Car Washing

[stangdude2000]

Hey guys - I've got a question for all of you on washing your cars. I live in a townhouse more or less in DC. It has a shared underground garage, so there's no driveway for me to wash my car. The outdoor spigot would make me cross the hose over sidewalk with tons of foot traffic (tripping liability issue). The street is also pay-to-park, which isn't an issue, but there is rarely parking available.

My question to you all is how do you wash your cars if you are in similar situations? If I just drove a couple blocks away, its nice and quiet with plenty of parking, so finding a place to wash is no issue - just the method. Has anyone used one of those hand-pressurized chemical sprayers (filled with water, obviously) to wash their cars on the street? I'm talking about the portable backpack style. I'm wondering if the spray would be too pressurized at any reasonable flow of water to be safe for the paint. Any other suggestions?

 

[FreeRider]

This might sound like a silly question, but have you thought to take it to a public car wash?

Bring your own supplies such as:

a good set of Microfiber towels
a Shammy or 2
Window Cleaner
Interior cleaner of your choice
soap if you feel the need to be picky
Wax <- if you feel so inclined

Using car washes is not a bad thing, just use the manual ones

I live in an apartment complex with no driveway nor source to wash my car myself.

I have a car wash right up the street that is well maintained and generally go there with my own boot-full of supplies for washing it. I look silly when I drag out all this crap, but the car comes out looking like it just got driven off the show-room floor.

 

[chgovfk]

I lived in Iowa for a while and at an apartment complex w/no hose or area to wash - I would do the same thing - go really early (or late) to a public spray booth - drag everthing out like about - keep the car 'in-there' and 'hand' wash it w/a bucket and then dry it quickly in the booth - pull the car out and do all of the detail stuff....by the vacuum hose area - bring lots of quarters - I would fill the bucket up off of someone else who was rinsing there car - wet down mine / wash it / rinse it again - dry it and pull it over.......

 

[Mustanglvr2006]

I used those backpack sprayers everyday for years at my old job, and IMO there is nowhere near enough pressure to hurt your paint or any other surface on your car, BUT, the problem I see you having with that would be, not enough quantity of water coming out of the nozzle to rinse off ALL the soap, you know in the cracks and crevasses, I believe most backpacks are 5 gallons and I would think you would need more than that to rinse an entire car with soap all over it (not to mention wetting the car before you wash it) you can get a pretty good sized nozzle tip that would put out a substantial amount of water, BUT, then you will be depleting the water in the backpack very quickly and would def need to refill, if you can bring a few 5 gal buckets (with lids) of water with you, then you would be in much better shape.

Remember, its not really advised to wash more than one panel at a time without rinsing out your wash mitt and for that matter, rinsing the soap off that panel you just washed, I have been doing a ton of research in regards to "the proper way to wash/wax" my car, and I was horrified to learn how EASY it is to mess up a perfectly good paint job (Swirls etc....) just by washing it wrong and not using the proper techniques (like the two bucket method) The paint on my GT was nearly perfect when I bought it and I wanted to ensure I kept it that way, I did my homework. I hate to see you have to resort to this, because it will be so hard for you to wash your car safely and properly, you would need lots of water (water is you friend when washing your car) so I probably wouldnt use the backpack method, you might just be doing more damage than help.

Best of luck!!

 

[walter]

I live in an apartment now and the only way I can wash the car is using the old soap and bucket method. Fill the bucket with water and soap, use big sponges (also I'm a fan of the hand mittens) to wash the car. When it's time to rinse dump out the bucket in a drain and go get yourself a clean bucket and sponge and repeat. When you're done just tip the bucket over the panels to wash away any residue. After that dry the car off and follow with either a quick detailer or a wax job if you got the time for it.

Takes a while but it works and you know you're not hurting your paint by taking it to some automated place.

 

[stangdude2000]

I would do the public do-it-yourself car wash, but with land being so valuable in the DC area, they don't exist. Within about 30 miles of me anyway.

