Washing in a coin-op

[jmblur]

Living in a high rise means, unfortunately, no hose access :( been far, FAR too long since my car got a good hand wash and wax (like, 2 years), so it definitely needs some work. It`s a DD and not a show car by any stretch of the imagination, I just want to get it back to overall "clean". Definitely have plenty of bugs and BCs (I park outside in Baltimore all day) so I figure a clay bar is needed. Silver Audi, so luckily swirls don`t show up much at all. No major obvious paint issues besides a couple dings and chips I need to repair (one bad one that will be cleaned up after the wash/wax and then rewaxed).



Any tips for doing a good wash/clay/wax at a coin op? Unfortunately the only one I know of around here is quite busy, so I can`t just sit in a bay for hours. Is it fine to drive home before claying/polishing/waxing? It`s about 20 minutes, half highway.



I plan on just using the coin op for the water, and using the two-bucket wash method w/ grit guards. Waffle MF cloths for drying.



Is it even worth polishing (by hand), or am I better off just spot-fixing issues (bird bombs, etc.) then using a cleaner/wax and calling it a day? Again, I`m not going for show-car finish, just something that will help restore the car to 85-90%. Once I move into a place with actual hose access in a year or so (and will be looking to sell cars about then as well), I`ll do a more thorough detail.



I`m a total detailing noob, so sorry if I`m saying something horribly stupid above! Thanks!:thx

[Patek14]

I`d suggest going to the coin op to hose off some of the real bad gunk, wheel wells, and undercarriage. Then, take your car back to the lot/garage, get a bottle of ONR, and do your work there. ONR is the perfect way to wash a car when you do not have a hose and hate those stupid coin ops.

[titsataki]

Agreed. If the car is quite dirty you may want to make a run to the coin op to rinse off the major dirt. then get to your building/parking spot and use ONR and 2 buckets to finish the job.

[wascallyrabbit]

onr is the way you`ll want to go on this.

[Darkstar752]

Welcome!



ONR means optimum no-rinse BTW.

[dogma]

When I had to use a coinop. I would usually go at night and bring my own car wash and fill my own bucket with their hot water ,then spray the rims with E1 a-z then proceed to spray the whole car and rinse the wheels. I would then soap up the car rinse off and dry it right there. They usually frrown on doing it that way ,so that why i either did it at night or real early in tha AM.



What I would do If I were you ,is use ONR then CG ONE ( I do this a lot ) to ensure its dirt free then an AIO like ZAIO ,DG or PS.

[RIDDLE]

They usually frrown on doing it that way ,so that why i either did it at night or real early in tha AM.



+1. they usually dont care if youre the only one there.

[jmblur]

Sounds like ONR is the way to go! Should I bother with a separate cleaner wax after the wash (I already have the stuff), or just leave it as is? I also assume clay bar after both the spray down and the ONR wash?



Thanks again!

[Darkstar752]

Sounds like ONR is the way to go! Should I bother with a separate cleaner wax after the wash (I already have the stuff), or just leave it as is? I also assume clay bar after both the spray down and the ONR wash?



Thanks again!



Yes sir. You`ll love this, ONR can be diluted down to clay lube for VERY cheap. It`s also a very good lube. Can also be used as a QD, and something else but I forget what.

[jmblur]

Yes sir. You`ll love this, ONR can be diluted down to clay lube for VERY cheap. It`s also a very good lube. Can also be used as a QD, and something else but I forget what.



Yeah, saw that :) Maguire clay kit was on sale a few weeks ago at the local store, so I picked up a kit - so I`ve got a bit of clay lube (quick detailer) to use for now. I don`t plan on claying again until just before I`m looking to sell it, just want to get it back to a decent state so it won`t be so much work the next time!



Opinions on an after-wax for protection? I see that they say it protects already, but figure more protection can`t be a bad thing... especially since i`ve got a few spots I`m going to need to touch up with some ScratchX and elbow grease (door dings, bird bombs, and one nasty down-to-metal chip I`m going to attempt to repair).

