How dones one PRACTICALLY wash the car when circumstances make a hand wash impossible?
I travel a lot on business, staying in extended stay hotels during the week, and right now, am able to drive 200 miles each way to be at home for each weekend with my family.
At home, even if my wife would tolerate my spendng time with the car instead of her, the apartment complex prohibits washing of vehicles outside your garage, and in fact, makes sure you won't by failing to provide outside water spigots. At the hotels, there is of course no practical way of getting running water to the car. I suppose I could drag bucket after bucket of water from the room to the car in the parking lot, but let's face it, this would get old pretty quickly, and keeping the soap from drying on the car would be darn near impossible.
My Z06 is still just 9 days old. I evaded the car wash question nicely last week, when the car wash located near the hotel ran a special where they hand washed your car for $20, using real people, soft cloths, and continuous water from a hose. I don't think they plan to do this regularly.
If I have to go through an automated wash, besides looking for the obvious two things:
1) the wash can handle my car's stock low ground clearance
2) the wash can handle the wide tires
what do I look for to ensure a good but non-damaging wash?
My car is absolutely a daily driver, not a show car, so I'm not what you'd call picky. But, I would like to mnimize any longterm degradation of the car's finish. Obviously, just washing it versus not washing it is a good thing, but I'd like to get the best quality washes I can consistent with reasonable practicality and availability.
Just find a self serve manual spray wash. Not the greatest option but will keep it looking good. Just remember the pressure is very high at those places so dont get the nozzle too close to areas that you wouldn't want to pressure inject with water such as wheel areas, tail light sockets etc.
Same as above but bring your wash bucket, mit ect.. and wash at your leasure. You can keep your car in nice shape doing this also will get you out of you hotel (did this for a couple of years) once and a while.
I too have used touch less car washes, both the
"do it yourself" and the auto touch less. I have not found that the car has been either to low or the tires to wide in the "automatic touch less" I have found that the touch less car wash is a good way to keep a "clean" car clean. If by chance you actually get it dirty, like hitting a piece of const. area, actual mud or something, that almost takes hand washing. I hit a short detour and ended up in about 1 mile of rain soaked crushed rock It took some time to get all of that off the car. My Z is also a "driver" not everyday or all the time but as much as I can.
( Z does not do well in a foot of snow)
a water blade will help you with the drying time, finish up with a soft towel.
I'm gathering from the replies so far that automatic drive-through washes are not a good idea.
Even cloth versus brush type?
Do they eventually degrade the finish of the paint?
I don't like the "touchless" washes, either automatic or do-it-yourself, as I think any pressure spray at the car is bad (water getting where it should not), and I've always found that immediately after coming out of such a wash, rubbing a clean cloth over the surface of the vehicle leaves a visible dirt deposit on the cloth. There's no substitute for physical contatc of the cleaning media.
Using the self-wash booth is definately the 2nd best method. You control the nozzle, so you can spray the areas you don't want high pressure around from far away. I haven't had a problem yet myself from spraying the wrong spot with high pressure but I've never thought about it either. A bonus is that you can spray underneath your car which you usually can't do at home. Gotta keep those nice mufflers clean!
Go to one of those coin-op self serve car wash places, and bring your own bucket, sponge or wash mit, and chamois. Use the car wash's water to rinse the car and fill your bucket (bring your own soap too). Wash the car like you are at home using your sponge or mit. Rinse the car off with the water from the coin-op machine, then dry your car off with your own chamois. Do NOT use the coin-op machine's foaming brush to wash your car (but I'm sure you know that already )
So basically its the same as washing your car at home, except its costing you some quarters to rinse your car while washing.
This is the way I washed my car when I lived in an apartment complex for 2 years that didn't allow or provide for car washing. It worked well.
__________________ '02 Z06 , Electron Blue, Vortex intake, Magnaflow X-pipe, Corsa Indy, Stainless Works LT headers, LS1 Edit, TB bypass, Hurst, MGW Gripper, Born 2/20/02 380 rwhp / 363 rwtq
Same problem here, I live in a condo with a home owners association. we can't wash our cars at all because of the water restrictions in Atlanta. What I do is take the car to a touch less and pull around and spend about 30 min. drying it off. Then, head home and take a bucket and finish the job right. My car is a daily driver and it has to look good.
