Genesis

Hi Hespra,

Can also use a nozzle, just set it so that the water isn't coming out in a stream, but more of a spray. I find this works better than without the nozzle.

I'm sure a nice coloured microfibre towel will look great in your hair, especially while you're cleaning your car

Genesis

For the polish...try Zaino. It's a subject that's been well described in the Show and Shine forum....good luck!

quack_p

This is a good article on car washing. He recommends doing the wheels first so you don't get brake dust onto the paint and using a fresh bucket of car wash for the paint.

selmeralto

Well, getting back to the original question, I'd like to say, as a city-dweller with no way to do the car-washing myself and a schedule too busy to give the car up to a detailer, I've used commercial car washes regularly. No mechanical damage to the mirrors or wheels. It may be that my clear-coat may be gradually wearing down (though I haven't noticed any difference so far) but that is preferable to the alternative--relying on rain.

RX8_Buckeye

I understand your dilemma. There are a variety of opinions on this forum about commercial car washes and do-it-yourself washes, so if you're going to try to follow the instruction you receive here, I'm afraid you'll have to rely on the rain :D. Nearly half the people who responded to the question didn't seem to note that 1) the original poster lives in the city and doesn't have a place to hand wash his car, and 2) he lives in a northern climate where I assume the temperature drops below freezing regularly.

For these reasons, doing it yourself with a hose is completely out of the question. Even if you were to rely on a friend or relative with a house, any responsible homeowner knows that you don't want to use your outdoor spickets in the dead of winter when the daytime high temperature doesn't exceed 32 degrees F. In northern climates, valves (inside the house) to outdoor spickets should be closed and any remaining water drained from the spicket well before temperatures drop much below freezing. Otherwise, you're just asking for a busted pipe. On a warmer day during the winter, I guess you could use the spicket, but you need to make sure you drain it when you're finished. Personally, I won't take the risk of using the outdoor spickets in the winter after I had a pipe crack last year and flood the garage.

As far as commerical washes go, I TRY to avoid them; however I ended up using a commercial wash 5-6 times last winter because we had a 5-week period during which temperatures never exceeded 25 degrees F, and several shorter periods of similar temperatures. During this time, there was an unbelievable amount of salt on the roads, and I reasoned, like Howard, that I'd be better off having the salt removed from the car (especially the underbody) in a commercial car wash than to suffer in the freezing temperatures with a warm bucket of water to achieve a superficial cleaning. In certain situations, I believe practicality needs to be considered.

Make sure the commercial wash uses fresh water, not recycled water. Otherwise, you are washing your car with salty water. Usually, the fresh water washes are more expensive, and they'll advertise that fact. Don't expect to get fresh water from "Joe's $2 Car Wash". The carwash that I use when I'm desperate costs $10, but it cleans the car better than I can by hand washing. There are employees who wipe off the door sills and towel dry any remaining water at the end of the wash. I have yet to notice any damage to my paint from the wash (the finish still looks perfect to me). One thing I am wary of, however, is the wheel scrubber. My front wheels exhibit some very faint etching of the paint, and I'm not sure of the cause. I can't rule out the carwash as a potential culprit.

What I am going to try to do this winter is use the "do-it-yourself" wash whenever I can. I actually did this the other day when it was 42 degrees F here, and it worked very well. I brought a wash mit and some drying towels with me. First, I rinsed and sprayed the entire car with soap. Next I used the wash mit, applying light pressure, to loosen the dirt on the car making sure to rinse the mit every so often. Finally, I rinsed the car off and dried. The idea was not to get the car perfectly clean, but to remove most of the dirt. I drove home and used a quick detailing spray to touch up a few areas that I missed with the mit. (My hands were freezing, so I worked very quickly! I can't imagine what it will feel like when it's 20 degrees!)

In response to those that are claiming that the "do-it-yourself" places are bad for the car, I feel that this is the best option for those of us living in northern climates. If you have a better suggestion that is the least bit practical, I'd love to hear it. There was another thread a few months back about the "do-it-yourself" places, and a forum member said that he has a friend that owns one of these places. According to the owner, the soap used at these places is no more harsh than any off-the-shelf carwash concentrate. Additionally, the high pressure spray isn't going to damage the paint unless you hold the nozzle too close to the car for an extended period of time (even then, it is unlikely). It might strip some wax, but in my case I noticed that the wax was still intact after the wash. On a side note, it boggles me that some people claim the "harsh" chemicals used in commercial carwashes and "do-it-yourself" places will damage the paint, considering that many of these people swear by Dawn dish soap for an initial wash of the car when detailing. Dish soap is extremely harsh and should NOT be used to wash a car (see autopia.org for more car washing info).

SpinninAgain!

I wash at home in the summer but I too live in a cold northern clime, making a home DIY wash impractical at best in the winter.

My car is Zainoed so it will never see a commercial car wash. Instead, I intend to use one of the spray-it-yourself places but I will only use their water, never their detergent or other junk. I'll bring my Zaino detergent, bucket and wash stuff with me. That way I can get the salt off without doing too much damage to the finish I've put so many hours into.

Tip to RX 8 Buckeye: I installed extended shutoff valves on my outdoor hose spigots. They turn on/off from the outside like a a regular spigot, but the actual shutoff valve is at the end of a long rod that reaches through the foundation into the warmth of the basement. Install them so they're pointing slightly downhill and they drain themselves. The valve never freezes because it's inside the house. Now I don't have to remember to turn off the inside valves and drain the spigots. No problems even during last January's cold spell. Home Depot/Lowes.

rotten42

Ya Portland is a small hicktown with no hand wash bays!


as for beeing in a cold northern climate....what bullshit!....it gets f*cking cold here and people wash their cars all the time.

