Gotta say, you guys have peaked this skeptic's interest! Evil-Twin, JR01, or FYRARMS.....do any of you have a recommended YouTube on how to use the water-less products? Also, assuming that you must go through a fair number of microfiber towels. Do you wash the towels and then re-use?

I live in MN and like to drive mine until the first snowfall. Its getting cold, and hand-washing is just too difficult. Doing what I believe you guys do would sure make late Fall driving much more pleasurable.

 

I started out using Griots and Chadwicks Triple play and tried Meguiars Ultimate Waterless Wash and Wax. I like Mequiars better and it's cheaper even though there are probably better products out there. After every road trip I dust it off with California Duster if dusty and then use Mequiars WW&W. Takes about ten minutes with a couple of microfiber towels. Spray product on car and on cleaning towel turning it often. Then buff off with dry microfiber. Follow directions and use common sense. There are plenty of videos on Youtube. Search it. Waterless washes makes keeping a Corvette looking great a lot easier. I have taken a lot of grief over the years, but I would never go back to washing my Corvette with soap and water everytime it gets a little dirty. I have been using waterless products on my Corvettes for the last 20 years.

 

Yeah my car is super clean so it's so much easier than lugging all of the stuff needed to do a complete wash and dry. I use the California duster everyday but last night I worked over all the top parts of my car with the dry wash. Tonight I'll hit another section. The Amsoil does seem to have a polishing effect also. My car's finish really smoothed out after the application. I like the fact that I can hit one quarter panel after a drive. I'm older so I can manage the work load on my bad shoulders.

 

Im not trying to rain on any ones parade. The people that are showing their cars look great. No question the stuff you are using works for you. For as long as I've had my car i am doing nothing different than you are. Dusting off the car and detailing it with Zanio spray.

When i hear the words wash and wax???? I use nothing but polish, Zanio. Wash means to me the car is dirty, not dusty, dirty. Half the time after i dust my car i use plane water, and the car looks great. I guess the way i look at it is i don't need to buy double the product that does the same thing that the stuff i already have does.

 

Detail spray just doesn't do the job after long road trips. Now if you only drive a few miles a week in perfect conditions, detail spray is the answer.

 

Both of those products have always worked great for me. Makes my 98 sparkle.
If the vette’s too dirty, I use Meguiar’s car wash liquid with wax in it. I also have used Rejex once a year for the past dozen years.
Here’s my baby posing at dusk wearing only the Turtle Wax Wash & Wax.

 

Rejex is an outstanding sealant! Usually my choice for winter protection. Works great on windows as well.

 

I like Optimum No Rinse Wash and Wax. While not waterless, only one gallon of water and a cap full of product is used with no rinse required. Makes my '99 vert look great as well as my wife's black Chrysler 300. Plus both can be done from that single gallon of water in well under an hour.

 

I use ONR W&W in a detail spray dilution as my go-to waterless wash on my Z06, which is covered in carnauba.




My daily is protected with a synthetic sealant, so I use Wolfgang Uber Rinseless on that. But, I am a huge fan of Optimum's products. I highly recommend trying their "Instant Detailer & Gloss Enhancer" and their "Opti Clean", which is like "No-Rinse" on steroids. IG&DE is quickly replacing all of my detail sprays. It leaves the gloss of a spray wax and the polymer protection of ONR behind.

 

10 times better than the Amsoil product I first used and the shine is probably better.

 

I have never used any of these products but now you have my attention. What about using a clay bar on a clean car?

 

Why would you use a clay bar if the paint was clean? A clay bar is for removing surface contaminants.

 

I believe the OP is referring to Dri Wash n Guard. It is not offered by Amsoil. Maybe it was at one time. I does work very well - perhaps annoyingly so. I did a side by side compare of this on two cars with the same paint code. One car is garaged daily driver and is well cared for. It received a full detail with clay + polish + Griot's Poly Wax. Second car is a parked outside daily driver. It hadn't been washed in 9 months. I bucket washed it, dried it, and did a quick detail with the Dri Wash n Guard. I asked two people which shined better. One couldn't see a difference and the other picked the Dri Wash n Guard car. Annoying.

To the better trained eye the Dri Wash n Guard car has a stronger reflective gloss, while the Griot's Poly Wax had a more diffuse reflection. The Poly Wax had a bit better depth. To me the Poly Wax wins, but with that comes more effort. I have tried clay + polish + buffer applied Dri Wash n Guard + a spray on wax topper. The difference is even less distinguishable. It takes deep dark colors to reveal the depth difference the most.

As in this example I avoid using spray on washes on truly dirty cars. Others may be braver. For a true show car I wouldn't recommend any of this. For those it is probably more of a Best of Show carnauba world for when they come out from under a cover. To be fair ceramic coatings for all their benefits aren't recommended for collectable show cars either.

I have also made this comparison on my Vette. First two images are Dri Wash n Guard only. Second two are Griot's Poly Wax. This may all just simply prove that paint prep is the most important step.

 

Exactly. The correction/polishing phase is what provides 95% of a paint's gloss. Whatever protection is added provides the rest. As many pro detailers have shown using electronic gloss meters, the difference in gloss between various protection products is negligible. There are a few select products that do provide noticeable gloss increases, but there aren't many. Apart from the various sealants and waxes I use as base protection, I do frequently use a number of "topper" spray products proven to add additional gloss, according to the gloss meters. They aren't very durable, but are great before shows and cruises.

 

I'm familiar with polish and my understanding is there are different levels that you use depending on how much oxidation etc that the car's paint surface has. My car's paint is really nice sans very light (water spots?) You have to look very closely under good lighting to see these. I've seen the cleaner wax etc but what polish would you use on a car like mine? I got a mild polish for my son's Camry but his car has fairly significant oxidation. It's Meguire's and it tells you the "grit" level right on the front. It shows it on a scale. Having said that I would never use that on my Vette. It shows a fairly light grit level but my car doesn't need it OR does it? I'm happy with the shine on my car and frankly I'm afraid to use that stuff on my car. What am I missing here about polish? Do I use cleaner polish if there is such a thing.

I've also never used a clay bar. Is that for a car where you might have some tiny pieces of dirt and tar embedded into the paint? I could Google all of this but hey why do that when I can pick my fellow Vetters brains. lol!

 

A "cleaner wax" is generally a mild "all in one" type product that contains mild abrasives, but also some type of wax or sealant for protection. They are usually used on paint such as yours as you described---good condition with mild water spot marks and other minor surface defects. While they can be applied by hand, the chances of actually removing any defects is hit or miss. Any type of abrasive product used to correct surface flaws always works best when applied by a machine polisher.

I highly recommend watching several YouTube videos to get familiar with the products and processes. Personally, I jumped in head-first in 2017 and did the same thing. Watched videos, read a lot of how-to articles, researched products, and bought a small Porter Cable machine and a bunch of pads. Now, I detail my own vehicles and my friends won't leave me alone until I do their vehicles as well. LOL

 

FYI, you can pick up a lot of valuable information in the Car Care section here on the site. We have quite a few pro detailers and experienced weekend hobbyists who share great tips in there.

 

Yes, a clay bar helps remove contaminants. The cleaner the surface the better bond your wax or sealant will have and the longer the life of the wax job.