing to do with the surface prep on your car, or the detergents used to clean it, annoying as it is. You just have to get back out there and clean it off and hope for a long dry spell :)
 
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While washing the Cayenne today, thought I’d do a little test for BH Touchless. Not at all scientific.


Car doesn’t have ANY protection on it. It’s a daily and washed once a month at most.


Did it because I wanted to see whether a good snow foam still deserves a place in a maintenance wash process.



Panel rinsed down first as it’s mega hot, and I wanted to increase dwell time. Took off some loose dirt but as you can see still very dirty.





Snow foam applied.




Rinsed, and results as follows.

Compare the clarity of the gate between the two shots.




Hand so that you can see it’s focused on the panel and not a reflection shot to disguise the dirt.





Other side for context again:






I also did a video comparing Bilt Hamber Auto Wheel to Sonax Beast (which won loads of awards). I’ll upload it another time but results are interesting.
 
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not sure why you'd wash in full midday/afternoon heat with hot panels, masochistic versus early morning - dwell time for touchless is minutes in heat, and even at 9am
where I'd done sunny side last, had to repeat it+roof of the car again as I'd left it 10minutes as I setup the pressure washer.

[ phones don't really take good panel pictures they won't focus lock on panel surface, just reflection, leastaways my iphone won't - win for slr]
 
jpaul said:
not sure why you'd wash in full midday/afternoon heat with hot panels
Click to expand...

Because:

1. I can’t control the weather
2. I have stuff to do and was working on the car for 7 hours. Prioritised doing basic cleaning in the heat so that the harsher chemicals were only being used in the evening
3. I know how to work in the sun to keep Touchless and other chemicals dwelling as long as possible - I explained that in my post


;)
 
G J said:
I've been washing my car by using Bilt Hamber Touch-Less foam, rinsing it off and using some Autoglym Pure Shampoo (PH netural/no wax) for the contact wash then jetwashing it off and finishing it off with with Bilt Hamber Touch-On then towel drying.

Car looks nice when after washing given its not been clayed/polished but once it rains one gets the nice beeding effect that tbh I dont care much about but sometimes when the car dries its left looking like this:

5GFx2YF.jpeg


tbh its looks horrible to the point where its kinda pointless washing the car when there's no protection left on the car this doesnt seem to occur.

Is their something I'm missing here or is this the nature of Touch-On and I need something that sheets more then it beads? Other cars dont seem to get this bad though next time I wash the car instead of using the Touch-On I'll use the rest of the TurtleWax Seal 'n' Shine and see if it still happens though the main appeal to the Touch-On was that I could spray it on with a snow cannon and not apply it with an applicator like other car protection products.
Click to expand...

Is this an ideal scenario for Rinseless / Waterless? Looking at adding Koch Chemie Rapid Rinseless to the kit.
 
ddoubleep said:
Is this an ideal scenario for Rinseless / Waterless? Looking at adding Koch Chemie Rapid Rinseless to the kit.
Click to expand...

If you don’t have to rinseless wash, don’t. There’s absolutely not enough lubricant nor enough quality surfactants to suspend the dirt in the solution.


It’s about as coarse as you can get dirt wise



It takes me <30 mins to do a rapid wash on my car with snow foam.
 
I find Rinseless is great for fairly light dust (that's too much for a detailing spray to handle) - hard to tell from that picture how bad it is.

Oh, and I bought some Labocosmetica Semper shampoo recently and wow, it's the best I've ever used. Can definitely recommend. Anyone else tried it?

DLiNQ0W.jpeg
 
Robbo said:
I find Rinseless is great for fairly light dust (that's too much for a detailing spray to handle) - hard to tell from that picture how bad it is.

Oh, and I bought some Labocosmetica Semper shampoo recently and wow, it's the best I've ever used. Can definitely recommend. Anyone else tried it?

DLiNQ0W.jpeg
Click to expand...

Yes it’s the worst shampoo I’ve used of the good ones :P
 
Robbo said:
Really?! Which is your favourite?
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I don’t really have one, but just found Semper to be really meh.


It never felt lubricating enough, even if I doubled the amount being used, so on a dirty car I felt I was working against the dirt quite a lot.


Bilt Hamber Auto Wash is the one I always go back to. On a dirty car I double the concentration for more lubrication, so 1:1000

Gtechniq G Wash is decent and smells nice. It’s 1:1000 as standard I think.

CarPro Reset is good but very expensive if you use it regularly, as it’s 1:500



If you have harder water, you need more product typically, though with CarPro reset they’re already quite generous.



What I like most about the Bilt Hamber is that there are no perfumes in it, and when it inevitably dries in the sun, it rinses off with no effort. Others can sometimes require going over again.



I enjoy them all for different reasons though, and it’s more about knowing how to use the product rather than it being the best.


That being said, I didn’t like Semper no matter how I used it.
 
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I'll give some of those a go when I run out! Bilt Hamber products are usually excellent. I do really like Semper though, I'm surprised you didn't find it slick enough.
 
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