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Car wash and detail experts

H

hitch

New CEG'er
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Messages
15
Location
NW GA
We are now in a total water ban here in the Atlanta area. I need to demonstrate my truck for customers, not full detail, but just clean. I need the underbed area free of mud and dirt also. The carwash sprayer does ok for that. I've always hand washed the painted surface as I don't like the spots the commercial places leave. I've seen the waterless car wash liquid, anyone use it? It seems to me that it would be rubbing the dirt on the paint while the cleaning process was going on, especially if you cannot rinse the road grime off first. The diy car wash places have the wand and usually a brush, but those brushes are so full of grit from the offroad guys I've never been comfortable with using them. I guess I could pay for the full service place, but I'm not confident they are not using gritty sponges and wash rags either. I carry my own sponge and dry cloth, but unless I start to tote a step stool I'll never be able to get the roof or center windsheld. Some of the full service places run you through the auto wash area and the automatic brushes are wacking the crap out of your paint. I just don't want the road grime etched into the paint before it is rinsed off.

How do the detail pros do it after a road trip without running water? I may have to open the 2:00 am car wash in the driveway but the threat is to turn your water off and a heafty fine. I hate having a grody truck.
 
no do not use the water less wash stuff sucks balls.

buy your own brush from the store. and just use the commercial places water to wash off your soap. and dry it youself. or come down to macon. and ill do it for ya:cool:
 
So if I understand it correctly.

Commercial place
Rinse, then use my own brush (I'll need an extension) and soap, not the stuff the commercial place provides.

Then rinse with the rinse water the commercial place offers, and dry with my fake chamois. What a PITA this will be until the rains catch up. I'm gonna hate smelling like the carwash all day.
 
correct. treat the carwash place as if it was your backyard/driveway. use your soap. your brush. your chamois. just utalize their high power wand for the undercarriage and engine bay. diff cover etc... just use their water
 
Using a brush will create swirl marks.

I use the coin-op places to rinse down (sometimes) and then go home and use Optimum No Rinse (ONR), it's rinseless, but not waterless. The basic idea is you have a bucket with 2 gals or so of water, add the ONR, and then wipe down and dry the car one panel at a time. Faster and easier than taking all your crap to the coin-op.

Here's a great how to link: http://www.autogeek.net/optimum-no-rinse.html
 
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Dude just use your own water hose, I am under a water ban also but you think I wont wash my car:laugh:

I use less water at my house then a carwash does, so it makes sense to me just to do it at home!
 
I know that at most DIY carwashes around here they have signs stating not to use your own supplies while in the car wash bay. Is it only like that in my neck of the woods?

Wash your truck at night, just watch those cameras!
 
You gotta realize that some of us have yard natzi's that want to report everything. I called the Sheriff on a neighbor's kids when they set my woods ( behind the house) on fire, and since then... She is looking for a way to report and get back at me. I think even if I took a bucket out to use mat2ksvt's method, she would call the popo on me. I got reported for doing a headgasket job in the driveway, car was only up on stands for two weeks. I've gotta build a shop with a floor drain.
 
hitch said:
You gotta realize that some of us have yard natzi's that want to report everything. I called the Sheriff on a neighbor's kids when they set my woods ( behind the house) on fire, and since then... She is looking for a way to report and get back at me. I think even if I took a bucket out to use mat2ksvt's method, she would call the popo on me. I got reported for doing a headgasket job in the driveway, car was only up on stands for two weeks. I've gotta build a shop with a floor drain.
Click to expand...

thats some bullsh..... at my uncle's in Villa Rica.. i was washing his trans am and got called on and was told i wasnt allowed to wash cars in drive ways. while 2 other neighbors did it....:nonono:
 
hitch said:
You gotta realize that some of us have yard natzi's that want to report everything. I called the Sheriff on a neighbor's kids when they set my woods ( behind the house) on fire, and since then... She is looking for a way to report and get back at me. I think even if I took a bucket out to use mat2ksvt's method, she would call the popo on me. I got reported for doing a headgasket job in the driveway, car was only up on stands for two weeks. I've gotta build a shop with a floor drain.
Click to expand...

I do mine at night in the garage with the door closed.
 
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