In my previous post “VEHICLE WASHING TIME – FINALLY! SALT / PRESSURE / HOSE / NOZZLE” I cover my back-to-basics of hose, nozzle and sprinkler in my new home arsenal of moto / vehicle washing kit.
What I will be adding next to my cleaning kit is not just one bucket for soapy water, but TWO BUCKETS with the intention of adding a third bucket! No, we are not washing a dually and 40-ft gooseneck trailer! The two buckets will be used for one vehicle (technically there are five four wheeled vehicles at my residence as I have two driving-aged daughter’s in addition to the wifey’mobile, the ADV80. And somehow (thankfully) I’ve acquired an older Subaru Outback (backup vehicle), thus I have a few vehicle to wash and look after including my 2016 Yamaha TW200! I’ve been reading and watching a lot of detailing videos!
1 Bucket, 2 Buckets, 3 Buckets – The Way of Wax On / Wax Off
1 Bucket, 2 Buckets, 3 Buckets – The Way of Wax On / Wax Off… remember Karate kid? Auto care is both art and discipline. I’m not afraid of work and I want to be working under the guise of “there is no such thing as LUCK,” but rather L.U.C.K. as in Learning Under Correct Knowledge! Thus, there are different schools of thought in every aspect of life! With that, as already stated, I am checking out a lot of Obsessed Garage videos! If you have time, give “Back to the Basics: Teaching Adam LZ How I Wash a Car” a watch! OG is on the 3-bucket method, but with a different perspective on the matter! I especially like the “OG3 way” when my ADV80 is not afraid of DIRT! But so you know the traditional method of the 3-bucket wash system, check out “A three bucket wash technique, for a safer clean.” Also, I have been watching quite a few Canadian Gearhead videos! His “Washing My 4runner After Driving 10,000 KM Across Country” is a good video too!
LOWE’S 5-Gallon Buckets in Yamaha Blue!
I have two of these Lowe’ 5-Gallon buckets due to my recent home renovation projects. The projects are currently still underway, but I just depleted a 5-gallon bucket of white paint so that will continue use in the house and these were commandeered to the garage! That white 5-gallon paint bucket might find it’s way to the garage for my third bucket!
KEEP’EM SEPERATED!
Now that I have my buckets sorted, I wanted to follow suit with dirt separator’s in my buckets. While I heard about Grit Guard first, I saw the Dirt Trap at my local AutoZone (the closet auto parts to my house). And the Dirt Trap was a bit cheaper. It’s a Trap for dirt! They didn’t fit into the bottom of the buckets as well as I excepted, but at this price, I can add a second layer as seen here this video, “THROW AWAY YOUR GRIT GUARD?!” The wash game has layers! Again, I am learning, it’s a process and this is way more advanced than what I grew up on with one bucket and a sponge or rag! These Dirt Traps are better than nothing and nothing is what I was using before!
AUTO CARE PRODUCT AT LOWE’S!
I actually consider myself more of a Home Depot guy, but Lowe’s is the closest to my house and it’s in between my work and home so it’s easy to stop into on my way home with all the home project I have going on with the renovation. While pursuing the isles, I came across their car care section and was caught a little off-guard by it! So I studied what they had and picked these items up. These are “consumables” so I will be going through them on a regular basis so I am starting in the basic category of auto cleaning supplies.
What I know about Turtle Wax is from my past experiences with Turtle Wax paste wax’s from back in my early days of car care. This stuff was tuff… brutally tuff to buff off! That was back in the early ’80’s. I see a lot of people using and talking about Turtle Wax again, so I thought I would ease back into the brand. The Turtle Wax M.A.X. Power Soap was on sale for a great price, maybe due to the introduction of the car care products at Lowe’s, so I went for it! It’s soap! My vehicles are DIRTY! I’m giving the Turtle a second chance at a minimal “out shelling” of dead presidents!
Stone Invisible Glass Cleaner
It cleans glass and is window tint safe! Cleaning windows is a tedious task! My mastery of cleaning vehicle windows is still a lot of work, but I do like my windows clean! More to come on this subject!
Dreadlock Poodle Head
While I was at the AutoZone I also picked up the Pro Elite Wash Mitt. I know it will get thrashed and maybe this is something that I will buy for each car depending on vehicle condition and care level. I don’t know yet! But for now, what I do know it that you want something that will hold a lot of soap and is double-sided to rotate often. My next wash mitt will most likely be something from Chemical Guys.
QUIK DETAILER / QUIK WAX – MEGUIAR’S
Let me go on the record and say that I have used a ton of Meguiar’s products over the years. I will have to tell my little Meguiar’s story in another blog post, but for now, I know it to be good product! But too, with all these new guys out here, they are using a lot of other brands of car care products. Quik Detailer I have used for years! This is my first time using Meguiar’s Quik Wax. I purchased this at AutoZone as well. The bottle of Quik Detailer has followed me from California to Alabama and now here to Colorado Springs and will be depleted real soon. I will most likely buy another bottle of Quik Detailer. I use it after I wash as sort of a spot remover. I spray it on just after my first dry which is “half-dry” and then I dry and will also “spot hit” area’s that leave water spots.
But this time the Meguiar’s Quik Detailer sat on the sidelines and I used the Quik Wax instead as I wanted to give the vehicles a little more treatment. They will get a more in-depth polish and wax down the road, but for now, these vehicle’s have had zero care beyond a basic car wash.
Now I can get after some much needed vehicle cleaning! And like I previously said, I will bring it all back around to the TDUB, the all mighty mini dualsport, the Yamaha TW200!
Rodney / Yamaha TDUB Club
