[bigwil1]

you can wash your car in the spring and summer with kid gloves but in the dead of winter in columbus ohio your stuck you have to use automatic car washes. is the touchless washes better?

 

[360ci]

I use coin operated washes during the winter. They're MUCH better. Touchless (automated) washes aren't good to use during winter. Even if temps are below freezing I'd stay away. I own and operate two, and laugh when it's -40C outside and people want a vehicle wash even though I have the CLOSED sign out front. It's the chemicals in the soaps and corrosion inhibitors that aren't good for your paint when they freeze; so when you go home and park your baby in the garage, the clumps of goo that froze to the vehicle start to melt, and can cause long term paint damage if done repeatedly. Besides, touchless washes don't get off the grime that stays on the vehicles surface. It's the equivalent to taking a shower in cold water, and not using any soap or shampoo. Would you want to be seen in public after with greasy hair? lol...didn't think so.

 

[w3ap0n-x]

I have a garage with a heater and a drain in the floor.

 

[whatever]

I have a garage with a heater and a drain in the floor.

Now that would be nice. It looks like I need to come and visit you in the winter.

Mark.

 

[w3ap0n-x]

Bit of a long drive for a detail! Lol.

Also...I don't know about Iowa but Illinois still uses salt. Guaranteed rust maker. I am quite disciplined about washing out the underbody of cars and the two winters that my convertible was my daily driver caused a disturbing amount of rust on the belly pans and other steel parts.

Now that would be nice. It looks like I need to come and visit you in the winter.

Mark.

 

[whatever]

Yea they use salt here also. I wash my car at least once a week in the winter to be safe.

Mark.

 

[Fischer]

Dont forget, the touchless washes strips your wax right off... Even then it doesnt remove all the dirt.

 

[360ci]

I have a garage with a heater and a drain in the floor.

I don't mean to hijack or anything here, but rather add-on...so here goes:

I had a SWEET heated garage (my old one). It was nearly 36' long and 14' wide inside with a 12' high ceiling; had a 10x10 garage doors on either end with one way glass and insulated panels. I had a commercial heater installed (similar to one's you'd see at costco, but a touch smaller), that put out 150K BTU/hr. Looked close to this one (top right in first pic, below)

The only thing was, with my old garage, you'd wash a vehicle in there just fine (wooden cabinets protected my $80K cigarette inventory), but the drain in the floor was 14' long covered over with a thick metal mesh screen (see photo), and the drain was a pipe, on the SIDE toward the top, so a lot of times the suds would run all over the ground since the water level would be 1" from the top of the grate, lol. It was OK if you used very little soap. Anyway, these photos are a few years old now and I no longer own this garage or the Dodge Spirit, but you'll get the idea of how much space I had.

After a 2' snowfall in -30C temps, the garage heater would completely dry my vehicle off in under twenty minutes!

 

[GTDr1v3r]

Whats winter? We don't have those in Florida, right now its 84 degrees! No Snow, No Salt, No Rust, No Problems!

Move to Florida, there's a solution!

 

[Ensur3]

I wish that was a solution everyone could follow.
As for me, i just use the quarter spray washes. Bring all my stuff i usually have and then use the power washer provided.

 

[gt08]

Yea winter sux I just washed mine yesterday it was only 6 degrees but I also have a heated garage.... before that though the 6 would go almost a month with out a bath

 

[solidhadriel]

GTDr1v3r, in Southern California we're still not sure what this "Winter" is... It looks to be about 70* already this morning with clear sunny skies. I think Winter is a myth...

 

[Ensur3]

Its definitely no myth..

Thats what we live with..

 

[geewhiz]

you can wash your car in the spring and summer with kid gloves but in the dead of winter in columbus ohio your stuck you have to use automatic car washes. is the touchless washes better?

To answer your question here's what I'm going to start doing; take my G6 to w3ap0n-x's house and let him wash it!

 

[gapotts]

My car is covered in mud and salt. I need to wash it.

 

[GTDr1v3r]

GTDr1v3r, in Southern California we're still not sure what this "Winter" is... It looks to be about 70* already this morning with clear sunny skies. I think Winter is a myth...

HaHa I would have to agree on the myth part, we have a cold front coming through the low is like in the 50's and high is in the upper 70's..... right now its 74 with clear blue skies and that's at 830 in the morning.

 

[Earl Flynn]

I was going to go touchless but I ended up finding a nice wash at Speedway where there bushes aren't too bad. The main thing I had to do before it got cold was put two coats of wax on the car. My main thing with the auto is the humans that use the brushes before it goes through. One of them scratched my car REALLY bad last winter.

 

[y84pauloflondon]

What I've done with my work/personal truck is that once its cold and frozen outside, I stop washing it. I leave the frozen salt crap on it. My theory is that once salt comes out onto the roads there really no point in washing. Wet salt will do more harm then frozen salt! During the winter, it will ALWAYS be covered in salt no matter how many times I wash it!

 

[jetmech_5]

I drive a beater with a heater in the northern Illinois winter.

99 Saturn SC2. Don't use allot of gas but uses lots of oil...lol

Have a strange rattle in the front end can't figure out what it is. Replaced the struts and bearings. Guess I will drive it to failure then I will know....haha

Saturn's don't rust much either. Goes through snow good.

 

[Lampoon]

70 degrees yesterday....