How bad is an automatic car wash?

How bad? Bad. Yikes.

A friend borrowed my 4runner once. He ran it through a car wash before returning. FRICK. I almost lost a friend....
 
hawaiidude said:
How bad? Bad. Yikes.

A friend borrowed my 4runner once. He ran it through a car wash before returning. FRICK. I almost lost a friend....
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It depends on tbe wash. I remember before I knew what swirls really were we took my parents nearly new car through one of those swirl o matics with the spinning round brushes. Instant swirls bad swirls. But on the other end of the spectrum is a good laser wash. 100% touchless and does a decent job. What I have noticed is trim on regularly automated washed cars is what goes first. Paint keeps looking pretty darn good.
 
locori said:
Do soaps and other chemicals from automatic car wash strip off sealant and waxes that were applied by hand? I am planning to detail my daily with one coat of Klasse sealant and one coat of Collinite 845. I was wondering whether I should even bother to detail my daily if I`m going to put it through car wash through winter (maybe 10+ automatic car washes until March). If sealant and wax can somehow survive these chemicals, I might as well go ahead and detail my daily driver. I detailed my weekend car today, and while waiting for sealant and wax to cure on my weekend car, I decontaminated and "somewhat" clayed the daily driver. All I have to do is to apply the sealant and wax during next wash. Thanks in advance
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What kind of automatic wash Touchless, chamois or those spinning brushes. Touchless is best for paint but probably uses more aggressive soaps

Klasse and collinite are stout but you’ll see if it degrades I’d definitely do it.

If you wanna bump protection look into CanCoat. Coatings usually have higher/lower PH tolerances.


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