Has anybody mentioned getting it ceramic coated? Makes it much easier to wash.
Cleaning Your Beast
- OP 🔹 TimmyTheKid17
- Start date
I live 1/2 mile off state maintained road, all gravel so I did exactly that......got an electric pressure washer and leave a garden hose hooked up to it year around.
My gas powered pressure washer actually has recoil, not gonna risk it.
When I lived in Orlando, Fl I could detail my vehicles and they would look great for a week! I moved to Texas and the best I can do now is wash them to make them less dirty.
STORY OF MY LIFE!
Power wash with foam canon to get rid of debris.
Hand wash using Optimum No Rinse (I love this and use it even when I am rinsing the truck)
Then I use P&S BeadMaker as a drying agent with microfiber towels. This stuff is amazing.
Every 6 months I’ll use gtechniq c2v3. Much easier than wax.
Also, my truck is ceramic coated which makes every step much easier.
Hand wash using Optimum No Rinse (I love this and use it even when I am rinsing the truck)
Then I use P&S BeadMaker as a drying agent with microfiber towels. This stuff is amazing.
Every 6 months I’ll use gtechniq c2v3. Much easier than wax.
Also, my truck is ceramic coated which makes every step much easier.
I agree - I have all the chemical guys products and accessories for interior and exterior. foam cannon and two bucket system is a must - plus get the woolly mammoth drying towel from them too - they also have great videos on youtube on how to wash and not scratch your truck.
- OP 🔹
- #27
How much does ceramic coating run?
Quick Quack not so good.. Blowers ripped off my bug shield and something bent the top of my antenna. So I would only do Pressure/Foam/hand wash
I’ve been using pressure washers on my vehicles for many years no issues just avoid directly blasting seals, etc. as others do I 1st pressure wash to get loose stuff off, foam cannon, let sit a few to break down dirt, rinse again with PW, then hand wash with mitt, rinse again and dry with chamois. Oh and double bucket method is a must.
the truck is just to big to wash w/o foam cannon and a power washer. Here one I use . Just use a Quality car wash shampoo for your vehicle and you’ll be fine.
I had Ceramic done on my last truck when it was new and at the same time they did my work truck and wife’s expedition. They did a horrible job on paint correction with the work truck and my wife’s 2 year old expedition. They put swirls all in the paint with their buffer. It was about $1200 a piece. If you go the route of having someone do it I’d take it to the most professional shop you can find or just do it yourself. The ceramic coating is relatively easy to apply, the paint correction is the tough part. I’ll be doing mine on my own this time, I don’t think the price is worth it if your not going to go to a premium shop.
Hey, I didn't read all the posts, sorry. But I'd say get a little sunjoe pw. Like someone else said, GPM> PSI to a certain degree. But make sure you get something like a 4.0 orifice nozzle as well.
Edit:
Double bucket all the way for washing the body. I use a third for the wheels. I bought some stuff from obsessed garage. It's a little pricy but he has some good stuff. Get some quick disconnects for your spigot and hose too. It's minor but I'm impatient and I get annoyed easily.
Edit:
Double bucket all the way for washing the body. I use a third for the wheels. I bought some stuff from obsessed garage. It's a little pricy but he has some good stuff. Get some quick disconnects for your spigot and hose too. It's minor but I'm impatient and I get annoyed easily.
I'd check into ceramic coat - and high quality towels. So far, so good. Just a hose, nozzle, auto soap, two buckets, a ladder and about 15 towels
You can do your whole truck two or three times with $20 of Nexgen! They actually warn you not to use too much. While it isn't the top of the line ceramic it is pretty good and dead easy to DIY.
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Ceramic coatings - when done "professionally" for four figure sums - are a borderline scam. Maybe not even borderline. "Installers" with LOL level resumes are laughing all the way to the bank, that's for damn sure.
How many of you have a $500 3M sun gun that you inspect your truck with after every wash? Do you wash your truck with a kitchen scrub brush and dry it with a shop rag that's been laying on the ground? The reason I'm being hyperbolic and ridiculous here is because one of the main selling points of a professional ceramic job is that it will get a "full correction". These are heavy duty pickups used as such for many of us, with not-awesome paint to start with if we're being honest. They're not a garage queen sports car that will sit in the shop under a cover for 350 days out of the year. Making these trucks perfect is overkill, and it is taking them to a step of correction that most will not even notice. Just like you can go buy a screw at ACE for $.03, but the same exact thing built to NASA's level of precision might cost $40. Sounds cool to say you built your shed with NASA screws, but what did you gain over the ACE screws?
