Now that its starting to get real cold in NY washing the truck seems almost not worth it. Does anyone go through car washes with bigger chrome rims with out harming anything?

 

If anything, it would be a touchless.

 

Kind of an irrelevant question since I would never take anything I own through a carwash! But seriously though...if you don't care no more than that, then what do the wheel matter? So based on that logic, I guess the straight up answer to your question is sure.

 

^X2.

If you absolutely have to - go find a good coin-op for the wetdown & rinse only, bring yer own supplies and buckets filled with the good stuff, and choose a quiet time (3am works good, but watch out fer muggers & other punks - a 150 lb German Shepard helps with that, lol).

If yer too lazy to do that - then ya really don't care, so sure - just run it through a machine like all the other drones ...



Jeeeezzzz .. WTF kind of question is that?!?


MGD

_______________________________

 

The high preassure wand car washes work like a charm in cold weather. The ones around where I live do have warm water to hose off your vehicle. Thats what I do. Then I drive back to my house wash it in the garage. I use a dehumidifier in the garage, it warms it up just enough. You might want to try investing in a space heater, I am currently looking into one of these. I just don't know which one is good.

As for a car wash, it would have to be cold as ***** and the truck extreamly dirty in order to go through one of them. But I did do it with my old truck. a Dodge Ram.

 

In the winter I usually go to the self serve ones 2 or 3 times a week to blast all the salt off. I never go through the drive thru ones.

 

We've had a bunch of geese hanging around our parking lot at work because there is a large grassy field right next to our building.... Well, the other day they must have eaten their fill and then flown right over my truck as it had been carpet bombed with goose crap.

I took the truck through the touchless wash that afternoon. Usually, I'll hand wash at home, or do the coin-op method MGD talked about.

As for the wheels, it shouldn't matter, but if they give you the option of using some sort of "tire/wheel cleaner", I'd stay away. You don't really know what kind of chemicals they'll spray on your wheels which could potentially cause issues with the chrome.

- NCSU

 

I wouldn't. but if you absolutely have to I would take NCSU advice

 

If you use the wand or a touchless just to blast off what you can and take it home to finish it, you could probably use ONR at home to avoid having to get a hose out.

 

ONR = Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine.


- NCSU

 

Detailing Dictionary (sticky thread)

Post #5

 

ONR is the stuff. You can even fill the bucket with warm water. It's nice when it is cold out.

 

I used to work at a Automatic cloth car wash years ago when I was a young lad and I would never send any vehicle of mine in one of those washes.

The cloths would collect massive amounts of dirt from cars and that dirt on the cloths will rub on your paint, thus creating swirl marks or streaks.

Winter is the worst, soooo many cars and we would only clean them "half ***" because we were kids. Still soooo much dirt was collected on them especially during the winter snow months. I only do touch free wash during the winter months and hand wash during the warmer months.

I have a 2008 limited and those wheels have white paint and alumin , I spray wheel cleaner on wheels before I go in the "touch free washes".

I stopped going in the self server bays because the damn water would just freeze on my truck during the winter months.

 

Nope

 

It really is a multi-layered, almost trick question.

The key to the answer is how well maintained is the car wash you are using. Just because it is touchless or self serve doesn't make it safe. The quality of the reclaimed wash water, along with the correct dilution of the chemicals being usedmakes all the difference.

Pick a good, well maintained car wash, and you should be fine, just do not use their wash water to wash in your bucket. IF you are going to bucket wash, use the rinse water and your own soap.