Spending $200 a month at the car wash HELPPPP!!!

[LGHT]

Like the post said I’m spending way too much money at the car wash between me and the wife! Since I work next to a “touch less” car wash it’s quick and easy to just drop it off and get it later. Since me and my wife both own 2 cars each (3 are black) if I only get each car done once or twice it adds up. To make matter worse my CLS-550 is too low to go through their rail system so they have to do an all hand wash which is extra. I got one of those Chemical guys kits from my bro for xmas that came with soap, wax, sealer, and some nice soft clothes. I do try and wash at least my cars at home on the weekends, but it’s a horrible tiring and time consuming process so I usually just get too lazy especially since I have a 3 and 1 year old.

Well I was trying to find something other than Barny on You-Tube and noticed a video on how to wash your car without touching it!! Wow I had no clue such devices like foam cannons existed. Granted I’ll have to Pony up some $$ to get a fancy pressure washer cannon and hopefully a leaf blower, but if I can I wouldn’t mind doing 2 cars at a time at home. I know I’ll eventually have to put down some wax and seal, but if that’s all I have to once ever few washes I can get the Car Wash chain forever!!

Looking forward to having the 3 year old wash my cars for me!!

 

[Never Enuff]

Save up your "wash" money for a couple of months and have someone that knows what they are doing detail it for you. Once you have a "proper" detail, the maintenance should be less time consuming.
Jay

 

[LGHT]

Save up your "wash" money for a couple of months and have someone that knows what they are doing detail it for you. Once you have a "proper" detail, the maintenance should be less time consuming.
Jay

Well I spoke to the wife and I can get some gear now, but I don`t think she will be on board if I have to pay for someone to detail it first and THEN pay for all the gear to do it myself? I mean how would I explain that they have to do it first and then I can?? I`m sure the first thing she`s going to ask is if you have the gear why can`t you do it yourself??

 

[fly07sti]

If you’re happy with how your cars look after a touchless, then just go with your plan and get a power washer, foam cannon and leaf blower or Metro Blaster.
Mind you it would go quicker if the paint had good LSP’s on them but as you said, you gotta do what you can. I totally understand as I have a 5 year old and a 5 month old.
Good luck to ya and try to enjoy cleaning your rides. Hopefully your 3 year old will want to help you. Good times!

 

[Stokdgs]

Welcome to the forum, LGHT !

If you already think it`s horribly tiring and time consuming to just wash the cars now, we don`t even want to tell you how long it will take to Detail a black car with no experience, vs a lot of experience measured in years...

I have never used all those foam cannon things, and am not so sure of their ability to do what the Marketing People say they do..

I use a good 2.0gpm pressure washer with a wide fan tip, to first knock off as much gunk as possible, especially in the wheels and wheel wells, quickly, and then wash the car by hand using different car wash soaps for different car paint conditions... Sometimes the car wash soap has a measured amount of Meguiars Super Degreaser in it because of the outside condition of the vehicle..

This also gives me the opportunity to look at every square inch of the vehicle, top to bottom, and mentally note areas that already look like they will need extra care and work, etc..

And I get to use the same pressure washer to clean the gas filler area behind the little door, underhood, the cowl area, firewall, engine and engine compartment.. Nothing looks better than a clean engine and compartment..
Good luck with your research !
Dan F

 

[LGHT]

If you’re happy with how your cars look after a touchless, then just go with your plan and get a power washer, foam cannon and leaf blower or Metro Blaster.
Mind you it would go quicker if the paint had good LSP’s on them but as you said, you gotta do what you can. I totally understand as I have a 5 year old and a 5 month old.
Good luck to ya and try to enjoy cleaning your rides. Hopefully your 3 year old will want to help you. Good times!

I`ve never actually used a "touchless" so I don`t know if it`s worth it or not, but I`ve been reading a lot all morning (i`m in IT so I have a lot of downtime at work) and the griots boss system seems like it`s good. Basically if you have a good paint job you don`t need to get the mit out (learning new terms here) and you can just foam and dry, but if it`s really dirty you still need to hand wash afterward. Plus the videos and the 25% off coupon made it too much to resist so I have a new Boss kit coming and all I need now is a good power washer!!

 

[LGHT]

Welcome to the forum, LGHT !

If you already think it`s horribly tiring and time consuming to just wash the cars now, we don`t even want to tell you how long it will take to Detail a black car with no experience, vs a lot of experience measured in years...

I have never used all those foam cannon things, and am not so sure of their ability to do what the Marketing People say they do..

