At the carwash today I saw....

The *manual* commercial car wash is ESSENTIAL especially for those of us without garages who live in cold climates. Getting salt and sand off your car is critical even when it's too cold to wash. It also works good to get snow off your car if you can wait long enough...you can use the hot water to melt it off so it doesn't slide. Doing the underside of the car during the winter is critical too...keeps dirt/salt/sand from building up in the wheel wells, on shocks and struts, on other parts. It might not be the best thing for your car, but when you don't have a garage it's a hell of a lot better than just letting it stay dirty/salty.
 
Scottwax said:
Did it look anything like this?

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Ha ha! I remember Bret having that as his avatar, but never saw the full picts.



You should have been helpful and given him some advice. Like that he could wax the glass the same way so that it would bead up and he'd need the wipers less. Plus, the thick coat would probably cut down on UV (and light in general) entering the cockpit. :rofl
 
I watched a couple earlier this summer washing their black Mercedes. The guy was going ahead and pre soaking the car while the girl had the foam brush and was starting to wash the car. When she had to wait for her significant other she would lay the brush bristles down on the ground, then resume scrubbing. I couldn't believe it. :nono
 
My friend asked me to bring his car into an automatic car wash (he doesn't want to wash his car, and he never asked me to wash/detail his).



So I bring the car to a nearby car wash and after some guys wiped the car dry, I noticed there's still some bird sh*t residue on the trunk. I told the guy who dried the car, and he simply sprayed some windex on it and wiped it down with paper towel....I was like :eek:



When I told my friend about this he doesn't seem to care....
 
When I read the paint care section of my car's owner's manual, I remember reading stuff like "do not use brillo pads, sandpaper, or steel wool to remove debris from the paint or wheels...do not use dishwashing detergent or other strong degreasers..." I was like WTF? who would even think of doing this. I guess thery put it in there for good reasons....
 
There is a car-wash right at a long stop light where I live. A few days ago, I was sitting there watching the guy pull the drying rags (those red ones you can buy in bulk) out of the dryer. First of all, he drops a few on the asphalt while taking them out. No problem, becasue he picks them up and walks over to the drying area and drops the whole lot on the ground! All the drying guys then go over and pull a bunch out of the pile and go make their own little piles at their stations, on the ground again! And of course, the bast part of all this is that they wait at least 15 minutes to start drying each car after it comes out of the wash, so they're working on nearly dry cars to begin with.



P.S.-until recently, my dealer (Mercedes/Land Rover/ Porsche/Infinity) washed cars with the big brooms! They just installed an automatic swirl inducer, though.
 
I never had a run-in at a car wash, since I never go to them. But....a guy I know did something that made me and all my other friends want to kill him. He drives a 97 Honda Prelude with a full body kit, wing, all riced out basically. Anyway, he just recently had his car painted with that chameleon, color-changing paint. Pretty cool I thought. One day (and this is only about a week after it was painted), we were all hanging it in my garage and he rolls up with the Prelude. And a bird crapped all over his hood. We all told him to take the hose and just spray it off, meaning don't rub it. Well guess what the genius did. He pulled out one of those two-sided sponges and a bottle of FANTASTIK!!! He sprayed this stuff all over his hood and scrubbed with the green side of the sponge. It was all kinds of messed up after that. I told him to come back to me in six months when the paint cures and I'd fix it. Eventually, I fixed it with some IP and FP and a rotary. Before and after pics soon to come.
 
I have a friend who is better than most. He uses the 3 step paint cleaner/polish/wax system from Meguirs and his car usually looks pretty good.



But, I saw him washing it one day, he pulled some old ratty towels (probably ex showering towels) out of the garage and dried his car off. Afterwards he laid them down on the concrete to dry and then hung them back up for the next time.



I wonder how much dirt they've collected so far? :eek:
 
Well whats worse? Seeing someone do something stupid to mess up their vehicle or being the only one in a group that knows better?

Last summer a bunch of teenagers in our church wanted to do a car wash to raise money for a trip they wanted to go on. The pastor figured since I enjoy detailing cars I should be the one to help them. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to buy economy car wash liquid. My wallet said that was the only way to go, but my brain had a hard time cooperating. Anyways everything that would make you cringe took place all in one day: The kids decided their microfiber towels were to wet so instead of wringing them out they laid them flat on the asphalt. $80 in microfiber towels shot to hell in one day. The kids didn't want to wait for the whole car to get wet so they would start applying soap as soon as the next car pulled into place. I can't even begin to count how many times each sponge was dropped. Soon the buckets were low on water and heavily soiled. No problem, just push the sponge in the bucket and scrape it around trying to absorb the last bit of water. Oh and you don't need to wash the soap off the car before you start to dry it do you? One kid used a stream of soap and water running down the parking lot to rewet his sponge. Just try to guess how many times the metal end of the house struck a vehicle. On more than one occasion the hose would be slid across the top of the car as it was being passed over the roof from person to person. Most of the cars left not much cleaner than they came in, the kids just kind of swirled the dirt around. Man it makes me sick just thinking about it. Now believe me when I say that I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to correct these things from happening but the adults present didn't do anything to help. In fact they were more of a hindrance than anything else. I always thought cleaning a car took commom sence and nothing more. As kids did any of you have to be told that a zipper from a jacket would scratch the paint? Or that you shouldn't write in the dirt? Or simply that if someone is paying you to do a job you do it well, and if not, then you do it over again? The kids would take the money and let the cars leave dirty thinking nothing of it, as if they never planned on doing a decent job.
 
