Washing your vehicle during the winter months.

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05on20s

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Good Evening. Let me start first saying that I did do a search and at least saw articles about rinse-less car washing and the post your provided on when would you consider is a decent level of dirty on the vehicle before washing. That was a very detailed and great post sir. My truck actually falls in the middle right now with the snow and salt that has been on my truck for the past 2 days (Yes I know, a cleaning is mandatory). Since the no rinse is not going to work for me, I was thinking about going to one of the car wash places with the brushes but I have a bad feeling about them since I have seen people use them on there rims and tires. Is there anything you would recommend some do first before going to one of those car wash places? Also on a side note: I just recently bought a house I know your suppose to turn off the water to your outside spigot. If we ever finally get a day above 32 degrees, do you think it would be safe if I turn the water on to my outside spigot just to wash the cars for that day? My guess is it would have to be about 40 degrees?
 
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You could use a coin operated wash to pressure rinse the big stuff then rinseless at home.
 
if you turn on your outside line to wash the only thing you want to do is drain the hose afterwords and if possible turn the supply to the outside off and let the outside portion drain before you close it. The cold only does damage when it freezes water and it exspands and cracks things.
 
Take two buckets w/lid half filled with warm water from home. Put shampoo/conditioner in one w/mitt, and keep the other with warm water. Use the two bucket method and wash your car at the facility, use the pressure washer to rinse and brush for rims and tires. Hope it helps... =0)
 
:welcome: To AutoGeek!

I try do do as much when I'm home but there are those times that I need to be creative!

If one of my vehicles need a bath and it's too cold here's what I do.

Home

I mix up a 5 gallon bucket of hot water, my favorite car wash then pop the top on it and in the back of the truck it goes. Included in my arsenal is a car wash brush, wash mitt, and a pair of rubber gloves.

Car Wash

Use their pressure washer with high pressure water only. This blasts allot of the grime, salt, and debris off the finish.

Next the car wash brush and my soapy solution. I wash the surface liberally cleaning it with the soapy solution dipping the brush several times so that the dirt particles fall from the bristles. Rinse the surface with high pressure water only.

Follow this up by washing the entire vehicle thoroughly with the mitt and soapy solution paying particular attention to all areas. Rinse the surface with high pressure water only and be sure to clean under the fender wells.

Home

Drive home and dry the truck in a heated garage. Wax the surface as needed for continued protection.
 
took your all advice and used hot water bucket and took it to spray car wash to get heavy stuff off and used the hot water to wash. Only thing is had to use the car wash to hose off w/ cold water. I think I burned 300 calories running around my truck drying it off :)
 
Trumbo_S10 said:
took your all advice and used hot water bucket and took it to spray car wash to get heavy stuff off and used the hot water to wash. Only thing is had to use the car wash to hose off w/ cold water. I think I burned 300 calories running around my truck drying it off :)
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Calories that you now use for beer :xyxthumbs:
 
killrwheels@autogeek said:
Why not use ONR ???
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I go to the hose-it-yourself place to rinse the salt and sand off. Then it's home to the garage and a bucket of very warm water with ONR. This has preserved my sanity and my car's finish both last winter and so far this winter.

I use the rinse option only at the car wash. I do this because the amount of salt and sand on the vehicle looks almost like 80 grit sandpaper.
 
Touchless car wash then home to the warm garage for a no rinse wash.
 
I have been using a really nice brand new Car wash place. They have several bays and a state of the art touchless and/or soft touch brush wash. I don't go through the touchless I just use the bays. The bays have High Pressure Air Guns to dry the vehicle and a Foaming Suds Gun to suds it up. All kinds of sweet features. There are about a dozen rinse settings, I just use high pressure spotless rinse. Also even a raised metal platform (4 steps up) on the sides of 2 bays so you can get the roof of big tall vehicles. I met the owner and he gave me a wash card $20 worth of time. Doesn't mind me drying/detailing/waxing my vehicle in the bay. Well he was talking to me for 1.5 hours while I was doing the KSG and he gave me a wash card while I was talking to him about KSG and he was explaining how the touchless works. In the summer I come late in the evenings or 6 am. Winter it has been slow for the bays. Most folks are using the touchless.
Here you can see it. The Wave Carwash I usually opt for the bay on the far left. You can see the raised platform on the second bay from the left.

I just go there when it is slow and do my 2 bucket wash. Then I dry and hand wax. Like having my own state of the art wash facilities. I will either just do a quick 2bucket wash but if it is a nice day in the winter I will throw on a quick coating of KSG and treat the plastic with some Meguiar's Ultimate Protectant.