I use a good 2.0gpm pressure washer with a wide fan tip, to first knock off as much gunk as possible, especially in the wheels and wheel wells, quickly, and then wash the car by hand using different car wash soaps for different car paint conditions... Sometimes the car wash soap has a measured amount of Meguiars Super Degreaser in it because of the outside condition of the vehicle..
This also gives me the opportunity to look at every square inch of the vehicle, top to bottom, and mentally note areas that already look like they will need extra care and work, etc..
And I get to use the same pressure washer to clean the underhood, the cowl area, firewall, engine and engine compartment.. Nothing looks better than a clean engine and compartment..
Good luck with your research !
Dan F

Well the CLS was a project car I got from an insurance auction cheap. Basically it had minor body damage, but because it was scratched from nose to tail it needed new paint. My body guy put a new paint job on it and I had it color sanded and buffed so that car technically is only 6 months old and is always garaged so it`s good to go as it. However the old truck and the wife`s cars could use a good detail first. Heck I may not even bother with my old truck and just focus on the wife`s cars instead.

So what I need to tell her is it needs a detail first to get it from a paint job that looks like a 3-4 to a 8-9 and from then my new gear is designed to "maintain" that 8-9 looking paint job.....

 

[Accumulator]

LGHT- Welcome to Autopia! With four cars, three of them black(!) and 1 and 3yo, what Never Enuff said (" Once you have a "proper" detail, the maintenance should be less time consuming.") You know... "Pick your battles"...

Heh heh, yeah..this stuff *does* cost a bit, but then so do a lot of things when you have cars like that CLS [Accumulator has a few Audis and previously drove Benzes, which actually cost less over time.]

 

[LGHT]

Welcome to the forum, LGHT !

I use a good 2.0gpm pressure washer with a wide fan tip, to first knock off as much gunk as possible, especially in the wheels and wheel wells, quickly, and then wash the car by hand using different car wash soaps for different car paint conditions...

Ahh exactly what I read to do in another post. On a side note what pressure washer do you use? Do I need a 2.0 unit or can I get the job done with a cheap Ryobi?? I found this for $60. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-R...Electric-Pressure-Washer-ZRRY141612/303646622

 

[LGHT]

LGHT- Welcome to Autopia! With four cars, three of them black(!) and 1 and 3yo, what Never Enuff said (" Once you have a "proper" detail, the maintenance should be less time consuming.") You know... "Pick your battles"...

Heh heh, yeah..this stuff *does* cost a bit, but then so do a lot of things when you have cars like that CLS [Accumulator has a few Audis and previously drove Benzes, which actually cost less over time.]

Well with young kids I do have a CLS, but it`s an 08 from an auction so lets just say it didn`t cost $72k!! That was last years project car and the entire car finished was only around $8k even though the engine is perfect and only had 80k miles on it.

This years project is an 12 A4 Avant that`s getting coilovers on it tomorrow and some new five Axis shoes.. Again the project when done should be around $7k and the car only had 55k miles!!

 

[LGHT]

My latest 2 project cars...

 

[Stokdgs]

LGHT --
Have taken many jet black vehicles that were so scratched from years at the the carwash, etc., that they had turned a dark, flat, gray color, and paint corrected them back to brand new..
Of course, this process took lots of hours, but because of the totally neglected condition, almost all the paint was still on there, so I had a little more cushion to work the defects out and give them back a brand new E63 AMG, for example...

""So what I need to tell her is it needs a detail first to get it from a paint job that looks like a 3-4 to a 8-9 and from then my new gear is designed to "maintain" that 8-9 looking paint job....."""

This would be the way to get the paint back to nearly perfect , or perfect depending on the condition, for sure.. If this is your goal, then yes..
But with no experience, it will definitely be a long process, that can be most challenging...
Dan F

 

[Accumulator]

Ahh exactly what I read to do in another post. On a side note what pressure washer do you use? Do I need a 2.0 unit or can I get the job done with a cheap Ryobi?? I found this for $60. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-R...Electric-Pressure-Washer-ZRRY141612/303646622

That`s a *little* weak compared to the cheapie my wife bought me at Lowe`s, but it might be fine for pre-rinse/washing. My little AR is absolutely sufficient, which was a pleasant surprise.

EDIT: but wouldn`t be sufficient for stuff like Foamers/etc.

 

[Stokdgs]

Ahh exactly what I read to do in another post. On a side note what pressure washer do you use? Do I need a 2.0 unit or can I get the job done with a cheap Ryobi?? I found this for $60. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-R...Electric-Pressure-Washer-ZRRY141612/303646622

LGHT --
I have a 20+-year old DeVilbiss gas powered pressure washer, that still works great.. I`m using it until it dies... It also served flawlessly when I used it to wash down houses before I painted them..
I suppose any pressure washer is better than none, because it will get into all those little places and blow stuff out of them better than any brush by hand can do..
The less powerful ones just take longer.. Not sure of reliability of those Chinese machines.. Perhaps $60 isn`t a big hit to replace when needed?

