I have always believed that a convertible should never go through a commercial drive through car wash. My new house will not be ready for a month so I am dealing the the dirty car while staying in a hotel. I am so tempted to have my '99 XK8 convertible washed as it needs a bath! Any input?

 

LaRue, I believe that absolutely no car wash that uses anything besides liquid that touches your car will at best deteriorate your paint with tiny scratches. Now on the other hand there is a Serve your self car wash here with two acceptable options:

1) Do the work yourself. pay for the use of a hose or two for a period of time. IMO you will have to bring your own sponge to properly agitate dirt. A proper towel to dry off or you'll get spots. Alterntative purchase 2 gallons of distilled water and use it to wash the tap water off at the end. It displaces it, leaves no spots.

2) an automatic option that does not touch the car, they claim it washes the underneath too. Thats good up here in snow country since they use salt on the road.

Both of the above provide "filtered water" for final rinse but they'd have to change the filters way to often for it to work properly. You can pay for as much filtered water time you like on #1 but #2 is automatic - never gets it all off.

Yes I do bring a towel or two for #2 since the pressured water flow does infiltrate at top of driver/passenger window where the roof's hinges fold it.

So nothing's perfect but either of the above options is far safer than a "brushless car wash" You know your luck - you'll wind up lining up behind a Bronco that just went off road for fun .

John

 

When my wife got her new Elantra travel I bought her a 30 car wash coupon for our local drive through. After 10 washes saw the back end all scratched up, so bad from the brushes that they agreed to pay for a repaint. Our cars are also very low for the system of rails that they have to drag the cars through. I would suggest a few more dollars and find a good hand car wash places.

 

A few weeks ago I decided to run my 98 Vert through the local car wash. I'm a fanatic and was cringing as it ran through.
After getting home, I had to not only rewash the car, but I also had to polish out the water stains and clean the streaky windows..

 

I'm not a fan of drive through car washes at all. I've heard of too much damage coming from them and seen that they do a pretty pathetic job. If you must, the touchless washes are by far better for your paint than the brushed type, but I'm still not a fan of the touchless because they can use some pretty harsh soaps to get rid of the dirt.

I've lived in apartments temporarily from time to time with no access to a hose. What is ideal is to stay on top of it and not let the car get too dirty by using a product such as Optimum No Rinse with some clean, plush micro fiber towels. If you go longer between washes or the car is very dirty I have used a 2 gallon hand pump garden/pesticide sprayer (from a store like Home Depot) and found it to work well. I use a bucket (or two if you are **** and like the two bucket method) and the appropriate brushes, towels, sponges, etc. When using the sprayer you can get a good pre rinse in to loosen the dirt and a post rinse if using conventional car wash soap. They also have pretty economical battery powered garden sprayers if you want constant pressure and don't want to hand pump. Being in Florida, once you move into your house you can always use it for pesticides later on if you are a DIY-er (I'm in the pest business myself). Obviously don't use the sprayer for car washes after exposing it to pesticides.

 

Where are you in Florida?

 

Jacksonville

 

Down here in SE FL, there is a car culture and a lot of exotic cars. As a result there are several hand-wash places. I suspect there are some up by you as well so try googling key words: 'hand car wash jacksonville'.

 

I always wash my XKR convertible by hand. I would never put him in a washing tunnel.

 

Even washing by hand you need to use the correct "tools" or you WILL scratch your paint, and the damage is cumulative. My neighbor bought a bright orange F-type last summer and I cringed when I saw him washing it with a sponge out of an old bucket. Modern paint and clear coat together are less than the thickness of a "sticky note" and are damaged beyond repair quickly.

If you are part of a club, I would recommend having a reputable detailer give a seminar on car care. We did one just a few weeks ago and it is hard to realize I've been washing my cars all wrong like, forever.

Check out Mike Lambert's "DIY" section here for proper finish care:
The Shine Shop - DIY - Reisterstown, MD

 

I'm curious as to what physics understanding causes the "spray" model of car washes to do less damage?

This is how I understand it.

Touchless - High pressure high velocity spray
Touching - low pressure medium velocity spray

Effect, the former causes any grit or grime stuck to your car to sand blast itself across at high pressure and velocity.

The spinning floppy paddle types, have a different effect than just spraying super duper hard. The center of the brush is closer to the car than the radius of the brush, this means to make a rotation, that part that touches your car is slowing down, it moves the dirt gently and slowly forwards, once the paddle becomes free of the car, the brush straightens out, gaining velocity. At is inverts, the centrifugal force of the extended panel flings the dirt from the paddle up and backwards from the path the brush is following.

The touch type version, results in less pressure, and less velocity, for any grime or dirt on your car to leave the car as the rotating paddles remove at low velocity, then after the paddles clear your car's surface, the velocity is increased, causing the dirt to get slung away without being pressure washed across the surface of your paint.

I guess I'm a dissenter from the rest of the thread, what am I missing?

I'd only use an automated car wash if I was planning on re-painting/respraying the car at some future not too far off point.

 

Let me start by emphasizing that I am not affiliated with or paid by any of the companies or products I am going to mention. That said, there is a wealth of information on car detailing on Autogeek - We Are Car Care, Car Wax, Car Polish, Auto Detailing Supplies, Car Buffers & Car Accessories Store, and http://griotsgarage.com. Both sites have excellent video and written tutorials about how to wash your car without the usual water, bucket, hose, etc. Both Mike Phillips (Autogeek) and Richard Griot (Griots Garage) really know what they are talking about. Mike Phillips uses and explains several different brands of products. Griot, well he naturally will try to sell you his products. They are excellent, but there are many excellent products out there.
My personal favorite is Pinnacle Liquid Crystal Waterless Wash. I buy the concentrate and mix my own, which saves a ton of money and insures a ready supply. I have used it on absolutely filthy cars (very carefully, and with LOTS of clean, plush micro fiber towels) with great results. The key is to let the solution float the dirt up off the paint, then to gently remove it - NEVER go over the same area twice with the same surface of the towel- and do small areas (e.g. do the hood in quarter segments).
I have used Griots Speed Shine with good results also.
Again, there are dozens of product choices out there, and plenty of variation on the methods, but it is possible to keep your car spotless without using water, and especially without using a carwash (Yikes!)
If you decide to use a handwash location, I recommend that you casually watch them wash a few cars and observe their technique. Some are strictly into speed and turn-around time, and are little better than an auto wash.

 

All my cars have cQuartz treatments and my detailer recommend either a commercial true touchless or a home touchless.

I do 50/50. For the home touchless, I have a CR Spotless ionizer and a dedicated pressure washer for the cars. I foam cannon and then rinse. I have a dedicated leaf blower to dry if I so desire.

Works pretty well for minimal effort.

 

I developed car wash training some time ago and the manufacturer's subject matter expert upended conventional wisdom. Brushless/touchless car washes are not better for your paint. To get the desired effect they use much harsher cleaning agents. In the extensive testing they did, soft touch car washes actually had a positive effect on car surfaces and over time increased gloss by up to 10%. Let's assume those were not well maintained painted surfaces. Go figure.

 

A friend had parked my XKR at her house while I flew out of an airport far from home. She thought she'd do me a favor by taking it through a drive-through carwash. She was enjoying the the stereo while the car was cleaned. Hmmm, maybe that's why what if noticed, before noticing that the care was "clean", was that when the care was off, the antennae was sticking up about 8". Oops.

 

It's only a month - leave the car dirty or, if it's causing you that much distress, have it professionally detailed.

Graham