You can watch some videos on YouTube, buy a DA polisher, a couple of pads, a one step correction polish, and a consumer-level ceramic coating that might last one year instead of two, and be all in for maybe $300-$400. And it's all there ready to go the next time you need to redo the process. And you then have the gear necessary to correct other vehicles in your fleet. Trust me, I've have literal thousands of dollars in detailing gear and supplies sitting on two 2x4x8 racks in my garage... clear coat correction with a DA and the pads and polishes they have these days is not difficult, nor dangerous. You're not going to screw anything up unless you're one of those guys who manages to cut your finger off slicing summer sausage, or blow off your dee cleaning a gun.
How many of you have a $500 3M sun gun that you inspect your truck with after every wash? Do you wash your truck with a kitchen scrub brush and dry it with a shop rag that's been laying on the ground? The reason I'm being hyperbolic and ridiculous here is because one of the main selling points of a professional ceramic job is that it will get a "full correction". These are heavy duty pickups used as such for many of us, with not-awesome paint to start with if we're being honest. They're not a garage queen sports car that will sit in the shop under a cover for 350 days out of the year. Making these trucks perfect is overkill, and it is taking them to a step of correction that most will not even notice. Just like you can go buy a screw at ACE for $.03, but the same exact thing built to NASA's level of precision might cost $40. Sounds cool to say you built your shed with NASA screws, but what did you gain over the ACE screws?
You can watch some videos on YouTube, buy a DA polisher, a couple of pads, a one step correction polish, and a consumer-level ceramic coating that might last one year instead of two, and be all in for maybe $300-$400. And it's all there ready to go the next time you need to redo the process. And you then have the gear necessary to correct other vehicles in your fleet. Trust me, I've have literal thousands of dollars in detailing gear and supplies sitting on two 2x4x8 racks in my garage... clear coat correction with a DA and the pads and polishes they have these days is not difficult, nor dangerous. You're not going to screw anything up unless you're one of those guys who manages to cut your finger off slicing summer sausage, or blow off your dee cleaning a gun.
Nice rant, bro! 
Maybe my Tremor doesn't have a Lambo's paint job but it is worth protecting just on principle, if not with an eye to resale value. I'll be in over $100K after a few mods so that bests a lot of so-called 'sports cars'. Mine will see mostly highways while towing so flying debris will not be in short supply. It will also see a fair bit of potential 'desert
pin-striping', hence the full Xpel job on the sides.
Maybe my Tremor doesn't have a Lambo's paint job but it is worth protecting just on principle, if not with an eye to resale value. I'll be in over $100K after a few mods so that bests a lot of so-called 'sports cars'. Mine will see mostly highways while towing so flying debris will not be in short supply. It will also see a fair bit of potential 'desert
pin-striping', hence the full Xpel job on the sides.
I didn't say don't protect it or care for it. I just mean there's a balancing point on cost versus reward when looked at through the context of use of vehicle. The cost versus reward on the "professionally installed" ceramic coatings is very, very poor IMO, was my point, especially on a Tremor.Nice rant, bro!
Maybe my Tremor doesn't have a Lambo's paint job but it is worth protecting just on principle, if not with an eye to resale value. I'll be in over $100K after a few mods so that bests a lot of so-called 'sports cars'. Mine will see mostly highways while towing so flying debris will not be in short supply. It will also see a fair bit of potential 'desert
pin-striping', hence the full Xpel job on the sides.
I'm a car guy first and foremost - don't have to sell me on the depressing thought of what kind of fun cars I could have bought for the same amount of money as my Tremor. A new Cayman S doesn't haul a camper or tow a snowmobile trailer thousands of miles very well unfortunately.
The people that did my PPF, ceramic and tint also did their stuff to a Bugatti Divo made my truck seem extremely cheap in comparison.
And since they drive Tremors, probably reading this and laughing.
I got ceramic coating and just did my first wash the other day after it cured.
I use a 3600 psi gas pressure washer. Just use the 40 degree tip, and stand back a bit.
I rinse with that.
Then I got a foam cannon. That hooks up to the pressure washer and throws a heavy foam of suds on the truck.
Then I wipe that down in straight lines only from top to bottom with a chenille microfiber mitt. I rinse the mitt every so often in a water bucket that has a grit trap in the bottom.
Then I rinse it down again with the pressure washer.
Then dry with waffle weave microfiber towels, mostly dabbing the water up and if wiping in straight lines only.
A pressure washer isn't going to hurt anything if you A) use the gentlest tip and B) stay back a bit. I'm sure you could take the paint right off the truck if you're not careful, but if you stand back far enough and only use the white tip you will be totally fine.
I bought all my car washing shit at Chemical Guys. They have a ton of awesome products and a lot of good how-to videos.
