Winter Car Care

[Team Adam's]

Winter washing is important, and if you live in a cold, snowy or rainy climate, essential to keep your driver in top shape! This process is not intended for your show car, rather it’s meant for the vehicle you drive daily, which typically gets abused!

 

Here’s what I do, living in the mountains of Colorado:

· Locate the best self-wash bay in town!

· I’ve found a well operated self wash here in town, and it takes credit/debit cards, which makes the hassles of dumping $10 in quarters into a slot.

· Ideally, but not essential, your wash will have a foaming gun, or a foam option on the sprayer.

· Your local wash should also have boars-hair brushes on the foaming brush.

· Finally, most good self-washes will have a “Spot Free Rinse” option.

How I do it:

· Dress for success! I wear winter boots, old cruddy jeans, and a rain coat to the wash. (The better you are protected, the more thorough you’ll be able to clean while staying clean!)

· Bring a weather-proof knee pad, like a gardening pad available from the hardware store.

· Remove your all-season floor mats, and hang them on the wall.

· Give them a blast off!

· Using the high-pressure setting spend 10 minutes blasting the winter muck off.

· If there is a nice Boars Hair Brush in the booth, give it a blast off to clean it from the previous use.

· Be sure to spend extra time on the wheel-wells, and kneel down on the pad to really get the salt, gravel, and mag-chloride, etc.

· Next, foam down the vehicle. Use the foam gun, or “Soap” setting if there is no “Foam” option.

· If your wash has a nice Boar’s Hair Brush, wash down your vehicle.

· If not, bring our bucket, pre-prepped with a wash pad from home, soap added and all. Be sure to close the lid tight, and bring dish gloves to wash so your fingers don’t freeze!

· Spray your wheels and tires with APC, and clean with brush.

· Finally, Spot-Free Rinse the vehicle, and drive away!

· If you want it perfect, and it’s warm enough, Spray the vehicle with Detail Spray, and dry with our large waffle weave microfiber drying towel.

 

We live on a dirt road, so I do this weekly to our winter driver!

[estecoca]

Excellent write-up. Make me want to buy my own large boar hair's brush. Something like 8''x6'' so I can go over the entire vehicle with a brush and not beat it up.

[bigred vette]

id love to wash the jeep, it looks terrible. the silver painted wheels are black and the silver paint is white with salt.

 

i WOULD wash it but since its -16 WITHOUT the wind chill, i dont think id be doing much washing just freezing.:help:

 

ive washed the car in about 9 degree weather and it instantly turned to ice. idk how i got the doors to open the next morning.

[70'sChevyGirl]

I'm loving the reminder about rinsing off the Boars brush before using. You never know what might be on there.

[GerryC]

after looking at the pic of the excursion I don't feel so bad about my winter-beaten DD after all. just don't use that in any marketing

[chuckcars]

Put the Grand Cherokee through the automatic car wash today. Hey, it gets the undercarriage the best. Told the better half I was going to fire up the space heater in the garage and do a complete detail job. She said I am nuts. I live in western Colorado, not as bad as Adam's.

[bigred vette]

Put the Grand Cherokee through the automatic car wash today. Hey, it gets the undercarriage the best. Told the better half I was going to fire up the space heater in the garage and do a complete detail job. She said I am nuts. I live in western Colorado, not as bad as Adam's.

:hi:from another jeep owner.

[BobbyG]

I'll be taking my truck to the car wash tomorrow armed with a 5 gallon bucket of hot water and car wash already mixed. It'll take me some time but it always comes out brilliant!

[Wylie]

Living in snowy New England, I wash my Jeep Commander weekly and go to a self-wash bay as you suggested. I never thought however to bring my Adams pre-prepped bucket as you suggested. Thanks for the tip.

[jjwvette]

Great tip's Jason

[Bill-V8V]

Living in snowy New England, I wash my Jeep Commander weekly and go to a self-wash bay as you suggested. I never thought however to bring my Adams pre-prepped bucket as you suggested. Thanks for the tip.

 

 

Welcome to AF Joe !!!!

 

Where in MA ?

[mjwhoopie]

Hey Adam, don't you just love the Colorado Winter!

 

What cuts the mag Chloride best? It takes me 2-3 washings with the car wash soap and lots of elbow grease to get the film off off enough to not see it on my Black Jetta.

 

I've also got BAD, BAD, water spots. Clay bar dosen't even touch them, vinegar in the wash water either.

