gizzsdad
01-22-2009, 01:14 PM
I have been intending on ranting a little about what a depressing winter it`s been around here(Iowa) to try to keep a vehicle clean. We have been through several periods where we get a new storm every 3-4 days. Several have included significant ice accumulations.
I have snow piled about 4 feet high on both sides of my driveway. Many street corners have snow piled so high it`s difficult/impossible to look around the corner for oncoming traffic. Parking lots of box/grocery stores have snow 10-12 feet high 30-40 feet across the entire width of the parking lot. Because of the ice, our DOT has used copius amounts of salt and brine to try to keep roads clear. The other day the roads were dry but the salt cloud on the highway was so thick you could hold your french fries out the window for a few seconds if they weren`t salty enough for you.
Combine all this with abnormally low temps (-31F last week) and it`s really tough to find a time to wash a car without it freezing into a solid block. A trip to a detailer would be a huge waste of money as you couldn`t drive six blocks without the car looking exactly as it had before you went in. I have driven through a touchless drive through a few times, but the car is dirty before I get home. My wheel wells get so crammed with salty frozen slush, my suspension only has about 1/2" of travel. Today is supposed to get into the low 30`s, so we could wash cars, but if it stays warm we will have rivers of salty slush for weeks.
I haven`t washed/dried my car by hand since early Nov., and the prospects don`t look good right now. I`m glad I`ve got Zaino on my car, and DG 105 on the wife`s truck, but it sure would be nice to be able to clean them up and have them stay nice for a day or two. Sorry for the rant - how`s [U]your[U] winter going? And I`d really rather not hear from the Florida/Arizona guys.
I have snow piled about 4 feet high on both sides of my driveway. Many street corners have snow piled so high it`s difficult/impossible to look around the corner for oncoming traffic. Parking lots of box/grocery stores have snow 10-12 feet high 30-40 feet across the entire width of the parking lot. Because of the ice, our DOT has used copius amounts of salt and brine to try to keep roads clear. The other day the roads were dry but the salt cloud on the highway was so thick you could hold your french fries out the window for a few seconds if they weren`t salty enough for you.
Combine all this with abnormally low temps (-31F last week) and it`s really tough to find a time to wash a car without it freezing into a solid block. A trip to a detailer would be a huge waste of money as you couldn`t drive six blocks without the car looking exactly as it had before you went in. I have driven through a touchless drive through a few times, but the car is dirty before I get home. My wheel wells get so crammed with salty frozen slush, my suspension only has about 1/2" of travel. Today is supposed to get into the low 30`s, so we could wash cars, but if it stays warm we will have rivers of salty slush for weeks.
I haven`t washed/dried my car by hand since early Nov., and the prospects don`t look good right now. I`m glad I`ve got Zaino on my car, and DG 105 on the wife`s truck, but it sure would be nice to be able to clean them up and have them stay nice for a day or two. Sorry for the rant - how`s [U]your[U] winter going? And I`d really rather not hear from the Florida/Arizona guys.