Mike, I was hoping you would chime in. I need to try this stuff, but is it order online only like some of the other products, or is this 'over the counter' at any auto parts store?

Also, what are your thoughts on the final touch spray I mentioned above. I use it between washes and directly after a wash primarily, but it is great for anything I have tried it on...

 

Mike, I have concerns about any waterless wash product in the market. Especially with a black car. I just don't see how it won't scratch the finish. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

 

FP, Mike is my hero.

But I'm with you on this. We have to hear more!

 

Ultimate Wash & Wax Anywhere was picked up by all the major auto parts store chains, but Walmart is not carrying it at the moment. You should be able to find it locally.

The other product you mentioned, Last Touch, is from our Detailer Line so you won't typically find it at your local parts stores but it's great stuff. It has some glossing agents in it but no real protection. Very economical in that you can use it straight as a quick detailer or dilute it 1:1 with water for use as a clay lube. For routine removal of light dust, or right after a car wash and even while drying, it's a great bang for the buck product.

Something else you might want to try while drying is our Ultimate Quik Wax or, since you don't seem to mind ordering things online, D156 Synthetic Express Spray Wax is the Detailer Line equivalent to UQW but again, packaged in gallon containers, it's a bit more economical if you're going to use it regularly.

 

+1
I clayed my car the other week, it had been washed in December and had dust on it in the garage, I went over it with the California Duster a few times and then very gently with a detail spray and a lot of microfibers. I would have been even more careful with the black one I had.

Using the waterless products on a dirty car would give me the screaming heebie jeebies. I have seen u-tube clips on these products and I cringed. How dirty is too much?

 

I fully understand your concerns, FP, especially with the high level you keep your car at!!

A little insider background info here: I've been a big fan of a couple of the rinseless wash products on the market for quite some time. These aren't spray on products but rather a wash product that you mix just a half an ounce per gallon of water and then wash the car without using a hose, without rinsing. Great in northern climates where you can't run a hose outside in the middle of winter, or here in SoCal where a car doesn't really get all that dirty for months on end, but could use something more effective than a simple quick detail spray. This is the type of product I was hoping our R&D and marketing guys were going to come up with, and I pushed for it pretty hard. They kept telling me about this new Ultimate Wash & Wax Anywhere product, and I wasn't too keen on it.

Well, we did come out with a rinseless wash product, our D114 Rinseless Express Wash, which I love. But the more I played with this Ultimate Wash & Wax Anywhere (UWWA) the more I liked it. And when I drove back from SEMA in the rain with the Crossfire, it was the perfect time to try it out. You can imagine how dirty my car was after 200+ miles crossing the Mojave Desert in the rain, what with all the trucks along that route, etc. The polymers, emulsifiers and other stuff in this product do an outstanding job of lubricating the surface and encapsulating (within reason, of course) the dirt so prevent scratching of the surface.

Now, if you've been driving on heavily salted roads for a couple of weeks and the car is coated with a thick crust of crud, it's not a bad idea to run through a coin op wash and pressure wash that junk off first, so of course there's a limit to what you can clean with it. But you'd do similar even if you were going to bucket wash that car, wouldn't you? But let's say you're heading to the Dragon for a weekend of fun with other Crossfire owners. You've driven a couple hundred miles, maybe 500 or more, to get there. Odds are you're not going to reach for a typical "mist and wipe" quick detail spray to clean the car at that point. But you can reach for UWWA to clean the car in that scenario. And to even my amazement, it does a remarkable job in these cases. It's important to keep in mind, however, that this is not just a "mist and wipe" type product - you need to spray more juice on the paint with this than you do with a simple quick detailer in order to remove the larger amount of dirt present. So we expect that you'll get 3 to 5 full "washes" out of a bottle. For apartment dwellers that don't have access to a hose, this is cheaper than going to a full car wash every week.

If you've got a seriously good two bucket wash routine going on at home, as I suspect you do, FP, then this product is most certainly NOT designed to replace that. Keep doing what you're doing with regard to regular washes, but you may find this to be a great bridge for those situations between a quick detailer and a full wash. At $15 a bottle it's a bit pricey to use as a quick detailer all the time, but you can use it that way too, if you like. I've taken to using this way all the time now, but I do get a little discount on stuff so.................

