Giving in to automatic washes

[dad07]

Congrats on the new baby! Man it seems like yesterday we were there for 23 hours of labor, then an emergency C-section. (And it's been 26 years July past.)

Normally I'd say:

Q: What's the second most expensive thing you've ever bought in your life?
(With your home being the 1st.)

A: Your vehicle

At which point I'd pontificate about how such an expenditure should be worth protecting.

But now BY FAR the most expensive thing you've ever bought (even though you're just starting into the spending part) IS INDEED THAT NEW LITTLE ONE.

Followed by your home, and then of course your vehicle(s).

That aside; Isn't your vehicle(s) worth a couple hours a month, or even a couple hours bi-weekly?

There'll come a time when you'll be GLAD to get to the garage/driveway/carwash just to get away from a house full of kids. That surely isn't now, but trust me.... it'll come along sooner than you think.

But as for the answer to your question.... NO any drive through wash that has brushes, hanging matts, wiggling floppy thingy's, and any other type of matter that TOUCHES your vehicle(s) in ANY WAY is to be avoided at all cost.

Drive through "touchless" could possibly be done in a pinch, but even those rub the tires too much for my taste. PLUS..... once it comes out you have a host of minimum wage earners standing in line with wet/dirty/gritty/crappy/altogether WRONG towels of all sorts that they've been using for days if not WEEKS just waiting to wipe your precious investment down with from bottom to top, (perhaps in that order). If you think it's swirled now..... pfffffttttt......

Brother ain't that the truth!

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

I second everything symawd said. You have a quality coating on your truck and don't have to worry about things like ph of car wash soaps stripping your protection.


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[BlackRam]

Wow this is really great advice guys. Shed a new light on the approach.
you guys made up my mind for me- no swirlomatics.

This is one of the many reasons i love this site

[Dr_Pain]

DO NOT GO INTO THE LIGHT!!!

Seriously, if your car is coated, you should be Ok to go through a touchless carwash once in a while. It will never beat a good hand wash though... I mean NEVER!

[jarred767]

Congrats on the little one!!! Such a great time! My baby is quickly becoming a toddler (19 months) so I can definitely relate to what you're going through. To make it worse, we decided my wife would stay home with the baby (which I would do again in a heartbeat), so I now work 50-60 hrs a week detailing cars and when I'm done I want to spend some time with the fam, not necessarily detail another car.

I've found that I need to be okay with a slightly less clean car for this time in my life. I keep up on mine when I can and do it bits a time. I rarely have everything clean at the same time, but it works for now. And I just try to find a block of time here or there to keep up with my wife's car. It's definitely a different perspective. I plan on coating them both this winter to try and make upkeep a little easier.

You just have to figure out a new plan of attack and be flexible with it, (preferably one that includes no tunnels). Just remember, you can't get these moments with the baby back, you can always wash the car later; congrats again!

[Klasse Act]

First off, congrats on the little one! As far as the question about carwashes, use the touch-free ones and make sure you buy the wash that has the underbody wash, get as much as that crud off as you can. Keep in mind that the touch-free washes don't do such a good job on the rear and always use the provided squeege to do all the windows before you head in, touch free washes NEVER clean the windows right, ever!

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[MattPersman]

I am different than the rest in the winter I take my stuff through the soft cloth wash all the time. You gotta correct anyways at some point. Hit it with AF tripple or something like that and move on with life

Ram clear is med hard on the new trucks not a big deal to them through a car wash if needed it's not a show truck and you even said you are making swirls so correction is gonna have to be done later anyways.

Like I said I am different.

[aim4squirrels]

I'll add my 2 cents...

For wheels, get the speedmaster pro brush and keep some diluted APC in a bottle. This brush is very sturdy, and really easy to rinse and shake dry.

Spray wheel and wheel well with APC, scrub everything with the speedmaster pro brush and rinse. repeat 3 more times.

For the paint and glass, buy a gilmour foam gun, and use one rinse bucket with a grit guard.

Foam panel,
wipe with wet dreadlock chenille mitt,
rinse mitt in bucket,
move to next panel and repeat.

Sheet rinse on a lower pressure hose setting, if it's splashing, you're creating more work for later.

Blow dry with leaf blower. It should be mostly body seams and window moldings at this point that need it.

Use a QD or rinseless wash as a drying aid for stops that inevitably happen on a black vehicle.

This has saved me literally half the time. I can bust out my car in 35-40 mins if I'm not lolly-gagging. add 10-15 if I need to dress wheels/wheel wells, and deep clean glass.

Only one bucket to fill and rinse out, mitt is way less saturated with soap as it gets into the rinse bucket at the end. Soap stays contained in the foam gun and the quick disconnect handle lets me rinse a panel without delay if it's warmer and I can't make it all the way around my black vehicle before stuff starts drying. I connect everything to my hose with dedicated quick disconnects as well, so pulling the gun off and sheeting is really fast too.

[dpk20x]

Can't believe this hasn't already been mentioned.. But have you considered adoption? I think that's the only real solution for your situation.

[Kurtopia]

Come on man, I just ate!!