Fiances Accord

A

admac

New member
okay, so i live in an apartment in the city (san francisco). i scoped out a couple of the coin-op diy carwashes in the city and they are, charitably speaking, in "interesting" parts of town. and the facilities were a bit short of disgusting. not exactly where i want to be spending a lot of time detailing a new m3. :(



are there any nice coin-op carwashes in the area? even if i have to drive 15 miles to get to someplace nice it would be worth it to me. anyone have any experience with a nicer coin op place in the general vicinity? thanks.
 
FYI - I used to use coin-ops - I'd bring a mit, and pretty much use them for their space as well as to get soapy water on the car and rinse it off. I rinsed my mitt with the wand, but only the mitt touched the car.

<span style='color: red'><strong class='bbc'>TWO WARNINGS[/b]

1. The pressure is high enough to cause serious injury - I sprayed the mitt on my hand and managed to spray the inside of my wrist - it broke the skin. Hurt like crazy. I was LUCKY - you can get serious infections this way because this stuff can penetrate DEEP.

2. Although I USUALLY had good luck, you must know that this water is "recycled". You have no idea how often they clean their filters, and you have no idea what stuff people have washed off their cars prior to your using that water. Could be parts cleaner, battery acid, god knows what. Anyway - even though I pulled the car out and went to dry immediately, I got some <strong class='bbc'>horrendous[/b] water spots once, and I attribute it to some bad, bad, bad stuff in their water.

Do you know anyone in the area with a house? Would they let you use their hose? I think this is infinitely preferable.
 
There’s a coin-op here in Marin in San Rafael. It’s on Vivian way I think. It’s not the best neighborhood but it’s close to east Francisco Blvd and I certainly feel safe there. It’s pretty close to Sonnen BWM actually. They don’t allow car washing at my apartment building either but luckily my mom lives close by (I can do laundry at the same time!) but I feel your pain. Might be a bit far but you can go check it out, hit Sonnen and then go back the long way over Mt. Tamalpais.



:xyxthumbs



Good luck



SJS
 
hmm. thanks for the heads-up on the recycled water greg. did not know that. the real bummer of it is that i have a house in los angeles, but i think you'd all agree that 400 miles is a long way to go to wash your car and it's probably be dirty when you got back anyway. LOL. i guess i may just stick to using a couple buckets in front of my apartment building. they don't forbid washing vehicles, i've washed my bike there a few times, it's just that i'm limited to the amount of water that i feel like trudging up and down the elevator. maybe it's still the best bet though. :nixweiss



i guess none of the coin ops are in nice parts of town because it's just a bad return on investment real-estatewise. i guess i was just hoping for one in sausalito with a nice view of the bay. :D looks like i'll stick to my buckets.
 
I think there may still be a coin-op washer on Geary near Collins (which is near Masonic), which is a pretty good neighborhood. If it's still there, it's on the south side of Geary, with traffic heading east, somewhere between Parker and Masonic.



Let me know if you find it.



(And I'm not talking about the car wash at the Shell station, which you definitely want to avoid. There is (or used to be) a coin-op a few blocks east from there.)



Good luck!
 
ed, is that a good neighborhood? i always heard western addition was a bit sketchy. but maybe that's old news. the other one i checked out was at 801 bryant, near my motorcycle dealership. yikes. not fun. i'll check out the masonic and geary one. thanks.



jeff
 
Well it has been a long time since the car got a thorough exterior clean. It has been atleast 2 years since I polished and clayed. Last July I did a thorough wash and then tested AG HD and BH AB, both held up great. Since then just ONR washes until a few weeks ago I applied CG Blacklight and V7. Well I had the day off and she asked if I could wash it, ah music to my ears.
While in the garage I sprayed down with Iron X
Pulled the car in the yard and washed it on the grass using CG citrus wash and citrus wash and gloss mixed in my Gilmore Foam gun
2 bucket method with CG citrus wash and citrus wash and gloss using a sheepskin mitt
Tires, wells and wheel covers cleaned with Zep Citrus
Back into the garage dried with Meguairs Water Magnets
Tires dressed with Optimum Opti Bond
Wells dressed with Meguiars Hyper Dressing and Finish Kare 350
Black rocker panel treated to Poorboys Trim restorer
Using the Griots DA I tried CG P40 but it was doing nothing to the haze look of the paint or the swirls, switched to Menz P203 and still not the results I was after, stepped up to Meguiars D300 compound and an Orange LC 5.5" pad and perfect the cut and clarity I was looking for I could have went right to my LSP after
Final polish with Buff and Shine black pad with CG P40, pictures show no difference but in person you can see added gloss
I was using CG polish towels to remove the polish and these towels are perfect I will be ordering A LOT more they are no frills nothing special towels just short napped and work amazing
Applied CG Jet Seal using GG DA and black B&S pad this stuff was so easy to apply and buffed off with ease using the CG white polish towels
LSP was Naviwax Ultimate applied one panel at a time and this added a nice warm wet look

Pictures, some taken with my cell and others with my camera when I finally found it

Iron X
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Foam
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All dried and ready to be polished
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After D300
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After polishing and Jet Seal

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After Naviwax Ultimate

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Wait a minute, at least two years and she's still just your fiance. What are you waiting for?

Kidding. Car looks great and that kid is adorable.
 
biolink said:
Wait a minute, at least two years and she's still just your fiance. What are you waiting for?

Kidding. Car looks great and that kid is adorable.
Click to expand...

Lol we have been together almost 7 years, her son from previous marriage, 2 kids together and one more on the way. One day I will get a piece of paper to say I'm not goin nowhere .
Thanks for the compliment, my son ran to play with friends but he was helping me polish it was great, he is 4 and tells everyone he is goin to e a famous detailer lol
 
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