How to wash in freezing weather?

AutoApollo

AutoApollo

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Hey guys, just washed the car below 0 Celsius or 32 farenheit and it was a nightmare. Soap suds froze on the car, couldn't dry the car in time before it froze over. What's the best way to wash your car in the winter?
 
You can't defy the law of physics when it comes to freezing points of liquid.
The best thing to do is take stock and trust in your last LSP and go through the touch-less laser wash racks, select the option that doesn't include wax.

Or find an in-door wash rack, or shop with a drain.
 
One word..don't. Been there and done that. I love keeping up on the xterra, but below 32 is a losing battle. Unless you have a heated garage, you can do a rinsless or waterless. As mentoined above, i rely on my LSP and glass/trm/wheel coatings to take the brunt of winter. And when the weather does break, i do a normal wash.
 
If you have a garage, you can also buy one of those reclamation system pads and do it that way....

Or do an rinseless/waterless. Only real options there.
 
OTSDetail said:
If you have a garage, you can also buy one of those reclamation system pads and do it that way....

Or do an rinseless/waterless. Only real options there.
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Agree on the garage, disagree on the rinsless.

Right now our roads in NH are white top... from SALT. The cars are baked and caked in salt and sand. Rinsless would nearly be impossible. You can't even see the color of the car any more. Salt is everywhere...

At least with the touchless (as mentioned above) it will get under carriage, wheels, wheel wells and get all that caked salt off. But if your last LSP is strong (i.e. coating, Collinite, etc..) just a basic rinse and wash should be ok.

I had to do the same for my DD's...

Then we have melting, then another 3 days of snow coming next week... which means more salt to prevent black-ice from the re-freeze at night.

There is so much salt on the roads, I can taste it... I think a rinsless would be futile at this point.
 
Man I don't envy you guys, but I do feel for you. Just the word salt makes me cringe.
 
A good pre-rinse (pressure washer, coin-op wand, garden hose if need be) and waterless/rinseless works rather well.
 
If my dd gets to bad I'll do a touchless and then at home heat up the garage for a 2 bm rinseless and some spray wax
 
hoyt66 said:
If my dd gets to bad I'll do a touchless and then at home heat up the garage for a 2 bm rinseless and some spray wax
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:whs: I've done the same...works well and undercarriage gets a blast at the same time! :props:
 
As much as I enjoy detailing my car when the weather gets like this I just go to the touchless wash and as was mentioned, don't use the wax option. It kills me to haft to concede to the fact that detailing season is over for awhile during the brutal weather months. I use a really good LSP and then hope for some 40 degree days. I end up focusing more on the interior.
 
I see your from dutchess county I use to live nearby.
 
runrun411 said:
As much as I enjoy detailing my car when the weather gets like this I just go to the touchless wash and as was mentioned, don't use the wax option. It kills me to haft to concede to the fact that detailing season is over for awhile during the brutal weather months. I use a really good LSP and then hope for some 40 degree days. I end up focusing more on the interior.
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Same here. When it's crazy out, I would focus on the interior & windows. At least it helps easing the pain of having to drive around a caked up vehicle. The coldest I ever detailed was 38*. Nothing serious like many are dealing with. Was not fun at all. I couldn't imagine having to slave away in colder tempts. Yikes.

Btw, Happy New Year, my friend. A bit late, but just want to use this opportunity to wish you and loved ones a positive 2016. :cheers:
 
GSKR said:
I see your from dutchess county I use to live nearby.
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I bet you're in a nice place like Florida now.

BrutalNoodle said:
Same here. When it's crazy out, I would focus on the interior & windows. At least it helps easing the pain of having to drive around a caked up vehicle. The coldest I ever detailed was 38*. Nothing serious like many are dealing with. Was not fun at all. I couldn't imagine having to slave away in colder tempts. Yikes.

Btw, Happy New Year, my friend. A bit late, but just want to use this opportunity to wish you and loved ones a positive 2016. :cheers:
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Happy New Year to you too. About 40 degrees is as low as I'd go. I had some mid forties yesterday and said to myself all day "I'm gonna do an RW today". But after doing so many chores and running errands I ran out of time and the weather got cold. Doggone it. Now it's in the low twenties.
 
AutoApollo said:
Yeah it's 14 farenheit here
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14 sounds downright tropical to me this morning

Below 20F it gets very challenging without a heated garage.

Hot water for the pressure washer.
Work only on the sunny side of the car
Hot water in your buckets
Work one panel at a time.
Final rinse with Hot water
Pull it inside and use a hot rinseless wash to get anything that froze and to get your streak free shine.


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By using something that's
less wet...less water-y?

Perhaps something like a dri-wash. :D


Bob
 
FUNX650 said:
By using something that's
less wet...less water-y?

Perhaps something like a dri-wash. :D


Bob
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I think I would use xylene before Dri-wash. Xylene is good to -50F!

I would strongly suggest a respirator, bunny suit, gloves, eye protection, no smoking, no open flames and generally not using xylene for washing.
 
I did a RW with D144 and .25 oz UWW yesterday in the carport. 34° out and it was miserable. I do the GW method and had on my regular gloves with latex dish gloves over the top. The hardest part (aside from the cold) is not having a good feel for the towels as you're folding in different directions. It came out looking great though, as I expect it to!
 
Ah, yes, xylene... Clean your car & boost your octane. What's not to like. :laughing:

I was actually running a mixture to aid with pinging on a TRD supercharger for a while. Very glad I don't have to mess with that again.





jamesalanb said:
I did a RW with D144 and .25 oz UWW yesterday in the carport. 34° out and it was miserable. I do the GW method and had on my regular gloves with latex dish gloves over the top. The hardest part (aside from the cold) is not having a good feel for the towels as you're folding in different directions. It came out looking great though, as I expect it to!
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Exactly what I did. GD method with a warm D114 solution, with a gamma lid bucket to keep the heat in.
 
I one of the don't-wash-below-freezing crowd. When the weather is that cold, I don't even think about washing the car.

My approach is to just suffer with the salt and grime all over the car. Once a "warm" day in the 30's rolls around I'll hit a good touchless car wash which will get the majority of the crud off.

I don't even bother with waterless washes in those temps. I attempted some post-touchless waterless washes in my garage with near freezing temps and it was a mess. Streaks everywhere and the product really didn't work well.
 
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