[Darkstar752]

Yeah, saw that :) Maguire clay kit was on sale a few weeks ago at the local store, so I picked up a kit - so I`ve got a bit of clay lube (quick detailer) to use for now. I don`t plan on claying again until just before I`m looking to sell it, just want to get it back to a decent state so it won`t be so much work the next time!



Opinions on an after-wax for protection? I see that they say it protects already, but figure more protection can`t be a bad thing... especially since i`ve got a few spots I`m going to need to touch up with some ScratchX and elbow grease (door dings, bird bombs, and one nasty down-to-metal chip I`m going to attempt to repair).



Collinite 915 is my favorite wax, looks amazing, tight beads, lasts a long time. If you have a lighter colored car, maybe go with a sealant. Touch everything up before you wax it BTW, it`s a pain to strip it all down again just to touch something up.

[Patek14]

Yes sir. You`ll love this, ONR can be diluted down to clay lube for VERY cheap. It`s also a very good lube. Can also be used as a QD, and something else but I forget what.



I also use it as a glass cleaner. ONR is so versatile!

[GoudyL]

Any tips for doing a good wash/clay/wax at a coin op? Unfortunately the only one I know of around here is quite busy, so I can`t just sit in a bay for hours. Is it fine to drive home before claying/polishing/waxing? It`s about 20 minutes, half highway.



I plan on just using the coin op for the water, and using the two-bucket wash method w/ grit guards. Waffle MF cloths for drying.



Is it even worth polishing (by hand), or am I better off just spot-fixing issues (bird bombs, etc.) then using a cleaner/wax and calling it a day? Again, I`m not going for show-car finish, just something that will help restore the car to 85-90%. Once I move into a place with actual hose access in a year or so (and will be looking to sell cars about then as well), I`ll do a more thorough detail.



I`m a total detailing noob, so sorry if I`m saying something horribly stupid above! Thanks!:thx



IMHO bucket washing at a coin-op sort of defeats the purpose. The reasons I wash at a coin-op are.



1. High pressure

2. Spot free rinse water

3. Strong chemicals. :hifive:



The whole no rinse cleaning thing doesn`t make much sense to me, as I want dirt and filth to be off of the car and flowing down the drain. Not lightly bound to an MF towel being swished across the paint. I guess if you are dusting off a garage queen its ok, but otherwise its unsound IMHO.



Straight up I`ll say getting the car clean is the most important thing.So I`d start by spot treating the front bumper, and rocker panels with some TW Bug and Tar Remover, and spray/wiping the wheels with Mother`s FX Wheel cleaner to start with, and then applying a second round of wheel cleaner.



At that point it`s time to put some cash in the meter and start washing. The key to touchless washing is in the pre-soak, which softens up the dirt so you can blast it away with the high pressure soap.



You want to liberally apply pre-soak to the entire car making sure it is completely covered. Don`t forget to spray some pre-soak on the glass as well.



Now you switch to the HP cycle, and start washing the car. Starting with the wheels (to rinse off the wheel cleaner). You want to hold the wand about 10in from the car, at a 90* angle to the surface., and slowly sweep the entire car with HP soap, getting all the pre-soak off of the car.



Next do an HP Rinse starting from the top down. At this point you can chose to go the full monty and apply the foam conditioner, or just stick to the clear coat protectant (aka drying agent).



The clear coat protectant will make the car`s surface quite hydrophobic (especially if you have applied the foam wax first) and it is lots of fun to be blasting the car with hydrophobic water so go wild. The goal here is to chase off the last bits of soap (that escaped the HP rinse) and leave the car ready for the final step.



The combination of drying agent and spot free rinse is what you are really paying for. Now that the car`s surface has been given a coat of drying agent, the DI water (spot free rinse) is going to sheet right off the car leaving it reasonably dry, and whatever water remains won`t leave mineral spots.



Once you are done, you can dry off your car (with a waffle weave towel or two), and admire your clean car.



IMHO you are best off spot polishing any area`s that need polishing with some KIT scratch out, and then applying some spray wax (I recomend Lucas Slick Mist) and calling it a day.



Otherwise I`d recomend using some TW Ice Liquid Polish, since its going to look wonderful on a silver car and will be easy to apply. If you already have some cleaner wax, I`d use that instead.



