White95Max
11-01-2004, 10:37 PM
Since I live in Wisconsin and the below-freezing high temperatures last for several months here in winter, I had to come up with a way to wash my car without resorting to car wash places. I could go to a DIY place, but sometimes they might use recirculated water, or really strong soap, etc... Plus if I found a way to wash the car myself, I could save a good deal of money that could be used more sensibly...i.e. detailing supplies :D
So here`s what you will need:
AT LEAST 2 buckets (I use 5qt ice cream buckets)
car wash soap
A bunch of MFs (At least one will be used for washing, and the rest for drying)
*A garage - optional, but it is very nice to be out of the wind. And you can heat it up somewhat.
Here`s how I do it:
Prepare your buckets (I use 4 buckets...one for soapy water, and the other three for rinsing the washing MF). Have one bucket with soapy water to serve as the wash bucket, and as many rinse buckets as you think you need. Fill the buckets with warm water. Your hands will inevitably get cold while you are cleaning the car, so the warm water will feel very nice every time you dip your hands back into the bucket. Leave the buckets inside until you are done with the next step.
Drive the car around for at least 10 minutes, heating up the cabin of the vehicle as much as possible. For the last 2-3 minutes before you return home, turn the heat off to allow the engine bay to get as hot as possible. Pull the car into the garage, turn it off, and close all doors to the garage. Open all doors or windows to the car, along with the hood. This will allow all that built-up heat to escape into the garage, which you will greatly appreciate. It will not make a huge difference in the garage temperature, but I`ll greet a 10 degree change with open arms!
While the heat is escaping from your car to the garage, go get your buckets that were previously prepared. Bring several clean MFs with you as well. The # of MFs you need will depend on the amount of dirt/salt on the car. When my car has heavy salt on it, I will go through at least 5 MFs before the car is completely clean.
*NOTE* The process is much easier if you do not allow the salt/mud to dry on the car.
Now you have your buckets in place in the garage. Take an MF and soak it in the wash bucket. Take it out, without ringing out much of the water.
*NOTE* if the salt/mud has dried on the vehicle, keep the MF as wet as possible to avoid scratching/marring the vehicle when removing the salt/mud.
Gently wipe the wet MF on a small dirty section of the ROOF. It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to wash top to bottom with this method! The most salt and dirt will be near the bottom of the car.
Only do a small section, then rinse the MF in one of the RINSE buckets. Then ring the MF out over the rinse bucket, and dip it into the WASH bucket. You want to keep the wash water as clean as possible.
Take a dry MF and wipe off the small section that you just cleaned. Make sure it is clean first...if not, wipe it off again with the washing MF. Once the area is clean, dry it with a dry MF. Proceed to the next section.
*NOTE* When the water in a rinse bucket begins to get dirty, dump it out and begin rinsing in the next rinse bucket.
Keep doing this procedure until the whole car is clean.
Some helpful tips:
*I always keep a small plastic spice bottle in the garage with about 1/2 inch of water in it. Then I can tell whether it is above freezing in the garage. If it is above freezing (liquid water inside the bottle), then I can take more time to wash the car and be more careful with it. I have a thermometer in the garage too, but you never know how accurate they actually are.
:nono *DO NOT rinse your wash MF in the WASH bucket. You don`t want to rub the dirty water back onto the car. ALWAYS rinse the wash MF in the RINSE bucket before dipping it back into the WASH bucket. If the WASH bucket begins to look dirty, you need to dump it out, rinse it, and refill it with warm soapy water.
:nono *DO NOT allow the water to freeze on the car. Sometimes you can thaw the ice by going over it again with the wash MF but it should not happen in the first place. Make sure you only wash an area that is small enough to wash and dry before the water has a chance to freeze.
*Once the wash MF will not rinse out clean, get a new one.
*Once a drying MF starts leaving water streaks, grab a new one.
*I strongly recommend washing your car before the dirt/salt dries on the paint. It is much easier to wash, and there is much less risk of marring the paint. It`s hard to gently clean dried-on salt.
If you are worried about scratching your car at all, I wouldn`t recommend this method. A scratch here and there is bound to happen when you are cleaning salt off of your paint. I enjoy a clean car, and I am willing to accept a few scratches and cold hands to get it.
In the spring I will polish the car again before detailing it anyway, so any new scratches will be fixed.