I use 2 buckets. I fill a cooler with hot water and a few 64 oz jugs with hot water. Enough hot water to fill 2 buckets. I squirt an ounce of Meguiar's Gold Class Car Shampoo into a bucket and then blast it with the high pressure water to create suds, maybe filling it 1/4 full. Then I top off with my hot water.
 
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1flyfisher said:
I have been using a really nice brand new Car wash place. They have several bays and a state of the art touchless and/or soft touch brush wash. I don't go through the touchless I just use the bays. The bays have high pressure air guns to dry the vehicle and a Foaming suds gun to suds it up. All kinds of sweet features. Also even a raised metal platform (4 steps up) on the sides of 2 bays so you can get the roof of big tall vehicles. I met the owner and he gave me a wash card $10 worth of time. Doesn't mind me drying/detailing/waxing my vehicle in the bay. In the summer I come late in the evenings or 6 am. Winter it has been slow for the bays. Most folks are using the touchless.
Here you can see it. The Wave Carwash I usually opt for the bay on the far left. You can see the raised platform on the second bay from the left.

I just go there when it is slow and do my 2 bucket wash. Then I dry and hand wax. Like having my own state of the art wash facilities. I will either just do a quick 2bucket wash but if it is a nice day in the winter I will throw on a quick coating of KSG and treat the plastic with some Meguiar's Ultimate Protectant.
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Where do i have to move so I can use this car wash?!?! :drool:Air guns?? Foam gun?? I think im going to faint.

Edit: just clicked on the link. Looks like im moving to Reno :cruisin:
 
Just a word of warning to using too much water in your garage. I did THIS 2500 GMC pickup last weekend (you can see how dirty it was) and I squeegeed the water out the door several times. The following morning I was walking to my car and fell on the ice. I went down so fast it was shocking. I smashed my head on the driveway (didn't knock a damned bit of sense into me, LOL) and twisted my artificial knee to boot. The temps have stayed well below freezing so the salt I put out there did nothing. Try to plan when the temps at least get above freezing so you don't hurt yourself like I did.
 
richy said:
Just a word of warning to using too much water in your garage. I did THIS 2500 GMC pickup last weekend (you can see how dirty it was) and I squeegeed the water out the door several times. The following morning I was walking to my car and fell on the ice. I went down so fast it was shocking. I smashed my head on the driveway (didn't knock a damned bit of sense into me, LOL) and twisted my artificial knee to boot. The temps have stayed well below freezing so the salt I put out there did nothing. Try to plan when the temps at least get above freezing so you don't hurt yourself like I did.
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ouch! sorry to hear that. Garage floors are the worst when they ice up. One time I got out of my car in a DIY car wash bay near my house. It was a little below freezing and I tried getting out of my car inside the bay and I fell and smacked my head on the door of my car. It hurt a bit but I was alright. The funny part was that the car wash bay is very slanted to run off all the water into the water drain. Lets just say I had a very hard time getting back up and if I didn't have something to hold on to I would have been screwed lol.
 
I wish I did have a heated garage but even if I did the truck will not fit :(
 
1flyfisher said:
I have been using a really nice brand new Car wash place. They have several bays and a state of the art touchless and/or soft touch brush wash. I don't go through the touchless I just use the bays. The bays have High Pressure Air Guns to dry the vehicle and a Foaming Suds Gun to suds it up. All kinds of sweet features. There are about a dozen rinse settings, I just use high pressure spotless rinse. Also even a raised metal platform (4 steps up) on the sides of 2 bays so you can get the roof of big tall vehicles. I met the owner and he gave me a wash card $20 worth of time. Doesn't mind me drying/detailing/waxing my vehicle in the bay. Well he was talking to me for 1.5 hours while I was doing the KSG and he gave me a wash card while I was talking to him about KSG and he was explaining how the touchless works. In the summer I come late in the evenings or 6 am. Winter it has been slow for the bays. Most folks are using the touchless.
Here you can see it. The Wave Carwash I usually opt for the bay on the far left. You can see the raised platform on the second bay from the left.

I just go there when it is slow and do my 2 bucket wash. Then I dry and hand wax. Like having my own state of the art wash facilities. I will either just do a quick 2bucket wash but if it is a nice day in the winter I will throw on a quick coating of KSG and treat the plastic with some Meguiar's Ultimate Protectant.


I use 2 buckets. I fill a cooler with hot water and a few 64 oz jugs with hot water. Enough hot water to fill 2 buckets. I squirt an ounce of Meguiar's Gold Class Car Shampoo into a bucket and then blast it with the high pressure water to create suds, maybe filling it 1/4 full. Then I top off with my hot water.
Click to expand...


Now that is a car wash:props:
 
You might want to try something like the Nomad Portable Washer. I got one on eBay for $45 and it can easily remove all the big stuff before I do ONR.
 
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