 

How dirty is too much? That's sort of a judgment call, but we all judge things a bit differently! You mentioned using a quick detailer to take the dust off your car. Well, I do that almost every day with my daily driver when I get home. Our parking lot is in the flight path of John Wayne Airport so we get a lot of fallout here and the cars have a nice little layer of yuck on them at the end of the day. With near daily wipe downs, I haven't had to fully machine polish my daily driver in 5 years. And I'm probably pickier about my daily than most guys are about their show cars - and from the shows I've attended and the cars I've seen, I know this to be true. But that's also a judgment thing: I've had several people tell me after one of our detailing classes that they thought their car looked really good when they first arrived, but then later realized how much better it could look. I've altered their judgment on the whole thing. I like doing that!

You also mentioned using several microfiber towels to wipe down your car, and that's smart. I'll usually use two or three when doing my daily wipe down, but if I use UWWA on that same car following a few rainy days, I may use 5 or 6. The time I used UWWA after driving the Crossfire back from Vegas in the rain, I used 6 towels, and that's a small car with no roof.

 

First off, thanks as always for the great, prompt advice. There is a lot of misinformation floating around and it is nice to get a straight answer from someone in the know.

I will look into this product, should I expect a little more protection with this than with the last touch? I have to admit, regularly using that after every wash with a good 2 bucket system has made my car look amazing, but I could use a little protection...

What size towels are you using? I use the meguire's ones that are pretty good size (~24"x18") and with ample turning of the cloth, I have never used more than 2 for the XF for a single coat, but I also only do this after washing or with very little dust, anything more and I wash.

I have to say I am very interested in the stuff that you add to water, wash and no rinse, what product would you recommend trying?

 

I use our Supreme Shine microfiber towels like you mentioned. Fold them in quarters and you get 4 pairs of sides to use when quick detailing a car. Spray the QD onto the paint, wipe with one side of the towel and then flip to the dry side and wipe again. Spray onto another area, wipe with the damp side of the towel, flip to the dry side and wipe again. As the "dry side" becomes a bit damp, refold the towel to expose a fresh "pair of sides" and continue on. Doing this, as mentioned, gives you 4 pairs of sides which should be enough, in most cases, to quick detail a Crossfire or even larger. With more dust, you'll flip the towel sooner, and that may mean grabbing a second or third towel.

With a true waterless wash like UWWA you want to start with two towels, one for the initial wet wipe and a second for the dry wipe. This is because you're using so much more product that towel #1 is going to get much wetter much faster, and much dirtier too. That means you'll be working through that towel fairly quickly. What I do is unfold that first towel as needed, drying with towel #2, until #1 is too wet and dirty to continue with. I then upgrade #2, my drying towel, to #1 status and grab a third towel for drying. I cycle through as needed, using as many towels as needed, until the car is clean. UWWA works great on glass, plastic trim, wheels, etc (do the wheels last though!!!!).

As for the rinseless wash product our new entry in this segment is D114 Rinseless Express Wash. The idea here is to add 1/2 ounce per gallon to a bucket of water. I usually use just a couple of gallons of water and therefore just an ounce of product. Don't put the product in first and then blast it with a hose. The idea here is NOT to create a lot of suds in the bucket - you really don't want any, in fact. And besides, it's not the suds that get the car clean, it's the emulsifiers, lubricants, etc in the soap that is dispersed in water that get the job done, not the suds. So, put the water in the bucket, add the rinseless wash product, stir it around with your hand, and start washing. Oh, having a grit guard in the bottom of the bucket is a good idea, too.

Start with the top of the car, washing a panel or smaller at a time. Immediately wipe the area dry with a waffle weave microfiber drying towel (if you're a huge fan of the Absorber, go ahead and use that), and then continue around the car section by section. D114 will release the accumulated dirt from your wash mitt pretty easily if you drag it over the top of the Grit Guard in the bottom of the bucket, and the crud that falls to the bottom of the bucket will stay there thanks to the Grit Guard. A couple of gallons of water should be all you need to clean a car this way, and you can clean a surprisingly dirty car very safely with this process.

 

Mike, Most of what of you explained is exactly the way I currently detail the car, and I am using 95% Meguire's products, with great satisfaction

I am going to have to try out these two new ones you have given me. I try to keep the car very clean and have a feeling these will help, especially when I am traveling.

Mike, thanks again for always taking the time to respond, in detail, about your experiences with the products - my shopping list just grew, I am sure Molly will be thrilled with MORE detailing stuff around

 

FP turned me onto Adams Products at the 2007 Woodward Dream Cruise when I was a newbie here and I've been hooked ever since.

 

X2, buddy. Mike, we all really appreciate having our own, private pro chained up here!

This is very cool.