Washing Cars Inside of Your Garage

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Washing Cars Inside of Your Garage


When I lived in Apple Valley, California back when I was working for Meguiar's and before coming to work for Autogeek, it was difficult to wash your car anytime other than early morning due to the heat, sun and wind. Apple Valley is in the high California Desert, part of the Mojave Desert so it's always windy and VERY dusty.

Temperatures in the summer were always hot throughout the day and the night and the coolest part of the day would always be early morning.

This made washing a car difficult, especially if the car was dark in color.

The Solution?

I washed cars in my garage.​

I had purchased a EZ-Up Canopy that came with 3 side wall curtains for mobile detailing and when I would take these plastic curtains and attach them to the sides of the walls to keep water from getting on all the stuff stored in your typical garage.

Worked for me...

If water pools on the floor instead of running outside then you can use a broom or get a floor squeegee and squeegee out the water after your final rinse, anything left will evaporate fast enough...

 

[Marc08EX]

What do you do when you splash water onto the drywall? Sometimes, water splatter can't be avoided when rinsing the car.

 

[PAR Detailing]

Thats a good idea Mike. I have been looking around at something that would enable me to wash inside the garage and not get everything soaking wet. Ill have to see what I can rig up.

 

[SeaJay's]

Could also use a couple tarps tacked up on the wall.

 

[CEE DOG]

Interesting you should post this Mike. I was just thinking about washing my car in my garage last weekend.... I usually get up in time to wash the Sky before the sun gets over the tree line. (Any other cars I am fine using the canopy.) Anyway I slept late and started thinking about this. I've rinsed it in there before after a wash but never done an all out spray down and wash. I have a 1 car garage so its tight and water would get everywhere but tarps on the wall might work good for me.

Btw: I see you are about to hit 2000 posts Jason.

 

[jbgrant]

Does anybody make a flexible water boom or berm for your garage? I just has this idea in my head and cannot find anything on the net. I'm picturing a hose reel with a 3" diameter super flexible weighted hose that conforms to the floor surface to direct water. Basically you would just lay it out around your car and the rinse water could be channeled out of your garage.

Similar concept as this Wash Mats but without a floor or defined shape.

 

[CEE DOG]

Does anybody make a flexible water boom or berm for your garage? I just has this idea in my head and cannot find anything on the net. I'm picturing a hose reel with a 3" diameter super flexible weighted hose that conforms to the floor surface to direct water. Basically you would just lay it out around your car and the rinse water could be channeled out of your garage.

Similar concept as this Wash Mats but without a floor or defined shape.

I was thinking about that as well. I was picturing the black landscaping plastic that you use for borders of flowers. something similar to that.


Picture from your link:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

What do you do when you splash water onto the drywall? Sometimes, water splatter can't be avoided when rinsing the car.

I just tried to be carefull, I re-painted the garage and used a good quality paint, don't remember the type but it was Behr, it never seem to cause any problems.

I used to get up real early in the morning, like when it was still dark out and wash our cars and my neighbor was a California State Police who also would be getting up and leaving for work and he would just laugh and shake is head... he wasn't a "Car Guy".

I did buff out his incredibly neglected Bronco and used it for an Extreme Makevover on MOL. Did the entire job by hand with ColorX.

Photos Courtesy of MeguiarsOnline

Here I placed some tape down the center of the passenger door to better show before and after.

Here's a close-up of the same area.

 

[NoBama316]

I put 4x8 plastic wall panels around the perimeter of my garage to protect the drywall, works like a charm and looks good too!

 

[jpegs13]

Hey Mike, is that a flat top hair cut I see there?

 

[TLMitchell]

I've washed in the garage for 20 years, when I see pics of folks washing in the sun I always wonder how they do that without dried soap and waterspots. When I built my secret lair the most important things were hot n cold water, drains and a 15,000 BTU heater in the garage. Just love driving a clean ride in the winter when everyone else is covered in crud.

Hey Mike, is that a flat top hair cut I see there?

What's the LSP... butch wax?

TL

 

[Gobeavs]

Me too. Drain in the floor, hot water, semi gloss paint with mildew resistance mixed in to help protect walls. Garage is big enough I can be careful and not get much on them anyway. Nothing better than being able to wash in the garage! rops:rops:rops:rops:rops:

 

[fishnugget]

Yep, I am getting ready to do this now. Too many outside variables like weather and kids that make washing outside dangerous for me. I got my squeegee and push broom.

 

[fishnugget]

...I used to get up real early in the morning, like when it was still dark out and wash our cars and my neighbor was a California State Police who also would be getting up and leaving for work and he would just laugh and shake is head... he wasn't a "Car Guy".

I can relate to this as well, my neighbors would probably be banging on my door if I got up this early to wash my car. Even now they think I am crazy for washing my car once a week.

I can only imagine what they will say once I start using a blower to speed up the drying process.

 

[budinsc]

always use a semi gloss or gloss to repaint your walls for partial/full water resistance. i learned the hard way. sheetrock and trim DO NOT like H20. as above i would use drapes on the walls first.

budinsc