Washing in the rain?

T

thedarksyde

New member
Is there any reason not to wash your car in the rain?



If you did the wash while it was raining, but was light isnt this just a shower rinse going the whole time, and then when you are done pull it into the garage to dry with the MFs?



Is there something about rain water, that is not good that would make it a bad idea to wash a car if it was raining?
 
although i am not an expert i often use the rain to help in my detailing of my vehicle. of course i do it every day. wether it is raining or not!!
 
I don't think the rain is as clean of water to use. It is falling through all the polloution and contaminants in the atmosphere and onto your "clean" car, then you are wiping this water around when you dry the car. I don't really know if it would be a problem or not, but just seems safer to use a hose.
 
I think if you had to, there's no harm in it. I mean, your car isn't gonna be spot-free if it's actively raining on it, but at least it will be cleaner. I've had to finish up washes in the pouring rain before. Usually it's just because the car was sooo dirty that I didn't care it was supposed to rain. I would just sort of dry them with light towel passes so that there wasn't a bunch of hose water on the car to leave hard water spots.
 
The problem with rain is all the dirt including minerals, it contains. Although sometimes washing in the rain cannot be avoided
 
googledude said:
I don't think the rain is as clean of water to use. It is falling through all the polloution and contaminants in the atmosphere and onto your "clean" car, then you are wiping this water around when you dry the car. I don't really know if it would be a problem or not, but just seems safer to use a hose.
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Actually, I think I read that rainwater is "safer" to have sit on your paint than unfiltered tapwater. Unless the water is purified, there's more minerals & extras in the tapwater (especially if comes out of older plumbing).



In any case, washing in the rain won't hurt. The nieghbors may think you're weird though.
 
hahah, yea, they might think I am weird, Oh well, I dont know which would be cleaner water, I am thinking it will prolly just be overcast this weekend and there will be no rain. But I thought I might just ask anyway.



GO SHARKS! :)
 
Actually, I have a HUMMER to detail next week and I have already made arrangements to wash it on the next rainy day, before i do the complete detail. Since I am booked with detailing appointments just about every day into Christmas week, washing that HUMMER on a rainout day will keep me busy and will certainly make the actual detail day a lot easier. Of course I will wash it again before polishing and waxing, but that will be a very quick process.



I do the same thing with boats during the boating season. I usually go out on a rainy day and wash down the boats that are coming up on the schedule for complete details. Washing a boat in the rain is a lot easier because you almost never have to rinse until the end of the wash. Even then, as long as it is still raining when you are done the rain water will continue to rinse away any soap residue. Getting the boat washed on a rainy day gives me a head start when the full detail day rolls around in a day or two.
 
I had a bad experience from washing in the rain. A previous "near new" car that I once owned, I decided to wash that car in rain water that had settled on the surface. As I was wiping it off, I felt a paint chip come right off while I was wiping the hood!!!! I realized then that in my area, the rain water, although near a ph7 neutral, would be slightly acidic. Whether that caused the chip or if it was from a bad spot I won't ever know. I will tell you that it was the only time that I ever chipped a car just by washing it! From that point on, I never washed another car in the rain.



I've washed cars right after a rain, but I used a garden hose and rinsed clean the car before washing it in a good car wash solution. I have had far better luck since then. Short answer: IMO NEVER WASH IN RAIN WATER!
 
I just detailed my mom's car last week, and I had to wash it in the rain. The neighbors definitely gave me a weird look, but I'm used to that! :D

I don't see any problems with it.



Rain water is NOT pure, but I'm sure it's more pure than hard water from the hose.

Here's a little meteorological fact for you:

In order for condensation to occur (within a cloud) the water vapor needs something to condense on. This is usually some type of particle of pollution, or salt dust from the ocean. The particles of pollution are referred to as "condensation nuclei".

Clouds are made up of trillions of condensation nuclei.

Each time water vapor condenses on one of these nuclei, a very tiny droplet forms. It takes millions of these droplets to form a single raindrop heavy enough to fall to the ground.

Once this raindrop does fall, it contains millions of particles of pollution, and continues to collect more particles on its journey through the polluted atmosphere to the ground.



So when it rains, you actually have billions of tiny particles of pollution and dirt on your car (you probably notice spots from the rain even though it's not hard water)



So rainwater isn't pure, but neither is the water from your hose. I guess that's what I'm getting at... :)
 
White95Max said:
I just detailed my mom's car last week, and I had to wash it in the rain. The neighbors definitely gave me a weird look, but I'm used to that! :D

I don't see any problems with it.



Rain water is NOT pure, but I'm sure it's more pure than hard water from the hose.

Here's a little meteorological fact for you:

In order for condensation to occur (within a cloud) the water vapor needs something to condense on. This is usually some type of particle of pollution, or salt dust from the ocean. The particles of pollution are referred to as "condensation nuclei".

Clouds are made up of trillions of condensation nuclei.

Each time water vapor condenses on one of these nuclei, a very tiny droplet forms. It takes millions of these droplets to form a single raindrop heavy enough to fall to the ground.

Once this raindrop does fall, it contains millions of particles of pollution, and continues to collect more particles on its journey through the polluted atmosphere to the ground.



So when it rains, you actually have billions of tiny particles of pollution and dirt on your car (you probably notice spots from the rain even though it's not hard water)



So rainwater isn't pure, but neither is the water from your hose. I guess that's what I'm getting at... :)
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Wow, didn't know that, very interesting! :eek: I'm thinking that rainwater is still purer (or less dirty) than hose water. Water from a hose/sprinkler always leaves more spots than rain, at least where I live. But this may depend on where you live and how pure your tap water is vs rain, which would be cleaner in rural areas than in a smoggy urban area.
 
gearhead said:
Wow, didn't know that, very interesting! :eek: I'm thinking that rainwater is still purer (or less dirty) than hose water. Water from a hose/sprinkler always leaves more spots than rain, at least where I live. But this may depend on where you live and how pure your tap water is vs rain, which would be cleaner in rural areas than in a smoggy urban area.
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Correct. The rain would be more "pure" in areas with less air pollution. But it would still be comprised of millions of condensation nuclei so rain will always leave some spots.

Hose water is always going to leave more (or worse) spots than rain due to the mineral content in the water. And some areas will have more minerals in the water than other areas.
 
I do wash my car in the rain sometimes. I find that if I'm washing with Dawn (to strip old wax off) washing it in the rain is the best. It's much easier to rinse the car, Dawn has a tendancy to cling and dry very quickly.



After that, I pull it into the garage for claying and any necessary polishing, then topped off with P21S.
 
I say w/e floats your boat...lol but i feel i would get agervated if it was raining and i was detailing, it has happened to me b 4 but the client had a nice big one door two car garage i got to finish the detail in. :)
 
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