Charity car wash ideas

[Cruzscarwash]

So we are going to hold a charity car wash. In exchange for a wash we are taking food donations to help get the local food banks stocked before the holidays.

So my question is what would you buy to wash these cars?? Last time we did this alot of people didn't want to have random touching thier paint, which I don't blame them. So was thinking if doing a foam gun, wool MIT's, Rinse buckets with guards and then drying towels. Maybe compressed air if there is an outlet near the area.

What soap would be the most economical?? Or do you have some other ideas?

 

[Real Riders]

Here is what I would use for a charity car wash and i would purchase everything at Wal Mart in one trip

* Wal Mart buckets - no grit guards
*All purpose sponges
* Lowest price soap (on sale)
*Absorber chamois
*Terry cloth and low price microfiber towels
*Amor All dressing
*wash mop for tall vehicles
*Simple Green APC
*Soft tire brushes

 

[ViperGuy21]

Any cheap buckets, grit guard in rinse bucket, MEGS Gold Class is very good, and pretty cheap. Highest quality mits you can find, Costco MF, absorber towels I guess(I've never used them myself so I don't really know), cheap degreaser or APC for wheels and tires, a cheap stiff bristle brush for tires, softer one for wheels.

I highly disagree with the above recommendation for sponges, cheapest soap, terry towels(can be used for wheels/tires, but that's not that important in this case I don't think), the armor all(oh gosh, please no), the wash mop...stand on tires, chairs, or a ladder instead, and I don't think a soft tire brush will do much to actually scrub tires.

This is my opinion, but I hope it helps!

 

[VISITOR]

cw&g would be a good choice (cleans well due to the citrus) as only 1 ounce or less to three-five gallons of water will go a long way as you're doing many cars. use a leaf blower to help dry the cars...

 

[BM1024]

My son's high school club ran a car wash last year. He knows that I would never let strangers touch my car and figured there must be lots of people like me so he came up with an alternate plan. Instead of washing in a random parking lot he found a local convenience store chain that is friendly to charity car washes and setup an one of their locations that had a "touchless" car wash.

Assuming people who paid to have their cars washed by one of "those dang damage machines" (my words) wouldn't be too nuts about their finish. His groups offered "after wash" detail services including:

*Window Cleaning
*Hand drying (and quick wipe of missed spots
*Wheel wipedown (cheap rags and Simple Green)
*Spray wax and buffing (Thanks Autogeek for the great sale on D156 yast year - the 2 gallons lasted all day!)

They made a lot of money for their trip, saved themselves lots of work, and people were REALLY happy to have the "detail" service. Plus the store made more money on washes than average that day.

Good luck.