Winter washing, new to all this

[Mikesdak]

Hey you guys. After years of neglecting my vehicles, I've gotten a decent car and want to keep it clean thru winter. I live in South Dakota, where it routinely drops below zero in the winter. I park outside, and drive on a mixture of gravel and salted asphalt. The car will get pretty dirty.

What's your recommended method of washing through winter? I have access to a self-serve pressure washer wash bay. I'm thinking of pre-rinsing with the pressure washer, and then applying some sort of ONR type product with a hand sprayer? Then, I'd probably wash with presoaked microfiber towels, and pressure washer rinse, and then towel dry.

Thoughts on the process and products?

[Mikesdak]

Incidentally, I'm going to apply fk1000p sealant prior to winter, to hopefully protect it better.

[PaulMys]

Sounds like a good plan.

The FK1000P is a great sealant/hybrid.

[Mikesdak]

Thanks. I'm thinking McKee n914 waterless cleaner looks good.

[PaulMys]

N914 is excellent.

[Mikesdak]

Ahh good. I can't wait to pick some up and try it.

[evo77]

How often during the winter months in SD are temps ABOVE freezing where you can actually wash your car?

For the majority of the season when temps are BELOW freezing, I would just run it through a touchless car wash just to keep the salt and gravel off. The car isn't going to be perfectly clean nor stay clean for long, and that's just the way it is in the winter. Unless you can secure an indoor heated location where you can thoroughly wash by hand, touchless car washes are good enough.

[chilly]

How often during the winter months in SD are temps ABOVE freezing where you can actually wash your car?

For the majority of the season when temps are BELOW freezing, I would just run it through a touchless car wash just to keep the salt and gravel off. The car isn't going to be perfectly clean nor stay clean for long, and that's just the way it is in the winter. Unless you can secure an indoor heated location where you can thoroughly wash by hand, touchless car washes are good enough.

And if you can find a touchless wash that has an undercarriage blaster feature so much the better so your frame and underbody get as much salt removed as possible

[Mikesdak]

Hmm, good thought there. I think I'll do a hybrid of both, depending on how warm is the wash bay ...

[Coatingsarecrack]

Hey you guys. After years of neglecting my vehicles, I've gotten a decent car and want to keep it clean thru winter. I live in South Dakota, where it routinely drops below zero in the winter. I park outside, and drive on a mixture of gravel and salted asphalt. The car will get pretty dirty.

What's your recommended method of washing through winter? I have access to a self-serve pressure washer wash bay. I'm thinking of pre-rinsing with the pressure washer, and then applying some sort of ONR type product with a hand sprayer? Then, I'd probably wash with presoaked microfiber towels, and pressure washer rinse, and then towel dry.

Thoughts on the process and products?

The last pressure rinse isn’t needed. Basically you’d just bring doing a normal bucket wash instead of a rinseless but just using rinseless wash.

If you are going to do all that a bucket of soap would be better.

If wanting to stay rinseless I would pretreat with a soap/traffic film remover applied with a pump foamer.

Let dwell 2-5 mins.

Then rinse with PW.

Clean panel by panel with a rinseless product.

Dry panel by panel. Use a good drying towel.


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