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Fishroes

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Hi fellow autopians across the country. After looking at my wife’s salt covered red rock pearl color Ridgeline for 3 days I couldn’t stand it no longer. Went to the spray car wash (temperature 24) to rinse the salt off. Took backpack blower to dry off. WRONG. Before I got all the way around the truck spraying, everything was frozen. What the h-ll ! I thought I would have maybe 10 or fifteen minutes of dry time. Will the frozen water put spots on the finish or do I need to catch it when it starts to thaw and dry. I don’t know how u folks live in the northern part of our country with the temps Yal get. Guess u have to get use to it. Watched a little pga golf today. 77 degrees in Maui
 
When I lived in a place that the water froze almost on contact, I had to hook up the hose to the laundry room faucet and run mostly full hot water from the hose then, to be able to wash and rinse a car off..
And lots of breaks inside to thaw off the fingers from almost frostbite..

Im thinking the colder it gets past freezing, the harder it is going to be do anything out there, especially if there is a much lower wind chill..

I have never seen frozen water make spots on paintwork, but I may just be lucky..

A heck of a way to make a living.. :)

Good luck, and welcome to the Forum, Fishroes !
Dan F
 
I love detailing. But when the PA winter hits, sadly I give it up. No way I am going outside in freezing temps to do a wash. I wait till the weather breaks, then do a proper wash. Last 2 weeks it has been down right dangerous here. -25 to -35 wind chills. It is going to moderate Sunday afternoon. It was pain full pumping gas last night and doing the grocery shopping today! I make sure I have a good LSP on the Xterra before winter hits. And shop the good sales during the winter months. Then come spring I am ready to go. I love the look of my clean and detailed Xterra, but would never risk my health in freezing temps for it.

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Glad to hear it will not water spot. My lsp is at the end of its life. Temp much lower and i wouldn’t be out there. Supposed to be in low 50’s Tuesday. I will be washing and applying lsp. My order of fk1000 got here 4 days ago. Will be trying that for the first time
 
PA DETAILER said:
I love detailing. But when the PA winter hits, sadly I give it up. No way I am going outside in freezing temps to do a wash. I wait till the weather breaks, then do a proper wash. Last 2 weeks it has been down right dangerous here. -25 to -35 wind chills. It is going to moderate Sunday afternoon. It was pain full pumping gas last night and doing the grocery shopping today! I make sure I have a good LSP on the Xterra before winter hits. And shop the good sales during the winter months. Then come spring I am ready to go. I love the look of my clean and detailed Xterra, but would never risk my health in freezing temps for it.
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I am becoming more and more like this (washing, not pumping gas!). However, I try to blast off the salt and grime at the coin-op as much as possible.

I have sometimes gone a couple months without a proper wash on the car during the winter. With the coating, I think more prudent to wait until spring like you do than to rush through a rinseless wash because I want the car to look good for 12 hours before it gets more salt and grime!
 
kevincwelch said:
I am becoming more and more like this (washing, not pumping gas!). However, I try to blast off the salt and grime at the coin-op as much as possible.

I have sometimes gone a couple months without a proper wash on the car during the winter. With the coating, I think more prudent to wait until spring like you do than to rush through a rinseless wash because I want the car to look good for 12 hours before it gets more salt and grime!
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I make sure to have a good layer of durable LSP on in the fall and let it ride over the winter. In Chicagoland was able to do some rinseless washes in December, but once the snow came (aka salt) and now the brutal cold, I worry about new products/coatings to try in the spring and let the protection I have on the car do its job.
 
Fishroes said:
Hi fellow autopians across the country. After looking at my wife’s salt covered red rock pearl color Ridgeline for 3 days I couldn’t stand it no longer. Went to the spray car wash (temperature 24) to rinse the salt off. Took backpack blower to dry off. WRONG. Before I got all the way around the truck spraying, everything was frozen. What the h-ll ! I thought I would have maybe 10 or fifteen minutes of dry time. Will the frozen water put spots on the finish or do I need to catch it when it starts to thaw and dry. I don’t know how u folks live in the northern part of our country with the temps Yal get. Guess u have to get use to it. Watched a little pga golf today. 77 degrees in Maui
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Keeping the vehicle running with the heat/blower on high should help from the vehicle icing over, not sure what you can do about the hose unless you hook it up to a hot water source.
 
