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Well i fought off the man flu and gave the car a wash down today, used Optimum No Rinse (ONR) again and thought i'd take a couple of snaps on the way to help anyone thinking of using ONR as a winter wash.
The idea behind ONR is that you don't need to rinse it off, so you don't use much water, but for me i see it as a winter/wet/icey weather alternative to my usual wash routine (snowfoam etc).
Last time i used ONR, i cleaned the car as it was and it was filthy when i started, so the wash and rinse water soon got dirty meaning i had to make some fresh mix up half way through. So a couple of days back i went to one of these coin car wash places and just used the pressure washer to get the worse off. Don't for the love of god use the brooms they have to clean your car, just use the pressure washer.
The car is still rather dirty/greasy as you can see in the following pictures, but the worse of the black salty mess from the roads has gone.
(apologies for the pictures, i took them on my phone and they didn't come out too well - got lines all over some of them for some reason too)
So what you will need is some ONR, a pressure spray bottle, a drying aid of your choice (I used Aqua Wax today as it does a great job) and a load of microfibre cloths for drying.
Two buckets is best for this, one for wash and one for rinsing your sponge (i have a home made grit guard in the bucket). The general opinion is that a grout sponge (available quite cheap from the likes of B&Q is best for the job, as it picks up the dirt well with little or no marring of the paint and can be rinsed out well. With microfibre cloths the dirt tends to stay in the cloth.
Mix 30ml of ONR into 2 Gallons of water in each bucket (you don't need much!). I used a big old syringe, but it's not a rocket science so as long as you are near you will be fine. I used a mix of 30ml to 1 litre in the pressure sprayer which is used as a pre wash.
So pump up your sprayer and spray onto your first panel, starting at the top. The secret with ONR is to do a panel at a time and wash an area bigger than you are going to dry, that way you will never be trying to dry a dirty area and rubbing dirt into your paint. However, today as it was very damp, there was no chance of the ONR drying out and the man flu was looking for a slightly lazier way of cleaning the car, so i sprayed the whole car with the pre wash.
Let that dwell for a couple of minutes and then you can start on the wash. Dip your grout sponge in the wash bucket, squeeze out some of the water as you don't want water running everywhere, wipe the paint lightly with the grout sponge, flip the sponge over, wipe the next bit, then rinse out the sponge in the rinse bucket. Dip the sponge in the wash bucket and start the process again.
The idea behind ONR is that you don't need to rinse it off, so you don't use much water, but for me i see it as a winter/wet/icey weather alternative to my usual wash routine (snowfoam etc).
Last time i used ONR, i cleaned the car as it was and it was filthy when i started, so the wash and rinse water soon got dirty meaning i had to make some fresh mix up half way through. So a couple of days back i went to one of these coin car wash places and just used the pressure washer to get the worse off. Don't for the love of god use the brooms they have to clean your car, just use the pressure washer.
The car is still rather dirty/greasy as you can see in the following pictures, but the worse of the black salty mess from the roads has gone.
(apologies for the pictures, i took them on my phone and they didn't come out too well - got lines all over some of them for some reason too)
So what you will need is some ONR, a pressure spray bottle, a drying aid of your choice (I used Aqua Wax today as it does a great job) and a load of microfibre cloths for drying.
Two buckets is best for this, one for wash and one for rinsing your sponge (i have a home made grit guard in the bucket). The general opinion is that a grout sponge (available quite cheap from the likes of B&Q is best for the job, as it picks up the dirt well with little or no marring of the paint and can be rinsed out well. With microfibre cloths the dirt tends to stay in the cloth.
Mix 30ml of ONR into 2 Gallons of water in each bucket (you don't need much!). I used a big old syringe, but it's not a rocket science so as long as you are near you will be fine. I used a mix of 30ml to 1 litre in the pressure sprayer which is used as a pre wash.
So pump up your sprayer and spray onto your first panel, starting at the top. The secret with ONR is to do a panel at a time and wash an area bigger than you are going to dry, that way you will never be trying to dry a dirty area and rubbing dirt into your paint. However, today as it was very damp, there was no chance of the ONR drying out and the man flu was looking for a slightly lazier way of cleaning the car, so i sprayed the whole car with the pre wash.
Let that dwell for a couple of minutes and then you can start on the wash. Dip your grout sponge in the wash bucket, squeeze out some of the water as you don't want water running everywhere, wipe the paint lightly with the grout sponge, flip the sponge over, wipe the next bit, then rinse out the sponge in the rinse bucket. Dip the sponge in the wash bucket and start the process again.
