How to use Rinseless Wash to Maintain Your Ceramic Coating

Washing a vehicle properly with a rinse-less method is a great water saving way to properly cleanse a vehicle without the need of a pressure washer. The general principle and methodology is the same as a standard 2 bucket wash process. Below is the Spades designed method for using a Rinseless Wash process on an already ceramic coated vehicle. This is the same process our team uses at all of our world class studio locations along with the exact products we use.

Items Needed are all from Obsessed Garage with the exception of FEYNLAB Rinseless, which can be purchased directly through FEYNLAB. Listed Below:

Three 6 Gallon Wash Buckets W/Caddies
Three Grit Guards
Lamb Wheel Mitt
Lug Nut Brush
Detail Factory Curveball Brush
Detail Factory Tire Brush - Obsessed Garage
Large and Small EZ Wheel Brushes
Aerator (Filled w/ diluted Brake Buster)
FEYNLAB Rinseless Wash
Obsessed Garage Drying Aid
CarPro Perl -
P&S Brake Buster (Spray Bottle)
Wash Mitt
High Pile Drying Towel (Gray)
Low Pile Drying Towel (Orange)
Water hose/Pressure Washer/Aerator

1. Start by filling three 6 gallon buckets ½ (3 gallons) full of clean water. Add grit guards to each bucket along with 1 ounce of FEYNLAB Rinseless (Or Other Rinseless Product as directed) into the designated WASH bucket along with a clean Wash Mitt.

2. Add a Lug Nut Brush, Large and Small Wheel Brushes, Tire Brush, and Lambskin Wheel Mitt into the designated WHEEL bucket along with ½ ounce of FEYNLAB Rinseless. Place an aerator on the edge of the bucket pre-filled and diluted with P&S Brake Buster and water.

WASH (A) bucket is for Rinseless and RINSE (B) bucket is for rinsing your wash mitt/brush in between panels.

3. Clean the wheels and tires. Use the aerator filled with diluted P&S Brake Buster to saturate the entire wheel, tire, and the wheel wells. Use the EZ Detail Brush to agitate the inner barrels of the wheels followed by the wheel wells. Next, use the lambskin wash mitt to gently cleanse the faces and spokes of the wheel.

Finally, spray Brake Buster directly onto the tire via a spray bottle (full strength) and use the Tire Brush to agitate the sidewalls of the tire. Rinse off the entire area (depending on circumstances, use a hose, pressure washer, or water filled aerator to rinse) and immediately spray one time directly onto the wheel/tire with Obsessed Garage Drying Aid and dry off the entire wheel and sidewall of the tire with a Grey High Pile Wheel Drying Towel. Dress the tires with CarPro Perl using a Curveball Brush.

After all 4 tires are dressed and 2-5 minutes (set time for Perl to penetrate rubber) has passed since dressing the final tire, come back with dark colored utility towel or other scrap towel to gently wipe off access dressing from the tire.

4. Pop the hood without fully opening it, ensure the vehicle is unlocked and accessible. Place the key on your cart. With the WASH and RINSE buckets, use your mitt from the WASH bucket to start on the roof and work your way down, prioritize cleaner areas first as to avoid building up contaminates and dirt into your wash mitt. Gently glide the wash mitt across the panel with a slight overlap, always go in the direction of the body panels, avoid washing vertically up and down.

Generally, if indoors you can do 2-3 panels at once, in cooler months or in temperature controlled environments, you can do an entire half of a vehicle at once. Outdoors or in higher temperatures, only do one panel at a time.

Tips: Use the added brush to clean out emblems, cracks, and grills. Be sure to wash all door jambs, hood jambs, trunk jambs, and inner gas door. (Don’t forget to dry them as well.) Raise windshield wipers in order to clean the cowl and entire windshield. Use an EZ Wheel Brush to clean inner exhaust tips and around them. Rinse off the EZ brush after each use.

5. Next, dry off the washed panels using the Gray High Pile Drying Towel. Immediately after, spray a fine mist of Obsessed Garage Drying Aid directly over the washed panels. (Drying Aid is safe on all surfaces including paint, glass, plastic trim, chrome, etc.) Use a Orange Low Pile Drying Towel to wipe away the Drying Aid and remove any streaks.

6. Repeat on remainder of vehicle until all panels have been washed and dried. Finally, pull the vehicle into sunlight or good lighting for an inspection walk around and touch ups. Use a clean high pile microfiber towel to wipe off remaining streaks on all surfaces. Distilled Water may be used if needed.

Now your vehicle has been properly washed your coating is properly cleansed, enjoy the experience of driving clean and protected properly.

Published by Zac Nielson in Maintenance

November 11, 2022

How Vehicles Get Contaminated Inside and Out

Contaminates exist all around your vehicle and come from a variety of sources. Pollutants, chemicals, industrial fallout, and general grime of the road come into contact with your paint, wheels, glass, and all other surfaces of your vehicle on a regular basis. Over time, these contaminates can and will cause damage to the surface. Staining, etching, and degrading can be avoided with regular maintenance detailing. Specifically, a professional approach using high grade products to fully decontaminate and rejuvenate the surface properly.

Inside the cockpit, your interior faces a barrage of human contaminates such as body oils, lotions, makeup, dead skin, and breath that overtime will attach itself to the inner glass, seats, and all other surfaces of your interior. Even good hygiene, these natural contaminates can cause damage and should be removed on a regular basis as part of proper surface care.

