[teknochild]

what do u guys do if you live in an appartment w/o a hose? up untill now ive gone to the spray and wash and done my detailing there (takes a little more planning)

any great ideas i overlooked?

[pander5]

QEW or ONR

[NaTuReB0Y]

go to a friend's house...........

[ICALL]

A while back I lived in "villa" apartments. They were only one floor. Turns out, each unit had a water spicket(spelling) with no hose. The guy across from me had a VW Jetta that he washed every weekend. He had a hose with one of those hose caddy's(rolls up the hose) and connected it to the wall spicket once a week. Check around your complex. Even there, there was a place to hook up a hose(recommended area) to wash your car. If not, I'm sure there is a water spicket somewhere for maintenance purposes. You may just need to carry a wrench with you to turn it on/off.

[m3power13]

Originally Posted by ICALL

A while back I lived in "villa" apartments. They were only one floor. Turns out, each unit had a water spicket(spelling) with no hose. The guy across from me had a VW Jetta that he washed every weekend. He had a hose with one of those hose caddy's(rolls up the hose) and connected it to the wall spicket once a week. Check around your complex. Even there, there was a place to hook up a hose(recommended area) to wash your car. If not, I'm sure there is a water spicket somewhere for maintenance purposes. You may just need to carry a wrench with you to turn it on/off.

+1, I did the same in a similar situation.

[Chesmu]

spigot

[picus]

Originally Posted by pander5

QEW or ONR

Yes, that.

Here's a little blurb on ONR, sorry it's on offsite link, but I don't feel like writing it all again.

http://g35driver.com/forums/showpost...2&postcount=22

FWIW, I've been doing 90% of my washes with ONR/QEW for years, I love them.

[Ninjaneer]

Interesting info on the ONR/QEW.

tekno: I face the same situation. I believe my complex has a designated wash area... been here for 6-7 years and have yet to use it or be bothered finding it

What I do is take my supplies to the DIY wash place, pay and use their spray gun for the initial rinse, focusing on the wheels to get as much brake dust off as possible, then do a top to bottom rinse. I actually bring a few containers filled with water with me from home and pour them into the buckets (it's a PITA trying to fill a bucket using the spray gun!) and if I need more some wash places have a drinking water dispenser I can fill from there (for $0.25).

So then I wash with the bucket, pay again to rinse it all off with the wash spray gun, then dry. I've become more efficient over time and it's in one of those shaded stalls, so the water doesn't dry up quickly. However I've had probs with it getting dried up on certain panels while I'm using the mitt, but it comes off with the final rinse then I dry. It's just not practical to wash then rinse panel by panel as I go along when I have to pay in intervals or just keep the meter going (credit card, not good). But in the end the job comes out good and I follow up with a Z6 QD so that helps too

Sorry for the LONG post but I figured I'd share since I go through the same thing.

*edit: clarified the panel by panel bit

[teknochild]

yea thats about what i do now, pay once fill a bucket, use the rest of the time to spray the car, wash it down, rinse, dry (for a basic wash)

but its such a pain in the ass


the rinsless wash thing, im sure it works, but it seems kind of sketchy

[picus]

Originally Posted by teknochild

yea thats about what i do now, pay once fill a bucket, use the rest of the time to spray the car, wash it down, rinse, dry (for a basic wash)

but its such a pain in the ass

the rinsless wash thing, im sure it works, but it seems kind of sketchy

It always seems sketchy at first, the whole "dry washing" a dirty car, I know. . If you're interested in it but freaked out by it follow some of the links in the post I linked; they go to Autopia.org, which alone with Detail City is kind of the mecca of detailing forums; ONR/QEW are very highly regarded there, and are used by a lot of pro detailers. FWIW, I use it on almost all my customer cars.

I used to do the coin-op with my own stuff thing too, but coin ops use recycled water, so I try to avoid them. They are ok in a pinch though!

Cheers.

[dmboone25]

Originally Posted by picus

It always seems sketchy at first, the whole "dry washing" a dirty car, I know. . If you're interested in it but freaked out by it follow some of the links in the post I linked; they go to Autopia.org, which alone with Detail City is kind of the mecca of detailing forums; ONR/QEW are very highly regarded there, and are used by a lot of pro detailers. FWIW, I use it on almost all my customer cars.