Nice cars !! Love the CLS - always loved that C-Series when it first came out !
The Avant - very nice wagon !! Did only a few of those Avants over the decades but always loved the way they look when done.. Its Audi hard paint.. Will correct up nicely if it has not been messed with by drunk clowns and such...
Dan F

 

[Accumulator]

LGHT- Ah, good buys for the $. I bet both are in much better shape than the `93 Audi I got from an family friend...same story as yours kinda, cosmetically trashed (saved from Cash For Clunkers, elderly woman`s winter car for use when in OH..think "cleared snow off with a metal shovel") but not even broken in mechanically. Once given the proper detail for their condition and planned use (don`t aim for perfection! Especially not when they`ll be used by a family), keeping them nice oughta be doable at a reasonable cost.

 

[Accumulator]

.. Its Audi hard paint.. Will correct up nicely if it has not been messed with by drunk clowns and such...
Dan F

The leading surfaces might be so abraded that the best plan would be to get the bumpercover/etc. repainted.

Not sure of reliability of those Chinese machines.. Perhaps $60 isn`t a big hit to replace when needed?

That`s how I view my AR.."disposable pressurewasher". Not that it died as quickly as I`d expected

 

[Older]

[h=2]Got Rid of my Overpriced Karcher PW and bought a Cheap Ryobi & Upgraded it... way better setup!![/h]
There`s a thread in the Everything Else forum with the above title.

It`s the exact set-up I have and works great with the BOSS cannon and it`s related chemicals.


PS: It wouldn`t let me copy the address for some reason.

 

[LGHT]

LGHT --
Have taken many jet black vehicles that were so scratched from years at the the carwash, etc., that they had turned a dark, flat, gray color, and paint corrected them back to brand new..
Of course, this process took lots of hours, but because of the totally neglected condition, almost all the paint was still on there, so I had a little more cushion to work the defects out and give them back a brand new E63 AMG, for example...

""So what I need to tell her is it needs a detail first to get it from a paint job that looks like a 3-4 to a 8-9 and from then my new gear is designed to "maintain" that 8-9 looking paint job....."""

This would be the way to get the paint back to nearly perfect , or perfect depending on the condition, for sure.. If this is your goal, then yes..
But with no experience, it will definitely be a long process, that can be most challenging...
Dan F

Well the Audi only has 55k miles and the paint isnn`t that bad. Seems like the previous owner garaged it, but it does have swirling. As for the Caddy my wife drives it`s always in our garage and it`s the blue one so it`s also isn`t horrible since the touchless car wash I use is better than the gas station ones, but it definitely needs some attention so I probably will get that detailed first. Now my truck is horrible!! I think I`m going to just give it my best effort on my own and live with it.

 

[LGHT]

The less powerful ones just take longer.. Not sure of reliability of those Chinese machines.. Perhaps $60 isn`t a big hit to replace when needed?

The funny part is you can get the same model with a 3 year warranty for $100, but it would take $50 to ship it back if it ever broke lol... If that Ryobi is too cheap what`s a good starting model? Or should I just get something made to last and expect to spend $200-$300 for it and never have to worry about it?

LGHT- Ah, good buys for the $. I bet both are in much better shape than the `93 Audi I got from an family friend...same story as yours kinda, cosmetically trashed (saved from Cash For Clunkers, elderly woman`s winter car for use when in OH..think "cleared snow off with a metal shovel") but not even broken in mechanically. Once given the proper detail for their condition and planned use (don`t aim for perfection! Especially not when they`ll be used by a family), keeping them nice oughta be doable at a reasonable cost.

Yeah I gave up on paying full price for cars 20 years ago. Since then I have probably bought and sold about 10 cars in 10 years. The main thing I focus on is low miles and no front end damage. Everything else is a quick and easy fix including paint especially if you have a good body shop you can call.

 

[LGHT]

Got Rid of my Overpriced Karcher PW and bought a Cheap Ryobi & Upgraded it... way better setup!!

There`s a thread in the Everything Else forum with the above title.

It`s the exact set-up I have and works great with the BOSS cannon and it`s related chemicals.

PS: It wouldn`t let me copy the address for some reason.

Thanks for the link!!
I found it and it looks like some great mods. The one I was looking at was a refurb so I`ll probably just get the new one with the new handle and gun and try and work with the existing hose.