I know it may sound like I just crawled out from a Washington State mudhole, but a month or so back I saw a thread on keeping the swirls out of black paint, with numerous references to 'touchless carwashes'.

What exactly is a touchless carwash? Is it one of those hose-it-down booths, a spray-on rinse off thing you do at home, or what?

 

Here in NJ we have 'Brushless' car washes. Instead of those whirling stiff bristle brushes they have vertical cloth strips hanging down and a couple of cloth spinning or slapping type brushes. I took my truck through just once and it seems ok.

 

It's one that you drive thru and it cleans,rinses, and then dries. It uses high pressure water,so therefor no brushes or scrubers that touch your vehicle. Comes with 1or2 wash cycles, wax cycle, underbody rinse, etc. Usually fom $4 to $8 bucks depending on your choice of wash

 

I dunno what Dave is talking about, but the touchless carwash I use in the winter by me is the same as what cabraco says.

Daniel

 

I use the "swab" car wash here. The only problems
I have seen is if the fact that our tires "JUST FIT" on
the rails. If the guy driving it in is careless, he could
scrape your wheel weights off.

I am too lazy to wash mine by hand all the time ....

ZAINO works well also!!!!

 

here is my opinion and i hope to change some of yours,you all know that buffalo gets alot of snow, car washes are big business here.We have 3 types of car washes,touchless all water good show doesent clean much,brushless expensive does a good job and it is the type where the mop like strips hang down and gently caress your car clean, the problems i have with these are all the moving parts around my truck,the narrow tracks that pull you along and the fact that whatever was removed from the car in front of you by the gentle caressing things will now be gently caressed onto and into your paint!! just do it yourself or pay someone you trust

 

I go to the hand-car wash near me...costs more, but then it gets a little rub clean, they clean the rims, etc...

Daniel

 

we have hand car washes in the city no lie they are all crack heads!!

 

I have a black L also and I hate the swirls. The best thing I have found so far is 3M Hand Glaze. I was very impressed with this stuff and it only cost about 11 dollars a bottle. My truck never looked better.

 

I always wash mine by hand. The thing that has kept me from getting swirls from washing is using a very soft wash mit, washing small sections at a time and rinsing the mit in between each section to keep from rubbing the dirt around.

I have heard that after continued use, the "brushless" car washes will basically etch your paint because the detergent is so strong.

 

ive wanted a lightning for so long, that when i bought it i promissed myself that no matter how lazy i was, and still am, i would always wash her by hand, i really love that truck and would hate to see it get scratched by a friggin' car wash!!

can you say "**** retentive"

 

turned me on to the brushless car wash. His red L looks sooo good and I thought he only hand washed it. A few weeks ago, he went with me to show me what they do. Down here, there is no chain, etc. to pull the truck along, You 'drive' thru it. Nothing but liquid and air touches the truck. It does a 'decent' in-between hand washes cleaning.

Dan

 

If I lived in Texas or Nevada I'd hand wash all the time too, but around here, there are two reasons I don't:

1) When it is 28 degrees outside, it is very difficult to hand wash your own car.
2) We have a drought, washing cars is currently against the law.

Daniel

 

Touchless car washes are bad. The soap they use is very harsh, it has to be to eat dirt away without any wiping. It will definately decrease the life of your zaino, and will be even harder on wax products.

 

i use a touchless also ,a quick zaino z6
enhancer afterwards brings the shine and
smoothness right back.
for the swirl marks, the best is 3m
swirl mark remover.