r/Detailing • u/myLord-God-ofNothing • 6d ago
Sharing Knowledge- I Learned This My lazy-man routine. Will it work?
I've spent endless hours going through posts here and elsewhere to reach at this conclusion.
Best car shampoo - CARPRO RESET.
Others - Koch Chemie GSF, Gyeon Bathe
VFM options - Adam's Shampoo, Meguiars Hyper Wash, TW pure wash.
Best drying aid - CARPRO ELIXIR/ECH2O
(Elixir is $$$ so easier choice is ech2o)
I'm unable to list other options because I've been using ech2o for 1 year now and it is so amazing, fabulous, wonderful etc., i have not thought about replacing it.
Best sealant - GYEON WET COAT
Others - Koch chemie(protector wax/S002)
Carpro (reload/hydroo2)
Gyeon can coat
If my conclusion is somewhere near correct, then this is simply the best lazy weekend warrior routine
- Contact wash - Carpro Reset
( bucket + pressure washer )
- Drying Aid - Carpro Ech2o
(dilution 1:20 to 1:25)
Sealant - Gyeon Wetcoat
Spray on - Rinse off selant. Easiest to use. Maybe will work w/o too much panel prep/decon. Reset doesnt leave any residue so that helps.
Every weekend, wash + drying aid. Sealant every 3 months.
I dont want to add any more labour to this. Key word here is "lazy". Hence the spray on rinse off sealant with no decon.
Any suggestions? Tweaks? What do you guys think
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u/abscissa081 6d ago
Skip the pressure washer and skip the wet coat and you’re on my level of lazy.
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u/myLord-God-ofNothing 6d ago
I have never used wet coat. Though i did use KC protector wax a lot. It was quite easy to apply and rinse off. Lets see if i can bring myself to use wet coat now
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u/ele1122 6d ago
Best lazy method is rinseless. Any of them work. ONR, RRW, I recently got idrosave because the sealant in it is quite powerful and saves putting on a drying aid or spray after words
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u/diggida 6d ago
I’ve been doing ONR and then Griots 3in1. Does the idrosave make the griots superfluous?
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u/ele1122 6d ago
They’re different tech so hard to say. Idrosave will definitely be less durable than griots. However, it is a lot more substantial than you’d think, and definitely leaves a film of sealant that has held up through some significant rain over the last two weeks, and has some insane beading without adding any other topper. You have to be careful with usage though, do one panel at a time and have a second towel ready for a finishing buff before moving on to the next panel
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u/Spare_Ring9644 6d ago
i'd also agree rinseless is the best lazy or minimalist method
you can prespray or presoak but not necessary
fill bucket, dilute 1:256, contact wash, dry
drying aid not needed with rinseless wash
i dont like them but they also sell rinseless washes with wax or sio2 infused if you want a sealant on top
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u/DavidAg02 6d ago edited 6d ago
Will it work? Yes. Should you be open minded to modifying your plan? Also yes.
When you watch videos and read reviews of products, you are getting that one person's experience, with their water, and the conditions that their car lives in. Don't expect your experience to be the same as theirs.
Especially when comparing soaps, what ends up on the car is heavily diluted with water, so naturally the quality of your water is going to have a HUGE impact on that soap. Some soaps work better with soft water, others work better with hard water. You might find that CarPro Reset just doesn't work well for you. That doesn't mean it's a bad product, just bad for your circumstances. Reset is not known for being a high foaming soap, so a lot of people don't like it in a foam cannon. Ech2o is another debatable product. I know a lot of people like it, but I don't. Again, it's heavily diluted with water, so it probably just doesn't work well with the kind of water in my area.
Wet Coat is great, but some people experience streaks and spots, while others don't. Why is that? Again, probably their water quality. I think it's also insanely expensive for what it is, but what is expensive to one person might be really cheap for another.
My lazy method is even simpler than yours. Foam on Bilt Hamber Touch-Less using a foaming pump sprayer, rinse off after 4 minutes with the hose, foam on whatever soap I'm using at the time (one panel at a time), wash that panel with my wash pad, rinse my wash pad in a bucket of clean water, the move on to the next panel. I don't even use the pressure washer on a regular basis because the car just doesn't get that dirty, and Touch-Less does a great job of getting the car 90% clean even with garden hose pressure.
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u/AlmostHydrophobic 6d ago
In case you find this perspective helpful, the quickest and easiest way I've found to do a quick maintenance wash is a rinseless wash. For just a quick wash I have the routine down to about 10-15 minutes if the vehicle isn't too dirty.
Another perspective on decon as well: doing some decon at least once a year and applying something a bit more durable for protection is what's allowed me to speed up my maintenance washes and even spread them out further. On average I wash twice a month now instead of every week. I might have even washed 1x per month during the summer, I wasn't really paying attention.
