Ultimate Winter Wash theory thread

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Downgear

New member
I have learned a great deal on this site with special thanks to accumulator and a few others. I have perfected keeping my soft paint black car swirl free in the warmer months however I have a mean winter ahead of me and I was curious what others do to clean their cars.



In the warmer months I use constant foam gun pressure while very gently cleaning the big debris off with my boars hair brush. I then rinse the car and repeat with multiple sheepskin mits using two grit guarded buckets. Finish up by drying with a freshly washed waffle weave.



I cant imagine washing any other way as the results speak for themselves. After 8 months without polishing the car looks very close to perfect in direct sunlight. For the winter in other years I have went to coin-op car washes and brought 2 grit guarded buckets with my own soap and warm water. I rinse the car with the provided pressure washer to remove big debris and use only sheepsknin with NO FOAM GUN pressure obviously. I then rinse the car with the rinse setting of filter water and dont dry the car. This feels harmful for the car and does induce some marring after an entire winter. I was curious what others do? Will ONR benefit in any way? I just picture the unrinsed sand, salt and dirt being rubbed into the paint and doing horrible damage. Perhaps I am worrying too much as I will be doing a final polish II quick once over in the spring anyways, so maybe I should not worry about creating some light winter wash induced marring.



Opinions?
 
Don't use onr for a black car. It's a good product, but again BLACK is sensitive. I did induce swirl/scratches especially on the hood of my black car. I noticed the fine scratches after 3 washes of onr. It's to bad, because it really simplifies the wash regimen. I just purched the foamaster from autogeek. I should have it by next week.
 
I wash my black car with ONR and have no trouble.



If the car is particularly dirty, I run it through a touch-free car wash before hand to get most of the bigger particles off the paint.



If your car is protected with multiple coats of a slick carnauba or something like Klasse SG, then you'll find that you can get most of the dirt off of your car with ONR and very very little pressure. This makes a HUGE difference.



I have used ONR when my car has NOT been waxed recently, AND it was excessively dirty without inducing swirls or marring. However, this takes alot longer, and you have to be alot more careful. In this case, I would take a wet MF towel or mitt, lay it on the paint, then lift it off. NO WIPING. Then turn it over, and lay it on the paint again. Then rinse, and repeat on a new section. As you can imagine, this took forever, and is probably not worth the time and effort.



And besides, at the end of the day, you'll never keep your daily driver perfectly flawless. It's a fact of life. You can't take something like a clearcoat, whose thickness is measured in thousandths of an inch, and expect it to survive 100% intact. Especially when you consider what it's up against. It's exposed to hot sun, acid rain, salt, and sand every single day. Not to mention the hundreds of other cars around you throwing up all kinds of dirt and debris that is slamming head on into your car at 70+ miles per hour. It's just not going to hold up over time.



So I would say, protect your car as best you can. Wash it consistently with ONR as carefully as you can through the winter. And then, IF, by spring, you have some minor swirls and marring....well that's just an excuse to bust out the PC and hunker down in your garage with a few cold ones and take some satisfaction and pride in restoring your car's beauty.
 
AeroCleanse said:
Didn't have any issues on black cars I've done with ONR. I plan on using a steam cleaner this winter.
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ONR works great for me too
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I just washed my 08 Denali for the third time this week because of the snow we've gotten. I just held up the halogens after I finished to check for any spots I may have missed, and no swirls for me.
 
zaxjax said:
I just washed my 08 Denali for the third time this week because of the snow we've gotten. I just held up the halogens after I finished to check for any spots I may have missed, and no swirls for me.
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Washed, or ONR'd?
 
With all the ONR talk around autopia lately I have one main question for everyone: If it lubricates so incredibly well and prevents marring (even with non rinsed dirty winter vehicles) shouldn't it be the best and only soap to use even during summer washes with foam guns and boars hair brushes?
 
Downgear said:
With all the ONR talk around autopia lately I have one main question for everyone: If it lubricates so incredibly well and prevents marring (even with non rinsed dirty winter vehicles) shouldn't it be the best and only soap to use even during summer washes with foam guns and boars hair brushes?
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I use it all the time, no need for foam guns or boars hair brushes.
 
