With only a week left before the NJ Pro, it's important to finally scrub off the grime from last year and make her pretty again. The only problem is that Bumblestook is stored in a location where there's no running water. She's also not street legal so driving her to a car wash is impossible. To keep things simple, I started looking into alternative cleaning options and stumbled upon the Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine. A friend told me about this years ago but I never got around to trying it. You can pick up a 32oz bottle from Amazon for under $18 (good for 32 washes)!
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| Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine - 5-2-2015 |
I went over to the Rad's (Tatis Racing) home base so we could clean our race cars. Despite having access to a hose there, I decided to try this method anyway to see if I could get away with cleaning my car at events. The instructions are simple, take one ounce of the cleaner (about a cap full) and add 2 gallons of water in a bucket. In order to not keep washing the car with dirty water, take a bunch of clean microfiber cloths and dump them into the bucket. Taking one cloth at time, fold it into quarters then work on one panel at a time, drying it with a clean dry microfiber cloth as soon as you wipe off the panel. Fold the micro fiber cloth around so that you use a clean portion for each part of a panel you're "washing". Using this method, none of the dirt works it's way back into the bucket. What you're left with is a clean, streak free finish...and yes, no rinsing was required.
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| Before and after - 5-2-2015 |
It does a good job. It even got rid of most of the cone marks and bugs that got onto the car. I'd say it's about as clean as it would get if you washed the car with soap, rinsed it, dried it except it takes a lot less time and very little water. No water marks or streaks were left except for swirl marks that unfortunately have been on the black panels of the car for a while now. That will require some proper polishing to get rid off. I had a few hard cone marks that were a bit stubborn. A quick rub with polisher took care of those. I even had enough left in the bucket to wash the Touareg. Finished both vehicles in about one hour taking my sweet time. Put it this way, I got both car clean before Rad was done changing his diff fluid. I'd say it's a success and I look forward to being able to having a clean car before every big event going forward.
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| Bumblestook and the Egg all cleaned up - 5-2-2015 |
Only a few days left before the first big event of the year for us. Racing on my home turf and being able to sleep on my own bed is definitely always welcome.
