Car Washing Horror Stories
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imported_neoflex
New member
As I was cleaning up the cars this weekend I saw a woman from around the corner drive by with wax completly caked on, on every surface of the vehicle minus the windows. I do hope they realize that you should apply and remove. Scary part is it looked like it has been on there awile as there was salt and dirt built up over it. Hmmmmm maybe they are looking to really protect it from the salt!
jasonatv22
New member
Well, mine don't even compare:
- Wife's coworker gets bird doo off her car with Scotch green pad.
- Saw BWM 535, beautiful beautiful black car, being washed by the owner at a spray em' off with the brush. He was putting his back into it too. Scrubbing the pretty hood with the bristles bend all the way down. I could tell that he normally has it done correctly. It was just the first warm day in a while and he wanted it clean.
- Not wash related, but my mother-in-law who is stuck in her ways always goes to a certain grocery store. Unfortunately, in the last 10 years or so, that part of town has become really run down. Since her 1996 Camry is the nicest looking thing in the lot, they will key her car and the old Cutlases will put massive door dings. Additionally horrible is that the Slum Winn Dixie has prices higher than the Publix that's only 2 miles further down the road in the medical district. I only do her car two or three times a year and otherwise she goes through a touchless, but each time I really look at the car it has taken more and more damage.
- Wife's coworker gets bird doo off her car with Scotch green pad.
- Saw BWM 535, beautiful beautiful black car, being washed by the owner at a spray em' off with the brush. He was putting his back into it too. Scrubbing the pretty hood with the bristles bend all the way down. I could tell that he normally has it done correctly. It was just the first warm day in a while and he wanted it clean.
- Not wash related, but my mother-in-law who is stuck in her ways always goes to a certain grocery store. Unfortunately, in the last 10 years or so, that part of town has become really run down. Since her 1996 Camry is the nicest looking thing in the lot, they will key her car and the old Cutlases will put massive door dings. Additionally horrible is that the Slum Winn Dixie has prices higher than the Publix that's only 2 miles further down the road in the medical district. I only do her car two or three times a year and otherwise she goes through a touchless, but each time I really look at the car it has taken more and more damage.
Dr. Woo
New member
That's a good idea with boots...apply polish in very generous amounts, don't work it in. We do that in the military when we're using our only pair for nasty details.neoflex said:As I was cleaning up the cars this weekend I saw a woman from around the corner drive by with wax completly caked on, on every surface of the vehicle minus the windows. I do hope they realize that you should apply and remove. Scary part is it looked like it has been on there awile as there was salt and dirt built up over it. Hmmmmm maybe they are looking to really protect it from the salt!
Wife used to get a kick out of me cringing when the lady across the street would have her 6 year old son help "wash" the Black 4Runner. She would walk around the car and get it wet with just a hose, the son was usually 1/2 a car ahead rubbing briskly with a Wooden Scrub Brush! By the time she finished most of the water was gone and the kid had scrubbed the whole car. She would then take dishwashing liquid and POUR it on the car, take the brush and SCRUB some more!!!! Rinse it off, then use PAPER TOWELS to dry it!!!!! OMG it hurt my eyes to watch!!!!!!!
neoflex said:As I was cleaning up the cars this weekend I saw a woman from around the corner drive by with wax completly caked on, on every surface of the vehicle minus the windows. I do hope they realize that you should apply and remove. Scary part is it looked like it has been on there awile as there was salt and dirt built up over it. Hmmmmm maybe they are looking to really protect it from the salt!
This is the little known Bill North WO Method. Through numerous trials, he changed his formula to the WOO Method and hasn't looked back since.
As a lad, I surprised my dad by removing all the bugs off of the front of the Suburban. Of course I did this with the steel wool from underneath the counter. As a happy ending, he found out the next week about a silent recall on that model for the paint and she got a new dealer coat within the month.