I`ve learned that after going through a touchless wash and the tunnel blowers that you still need to wipe the door jams and rear trunk lid jam (or hatch jam) dry with a drying microfiber towel to prevent the doors and trunk lid (hatch) from freezing shut. I do this just outside the car wash immediately after exiting the blower so that the excess water does not have time to freeze. If it is really cold out (like below 15°F) you have about 5 minutes to do so and trying to drive home to get the vehicle in the garage to do wipe it out is an exercise in futility. I`ve also learned the hard way to wear gloves while wiping as bear hands that become wet will become numb quickly in cold temperatures and localized frostbite is very painful.
I think you`ve learned a lesson that water freezes once temps get below 32°F and the colder it is, the faster that happens.
 
If you have to wash in those temps and no place for it to dry completely in a warm garage, I`ve be more concerned about the following days issues like frozen door locks/latches.

I`d err to see if you have a plug on your door, and if so, maybe spray a little antifreeze in that cavity before doing the coin-op freezing weather wash
 
10-4 on the frozen latches. I’m not touching them until the temp rises. Suppose get to 40 today 50 tomorrow. We have a beater car to drive
 
Fishroes -

Just curious. Is all the snow on the street/freeway melted off yet .

I used to religiously wash the car in the winter, with the car getting just as dirty with all the residual out there. Maybe I`m growing older, smarter or lazier, but these days I hold the wash off until at least the streetside crap is either washed away by the sun or the street cleaning crews.
 
Yes the Roads are clear but loaded with salt on them. It’s still too cold to wash. The good thing it’s suppose to rain tonight, that will take care of the salt. I will not drive my 16 tundra or the wife’s 17 highlander until the salt is off the road. I didn’t used to be like that about vehicles. Guess I’ve gotten a little anal about keeping my vehicles clean and rust free
 
FWIW, once the paint is nice and clean, it has this weird staticky affinity to airborne salt.
At least it won`t be salt sprayed and crusty, but the salt is still in the air.

Hopefully you`re rainfall will clear some of that up. I`m hoping for that same rain come friday/sat, but sofar the new forcast is saying a light passing. Not enough to wash some of that down into the sewar.....grrrr
 
The salt dust around here really kicks up at rush hour. You can see it in the air and it lands on the car like a fine talc.
 
Fishroes. Dont know where abouts are you but it`s nice and sunny today and a boatload of snow melt water is literally everywhere. I might actually sit this weekends scheduled de-salt car wash out, as it`s pretty pointless with all the salty BLACK water everywhere. I suppose if you only drive local , this might be less of a issue
 
PA DETAILER said:
I love detailing. But when the PA winter hits, sadly I give it up.
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This. I`ll go weeks with filthy cars just waiting for a day above freezing in order to go through a touchless wash. Unfortunately this year, when it gets above freezing it starts raining/snowing!

I was in Baltimore over the weekend for work that rental car company at the airport thought it would be a good idea to wash their cars. My vehicle was covered in ice, to the point the company employee and I had a hard time getting the trunk open and the exterior mirrors were worthless. I understand giving a customer a clean car, but a little common sense would have taken them a long way. I truly feel sorry for the poor employees stuck having to pressure wash those cars with temps hovering in the teens.
 
Spring Cabin Fever. I don`t practice what I preach FR. It`s a heat wave coming on and then back to Jack Frost on Sunday.
Going to give both dailies a pre-rinse tomorrow and then another wash on Saturday. See u later Jack Frost
 
Mobile D. Sounds like you’re in the same weather pattern I’m in. I will wash Thursday. 60 degrees. Then get cold a few days later. Coleroad I use that stuff quite often on o-rings, electrical connections etc. never even crossed my mind to put it on the weatherstripping. Thanks for the idea
 
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