Given that any wax is going to take 3-5 minutes to haze, and maybe a 1-2 minutes to apply per panel. Waxing the car will take about a hour minimum. So IMHO the best time to do this is at the coin op at night or on a sunday morning, when its not busy.



Don`t forget to apply a layer of lucas slick mist after you are done waxing for the ultimate shine. This stuff has the very neat property of air-curing to become even shinier over the next 24hr after you apply it.

[David Fermani]

IMHO bucket washing at a coin-op sort of defeats the purpose. The reasons I wash at a coin-op are.



1. High pressure

2. Spot free rinse water

3. Strong chemicals. :hifive:



The whole no rinse cleaning thing doesn`t make much sense to me, as I want dirt and filth to be off of the car and flowing down the drain. Not lightly bound to an MF towel being swished across the paint. I guess if you are dusting off a garage queen its ok, but otherwise its unsound IMHO.



Straight up I`ll say getting the car clean is the most important thing.So I`d start by spot treating the front bumper, and rocker panels with some TW Bug and Tar Remover, and spray/wiping the wheels with Mother`s FX Wheel cleaner to start with, and then applying a second round of wheel cleaner.



At that point it`s time to put some cash in the meter and start washing. The key to touchless washing is in the pre-soak, which softens up the dirt so you can blast it away with the high pressure soap.



You want to liberally apply pre-soak to the entire car making sure it is completely covered. Don`t forget to spray some pre-soak on the glass as well.



Now you switch to the HP cycle, and start washing the car. Starting with the wheels (to rinse off the wheel cleaner). You want to hold the wand about 10in from the car, at a 90* angle to the surface., and slowly sweep the entire car with HP soap, getting all the pre-soak off of the car.



Next do an HP Rinse starting from the top down. At this point you can chose to go the full monty and apply the foam conditioner, or just stick to the clear coat protectant (aka drying agent).



The clear coat protectant will make the car`s surface quite hydrophobic (especially if you have applied the foam wax first) and it is lots of fun to be blasting the car with hydrophobic water so go wild. The goal here is to chase off the last bits of soap (that escaped the HP rinse) and leave the car ready for the final step.



The combination of drying agent and spot free rinse is what you are really paying for. Now that the car`s surface has been given a coat of drying agent, the DI water (spot free rinse) is going to sheet right off the car leaving it reasonably dry, and whatever water remains won`t leave mineral spots.



Once you are done, you can dry off your car (with a waffle weave towel or two), and admire your clean car.



IMHO you are best off spot polishing any area`s that need polishing with some KIT scratch out, and then applying some spray wax (I recomend Lucas Slick Mist) and calling it a day.



Otherwise I`d recomend using some TW Ice Liquid Polish, since its going to look wonderful on a silver car and will be easy to apply. If you already have some cleaner wax, I`d use that instead.



Given that any wax is going to take 3-5 minutes to haze, and maybe a 1-2 minutes to apply per panel. Waxing the car will take about a hour minimum. So IMHO the best time to do this is at the coin op at night or on a sunday morning, when its not busy.



Don`t forget to apply a layer of lucas slick mist after you are done waxing for the ultimate shine. This stuff has the very neat property of air-curing to become even shinier over the next 24hr after you apply it.



Funny how you don`t advocate ONR due to the potential to surface scratching, but think that taking your car to a coin-op, skipping the the foam brush step(which is the only way these style of washes can clean a dirty car) and just using their stand alone soap will remove the road film off your vehicle. It won`t (no matter how long you let it $$oak) and in turn you end up inducing even more scratching/marring from drying a car that`s still dirty. If you properly maintain your vehicle, you won`t need to use abrasive polishes or spray waxes to hide the damage you inflict each time you do an improper wash. :think:

[jmblur]

I figure the coin-op cant` be much better than the touchless automated ones. I`ve been using one every couple weeks just to keep my car passable. It gets most of the grit off, but not the filmy grime. Glad you guys clued me into ONR though, ordered some up tonight :) (And a bunch of microfibers... and KAIO... and P21S wheel cleaner for my poor neglected wheels... you guys are already costing me too much $$$!)