GoodnClean
New member
reevis said:
Tell me about it. I walked out to the car today in a parking garage, huge door ding on the fender right on the wheel lip. I was pissed. I was afraid they wouldn't be able to remove it because it was so close to the panel's edge but I stopped by two PDR places on the way home and they said they could fix it. Gonna cost me $150 though, dumb people
As for a wash story when I was a kid I got one of those spinning brush deals. You know the kind you put on a hose and the brush spins around. Well I washed my dad's car with it (he had a light blue Chrysler 5th Avenue) and it must have picked up a rock :shocked
My sister used a snow shovel to clear snow off her convertable and ripped the top
My partner thinks he is doign a super job of keeping is 2004 7-series BMW clean by taking it to the car wash at least 3 times a week (the swirls are unbelievable) and he makes fun of me for the time I spend on my car
But the best is, the guy in my old neighborhood in Boston who, to save time, tried puttign a blue tarp on his car beofre a snow storm and then after 10" of wet heavy snow and a good freeze he tried to pull it off like a magician
My partner thinks he is doign a super job of keeping is 2004 7-series BMW clean by taking it to the car wash at least 3 times a week (the swirls are unbelievable) and he makes fun of me for the time I spend on my car
But the best is, the guy in my old neighborhood in Boston who, to save time, tried puttign a blue tarp on his car beofre a snow storm and then after 10" of wet heavy snow and a good freeze he tried to pull it off like a magician
imported_method
New member
I guess this isn't techinically a detailing horror story, but this girl I know (I'm friends with her brother) had an Acura that had the oil light come on, so she went to the gas station, figured out where the oil cap was, opened it, and fillied the oil tank with gasoline.
To make a long story short, she melted the engine block and fused the hood shut. It took my friend and I about 45 minutes to figure out what had happened. We finally decided to ask her if she'd done anything to the car recently, at which point we eventually found out that she "thought gas was the same as oil."
To make a long story short, she melted the engine block and fused the hood shut. It took my friend and I about 45 minutes to figure out what had happened. We finally decided to ask her if she'd done anything to the car recently, at which point we eventually found out that she "thought gas was the same as oil."
thinksnow said:
Yes, it's true. I used to love the hazed look of unbuffed klasse SG. I never thought it could get any better until I actually buffed it off one day. I was in one of those "what the hell!" kind of moods when I decided to buff. And to my surprise, the shine was amazing! :lol :lol :lol
No back on topic. My horror stories:
1. My Dad using a straw broom to clean snow off his car in the winter. I've never seen swirls so bad on a silver car.
2. My Dad 'washing' his car with just plain water and a dirty rag he uses to wipe off his oil dip stick.
3. My sister who never washes her car, period.
I was so upset after story #1 because I had spent hours buffing all the swirls off of the car from story #2. Oh well.
Bill.
solarafied
New member
Man these stories are hilarious.
My wife's aunt died a couple of years ago. She lived with my wife's grandma, and her car is still there. The car doesn't get driven much, and it gets dusty as all get out. My wife's grandma dusts the car off with a towel. It's just an '89 Buick Century, but it still makes me cringe.
travisdecpn
Resident of Detail City
Some guy in my apartment complex was out there using a bottle of aquafina and a squeegee
BlueRanger
New member
Ive sinned, ive sinned, please forgive me! When I was 12, I was out there with my dad, washin his 89 Jaguar Vandeen Plas with Pamolive, and a grout sponge!!! I also love watching the ricer boys pull into the do it yourself and use those brushes on their paint. If only they knew...
imported_FordTaurus
New member
I think the same thing. They spend all that money on accessories, kits, tinting, wheels, etc., and then let the car and the expensive wheels get covered in dirt and llayers of road grime. The few that I have seen clean (other than the very few that get cleaned up at the local detailing shop) are usually pulling out of the swirl-o-matic down the street. You'd think that someone that spent so much money modifying the outside of their car would want to keep it nice-looking.