__________________
Throttle Body Coolant Bypass, 180 Degree Thermostat, Max Modified Air Flow Sensor, GHL 3 1/2" BullsEye exhaust, Low Resistance MSD Red Wires, Low Resistance Plugs, Custom Computer Programming, 12 disk CD player, lowered 1 1/2", Ported-Polished Throttle Body
On my return trip to Denver after Museum delivery,
I washed the Z at the Hotels where I stayed. They
had a garden hose which I used. The hard part was
finding a parking spot within reach of the hose.
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'02 EB Z06 Museum delivery 9/13/01
Lloyds Z06 mats, Borla Quad Stingers, Power antenna, Sill protectors,A&A Frame Savers, Ceramic pads, CLB, V1, Tinted Windows, Partition, 3rd brake light flasher, hood seal, trunk liner, Cover for the hole in the trunk that everything falls into.
Here is what I think you should do. I used to detail for Nissan so I have some experience with this field. I would apply two or three layers of wax and polish as your foundation on the paint. Buy yourself some Meguires Quick Detailer and spay it on the entire car when it gets dirty. shouldnt take more than 45min for entire car. The Detailer coats every dust and dirt particle with a gel coating which does not allow it to scratch the paint. You could even spay a section that is completely covered in dirt and mud and you would be good to go. Make sure you do not spay it in direct sunlight. I would stay inside the garage when doing this. It will leave you with a shine like you had just waxed it. Make sure you spray on the car, whip with a clean section of the cloth and then wipe dry with a different clean cloth. If you dont feel comfortable doing this, try it on a section not visible to the eye and see the results for yourself. There are several different products on the market. Armor All has one as well that works great too.
I never wash my car with water. Water is the worst thing you could put on you paint. It gets between the door jams and after awhile you start to see rust on the hinges and the rubber around the windows start to dry rot due to the wet then dry process. Once the car is clean, about once a month go ahead and wax the car again inside your garage out of the sun.
This process I mentioned above will allow your paint to look its best all the time. 5 years down the road, your paint will still look brand new.
I take mine to a local place now where everything is done by hand and there are no tracks. They just pull it into a garage and hand wash it while I watch. They actually do a great job...$12.50 inside and out.
What happened to mine is it got hung up on the track, the dollies went under the wheels, and then the Z came crashing down and broke the fender.
__________________ Frank QS/Black 2001 Z06
Katech Stage II Heads and Cam, Katech Ported and Polished Throttle Body, 36# Injectors, FLP Headers, High Flow Cats and X-Pipe, Vortex Rammer & Power Duct, BPP Performance Shifter, MSD Wires, Beru Spark Plugs, Lloyds Mats, Chrome Z06 Wheels, Euro Tail Lights ....I AM BONE STOCK!!
Sherylann BLK/Black 2001 Z06
Vortex Rammer & Power Duct, Chrome Z06 Wheels, Lloyds Mats, Shortened stock shifter with MOMO knob
You guys sure come up with lots of methods. Glad I asked.
The "waterless" method sounds intriguing, BUT I just couldn't bring myself to wipe my car's paint without it first being VERY wet.
The "do it like at home while at the do-it-yourself wash" method sounds like maybe the safest and least expensive, but I noticed that the ones nearby have posted signs prohibiting using their bays while the clock is not running. i.e. they don't allow putting in the $1 worth of quarters, then rinsing your car, and then filling your bucket and washing it properly after your $1 worth of quarters expires, and then putting in another $1 to get rinse water, and then drying the car.
I guess I understand their point of view: they want the bay generating continuous revenue, not $2 over the course of a half to three quarters of an hour.
I'm starting to entertain the notion of asking the local full service car wash how much they'd charge me to do a hand wash if I prepaid for 6 to 10 of them. When they did the $20 special last week, they seemed to be really conscientious. And, if I went that route, anytime I wanted to do a hand waxing, I could do it right in the mall parking lot next door to them right after the wash.
I don't pay much attention to the signs at the hand wash places. However, I understand why they are present so I wash my car at odd times so nobody is there to complain. Many times I even get up an hour early (5:00am) and head down there on my way to work.
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