 

Are you any where near Denver? Tell me where there's a great detail shop using your stuff! I'm going to need to get this car done right this spring!

 

Mike Doherty

(Black '66 442)

[Wylie]

Welcome to AF Joe !!!!

 

Where in MA ?

 

Hello Bill,

 

I live in Sutton, which is South Centras Mass

[Chewy]

How do you do it when it's -29º? Last week my car was quite literally white from the 3/16" thick salt sheet covering it. I felt so bad for it but it's my DD so I just made sure no one touched it while it was encrusted. I took it to the local spray wash place and hand sprayed it off. It's the best I can do now. It's just to damn cold to do it by hand. People around here get pretty PISSED OFF (including me) when people start hand washing the car in the bays. In and out... That's the rules around here.

[Adam]

Hey Adam, don't you just love the Colorado Winter!

 

What cuts the mag Chloride best? It takes me 2-3 washings with the car wash soap and lots of elbow grease to get the film off off enough to not see it on my Black Jetta.

 

I've also got BAD, BAD, water spots. Clay bar dosen't even touch them, vinegar in the wash water either.

 

Are you any where near Denver? Tell me where there's a great detail shop using your stuff! I'm going to need to get this car done right this spring!

 

Mike Doherty

(Black '66 442)

 

Hi Mike! Let's get together and check out your ride! I give my black Excursion a good detail around Thanksgiving, and the Machine SuperWax seems to make it easy to wash until February. (Truck lives outside, on a dirt driveway!)

 

I typically give it a second touch up with a Clay Bar and the Fine Machine Polish to get me through to Spring. Washing it is always easy, and I don't have problems cutting the chemicals.

 

There's a great detailer in Littleton, does that work for you?

 

It's our distributor, Carol Veltrie, from Car Care of Colorado. She and Kevin have a 3,000 ft shop, and take a day or two to complete the job. Very thorough, and you'll be pleased:

 

Car Care of Colorado

Contact: Kevin & Carol Veltrie

Distributor

Littleton, CO 80123

Phone: 303-523-8707

carcareofcolorado@comcast.net

 

Please give me a shout and let's meet up to have a look at your car! I'm in Denver at least once every 2 weeks, and have invited dozens of customer to our home in Boulder. I'll buy you a cup of coffee this Saturday or Sunday if you come up!

 

Thanks for joining our forum Mike, and I look forward to meeting!

[70'sChevyGirl]

Adam...nice dirty truck!!! :willy:

[mjwhoopie]

Adam, Email me your number, mjwhoopie@msn.com.

 

I won't know if I have to work the weekend till late Friday.

[GerryC]

It's finally supposed to be above freezing tomorrow for the first time in weeks. My white daily driver is now two-tone grey and brown (almost but not as bad as your excusrion). Hopefully I can give it a quick blast off with the hose tomorrow

[Adam]

Good to hear Gerry, finally! We filmed a video on winter washing today, stay tuned for a finished link mid next week!

[Adam]

Adam, Email me your number, mjwhoopie@msn.com.

 

I won't know if I have to work the weekend till late Friday.

 

Hi Mike, it's no secret! My cell is 303-718-9480. Look forward to meeting up!

[bigred vette]

i finally got to was the jeep yesterday!!

[ozzy]

Well yesterday was a balmy 23 degrees outside, being on this forum got me so into the mood, so I went outside and cleaned my Intrepid.

 

I washed it to get rid of all the salt/sand, then detail spray, just because I like it, then I tried the BSG, I stopped when I couldn't feel my hands anymore.

 

Here is the result.

 

[TrooperTrep07]

Looks good Ozzy! It's still too cold down here for me to handwash my car , I did a quick coin spray wash today, and it's already salty again.

[Chewy]

Well yesterday was a balmy 23 degrees outside, being on this forum got me so into the mood, so I went outside and cleaned my Intrepid.

 

I washed it to get rid of all the salt/sand, then detail spray, just because I like it, then I tried the BSG, I stopped when I couldn't feel my hands anymore.

 

Here is the result.

 

 

Looks good! I actually have a pair of felt lined water proof gloves that have elastic on them and go all the way to my arm pits. They work AWESOME for cold weather washes. The problem I have now is my wash hose is as stiff as a board!

[Adam]

Video on Winter Washing coming VERY soon!!

[AUTO REVIVE]

Adam's what can you do for this? Edited January 27, 2009 by AUTO REVIVE