Exactly What Products Do I need?


elguapo

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I recently purchased Optimum No Rinse Wash and Shine. I washed my car with it in about 30 minutes with little mess and was impressed with the results. I decided I needed to wax my car after my next wash and found ONRWW. Then I found a whole slew of products on the web site. Now I'm confused. Exactly what products do I need to keep my car looking its best and what schedule should I follow? I don't mind giving ONRWS to my brother and buying ONRWW if it saves me some time.

For example, from what I could find, a car care routine might look something like this:

1. Wash car panel with ONRWW

2. Use Instant Detailer by spraying on the panel prior to drying

3. Use Optiseal

 

Is that a good routine? How would ONRWW change it?

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Hi elguapo,

I am far from being an expert but I would like to share my thoughts with you on this subject. I have been using Optimum products since the start of the year having used products like Permanon, Meguairs, Sonax and so many others. I have decided to stick with Optimum for the main reason that their products are extremely good, reasonably priced and most important of all, are flexible and complements one another totally. So there is no fixed routine but rather you are able to tailor it according to what you want from the car and how much time you have.

As a start, I purchased the OID, the Powerclean, the Claybar, Optiseal and the Opti Car wash. I then added Opticlean, Opti Car Wax, OptiCoat, Opti Mitt and the Leather Protectant plus to the arsenal. I used a sample of ONRWW but figured it did not make sense for me to use it as I have a water point readily available for the car wash.

My weekly routine consists of the following:

1) wash the car with Opti Car wash
2) Remove most of the excess water off the car using MF towel or Jelly Blade
3) Depending on when was the last time I applied Optiseal or the conditions the car went through during the week, I will apply optiseal by spraying 2 or 3 sprays per panel and wiping it over the car as I dry the car. I find that this is an easy way of applying Optiseal without streaking and the car shines almost immediately! If I just applied Optiseal recently or if the condition of the car is not too bad, I'll just spray on Optiwax and wipe and dry the car down at the same time. Someitmes I'll just use OID instead of OCW if I think the wax from any previous application is still strong and all I want is to add some gloss.


Now why do I say Optimum products are extremely flexible? It is seen in the first step or third step above.

For the first step, if the car is lightly dusty, using OID in a spray and wipe manner will remove the light dust and give a totally brilliant shine to it. All without water. And the OID provides a protection for about 2 weeks I find,

If it has a little more dust and road grime, using OptiClean also in a spray and wipe manner will give a nice shine and protection. Opticlean really cakes up the dirt!.

If it requires a wash without the use of a hose. ONRWW is just brilliant.

For the third step, you can apply either OCW or OID on top of Optiseal or you can apply both (OID before Optiwax). This would depend on how much protection you require for your car paint, how much you want your car to shine and how much time you have. For me, I personally find that washing the car, using OID before applying Optiwax on a previous coat of OPtiseal gives the best shine for my car (Silver Jaguar XF) and it takes me about 1.5 hours to do it all including the car wash and the wheels. If it's just wash, wax or OID and dry, it takes me no more than 40 mins.


So by my reckoning, the basic stuff I have wuld be:

1) Optiseal
2) Opti Car wash (or ONRWW or Opticlean)
3) OID
4) OCW

And can I make a strong pitch for the Opti Mitt? I just bought two over the weekend and it's just amazing!! Easy to use with a good construction and easy to wash after a car wash - as I was using it I was wondering what an idiot I was for spending so much on MF towels from brand XXXX when this mitt feels so good and is so easy to maintain!

I hope I have not been too much of a busy body poking my nose in here when I am not an expert. I just wanted to share with you my experience as I went through the very same dilemma as you when I was switching products. Optimum Technology products really gives you the flexibility to customise your own routine and still gives you a fantastic and well protected car thereafter.

Regards,

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Thanks! I look forward to hearing other ideas too since the products are so flexible.

 

I spent a fortune on microfiber towels too. I don't have a fancy car, but it is new, and since we plan on keeping it 200,000 miles, I want to keep it looking its best.

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elguapo, welcome aboard, since it's a new car and you plan on keeping it a long time, I would suggest you invest in some Opti Coat 2.0, or take it to your closest Opti Coat Pro installer. This will get a great baseline protection for your car. After that ONRWW is a great maintenance product, and if used on a regular basis, there is no real need for anything else. All the above that Faraway mentioned is great, except for his use of a jelly blade to dry off the car, they are a scratch waiting to happen.

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Hi Yvan, yeah heard about the jelly blade and scratch risk... But to clarify, I don't use it to dry the car completely. I only use it to take off the areas where there's a lot of water accumulation. And I use a lot of care to ensure that only light pressure is applied... This works cos it's not my aim to dry the car completely with the blade so even if use light pressure and some water remains, it's ok. So far no scratches (touch wood)... But yeah, agree that there's a scratch risk and if the paint work is not fantastic, there's a marring risk as well... But I do love using mine so no complaints so far. ;)

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