Downgear said:
With all the ONR talk around autopia lately I have one main question for everyone: If it lubricates so incredibly well and prevents marring (even with non rinsed dirty winter vehicles) shouldn't it be the best and only soap to use even during summer washes with foam guns and boars hair brushes?
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I started using ONR sometime in Sept this year when weather was still good, with the intention of just practicing for the coming winter months. I ended up using it every week and twice a week sometimes. That said, this is simply a hobby for me, and I see myself spending more time on my cars doing traditional washes next summer. There's just a different feeling around using foam guns and wash mitts with 2BM, rinsing with a hose, etc.
 
Thanks to all for sharing their thoughts and opinions, keep them coming! I thought i would add a few pictures to really add some life to this post.







A few winter pictures to show the kind of dirt, sand and salt that you would be essentially rubbing into the paint if you did not rinse or use boars hair:



3049643578_f340886504_o.jpg




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Notice the sand and particles that are all sticking to the paint.



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Few pics of the paint before polishing after an entire winter of many washes at the self wash coin-op with my buckets and just sheepskin (NOTE: the car was very dusty):



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2338225630_0fd3158af7_o.jpg
 
Downgear said:
3049643614_e99a4a6164_o.jpg
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No way would I use ONR on that. :shocked



However, what I would do is take that to the coin op, spend a few minutes pressure washing (maybe even use their soap) to get all of that nasty grit off, then come home and ONR it. I use a presoak method (10:1, probably wayyyy too strong) in a spray bottle before I touch the mitt to paint. I also find that plush MF mitts (like the Vroom ones you can get at Target) work much better with ONR than sheepskins.
 
My truck has been dirty sometime when I use ONR. If it is real dirty I may go to a IBA and spray it off first. Then come home and use ONR. Mt truck is not black either. But the wife's Pathfinder is dark green. Shows everything. But I have not had any trouble with swirls using ONR, 2 buckets and a high quality schmitt.

The car above looks like it had alot of salt on it. I would spray it off first. You can't help but get that salt in your schmitt. 2 Buckets for sure!
 
AeroCleanse said:
I use it all the time, no need for foam guns or boars hair brushes.
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Glad you've found something that works for you, but *I* absolutely need the foamgun/BHB/mitt approach to keep my vehicles the way I want them. Everybody should use whatever works for *them*.



With all the threads about polishing out flaws, I suspect that most people are still marring when they wash, necessitating annual, or even more frequent, correction. I'll be interested to hear how the various approaches work out for people who are dealing with winter weather, hope there's no need for any post-winter polishing (which is a pretty tall order when vehicles are getting caked with salt/sand/etc. like those in downgear's pics, though my vehicles sure get a *WHOLE LOT* nastier than that between washes).



Oh, and ONR's unique characteristics (I do use and appreciate it, just not for every application) do *NOT* lend themselves to a foamgun/BHB/etc. type of wash, where the idea is "dislodge and flush, using near-zero contact pressure"; it's simply a different approach that's based on encapsulation and dirt-adherence to the wash medium.
 
So with everything above being said, will ONR used in my bucket washes WITH hose rinsing be a safer option then a traditional soap?



I would then use a foam gun topped up with a traditional soap as well for summer washes and skip this step for winter washes. I think I am gonna have to buy some of this ONR and play with it, i just don't like using my soft black painted flawless finish as a guinea pig. I trust accumulators judgment more then just about anyone as he appears to be as picky as I am with maintaining a cars finish. Winter is just a hard time for cars to balance looking good and not marring them.
 
This winter I plan on using ONR in a spray bottle along with my steam cleaner. Haven't done it this way before, but Kevin from kleencar.com has a video on youtube about it.
 
musicdjs said:
Don't use onr for a black car. It's a good product, but again BLACK is sensitive. I did induce swirl/scratches especially on the hood of my black car. I noticed the fine scratches after 3 washes of onr. It's to bad, because it really simplifies the wash regimen. I just purched the foamaster from autogeek. I should have it by next week.
Click to expand...





I wash my Black Mercedes and several other blacks cars exclusively with ONR and it works flawlessly. I use it with lambs wool mitts and notice no marring. When really dirty I pre soak with a batch mixed up in a chemical sprayer which I use for my Wheels,tires amd wheels anyway. Works flawlessly and quick
 
Downgear said:
..I would then use a foam gun topped up with a traditional soap as well for summer washes and skip this step for winter washes..
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Winter is the one time I'd *never* want to be without the foamgun, but hey, that's just me :nixweiss



I'm getting the feeling I oughta bail on this thread lest I sound all :argue Guess I've made my position clear enough...
 
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