Hello there Peacemaker...

I noticed your truck is a dark color (blue?), is your car wash one of those touchless ones? I took my new Black '05 King Ranch thru a regular car wash about a month ago and it did a great job until I took a close look at the paint, I found many very tiny scratches. I should be able to buff them out but I was very annoyed.


I use to have a silver Benz which I took to the same car wash all the time and I never found scratches, silver is great that way

For now, I'm just waiting for the next day in the 30's and take it to the local do-it-yourself spray wash place. Until then, it will just have to look like crap

Cheers,

 

I damn near broke a sweat washing mine today. I think it was in the mid to upper 70's.

 

Hey there. Yeah, it's a touchless wash. The things that swirl around are made of a very soft rubber, instead of the stringy yarn kind. They both do a good job. I just prefer the rubber kind.

Oh, my truck is dark wedgwood blue. Another thing a touchless wash will do very good is get your undercarriage clean. It has a sprayer that shoots water upwards. That comes in handy if you've been driving on salty roads.

I used to use the wand sprayer type wash with the brush that shoots foam on your vehicle. I've had too many scratches and swirls while using those kinds of car washes.

I've used the touchless car washes for about 5 years now, and never had a problem with them.

 

I like my hose bib in my garage, with double drains in the floor, making it easy to wash in my garage without even opening the doors. It hasn't been above freezing here in weeks.

 

That is a prerequisite on our next house. In fact, I've considered doing it on this one if I could do it efficiently... which I don't think I could.

 

You guys got me in trouble!!! Well I took your advice, I had the day off and went to the self wash today. I went with the prefilled wash and rinse buckets as recommended and used the washing tips. Its a small 5 bay self wash only place, $2.50 for 5 minutes of hot water. I had my truck about half done when out of nowhere the owner aproached me yelling. He was telling me I cant do this cause each bay has a security camera that is on motion sensor and the security recording tape cost money. I was like, what are you talking about, whats the problem. He then points to a big sign on the wall that I never saw, it read "No Hand Washing". He then explained to me that hand washing takes too long and I eat his security tape or something like that. Though he let me finish and before I left he told me that he turns the security cameras off when he is there and that I can come again to hand wash only if he is there. But anyway I think I will look for another place.

 

were the other bays empty? I woulda told him where to stick his security tapes

but geees you guys have nice car washes where you live, I don't think Michigan washes even heat the water up. I took my truck to a touchless car wash and got the deluxe with 2 waxes and spot free and air dryers (even though I heard their wax will eat your wax off your truck) and i was verrrry disappointed. Not only did it look like someone spilled soap all over my truck and left it there but the wax was dried all over the windows and doors and bed. I gotta wait for warmer weather!

 

Hot water will break down wax. The last time I helped a friend compund his car we used hot water to remove the excess rubbing compound. i don't think it will hurt the paint at all but it will strip wax.

 

I'm so glad that I don't live up north. It was low to mid 60's today, so wearing a wind suit, I was breaking a pretty good sweat washing my truck. At least I was able to get the mud off without getting frozen. Too bad it might rain today.

 

Watch those zippers! They'll scratch bigger than life...Trust me on this one.

 

I always bring it in the heated garage and use the built in the wall preasure washer and then I use a chamois and dry it off to avoid any water spots. Then I just leave it in there and drive the wifes suv around until it is nice weather again.

Sorry about the washing it out side in the winter that must suck. In the summer I also wash it inside and I can take my tiem with out fear of the sun drying it befoe I can

 

First post here on the deatiling section. I couldn't help it though--I think I am getting a work-out just reading this thread. Great thread though with great tips.

 

Yeah, I started getting in the habit of covering zippers and buttons with masking tape a while back for other projects.

On the other hand, I noticed after washing a couple of light scratches above the passenger side 4x4 emblem, but I don't know if it was from when I was trying to swing the garden hose from inside the bed to behind the tailgate and missiing or from loading and unloading my truck a few times while helping a friend move to a new house down the road from his old house. Meguire's scratch remover did a decent job on most of the scratches by hand, but I need to find my orbital buffer (I think at my parents' house) to finish off the other 2 that can't be seen except at certain angles. Oh well.

 

A few things I've heard over the years about winter washing,

The salt is more corrosive in liquid form (as opposed to frozen). Washing will force warm salt water into crevices it otherwise may not have been in. Rinse much more than normal.

Heated (or over 32) Garages create a daily freeze-thaw cycle liquifying the salt which may cause more corrosion than if it was outside and frozen all the time.

The winter sucks up here in central NY, They mix gravel in the salt here. I'm convinced it's to chip our paint first so the salt can do more damage!

 

Could you please point me to a reference where hot water will strip the wax off your paint. I think you are mistaken about this. I have never heard this before. If the sun beating down on your paint does not remove the wax then I don't think 120 degree water will do this..I could be wrong, but don't think so. I believe Rockpick said it best, in that normal paint maintenance will remove wax a little at a time, however as I said, I don't think using hot water will strip the wax . JMO