Winter washing options & products

[Speedbird]

My normal wash involves 2 bucket method with meguiars gold class shampoo and lambs wool mitt, dry with meguiars water magnet, and if I have the time, polish with auto glym ultra deep shine.

This winter I am finding myself ridiculously busy. It is dark when I get home from work, and I have literally no free time any weekends between now and after christmas.

Car hasn't been washed for weeks and its looking awful, not to mention covered in salt. I don't have time to wash it any time soon. I generally tend to avoid the £5 hand car washes, are they still swirl central? Anyone used waterless wash products before? Are they a gimmick?

 

[HighFlyingBird]

£5 car washes will always be swirl central and waterless products are only really good for lightly soiled cars but even then I'd keep clear of them to avoid swirls. Might just be worth clearing the schedule a bit to get it done one weekend, or if you feel like you can trust them pay one of those mobile valeters to come to your workplace and do it there, but only if they don't use waterless products.

 

[ChrisM75]

Waterless products do scratch, they just contain fillers that hide them.

The quickest alternative is a product like Optimum no rinse, which means you can wash but not rinse off afterwards. Its a halfway house between a full wash and waterless.

Other than that just run it through an autowash, once isnt going to hurt, and if it does just deal with it in the spring. Im fairly particular about my car, but if I cant be bothered ill use a jetwash, and remove any swirls that build up over time when the weather is better.

 

[Speedbird]

Thanks for the replies. I knew there wouldn't be an easy solution, I will just have to make time at a weekend somehow. Even if it is only a very quick wash by me, it's still got to be better than a hand car wash!

 

[Kenan]

I can snow foam, 2 bucket wash and then apply a wet sealent and dry the car in about an hour. The Autoglym Polar series might an option of you have a snowfoam lance as this speeds up the process.

Sent from my Redmi Note 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Rooster]

I get rid of some of the grit and loose stuff at the local petrol station pressure washer for a quid, but you've got to be quick!