I was waxing yesterday afternoon in my garage, and I saw my neighbor pull his completely neglected 02' Lexus SC430 out of his garage and into the sun...
He goes back in his garage, and walks back to the driveway with a huge bag of detailing supplies. It looked like he walked into a Megs shop and bought one of everything.
Lemme tell ya, I don't think this guy has ever washed that car..not even thru a swirl-o-matic. And, of course, it's black. It has salt from winter, mud, bugs, dust and everything else all over the car, caked on all over the place. This has bothered me since the day I moved in last year but he never even says hello to me when we see eachother on the way to work, so I never bothered.
So I'm standing there at the edge of my garage door, watching my neighbor take all the product he bought, and line them up neatly along the ground.
I'm thinking, "ok, he's gonna be working out there till 10pm, but it's good he's finally gonna give that car some attention"....So I went back to work with the #16 on my car. After the next section I took a peak at my neighbor to see what he was doing and then, I saw it....
There's my neighbor spraying QD on his unwashed hood and scrubbing it into the paint in a circular motion with an old Budweiser beach towel that has Spuds Mackenzie on it standing in between a couple of babes in bikinis....The towel is that old.
So I'm walking toward the guy going "hey, hey!" and he doesn't answer me. He's got headphones on from a CD player, so now I'm running.
I finally got up to him, tapped him on the shoulder and said "hey, what are you doing?!?"
He goes, "what?". I said you have to wash the car first. He looks at me and said he just wanted to get the tough spots out first...
I tried to be neighborly, I really did. I tried to tell him what he was doing wrong and what he needed to do...But he cut me off, and said "I think I know what I'm doing, so don't you worry about it".
I looked at him, square in the eye and said "why didn't you just buy Ajax and a brillo pad"?
I went back to my garage, finished off my car and this morning when I went out to get my paper, I took a look at his car...which is now a giant scratch on 4 wheels. He did his entire car this way!
I wanted to get a picture of the car to post here, but he's been outside for the past 4 hours....looks like he's trying to wash the scratches off.
He goes back in his garage, and walks back to the driveway with a huge bag of detailing supplies. It looked like he walked into a Megs shop and bought one of everything.
Lemme tell ya, I don't think this guy has ever washed that car..not even thru a swirl-o-matic. And, of course, it's black. It has salt from winter, mud, bugs, dust and everything else all over the car, caked on all over the place. This has bothered me since the day I moved in last year but he never even says hello to me when we see eachother on the way to work, so I never bothered.
So I'm standing there at the edge of my garage door, watching my neighbor take all the product he bought, and line them up neatly along the ground.
I'm thinking, "ok, he's gonna be working out there till 10pm, but it's good he's finally gonna give that car some attention"....So I went back to work with the #16 on my car. After the next section I took a peak at my neighbor to see what he was doing and then, I saw it....
There's my neighbor spraying QD on his unwashed hood and scrubbing it into the paint in a circular motion with an old Budweiser beach towel that has Spuds Mackenzie on it standing in between a couple of babes in bikinis....The towel is that old.
So I'm walking toward the guy going "hey, hey!" and he doesn't answer me. He's got headphones on from a CD player, so now I'm running.
I finally got up to him, tapped him on the shoulder and said "hey, what are you doing?!?"
He goes, "what?". I said you have to wash the car first. He looks at me and said he just wanted to get the tough spots out first...
I tried to be neighborly, I really did. I tried to tell him what he was doing wrong and what he needed to do...But he cut me off, and said "I think I know what I'm doing, so don't you worry about it".
I looked at him, square in the eye and said "why didn't you just buy Ajax and a brillo pad"?
I went back to my garage, finished off my car and this morning when I went out to get my paper, I took a look at his car...which is now a giant scratch on 4 wheels. He did his entire car this way!
I wanted to get a picture of the car to post here, but he's been outside for the past 4 hours....looks like he's trying to wash the scratches off.