Automatic car wash YUCK!!!

[ZimRandy]

Amazing.

Makes me think of this.....

 

[toycar18]

Great work.

What a ####### dumbass!!!

 

[Aaryn NZ]

To be honest Aaryn, the finish came out so nice in a couple of photos I thought you repainted it! I had no idea the paint had a decent flake in it until after you corrected it! :laughing:

Geeze - thanks Bobby, thats a hell of a compliment. :dblthumb2:
Its a strange colour - reminds me of liquorice haha. All bar the last two photos outside are taken after compounding with M101, the M205 really sharpened it up. Eleven something at night i wasn't too focused on more photo taking though.
Cheers Bobby.
Aaryn.

Great work.

What a ####### dumbass!!!

Thanks buddy. :xyxthumbs:
Couldn't agree more.

 

[Aaryn NZ]

Amazing.

Makes me think of this.....

Thanks mate. :xyxthumbs:
Wow, i love it! Is that an actual add from Mothers??? I so want that blown up & stuck on my workshop wall! So cool! :dblthumb2:

 

[Aaryn NZ]

I've "heard" that the people that own/work for the companies that actually build automatic car washes don't like it when they see threads like this because they like to tell people "their" car washes are safe.



In my opinion, there's only three safe ways to wash a car.

1. Touchless Wash
This is where nothing but water and chemicals touch the paint. No brushes, no moppy things swishing back and forth over it. I have a customer that I applied GTechniq to her car and told her to ONLY use a touchless wash and she listened and her car always looks great and swirl free.


2. Owner washed
That's where "you" the owner take ownership of the car wash process and educate yourself, then arm yourself with quality products and then use good technique and "think" about what you're doing as you're doing it. That is focus on the task at hand and NO SCRUBBING the paint like the average Joe Consumer.


3. Hire a qualified Pro Detailer
This is the only other good option, that is to hire someone that hangs out on a forum like this one, has been to a class that teaches how to "touch" paint and be ready to pay them a fair price to carefully wash and dry your car.
​

There's really no other way. I suppose there are some commercial car washes with owners that are up to speed and probably because they hang out on this forum or have attended a class on proper car detailing and at "their" car wash they train their employees to wash a car carefully. But I also suppose these types of car washes are far and few between.


Here's some topical articles on car washing...

Scratch your car for $5.00

The reality of the 100% Hand Car Wash

Do you wash cars differently?

DON'T WASH CAR !!!!!!!!!!!



:autowash:

G'day Mike.
Awesome links to those articles Mike. I hadn't read them before & i'm sure others may not have either, so - thank you. Laughed & cringed reading the first one, always think how funny it would be to have a sign a bit further up the road after their $5 car wash sign saying "i fix $5 car washes". not really in the spirit of fund raising though.

p.s - 112 days until we make our way to Bootcamp . . . not 11 as i stated in my last reply doh. rops:

 

[dlc95]

Amazing.

Makes me think of this.....

That damage was caused by what's called an "in bay automatic", or "roll over". The car is parked and the machinery rolls over the vehicle, as in the one pictured. This wash that did the damage was using polyethylene filament fiber, or "bristle" brushes (like those in the advertisement), that probably were under lubricated, especially to cause that much damage so soon. The circular damage inside the of the lower rear wheel was caused by a misaligned wheel scrubber which employs a shorter extrusion, thus stiffer fiber, and more damage. In the early to mid 80's most of the industry had moved to "soft" cloth, and had done away with bristle. Today, more car washes are gravitating to foam brushes. One manufacturer even has wash mitt like material on their equipment (lammscloth).

In the Metro Detroit area we have one tunnel was that still uses all bristle. Back in the late 90's when I first started polishing paint, a company me dad worked for had an account with that wash, and it marked up all their vehicles! I was offered the job to polish the vehicles, but refused because I had no confidence in my abilities at the time. I had just purchased my rotary, and didn't have any experience with it yet.

I currently work at a car wash, and we use bristle brushes that hit the rocker panel area of the vehicle, and man they're brutal. I cringe when I see someone with a 7 series bmw, or a brand new Mercedes sl 600, or a Maserati go through there.... Especially after a super muddy car went through ahead of them. There is no way to stop the mud from dripping out of the cracks and crevasses, or moldings. Even when it hits our foam or cloth brushes, you get the wet sanding effect.