RX8_Buckeye

What's with the tone of your response? It's completely unnecessary. You couldn't have made those comments in a more respectful manner?

There were a handful of people giving instructions on how to wash the car using a hose and a bucket of water. All I was trying to say is that this doesn't really help the original poster. Did you happen to catch this statement?

I've never heard of a "hand wash bay", unless you are talking about the "do-it-yourself" places that have been mentioned. If that's the case, we simply had a miscommunication. I have never heard of a place where you can go attach your own hose and use free water--that would be called stealing.

You claim that people wash their cars in Calgary in the dead of winter all the time. If that's true, it surprises me. I live in Detroit and I have NEVER seen anyone hand-washing their car in the dead of winter, unless it's at a "do-it-yourself" place. Sure, there's the rare 50-60 degree F day in winter, but that's not what we're talking about. As I mentioned before, we had a 5-week period with temperatures never rising above freezing last winter. It's just not smart to hand-wash your car in those conditions, especially considering the health problems mentioned by the original poster. Are you saying that there are indoor hand wash bays? If that's the case, it would be ideal. I have never heard of such a thing, however.

RX8_Buckeye

Great tip SpinninAgain! I'll definitely look into that.

Howard

I usually try to use the do it yourself bays in the winter unless it gets too cold. Here most of them close then anyway. The one aytomatic car wash I wonder about uses fresh water and only spray. The unit goes over your car not the car through it and nothing but water touches the car. This place also has trained people to change your oil and filters who actually know domrthimg about cars. The have a resturant to eat in while you wait. The are expensive but a lot of people in nice cars costing a lot more then the RX8 go there. Certainly it seems better then most of the places who use bruches. I have been washing cars in these places for years without a problem. That is until recently when I went to a drive through and the RX8 did not clear the drive track. That is why I am considering the option of the one that you just set still at.

8's enough

i fil my wash bucket with warm water ,then it's not cold on the hands

MTLbroker

Insulated rubber gloves work for me on colder days. I washed the car yesterday with cold water and gave it a light waxing. As long as skin doesn't contact water, I don't even feel the cold.

Here's the problem: I started on the car at around 3pm. The sun starts to set before 4. By the time I finished around 4:30 or so. When the sun's not out, the temp drops like a rock and by the time I finished, the driveway had frozen over. By now, the temp was well below freezing and my sloped driveway had become a hazard.

bean438

I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Our winters are some of the coldest of any major city in Northamerica. I am not bragging, trust me, its not someonthing to be proud of.
What I normally do in the winter is go to a do it yourself wand style wash.
I bring along my wash mitt, tire dressing, etc. I soak the car down with a prespray, soap the car, use my wash mitt to rub the whole car down, use shitty "foam" brush on wheels/tires, rinse car down, and towel dry/detail/whatever you want.
I go at an obscure time so I can take all the time I need. Total cost of about 4 bucks.
Once every 2 weeks I go to a "they do it for you" type wash, and get the inside/outside/undercarriage done.
It is called the Chamois car wash. They do a good job.

TJLack

I think using a commerical wash which is spray only is fine. I've used one in a Mobil station near my house - unit moves over your stationary vehicle and nothing touches the car but the spray. It even has wheel spray and underspray and does a decent job of drying.

I've also used the do-it-yourself wahs bays with good results. I bring my own pail, soap and towels for that.

I wouldn't use the ones that pull you through a track - the low profile tires and low underbody don't bode well for that...

Fritz the Cat

I used to use the spray-only, touchless, commercial car washes with my MX-6, where the unit moves over your car.

Until I noticed that the high pressure spray blasted the paint off my wheel covers ...

Overport

I personally wouldn't...last time my car was almost crashed and they did a crap job.

livitup

I'm probably going to get flamed for this, but I've been using commercial car washes on all my cars for over 10 years. My BMW even came with a "caring for your car's interior and exterior finishes" that said good quality commercial car washes are fine.

Now I don't generally keep cars for more than 4 years or so, but I've never actually seen any detrimental effects on paint that can be attributed to car washes.

The thing to watch out for is fine scratches. If you can do it without looking like a total psycho, try to look at a couple cars that just came out of the car wash you are considering. Especially black cars, which show scratches very easily. A high percentage of cars with fine scratches should be a clue to look for a different wash.

---A

MadRonin

The person who had a problem with an automatic car wash was D Menac 7. In his case a part of the touchless mechanism broke off and hit his car. The owner fixed his car.

At least that's the way I think I remember it.

Dinhx8

I too live in a cold enough winter to turn off hoses, but curious, has anyone done the do it yourself WITHOUT the luxury of 'spraying first'..etc...I.e., the ol fashioned, putting water in a bucket, putting soap in another, and washing the car. My question is: without the 'force' of a hose, is pouring water via a bucket on your car enough to remove the dirt prior to putting soap and stuff on it and wash?

Johnnyma45

Um...I would imagine no? or that it would take too long without a spray

MedicineMan

This thread makes me reflect on when I bought my first NEW car back in 1980. A Gold and Black 10th Anniversary 280 ZX (really wanted the RX-7). My neighbors in my apartment thought I was crazy when I would wash my car during our Texas winter, the water would freeze on my windshield when I would rinse it off. That car was my first love. I am so thankful I can love again.