My cars have never seen rain. I never wash mine. Just dust it off. You really drive your car? Just a joke. I here this at car shows a lot.
We have a hand car wash place here that has the high/low pressure wash, wash "brush", high and low power rinse, and wax positions on a timer. The "brush" is a soft bristle foaming brush. The place is owned by "car people" that are on premises most of the time. The place is very well kept up, and the owners are friendly. It takes $3 to get it started, you can do $1 bills, $5 bills, and add an extra $1(s) to the timer any time before it quits, or you can use a debit or credit card. Inserting a $5 bill gets you an extra 2 minutes over just doing (5) $1 bills. I can wash my truck for $8 if I keep moving (including high pressure wash and high pressure rinse under all 4 fenders. If no one is behind me, I'll dry it off in the wash bay instead of pulling it out into the sun. I dry it off with old bath towels my wife gives me when she buys new ones. As such, your not going to see the truck covered with soap, I'll be rinsing it off (and drying it off) before I will stop to take a picture. Time is money, and I'm a cheapskate (and the idea of opening the door to get the camera while the truck is covered with soap isn't very appealing). The 49 Truck gets a bath nearly every week, it sits in a garage when not in use. The 48 Plymouth got a bath last summer, (I believe?), but it sits outside in the weather, so it gets washed every time it rains and dried every time the sun comes out. The Plymouth doesn't get used much these days, but I have been driving it the last couple of weeks, it really needs a bath... Washing it at home makes the water so cold, and the sun starts to dry it off before I can.
My only add is the first step at one of those car washes is to use the high-pressure wand and thoroughly clean that damn brush! A lot of people take filthy mudders and sand toys into those places and the second you hit your car with the brush you mar your car's finish. I know from experience, unfortunately.
the video for the Cool Hand Luke car wash scene is designated adult material by YouTube so we can't post it here. one of the greatest scenes in movie history! banned for the common man.
Hello, There is a coastal city by city ruling that prevents folks to wash their cars in the street and in their driveways. If one has a commercial company come out to do the washing, they use their own water and it is almost a waterless wash. The main reasoning is that brake dust cleaning compounds are toxic. Plus, whitewall cleaners and even blackwall cleaners all get hosed down the gutter and they end up in the local beaches. So, not only are the watering days limited for the neighborhood yards, but washing even without compounds is prohibited. They take water pollution seriously in the coastal areas. The rivers, creeks and drain pipes all lead to the ocean miles deep or end up on the sand from the surface gutter/drain pipes. Jnaki So, what do folks do to keep their cars clean? Commercial car washes use recycled water. The dinky 7-11 car washes also use recycle water from enclosed treated tanks. They are fast and efficient. But, once those are done in 30 minutes, then the spray and wash techniques you have always used from the car detail bottles from various companies, can handle the daily grime or splashes if needed. We all clean our windows daily and if there is a blemish or two, those detail sprays handle the residues. It does not take much time to clean the daily grime off of the car's surfaces. Then when you are ready for a full detail, then that time between the full wax is longer and saves you time and money... YRMV
Can you pull your car onto the lawn and wash it there? It would get around the problem of runoff, and the yard gets watered as a side benefit without intentionally watering it.
Hello, Yes, that is allowed, but the normal Blue Grass Blades take a beating and it is hard to recover for a nice green lawn. Plus, the water still rolls down the driveway and into the gutter. 20 years ago, there was a flood of water running down the gutters of most neighborhoods. It all drained into the local beach sand, and then the ocean. It was not just water, but, everything not good for people, like the brake dust cleaning products and other items during the wash. That was not good and a ruling was put in place. So Cal was a dry area and water restrictions have been put in place. A lot of folks are known to rip out the lawn and replace the whole grass area with succulents and low water need plants. It is a “no mow” lawn (pun intended) replacement for most folks. Instead of three days a week to water, in So Cal, since there is a water restriction... (such as no watering after 9:00 a.m.) we can only water two days a week. Luckily, the grass is no more and the succulents don’t take up a lot of water and still are attractive. Jnaki Some folks have replaced their real grass with artificial grass. That takes no watering…ha! It looks nice and stays relatively clean. Any amount of weight placed on top of the grass blades just get brushed up and the blade pattern does not get wrecked. The only problem is to get a new sprinkler system set up elsewhere. One of our neighbors has installed a great system. Buried sprinkler lines for the whole yard. Under the surface of the planting area, is a set of pipes with tons of holes. It is laid out covering the whole yard, underneath the soil amendments. Now, they can plant anything, anywhere and it gets watered without anyone knowing. But, it is a waterless situation on the surface sprinkler system. No surface watering means no water waste. Detailing of our cars is still a process, like before, but it is just not done in residential areas. The local fast food outlet car wash is fast and approved use of recycled water. Or pay more for the twenty guy car wash that moves your car down a long tunnel with folks washing and wiping your whole car. Now, it is a game of keeping the daily drivers clean. The small bottles of spray and wash or what ever concoction is created, works to keep the blemishes clean and shiny. And cars are now always garaged to keep them cleaner for longer periods of time. YRMV Note: The local landscaping companies used to come in and re-do a yard. When the clippings were taken in bags, the left over "stuff" was usually washed into the gutter and down the street to the drain. That is no more. So the same restriction is for home owners, too. The large maintenance groups for the whole community continue to cut grass and other street side plants. But they too have restrictions and now, there is no hosing off of the street to get it clean. It is swept up into large bags and taken to the local approved dump for disposal. For home owners, there is a "green" can for all plants to be recycled at another disposal yard. Nothing goes down the street...
So when it rains, all the brake dust, rubber from tire wear, oil on the streets, etc, gets washed off the street and into the gutters and to the beaches. When you consider the number of people that are likely to wash their car in their driveway, that seems like a red herring in terms of actual contamination.
Cool hand Luke, yep Joy Harmon, I used to be built like that before I had kids..... I wish all car washes looked that good, if they did my car wouldn't have any paint left... ...
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