To clean the wheels and tires, just use the same general method, but I would use some terry cloths or cheap MFs to do this job. The tires and wheels are filthy in the winter, and you don`t want to use the same MFs to wash your car with.
Any questions just PM me.
So here`s what you will need:
AT LEAST 2 buckets (I use 5qt ice cream buckets)
car wash soap
A bunch of MFs (At least one will be used for washing, and the rest for drying)
*A garage - optional, but it is very nice to be out of the wind. And you can heat it up somewhat.
Here`s how I do it:
Prepare your buckets (I use 4 buckets...one for soapy water, and the other three for rinsing the washing MF). Have one bucket with soapy water to serve as the wash bucket, and as many rinse buckets as you think you need. Fill the buckets with warm water. Your hands will inevitably get cold while you are cleaning the car, so the warm water will feel very nice every time you dip your hands back into the bucket. Leave the buckets inside until you are done with the next step.
Drive the car around for at least 10 minutes, heating up the cabin of the vehicle as much as possible. For the last 2-3 minutes before you return home, turn the heat off to allow the engine bay to get as hot as possible. Pull the car into the garage, turn it off, and close all doors to the garage. Open all doors or windows to the car, along with the hood. This will allow all that built-up heat to escape into the garage, which you will greatly appreciate. It will not make a huge difference in the garage temperature, but I`ll greet a 10 degree change with open arms!
While the heat is escaping from your car to the garage, go get your buckets that were previously prepared. Bring several clean MFs with you as well. The # of MFs you need will depend on the amount of dirt/salt on the car. When my car has heavy salt on it, I will go through at least 5 MFs before the car is completely clean.
*NOTE* The process is much easier if you do not allow the salt/mud to dry on the car.
Now you have your buckets in place in the garage. Take an MF and soak it in the wash bucket. Take it out, without ringing out much of the water.
*NOTE* if the salt/mud has dried on the vehicle, keep the MF as wet as possible to avoid scratching/marring the vehicle when removing the salt/mud.
Gently wipe the wet MF on a small dirty section of the ROOF. It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to wash top to bottom with this method! The most salt and dirt will be near the bottom of the car.
Only do a small section, then rinse the MF in one of the RINSE buckets. Then ring the MF out over the rinse bucket, and dip it into the WASH bucket. You want to keep the wash water as clean as possible.
Take a dry MF and wipe off the small section that you just cleaned. Make sure it is clean first...if not, wipe it off again with the washing MF. Once the area is clean, dry it with a dry MF. Proceed to the next section.
*NOTE* When the water in a rinse bucket begins to get dirty, dump it out and begin rinsing in the next rinse bucket.
Keep doing this procedure until the whole car is clean.
Some helpful tips:
*I always keep a small plastic spice bottle in the garage with about 1/2 inch of water in it. Then I can tell whether it is above freezing in the garage. If it is above freezing (liquid water inside the bottle), then I can take more time to wash the car and be more careful with it. I have a thermometer in the garage too, but you never know how accurate they actually are.
:nono *DO NOT rinse your wash MF in the WASH bucket. You don`t want to rub the dirty water back onto the car. ALWAYS rinse the wash MF in the RINSE bucket before dipping it back into the WASH bucket. If the WASH bucket begins to look dirty, you need to dump it out, rinse it, and refill it with warm soapy water.
:nono *DO NOT allow the water to freeze on the car. Sometimes you can thaw the ice by going over it again with the wash MF but it should not happen in the first place. Make sure you only wash an area that is small enough to wash and dry before the water has a chance to freeze.
*Once the wash MF will not rinse out clean, get a new one.
*Once a drying MF starts leaving water streaks, grab a new one.
*I strongly recommend washing your car before the dirt/salt dries on the paint. It is much easier to wash, and there is much less risk of marring the paint. It`s hard to gently clean dried-on salt.
If you are worried about scratching your car at all, I wouldn`t recommend this method. A scratch here and there is bound to happen when you are cleaning salt off of your paint. I enjoy a clean car, and I am willing to accept a few scratches and cold hands to get it.
In the spring I will polish the car again before detailing it anyway, so any new scratches will be fixed.
To clean the wheels and tires, just use the same general method, but I would use some terry cloths or cheap MFs to do this job. The tires and wheels are filthy in the winter, and you don`t want to use the same MFs to wash your car with.
Any questions just PM me.