Hi all,

Just picked up a 24' Black/red combo RDX Aspec Advance. While I absolutely love black, it can be a real nightmare to take care of. For those of you with darker color RDX's, what does your car washing routine consist of? I would imagine you avoid the "soft" touch car washes. I am thinking about using a touchless automatic and doing rinseless washes. I live in the midwest, so my winters are too cold to hand wash.

If any of you do rinseless car washes, which product(s) do you use and recommend?

Thanks so much!

 

Having a nice black finish is all about maintenance and good processes to wash

Whenever possible avoid the auto carwash and do it by hand (2 or 3 bucket method). Rinse the wash mitt frequently and use a soaking wet mitt as well.You don't want to be dragging grit across the finish. It will show up


I know of what I speak

 

Do you ever do rinseless washes? I just picked up some McKees N-914 V2... I have also been a huge fan of DIY Detailings Ceramic Gloss! Great drying aid!

 

If you really, really want it to look great for a long time and you have $1500 rolling around in your pockets I'd highly recommend you get a professional ceramic coating on it - something like a Gtechniq coating (for example: https://www.chicagoautopros.com/gtec...oatingPackages). It'll resist swirls far better than anything else you can do - my coating is coming up on 5 years and my car looks showroom calibre (minus the typical door dings).

If you can't afford that then I'd use a ceramic spray sealant as often as you can or a ceramic wash (example: https://carzilla.ca/collections/bran...shampoo-1000ml) and then either go with any of the 3 approaches to hand washing:

1. Two bucket wash with a grid guard. Single mitt.
2. One bucket wash with 4-5 mitts, put dirt mitts aside after use.
3. Rinseless wash with a big red/black sponge.

I'd only do the last one if the car isn't super dirty. For the first options I recommend getting a foam cannon/pressure washer combo so you can pre soak and reduce swirls even further.

I don't mind touchless washes once in a while but they do use pretty harsh chemicals that will strip whatever wax/sealant you have off the paint - I only use them during the winter and maybe only 1-2 times and then I do a rinse less wash after that which works great.

 

For the winters, rinseless is easier than you think. Just wear rubber gloves and use warm water. Find a truly touchless car wash for when you need a deeper clean after bad winter weather. Don't ever let a car wash agitator touch that paint!

 

This is my plan! I did a rinseless wash last night and the RDX looks great!

I can't imagine what my paint would look like if I took it through a "soft touch" car wash!

Thanks everyone for your feedback!

 

I use the Armor All 2-in-1 Foam Cannon Car Exterior Wash gadget for doing all my cars. A bit pricy ($40) but it works quite well. It will work attached to a pressure washer or just an outside faucet. It may not work well if the water supply is a well because the pressure is down around 30 psi. On my public water, the pressure is up around 45 psi.