Car wash at coin op and polish at home?

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jellygo

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Hello everyone. First time posting and lurking around for a while.

I live in a LA townhouse where I have my own garage but no access to water. But, there is a coin car wash 7 minutes away from my home.

I'm thinking of cleaning wheels, car washing, iron x, and claying then dry with my own cordless leaf blower at coin op car wash. Then drive back home to compound and polish.

Is this sounds okay? Is there anything I should be careful about?

I wish I had access to hoses and water...:cry::cry::cry::cry:
 
I’m no expert but my guess is 7 minutes could end up being a long time to drive and you’ll end up getting the car all dusty and dirty again so you’d probably end up having to do a waterless wash once you got home and even then no guarantee your not gonna miss some dirt


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I agree with Bgates. Do a waterless wash or an generous QD wipe. There’s a decent chance something harmful may stick to the car during that 7 min drive. You don’t want to pick it up in the polishing pad and wreak havoc.
 
I would look into a rinseless wash. All you need is 2 Buckets with grit guards and the necessary applicators and MF towels and you are good to go. As for a waterless wash....only if you can't Rinseless wash. I do not waterless wash FWIW.

BTW, in 7 minutes from the coin wash you would accumulate dust and debris. Something that I would not consider.
 
jellygo said:
Hello everyone. First time posting and lurking around for a while.

I live in a LA townhouse where I have my own garage but no access to water. But, there is a coin car wash 7 minutes away from my home.

I'm thinking of cleaning wheels, car washing, iron x, and claying then dry with my own cordless leaf blower at coin op car wash. Then drive back home to compound and polish.

Is this sounds okay? Is there anything I should be careful about?

I wish I had access to hoses and water...:cry::cry::cry::cry:
Click to expand...

I have done that many times. When I get home, I simply go over the car with a quick detailer just before polishing to ensure I am working on a clean surface. It has worked well for me.

Regarding commercial car washes, be very careful. Many of them absolutely will scratch the heck out of your car! They generally have a horrible reputation among detailers for this reason. Actually on second thought, they have also provided many a detailer with job security as well!
Best options if you are limited to commercial car washes is to use ones that are "touch-free." In other words, no brushes contact the car. It simply sprays on soap, then rinses it clean. A second option would be the "self-serve" type where you pull into a bay and spray wash it with the spray wand provided. This can be a very good option as you could also bring your own wash bucket(s) and supplies and wash it by hand yourself using the spray wand as your water supply.
 
No problems at all. I've done it several times and will do it again next week.

Next week's drive, though, will be closer to 15-20 minutes.

I too, am in the LA area.

My process for upcoming "detail" will be something like this:

- Drive to self serve coin-op. with my bucket and several wash mitts
- pre-wash setting for the heavy duty soap
- rinse
- chemical decon
- rinse
- use my pre-filled bucket with soap/water and hand wash the car
- rinse

not gonna bother drying - the drive back home will dry most of it

- waterless wash / clay
- dry thoroughly
- polish, etc.

take pics and done
 
I hear you. I’m in LA and when I lived in an apartment I was using coin ops.

You’d definitely need to do some washing back at home. What I would do is go to the coin op, use their pressure washer for initial rinse, wheels, and anything tough, and then come home and do a rinseless wash. You could probably do that then start claying, etc, at home. Good luck!
 
I do this during the winter, and then do a rinseless wash in the garage.
 
The coin-ops around me say "No bucket washes." They even have cameras and the owners will show up and tell you to leave. I can't figure out why it's a problem, but it is.
 
KirkH said:
The coin-ops around me say "No bucket washes." They even have cameras and the owners will show up and tell you to leave. I can't figure out why it's a problem, but it is.
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Some around me as well. But I haven't seen owners show up. I tend to do that type of was either very early, or late at night, as to not interfere with regular business patrons. So I'm usually alone when I do pull out a bucket
 
KirkH said:
The coin-ops around me say "No bucket washes." They even have cameras and the owners will show up and tell you to leave. I can't figure out why it's a problem, but it is.
Click to expand...

We used to have one in my town (before all of the tourism took over).

Same deal. They didn't want you to take up any more time in the bay than the timer gave you, or else they'd lose a dollars worth of quarters "from the next guy". :dunno:
 
JustJesus said:
what's funny is I usually get 20$ worth of quarters for the several rinse sessions while I'm there.
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I probably should have mentioned it was 20 years ago since they removed ours. Lol
 
On the matter of taking to much time in the wash bay, I would often wait until after 5PM to go to the car wash. All the staff is usually gone by then.
 
I'm in self serve and automatic car wash business. Bucket washing hurts revenue, sometimes substantially if it gets out of hand. People are in a rush these days and will not wait very long if at all before they'll drive off. bucket washing slows throughput and increases the chances of drive offs. A lot of operators tolerate bucket washing in the off hours(evenings and weekday mornings) but during peak hours it's just too busy to allow it.
 
gregpack said:
I'm in self serve and automatic car wash business. Bucket washing hurts revenue, sometimes substantially if it gets out of hand. People are in a rush these days and will not wait very long if at all before they'll drive off. bucket washing slows throughput and increases the chances of drive offs. A lot of operators tolerate bucket washing in the off hours(evenings and weekday mornings) but during peak hours it's just too busy to allow it.
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Hello gregpack. Congratulations on your business! I agree, taking up wash bay time during high volume times is inconsiderate. In my case, I always made an effort to avoid those times and it seemed to work for all. I actually enjoyed it more during the "off-peak" times as there were no kids with radios blasting. Kinda peaceful actually.
As for the original poster, one thought might be to utilize his local commercial wash bay either very early in the morning, or the night before he intends to perform his full detail at home. He gets what he needs, and the volume of traffic is uninterrupted.
 
gregpack said:
I'm in self serve and automatic car wash business. Bucket washing hurts revenue, sometimes substantially if it gets out of hand. People are in a rush these days and will not wait very long if at all before they'll drive off. bucket washing slows throughput and increases the chances of drive offs. A lot of operators tolerate bucket washing in the off hours(evenings and weekday mornings) but during peak hours it's just too busy to allow it.
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This is a fair comment and why when on the few times I have done it, I do in off hours.
 
I do this when my car is quite dirty. First I blast the big dirt and wheel wells off with the power washer. Then I wash with car with my bucket. If I'm going to polish, then I feed more dollars in and coat the car in pre-wash. This makes a great claying lubricant, and I clay the car. Then I feed more dollars and rinse the car and end w/ a spotless rinse. I then dry the car. I am 8 blocks from the car wash. I get home and I'm ready to polish. I always dust panels before I polish because there's no guarantee dust, bugs etc. won't settle on a stationary car.

I am sensitive to taking time in the bay. At my local car wash, there are two self-serve bays. I've never been there and had anyone occupy the other bay, much less wait for the bay I'm using. The full wash seems to get pretty good use though.

BTW, if you are polishing, the wash step goes faster because you don't have to be quite as careful about the finish.

Double BTW, ever try claying, then using Iron-X? Very little "turning red" going on with the paint after claying, except on the wheels (which are a PITA to clay).
 
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