I've inspected the brushes after a muddy car has gone through, and there is plenty of sand and silt that remains on the wash media. Our Ukrainian manager describes the wash process as "grinding"!

Anyhow, great transformation to the OP!! That's how I like to practice on my beater. Go to work, run it through a few days in a row, and get to practicing.

 

[haris300]

I have never seen 50/50s like that before. Must have felt nice getting bringing that paint back to life. Great job.

 

[oldmodman]

I am going to use your thread as the reason to NEVER run a car through a machine wash tunnel. That is the most astonishing amount of damage I have ever seen from one pass through the "tunnel of death".

 

[AeroCleanse]

That's why I like scratch resistant paint coatings.

 

[Pinpoint_Precision]

Best and worse (horrible paint condition) 50/50s I have seen on a paint's finish. Great work man.

 

[Aaryn NZ]

I have never seen 50/50s like that before. Must have felt nice getting bringing that paint back to life. Great job.

Thanks mate. :xyxthumbs:
Yeah for sure, I try to forget what they did to it afterwards. Was fun seeing every pass making such a difference.

I am going to use your thread as the reason to NEVER run a car through a machine wash tunnel. That is the most astonishing amount of damage I have ever seen from one pass through the "tunnel of death".

Thank you! :xyxthumbs:
Shocking damage huh? Clearly see what done the damage, so makes for perfect pictures to put people off using them.

That's why I like scratch resistant paint coatings.

Not sure any type of coating would be too resistant to this auto wash - looks like someone held up a weed trimmer to the rear doors in the last few pictures. Doh.

Best and worse (horrible paint condition) 50/50s I have seen on a paint's finish. Great work man.

Thanks heaps/ :xyxthumbs:
Yeah, it was pretty dramatic. Was hard work but fun at the same time but then also in the back of my mind I did have concerns about how long it would last as no matter how much I explained not to use the auto wash etc (obvious too I thought) If they used it before, I feared they would again . . . :awman:

 

[Marc08EX]

That's seriously an unbelievable turnaround!!! And 16 hours for that kind of improvement is pretty dang fast!! AMAZING job!!! This is honestly an extreme make over!!!!

 

[Aaryn NZ]

That's seriously an unbelievable turnaround!!! And 16 hours for that kind of improvement is pretty dang fast!! AMAZING job!!! This is honestly an extreme make over!!!!

Thank you. :xyxthumbs:
16 hours just on the polishing stage, not including the prep work etc. Probably lost a little time answering the phone, dealing with other clients, lunch, dinner etc.
Working after normal shop hours is a bonus though, very few distractions. Self employment is a great motivator too.
Appreciate your comments. :dblthumb2:

 

[Kurtopia]

Simply incredible.

My jaw was on the floor for the entirety of the post. The 50/50 shots are unlike anything I've seen; amazing work.

My jaw dropped even lower once I came upon the "after after" shots. What a joke.

 

[Aaryn NZ]

Simply incredible.

My jaw was on the floor for the entirety of the post. The 50/50 shots are unlike anything I've seen; amazing work.

My jaw dropped even lower once I came upon the "after after" shots. What a joke.

Cheers buddy. :xyxthumbs:
Yeah, it was a huge transformation. Hours to fix & minutes to wreck . . . :nomore:

 

[Klasse Act]

I like how the car went from dull gray/black to metallic brown, great work on the Legacy B4!

 

[rwisejr]

Amazing 50/50's. Super save to bad it was short lived . Thanks for sharing.

 

[Aaryn NZ]

I like how the car went from dull gray/black to metallic brown, great work on the Legacy B4!

Amazing 50/50's. Super save to bad it was short lived . Thanks for sharing.

Thank you gentlemen. :xyxthumbs:
Appreciate all the feedback from everyone. Its nice to share with people that understand what it takes to do this kind of work.

Aaryn NZ! :buffing:

 

[jarred767]

Wow that paint was messed up and you really brought it back to life, almost looked like there a grey film over the car in those 50/50 shots. Too bad the customer didn't learn anything in the process.

Really nice work though!

 

[Aaryn NZ]

Wow that paint was messed up and you really brought it back to life, almost looked like there a grey film over the car in those 50/50 shots. Too bad the customer didn't learn anything in the process.

Really nice work though!

Thanks Jarred. :xyxthumbs:
I had seen this colour before a few times & knew if i could correct it enough it would look great. The paint being softish definitely helped.