I used to do the coin-op with my own stuff thing too, but coin ops use recycled water, so I try to avoid them. They are ok in a pinch though!

Cheers.

I didn't know that those places used recycled water. Yikes--that is shitty--so does that also mean that the spotless water is not true spotless? I always dry my car anyway, but when using true spotless, if you happen to miss a spot here or there, it does not matter. I guess it makes sense, that they would not continuously remake spotless--kind of crappy though.....:mad:

[Titania]

Another vote for ONR. I've gone to using ONR exlusively for my washes. No signs of marring on my jet black car.

[teknochild]

Originally Posted by dmboone25

I didn't know that those places used recycled water. Yikes--that is shitty--so does that also mean that the spotless water is not true spotless? I always dry my car anyway, but when using true spotless, if you happen to miss a spot here or there, it does not matter. I guess it makes sense, that they would not continuously remake spotless--kind of crappy though.....:mad:

kinda sketchy, i know for a fact the spotless water is filtered, and im 90% sure the rinse water is aswell

[Hawkshaw]

Friend / family

[Jackson]

Hey Picus,

Where do you buy your ONR. Looking on the web, I found an eastern Canadian distributor at www.eshine.ca. However, they are currently out of stock. Any suggestions?

[wvtlo]

Another thread on this topic...I use driwash

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...eferrerid=9789

[unicalex]

Love my ONR. I would like to buy more ONR locally but I only know eshine.ca too. I would love to get a big supply of it.. I know autogeek.net has them but they are in US.

[picus]

Originally Posted by Jackson

Hey Picus,

Where do you buy your ONR. Looking on the web, I found an eastern Canadian distributor at www.eshine.ca. However, they are currently out of stock. Any suggestions?

eshine.ca is where I get it all; he usually gets it in stock pretty quickly. I order it a gallon at a time. You can e-mail the owner (chris@eshine.ca) to see when he will be back in stock, he's a super nice guy.

Originally Posted by teknochild

kinda sketchy, i know for a fact the spotless water is filtered, and im 90% sure the rinse water is aswell

Ya, it is filtered. I didn't mean to infer coin ops were bad; they aren't - but even filters miss grit; that's part of the reason you never dry your own car after using a touchless; there is always still a film on it. I use coin ops in the winter occasionally, but just wanted to offer up ONR/QEW as an alternative. If you're freaked out by it, no prob.

[musc]

When I lived in an apartment, I got an adapter that let me screw a hose into my kitchen sink tap. I just got a few 100ft hoses together and ran the hose from my 2nd story apartment, out the balcony to the parking lot, and washed my car like that. Sounds pretty ghetto, but it worked! I also ran an extension cord down and had a small shop vac to clean the interior. The management didnt like it, but I told them to point out where in the lease it stated I couldnt do it. They never bothered me again.

[dmboone25]

Ya, it is filtered. I didn't mean to infer coin ops were bad; they aren't - but even filters miss grit; that's part of the reason you never dry your own car after using a touchless; there is always still a film on it. I use coin ops in the winter occasionally, but just wanted to offer up ONR/QEW as an alternative. If you're freaked out by it, no prob. [/QUOTE]

I don't mind the touchless/self-serve coin ops--I just did not realize the water quality was so low.

BTW--if there is still a film on the car when using one of these places, and it is inadvisable to dry after you are done there, what do you suggest? It almost sounds to me like you need to re-wash the car, defeating the purpose entirely of making use of these places. But since I have JB, I guess I need to take this kind of stuff into consideration--so I am curious if there is a way to still use a coin op and not screw up the paint? Thanks in advance.

[picus]

I was referring to two different things in that post, I think it was unclear.

A coin op, when used with your own materials (buckets, mitts, soap, and drying towels) is perfectly fine to dry. Just rinse really well and hope the filters are working.

A *touchless* car wash is usually NOT ok to dry after. They "self" dry you with a huge heater as you drive out, but it almost never does a great job so some guys get out and re-dry with towels. This is a bad idea since touchless's almost always leave a film on the car, and drying over it will cause marring.

So if you're going to use either I would suggest a coin op with your own equipment, just use their water and find one you like. A quick tip - the ones with warmer water are usually the more heavily recycled ones.

[txusa03]

many coin op places will not allow for bucket and sponges. If the attendant happens to show up while you are using the coin op with a bucket, you could be escorted off the property. That is just the way it is.