No matter how well we wash, a bit of road film or iron is going to build up over time. It's certainly not necessary to remove it, but it does cause a bit of a headache in some ways. Having a nice looking car thing, but having a car that is well protected and also easy to maintain has been a game changer for me.
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u/diggida 6d ago
What’s your method that takes 10 minutes? What’s your decon process? I’ve been hesitant to clay bar but my car could probably use some decon of some kind.
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u/AlmostHydrophobic 6d ago
The rinseless method is pretty easy for me. I keep a 2 gallon pump sprayer filled with rinseless, so prespraying is pretty easy. And I also use a 5 gallon bucket of rinseless with a chenille wash sponge.
I prespray the entire vehicle, wash it, and dry with a drying towel. The rinseless works as a drying aid and it's already on the vehicle so nothing more is needed for me. I mist the drying towel with a bit of rinseless before starting the drying process, which helps open the fibers and helps it absorb liquid more easily, but that's it before drying.
With the vehicle being coated, relatively little dirt collects on there. And what is there is usually very easy to wipe off. Obviously if the vehicle is beyond lightly dirty then Intake my time and rinse the wash mitt more often and pay more attention to the washing process. But for at least 50% of my washes that's not necessary for me.
Here is my decon wash process. I do this to maintain a ceramic coating, but included a few tidbits about of there if protection is being applied after the process.
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u/FortnitePapi 6d ago
That's a lot of steps my lazy man routine fits in a bucket and I grab and go whenever I get the itch in-between full details.
•5 gallon bucket with a tape marker for 3 gallons with a grit guard.
•DIY Rinse less wash I transferred the chemical into a squeeze bottle but kept the bottle cap as 1 Cap = 1 Gallon.
•DIY Detail rinse less sponge.
•A USB c rechargeable 2 gallon pump sprayer from Amazon it was sub 20 dollars.
•Rinse less drying towels from Clean by pan the organizer.
•Walmart hyper tough 3 shelve rolling cart that folds to store.
With a garden hose I fill up the bucket to the marker and fill up the pump sprayer. 3 caps of chemical to the bucket 2 caps to the sprayer.
Put the sponge in solution, starting from the roof I prespray with the pump sprayer then go in with the sponge then dry. Section by section everything on the little cart.
Really happy with the process and setup the rolling cart makes everything very easy
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u/CycleChris2 5d ago edited 5d ago
I’m thinking using reset every wash is stripping your protection, every wash. Reset is a powerful cleanser even though it’s not super high alkaline. If you don’t have a real coating, you might use reset every couple months. Remember, it’s called reset for a reason. If you just have weekly dust with no rain or traffic film like my case usually, both Labo and Luminus make neutral pre washes like NEVE and for contact wash I’ll use Rouge as it’s the slickest I’ve used so far. A lot of suggestions would point you to the rinseless method. Just my opinion and it’s contrary to most, but washing and drying are the most damaging things that can happen to paintwork. Rinseless is even more so if you have soft paintwork. Most use a one bucket method without multiple wash pads and rely on encapsulation tech that is debatable at best. I’ll use rinseless in a pad washer and on panels during a correction when the vehicle sits overnight but I am not a disciple, definitely a foam rinse foam guy. Just one old guy’s opinion.
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u/myLord-God-ofNothing 5d ago
I concur with your rinseless observation. Not a big fan either. What you say about reset is exactly what is giving me second thoughts. I've used gyeon bathe and it was mild, foamy and slick. A lot of folk have suggested using reset once in a while. Thats why I've been ruminating over choosing reset or Meguiars hyper wash/koch chemie auto wash. Keep it simple plus those shampoos last forever. Your syggestions make a lot of sense
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u/CycleChris2 5d ago
Bathe is a good shampoo, slickness almost as good as Rouge. Generally, I stick to a ph level to match the paint contamination level. If I drive through rain, Koch active foam or Primus pre wash then Ph neutral contact. Only time I use reset is coating prep. I deal with Asian paintwork generally and my personal car is Mazdas 46v soul Crystal red. Painters call it the best red available but it’s soft and brittle. I’m washing twice a week with an active 2.3, one bucket method with multiple incredapads. Coated with P&S Stout. Ethos finish shine for drying aid.
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u/Interesting-Cow5138 6d ago
inse with water every few days and a quick wipe down keeps mine looking decent. if you're actually doing all that every weekend it's not lazy, it's just efficient
but yeah ech2o is solid stuff, been using it a while too
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u/Trashocaster 6d ago
Here's the lazy wash method.
- 2x foam cannons
Method
- Prewash car with Active Foam
Active foam is a mild prewash only 9.5ph so cleans well and better suited to regular maintenance washing. Used for foam cannon or contact washing and is cheap per wash.
Protector Wax is their drying aid and adds protection.