machine car wash in winter, detail in spring

[swirlparanoid]

My vehicle sits outside all year, right now its 10 outside and i have no way to properly wash it. does anyone that live in cold climates just say forget it and run it through a swirl o matic? my thinking is that getting all the salt and junk off during the winter would be better than leaving the salt all over it the whole winter. the place i go to is pretty decent for a car wash they only use cloth, they have multiple rows of hot air dryers and they have a undercarriage spray. Anyone else that lives in cold climates ever do the same thing?

[Fierce5]

I also live in NJ and I also have a Camaro and I have the same issue, last weekend I took the car to a car wash and got it washed, I feel guilty but I have no other choices. Anyway, ill give it a nice detail by the summer

[Junkman2008]

I don't recommend using SHR, or anything that abrasive all the time. Once you fix your paint, you should never have to get that aggressive with it again. FMP should be the only thing necessary to remove any damage that you may occur, unless you are doing something really wrong.

[StormChaser]

When I lived in Alaska we had six months of winter and so you had to wash the vehicles. I don't care where you are - anything below 50 degrees with water/hands is pretty intense for a whole vehicle.

 

I used a touchless car wash at least 2 times a month to get the glacier soot/salt combo off my truck. I never encountered any problems that couldn't be handled with a regular detail in the spring.

 

Additionally....I usually did the warm touchless wash when it was just above freezing. After the dryer was done, I'd pull out and park. Use the MF's to dry off the door jams as best as possible. I never had a door freeze shut and the paint was definitely not as damaged as some folks seem to think the touchless does.

 

Don't get me wrong...if that is all you do - darn skippy you'll see that stuff. But I'm sure you already have swirl n haze remover and use it occasionally? For the few washes you would do in the touchless ...it would be no different than having the swirls one would receive over time.

 

Just my opinion.

[Chewy]

when i drove my truck in the winter, every time i would get some nice sunoco gas i ran through the laser wash since it was right there connected to the gas station. now that i am lifted, i went to one thats about 10 minutes away and ran through it. lets just say it didnt like me very well. soap was left all over it so i had to go to the spray wash and just rinse the whole truck off and get the undercarriage as well. it was completely stupid though because by time i drove the 10 minutes back to college, it looked like i went through a muddy field because of the lugs throwing up the mushy brown crap in the parking lot at college since they didnt plow and i was doing full lock turns to park. im going to hate winter even more now haha. looks like im going to spend 1-2 weekends just cleaning it in the spring if i ever get a PC kit.

 

Best bet is to wait till the roads are clear M8... It sucks, but it's just a waste of coin otherwise...

 

Chris

[fortplainman]

when i drove my truck in the winter, every time i would get some nice sunoco gas i ran through the laser wash since it was right there connected to the gas station. now that i am lifted, i went to one thats about 10 minutes away and ran through it. lets just say it didnt like me very well. soap was left all over it so i had to go to the spray wash and just rinse the whole truck off and get the undercarriage as well. it was completely stupid though because by time i drove the 10 minutes back to college, it looked like i went through a muddy field because of the lugs throwing up the mushy brown crap in the parking lot at college since they didnt plow and i was doing full lock turns to park. im going to hate winter even more now haha. looks like im going to spend 1-2 weekends just cleaning it in the spring if i ever get a PC kit.

[rwisejr]

I Use Warm No rinse car washes and Warm water in Battery powered pressurewasher none of my cars ever go to any kind of carwash .

[Junkman2008]

I thought AJ was going to kill me when I asked this question at the NJ clinic!!!

 

You needed a beating but there where too many witnesses.

[05COBALTSS]

one more question isn't the car washes even if you use the hand sprayer using very strong detergents that could strip the sealant off?

As far as i know it will not strip the wax or sealant off. Most of the time i use them the wax is still there after I'm done.I don't use their wax that comes out of the sprayer. I just use the soap and the wax is still there because i still get a great bead of water.

[BrianT]

yeah i do the same thing and just hit it up in the spring.

 

junkman just rolled over in his steak dinner lol

I thought AJ was going to kill me when I asked this question at the NJ clinic!!!

[Junkman2008]

junkman just rolled over in his steak dinner lol

 

I've got baked potato in my nose hairs that won't come out!

 

If its below 32* all you want to do is spray the salt off. If it warms up above 32* take a bucket with you and and hand wash it!

 

Thank you Chris!

 

I dont think so.... The ones I've seen, you're lucky to be able to get any soap out of them lol

 

Ain't that about the truth!