Aurora40 said:




You should have been helpful and given him some advice. Like that he could wax the glass the same way so that it would bead up and he'd need the wipers less. Plus, the thick coat would probably cut down on UV (and light in general) entering the cockpit. :rofl
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No, actually, I shouldn't have given him any advice. First of all, he knows that I detail cars for a living and second, the last time I tried to be helpful he told me he knew what he was doing and to mind my own business. He's a real know it all and got exactly what he deserved. :xyxthumbs
 
These stories were great!!

I never encountered anything out of the ordinary at the carwash.Just some very hot lookin babes, thats it.Really enjoyed the stories guys
 
the only time I go to the car wash is when my wheel wells are dirty.But I see guys taking there brush on their cars without getting it wet first:scared Some have came up to me and said ..how do you keep your car so clean? All I say is ...well first of all I dont touch that devil brush and I wash my car more than once every couple of months. Needless to say he did not say anything.It just blows my mind on how people think they are taking care of there car where in real they are destroying it :nono > I was a car show the other day that we had here and saw a great looking 02' Camaro SS in the show.Very nice car.I see it everyday at the dealership when I go to work.Well the guy that was there cleaning it had a towel and I saw him shake out all the dirt and dust from it.Again I was :scared I went and asked him ,why are you useing a dirty towel to clean the dust off this dealer car?He said that it was washed this moring!!! Yah right!!!!! Sorry talking to much, Great stories:xyxthumbs
 
endus said:
The other day I was driving by a glass shop that also seems to do some sort of body work and I saw a dude out front washing a 2k+ Maxima. He was using a scrub brush with a long handle to scrub the paint. I had to stop right in front of them for the light and I was trying to mutter loudly enough for him to hear that he was literally destrying the car...
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Trust me, if it's an A33 (2000-2003) Maxima, he was wrecking the paint. The cars have some of the thinnest paint known to man. My '02 looked like the surface of the Moon due to rock chips.
 
underdog said:
Well whats worse? Seeing someone do something stupid to mess up their vehicle or being the only one in a group that knows better?

Last summer a bunch of teenagers in our church wanted to do a car wash to raise money for a trip they wanted to go on. The pastor figured since I enjoy detailing cars I should be the one to help them. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to buy economy car wash liquid. My wallet said that was the only way to go, but my brain had a hard time cooperating. Anyways everything that would make you cringe took place all in one day: The kids decided their microfiber towels were to wet so instead of wringing them out they laid them flat on the asphalt. $80 in microfiber towels shot to hell in one day. The kids didn't want to wait for the whole car to get wet so they would start applying soap as soon as the next car pulled into place. I can't even begin to count how many times each sponge was dropped. Soon the buckets were low on water and heavily soiled. No problem, just push the sponge in the bucket and scrape it around trying to absorb the last bit of water. Oh and you don't need to wash the soap off the car before you start to dry it do you? One kid used a stream of soap and water running down the parking lot to rewet his sponge. Just try to guess how many times the metal end of the house struck a vehicle. On more than one occasion the hose would be slid across the top of the car as it was being passed over the roof from person to person. Most of the cars left not much cleaner than they came in, the kids just kind of swirled the dirt around. Man it makes me sick just thinking about it. Now believe me when I say that I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to correct these things from happening but the adults present didn't do anything to help. In fact they were more of a hindrance than anything else. I always thought cleaning a car took commom sence and nothing more. As kids did any of you have to be told that a zipper from a jacket would scratch the paint? Or that you shouldn't write in the dirt? Or simply that if someone is paying you to do a job you do it well, and if not, then you do it over again? The kids would take the money and let the cars leave dirty thinking nothing of it, as if they never planned on doing a decent job.
Click to expand...



If that was my church, I would have been beyond :angry

The folks at my (current) church know about my penchant for detailing and realize I am a severe stickler.
 
Yeah...all of the above is the reason I punch the gas every time I see a wet teenager on the shoulder holding a hand painted sign.....



"SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL HOMELESS BLIND ANEMIC PUPPY DOG SOCIETY....COME LET US DESTROY YOUR TRUCK FOR ONLY SEVEN DOLLARS! NEXT CAR TO STOP BY GETS FREE SCRATCHED MIRRORS!"



:shocked

w00t!
 
I got my car washed at a Hooter'c car wash once, and while they were careful about not dropping anything (darn, no bending over to pick up what they dropped ;) ) or made any glaring mistakes, they still did a horrible job, leaving streaks everywhere I had to QD off later.



Best $20 I've ever spent though! :lol
 
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