I have washed my car though out the Boston winters-
My method is this.
1. Start car, turn on all heat (medium fan speed- high speed will not get it hot enough while idleing ) and defrosters. Wipe snow off leaving a 1/2 inch layer. Over entire car including windshield.
2. Dump 1/4 gallon of windshield washer solution on windshield- let car idle for 10 minutes. Using edge of piece of plastic sheeting - get this under the ice to help lift off ice sheet without scratching your windshield- also make sure your windshield is cleaned with a MF every time you park your car- and get under the wipers too to remove grime.
3. Go and a run a few errands (car has to run for at least 25-35 minutes) with the car to get the heat distributed throughout the car.
4. When nearing home- turn on the heat full blast with air recycle on. Leave car on - do not do this in the driveway! Pull the car onto your frozen lawn, or your drive way will become a skating rink.
5. Now the car is hot- and hopefully it is sunny out and about 25-32F near 11-noon.
6. Take the hose and blast the remaining snow, salt, sand, ice off the car + windows paying special attention to the ice chunks near the wheel wheels and under the undercarriage behind each wheel.- carefully blast under the fender ridge- on jet spray- to dislodge any sand and especially salt. Do the undercarriage twice, hopefully by driving the car- you got some fresh road salt under there to help loosen debris. OF course you don't want this on your car.
7. The car will ice as you do this unless the car is hot and still running.
* the roof often ices first even when car is on as the roof is well insulated (Cold air falls and makes cars drafty so roofs have lots of insulation- and hence so pay special attention to this. ) Roof is the last thing to get warm and the first to get cold.
8. Using your mit clean the roof completely- Dry remaining excess quickly with microfiber towel that has been wrung dry from a hot steaming water bucket. (Towel will be steaming like crazy- but won't be hot enough to melt wax once wrung out.) Use a laddle to laddle out a portion on hot water each time- You can rinse the MF in warm water. You'll need to use the laddle because you won't be able to see through the steam to see the water or find a dropped MF. The warm water rinse bucket won't steam as much. So rinse towel in Warm- second rinse with hot- wring towel and dry car.
9. Take out bottle of quick detailer which has been soaking in hot water bucket.. Mist the hot towel- for some reason this helps remove more water. Wipe roof dry- Killer.
10. That is the hardest part. at least 75% of the work. You have to battel the icing- but you can dry a car in very cold weather doing this. Don't try to do a large area or your MF will freeze to the car (If this happens use the laddle to dump some water on the MF to dislodge.- do a small area at a time.
11. Now spray down the side panels taking car not to let mist get on roof. Spray down using a shower head gentle spray instead of jet setting. (I use one of those multi spray heads for winter cleaning.)
12. Same drying procedure for side panels- you might not need the hot water if it isn't icing. Forget about the windows completely- let them ice up once you've cleaned them, or you will never stay ahead of the icing process. We will de-ice the windows later.
13. Next do the trunk. Or if your engine is in the rear do the front. The engine will keep the hood warm enough to do last.
14. Do rear fenders after the trunk. Then rear bumper with separate microfiber for all lowers.
15. Now strangely enough...do your front air dam and front fenders.. I know you will be saying that water will come off of your hood (which it will) but as the hood water will be warmer it is no big deal. You have lots of ice build up on the front air dam as well as the front fenders (Which get splattered with ice and snow and salt and sand....so cleaning them twice is not a bad thing).
16. Now do your hood. This will be the easiest. Shoot water from top of hood towards front air dam.
17. Dry hood in same fashion- quickly blast the air dam and do the same thing. You can use soaking wet hot microfiber MF's for the air dam.
18. Now with water pressure lower- nearly a trickle, reclean your front fenders. Try to keep hose off of snow as much as possible- put it on a shoveled walk way - to prevent hose water from getting near freezing.
19. Give underside of car a final blast with the hose. Do rims one at a time using rim cleaner that has soaked in hot water bucket. You'll also have to preheat each rim by pouring about 1/2 gallon of hot water onto the rim (I use old economy size plastic detergent jugs for this- pour spout works awesome as well as no drip spout for reducing splatter.)
20. Now you can roll this into your garage. The heat from inside the cabin will usually melt the remainder of snow from the windows once inside unless your garage is really freezing.
21. QD all the snow drips from windows.
22. Use warm MF towel to do side mirrors.
23. Use hot QD to do final QD over rest of car. To do roof- you will need to drop a "hot wrung out clean water only MF" on the roof to pre- heat the roof area and then QD and MF it.
24. To hand wax use a wax that melts easily- such as Souveran. Use your hands on cold car. Souveran is Chapstick for your hands. Buff with MF. IF your hand gets cold put hand inside a open ziploc- dunk ziploc halfway down into water so hand warms- then remove hot hand to melt souveran. DO NOT put Souveran in hot water bath! You'll use too much wax and have a real mess on your hands.
** if windows did not de-ice when brought into garage, double ziploc bag some hot water and apply that hot bag to the inside of the glass to act as a defroster.
Hot QD the car. To remove drips
Sick,,,,,, Yesâ€Â¦.did I have a clean car all winter??? Yes.
I didn't have a garage at all for this- and my car was clean nearly every day. I have no rust on my undercarriage as a result. This winterâ€Â¦I have a garage! Thankfully,,,,,- but alas unheated- so the car will still be washed on the frozen lawn.