We have designed both our Interior and Exterior Detail process to focus on in depth decontamination and protecting conditioning of the freshly cleansed surface using world class products that do not contain messy oily finishes or unnecessary harsh chemicals. Our process ensures a safe yet effective deep cleansing refresh of all your vehicle’s surfaces while adding months of protection against the elements until it’s time for your next maintenance detail in 3-6 months.

Published by Zac Nielson in Automotive Detailing, Maintenance

August 29, 2022

How Automatic Car Washes Damage Your Paint

Automatic car washes are quick and easy solutions to get your dirty car clean in minutes. They tend to be cheap alternatives and time savers compared to setting time aside to hand wash your vehicle on hot summer days. Although they are convenient, they will cause damage that outweighs the benefits of convenience. The biggest culprit of damaging your paint in automatic car washes are the spinning brushes and rubber brussels used to clean your car. They are spinning at a high rate against your paint which is a very unnecessary amount of friction that is known to cause scratching, swirl marks, and even breaking parts off of a vehicle in severe cases.

The general rule of removing dirt off your vehicle is to keep the amount of friction against your paint to a minimum, even when you’re hand washing your car with a mitt. A few low pressure passes is usually sufficient enough to remove loose dirt per panel in order to minimize the amount of possible swirl marks on your paint. Fast spinning contaminated brushes result in the micro-scratching of your paint or ceramic coating. Over time, drive-thru car washes will create spiral-like scratches on your paint surface. This will degrade the performance of your ceramic coating and/or damage your clear coat.

Even at a touchless or DYI car wash, many chemicals that these washes use are caustic and overly aggressive for automotive finishes, causing further damage and even staining. We still don’t recommend visiting even a touchless wash because of this.

These chemicals are considered to be more aggressive than what is needed to wash your vehicle safely. It is always recommended to hand wash your vehicle using a proper three bucket method, because it will result in less micro-scratching over time and safe removal of dirt and grime.

The biggest misconception with ceramic coated vehicles is that it's okay to use an automatic car wash after your vehicle is ceramic coated because of its durability in paint protection. Unfortunately, no matter the durability of any ceramic coating, they will leave considerable micro-scratches on the coating itself and damage the coating's integrity. The end result will leave scratches just as bad as a non-coated vehicle because of how aggressive the brushes are in automatic car washes. The continuous amount of scratches over time after multiple automatic car washes will reduce the durability of the ceramic coating and will prematurely cause the coating to fail and need to be replaced.

So how should you wash your ceramic coated vehicle? While there are great sources online on how to maintain your ceramic coated vehicle by hand washing, we highly recommend having a professional certified detailer to handle your ceramic coated vehicles because they’re highly knowledgeable on how to apply coatings and to maintain them. With proper care with a certified detailer, they can maintain your coating to last longer than anticipated and to help avoid the coating from premature failure. For example, a coating that can last 5 years with proper maintenance can push beyond 5+ years of protection. Here at Spades Motorsports, we do offer an Unlimited Wash Program dedicated to vehicles that have been ceramic coated to ensure the longevity of your ceramic coating’s finish and performance. For all the details for our Wash Program click here to learn more. Or, attend one of our Training Events to learn all about proper Ceramic Coating After Care.

Published by Joshua Farr and Ethan Alvarado in Ceramic Coating, Maintenance

July 28, 2022

How often you should wash your coated and non-coated vehicle

Proper washing of any vehicle, whether it be a car, truck, boat, or camper trailer is an essential maintenance process to ensure a lasting finish and for coated vehicles, a well protected finish. Specifically focusing on automotive maintenance, whether your vehicle is coated or not, we have the same wash recommendations and intervals. Having a coated vehicle does NOT mean you never need to wash again, in fact, proper maintenance is vital to ensure your coating is performing optimally. However, our wash recommendations and procedures do not change based on if the vehicle is coated or not, the maintenance process will still remain the same -- although with a coated vehicle this process will be significantly faster and easier due to the chemical resistance of the coating that reduce the need for more aggressive chemicals and wash processes.

So, how often should you wash your car? We typically recommend at least once every two weeks for daily driven vehicles. This will vary depending on the driving environment, parking situation during the day, and storage situation at night.

Regular washing ensures the pores of your paint system and or coating system are cleansed and free of major contamination which prevents etching and other surface defects and damage that can occur when the contaminants are left on the surface for a prolonged amount of time.

For your non-daily driven vehicles that are garage kept, you can safely go one to two months without a wash. However, the dust and air pollutants that are inevitable will eventually build up on the surface and need to be properly removed via a wash process.

Our customers enjoy taking the work out of proper washing with our Unlimited Maintenance Wash Program. This program includes unlimited washing for up to five ceramic coated vehicles to be used at their convenience in any of our studios or by appointment in Las Vegas for mobile service that comes to you. If you live near one of our studios, click here to reach out for pricing and enjoy proper premium hand washing at your convenience.

Feel free to reach us directly at 702-328-5707 or email [email protected] with any questions about proper maintenance for your vehicle. It is always our pleasure to serve you.

Published by Zac Nielson in Ceramic Coating, Maintenance

Tags: Automotive Detailing, Ceramic Coating, Ceramic Coating Maintenance