Billyrides
New member
My 4Runner basically serves two purposes in life.
1. Haul my kayaks and fishing gear to tournaments
2. Get cleaned after hauling my kayaks and fishing gear to tournaments
Since mine is Nautical Blue, also known as Toyota "yes there really is a color that is more of a pain in the ass to take care of than black", washing her is a methodical, on the edge of tactical, operation.
Wheels, tires and wheel wheels get cleaned first. Pressure washer, foam cannon, and a couple of fancy brushes. My favorite is the Adam's lug nut brush. It saves me a lot of time.
Next comes the rest of the T4R. Start with the pressure washer. I dig Citrol for bug removal, then get to the foam cannon. I like the Adam's Mega foam shampoo because it foams nicely, smells really good, and Mega is a pretty cool word. Two bucket method because it works and only adds about 3 minutes to my day getting bucket number two ready.
Once it's cleaned off, I use Liquid8r towels from the Rag Company to dry her off. They soak up a ton of water and just make life easier. Plus they don't trash the finish. Drying the car is almost a pleasure.
I like shiny, so 90% of the time, once she is dry, I do a quick once over with Xtreme Solutions Topper. It works, looks good, but I am still shopping around for other options.
I have a 2001 Grand Marquis as my commuter/street cred vehicle. (I work in St. Louis, street cred goes a long way) I put Adam's Graphene on that car to test it out before doing the T4R. So far, the Graphene has been amazing and has made my once a month pressure wash of the Grand Marquis much easier. So, I assume when I finally put it on the T4R, it will make keeping her clean much more simple. So far I have been relying on different wax formulations and none of them have thrilled me. It takes a ton of time to wash, clay, polish a T4R, so I'm seriously considering the Graphene once I get a little more time with it on the Grand Marquis. It is super easy to apply, but again, that blue freaks me out, and I haven't had the time to get the paint as close to perfect as I would like yet.
If you are going to clay your vehicle, Maxshine makes 5" synthetic clay pads that work incredibly well. Much easier to use than actual clay and if you drop it, you just clean it off. I'd say for 95% of the people who are claying their own vehicle, they will do the trick. The other 5% will have multiple brands and aggressiveness of clay neatly stored in a humidity controlled cabinet with air filtration, so they probably wouldn't car for the Maxshine pads. To me though, they work really well and are very fast.
Well that's what I do. IMO, there are two ways to do it with cars, the right way, or the easy way. The easy way takes a whole lot less time and still can look very good from five feet away. The right way is time consuming, a money pit, and can cause a strain on relationships, but it is a lot of fun driving down the road and seeing people stare at, in my case, my 7 year old vehicle filled with 20 year old technology.
1. Haul my kayaks and fishing gear to tournaments
2. Get cleaned after hauling my kayaks and fishing gear to tournaments
Since mine is Nautical Blue, also known as Toyota "yes there really is a color that is more of a pain in the ass to take care of than black", washing her is a methodical, on the edge of tactical, operation.
Wheels, tires and wheel wheels get cleaned first. Pressure washer, foam cannon, and a couple of fancy brushes. My favorite is the Adam's lug nut brush. It saves me a lot of time.
Next comes the rest of the T4R. Start with the pressure washer. I dig Citrol for bug removal, then get to the foam cannon. I like the Adam's Mega foam shampoo because it foams nicely, smells really good, and Mega is a pretty cool word. Two bucket method because it works and only adds about 3 minutes to my day getting bucket number two ready.
Once it's cleaned off, I use Liquid8r towels from the Rag Company to dry her off. They soak up a ton of water and just make life easier. Plus they don't trash the finish. Drying the car is almost a pleasure.
I like shiny, so 90% of the time, once she is dry, I do a quick once over with Xtreme Solutions Topper. It works, looks good, but I am still shopping around for other options.
I have a 2001 Grand Marquis as my commuter/street cred vehicle. (I work in St. Louis, street cred goes a long way) I put Adam's Graphene on that car to test it out before doing the T4R. So far, the Graphene has been amazing and has made my once a month pressure wash of the Grand Marquis much easier. So, I assume when I finally put it on the T4R, it will make keeping her clean much more simple. So far I have been relying on different wax formulations and none of them have thrilled me. It takes a ton of time to wash, clay, polish a T4R, so I'm seriously considering the Graphene once I get a little more time with it on the Grand Marquis. It is super easy to apply, but again, that blue freaks me out, and I haven't had the time to get the paint as close to perfect as I would like yet.
If you are going to clay your vehicle, Maxshine makes 5" synthetic clay pads that work incredibly well. Much easier to use than actual clay and if you drop it, you just clean it off. I'd say for 95% of the people who are claying their own vehicle, they will do the trick. The other 5% will have multiple brands and aggressiveness of clay neatly stored in a humidity controlled cabinet with air filtration, so they probably wouldn't car for the Maxshine pads. To me though, they work really well and are very fast.
Well that's what I do. IMO, there are two ways to do it with cars, the right way, or the easy way. The easy way takes a whole lot less time and still can look very good from five feet away. The right way is time consuming, a money pit, and can cause a strain on relationships, but it is a lot of fun driving down the road and seeing people stare at, in my case, my 7 year old vehicle filled with 20 year old technology.
