speeddemon0712

I hear stories about how automated car washes are horrible for your paint. Some even rip off antennas, mirrors, etc...

I live in an apt now, so I don't have a driveway to a house I can hand wash my truck. Trust me, if I did, I wouldn't even be posting this. Anyways, although I've only been using automated car washes for 6 years, I've never once had an issue. I always fold in my mirrors, remove my antenna, and run my truck through the wash. Once I'm out, I park where the vacuums are and dry my truck off with a shamee. I then vacuum my floors and seats (cloth) and drive it home. Once home, I use a liquid detailer, then a liquid wax (every 3-4 washes), then clean my wheels and add tire shine to the tires, and I'm done. Never had swirl issues, no mirrors or antennas being ripped off, nothing.

The reason I never use the touchless car wash is because it never cleans my truck very well. Then I'm trying to dry my truck (which the blowers do a s**t job of) and I'm rubbing dirt into the paint. Plus, the lack of vacuums in these places is a bit irritating.

What is everybody else doing? What about if you live in an apartment, how do you clean your truck?

Martian

Oh boy. Prepare for some horror stories

speeddemon0712

I forgot to add, I sometimes will go to those washes where you put in some quarters and hand wash your vehicle yourself. My only beef with those is that stupid hose is constantly beating my truck when I'm using the foam brush. It's hard to get a good scrub and hold the hose from wacking my truck at the same time.

Ughhhhh, first world problem I suppose haha.

96grimreaper

Your truck is white so the marring, swirls and holograms coming from those things beating on your paint won't show up as bad......

Our city has a contract with one of the local car wash places that we take our patrol cars. I die a little inside when I have to take one through. Maybe it's because I've been detailing for years and have made lots of money fixing those car wash scratches but my suggestion is not only don't do it, don't even think about it.

Buy a couple of buckets, a microfiber wash mitt and go to the do it yourself car wash at night or during a slow time and hand wash your vehicle. Also don't use that foam brush, people use them on their wheels, tires and underside of the car so you are rubbing all their crap that came off their car on to your paint.

speeddemon0712

I do have a tendancy to buy white vehicles, so yeah I can understand that. Somebody else told me to do the same thing. I've thought about it but never acted. I'll have to try that, it definitely seems like the best route to go to save my paint in the long run.

WXman

Here's what I sometimes do:

Go to local car wash, enter a DIY bay, insert $2.00 and put a nice layer of soapy water on the truck, then use the remainder to fill my bucket that I bring with me.

Wash the truck by hand really good.

Insert $2.00 more bucks and use the rinse cycle to clean the truck off and clean out my bucket and sponge.

Best wash you can get, and it only costs $4.00.

Plus, it allows you to get the road salt off the undercarriage with high pressure rinse during winter.

96grimreaper

Honestly, it really depends on how much effort you want to put into it. The average person doesn't look at swirls and scratches the way a car enthusiast does and a very small percentage of car enthusiasts look at paint the way I do. It's a blessing and a curse to have the "detailer's eye" lol

There are horror stories of people losing mirrors, dents, whipping antennas etc...but most likely the worst you're going to end up with is surface scratches and if they don't bother you, I wouldn't worry about it. If you want nice, glossy, deep paint, hand wash it. All those micro scratches and swirls actually take away from the gloss and depth of the shine.

SCORGE

Calling 650nutkase! Come out!

96grimreaper

This is an example of what I'm talking about. This is a 6k mile Roush Mustang 427R I detailed this weekend. The entire car looked like it had 100k miles worth of nobody caring about it's paint. I'd bet anything the only time this thing was washed prior to the current owner was a car wash with all the brushes.

Notice all the marring, and scratches, especially towards the front of the hood.


Here you can see it a little better under the halogen after I hit it with compound.


You can really see the difference with the led light.


Little bit of bragging but more of an example of what those things do.

speeddemon0712

I keep hearing this more and more, I will have to try it. Thank you very much!