Doing constant refills of a bucket/sprayer isn't out of the question since I can almost always get a spot that's on a quiet road but within about a 100 foot walk from my house, so I'll probably do one and/or both.

Thanks for the input!

 

[walter]

No problem man, for future reference be careful of those DYI car wash places. I took mine in one of those that they just built around here so everything was brand new. Well a brand new brush is a hard brush I scratched up my hood pretty bad with that thing and I didn't even realize it until it was too late. Took forever to buff that out.

 

[HOLYWD]

Used to work at the dealer so they did it every other day , but now i use turtle wax soap , hand wash with a sponge and then shami it after ward . then ill pay my friend to buff/wax polish and claybar it

 

[MSVR3]

I know it may not be perfect, but what about taking your ride to a non-touch auto wash and afterwards, pull to the side and shami it dry? I live in Springfield Va area and there some nice gas stations with them. If you live close to Kingstown area, there is a really nice one at the BP past Walmart. Another really good one is out by Dulles right behind the Lamborghini dealership called "Dulles 28 Auto Wash". Hope that helps...

 

[Mustanglvr2006]

Doing constant refills of a bucket/sprayer isn't out of the question since I can almost always get a spot that's on a quiet road but within about a 100 foot walk from my house, so I'll probably do one and/or both.

Thanks for the input!

If you could walk just 100 feet for more water then I would say you're in pretty good shape

You just need to keep in mind that washing an entire car without rinsing your wash mitt out 10 to 20 times in the process could and probably would leave micro marring (swirls etc...) in the paint, as you're washing the car your wash mitt is picking up dirt, sand, all kind of debris and that is not good for the paint, thats why I cant stress enough how important it is to rinse the mitt often and use the "two bucket method" one bucket for your car wash soap, and another bucket with water to rinse out your mitt.

I know I sound like a broken record and I dont want to come off like I'm an expert, because I am not, I just learned the hard way, as I said earlier in my first reply here, when I got my 06 GT the paint was nearly perfect and after the first time I washed the car I used a back pack leaf blower to dry the car (which turned out to be the most advised way to dry a car, if you have access to one) I noticed swirls ALL over my GT, I was sick over that, thats when I started doing research and ran across Meguiars Forum and read the proper way to wash my car, learning in the process that the way I was used to washing was the wrong way and was the cause of the swirls left on my paint, took me 3 applications of swirl X from Meguiars to correct what I had done by washing it using one bucket for my soap and rinsing, and using a sponge instead of a really good wash mitt.

You will be fine since you are so close to plenty of water and having to go only 100 feet from your house is not too far to bring everything you need to do the job.

One more thing I thought I'd mention, you said you have a spigot outside your house but you're worried about running it across the sidewalk because of someone possibly tripping? What you could do is get a throw rug or something like that and lay it over the hose (that is going across the sidewalk) so it wouldn't be such a hazard, and less likely to trip someone up, and then you could wash your car right outside your home using a hose just a thought!

Again, Best of luck

 

['08GTcaRED]

I live in an apartment complex and I used some ingenuity. I bought an adapter from HD to fit a garden hose and a sink/shower faucet on the other side. Take off the shower head and hook up the hose. I lay a couple coils in the tub so if it drips down, it only gets in the tub. Run it out the window out to the carport. I only turn the water on a little bit though, you can't turn it on full as the shower is designed for more flow than the garden hose.

 

[Mark25]

As long as you DON'T drive in the mud or winter snow salt/chem treated streets...you can keep your car clean using Bayes Waterless Car Cleaner or my favorite is Prolong's Waterless Wash and Shine...I haven't used a bucket and hose on my 4 cars in the last 5 years! You will need, however, some good cotton towels and the ability to wash this towels at least once a week.
Both of them are great products...yes, you'll have to use them at least a couple of times a week (work from the top of your car down to your sides and wheels)...but NO bucket and hose and you can do it inside your garage.

Prolong Waterless Wash & Shine Gallon Refill Waterless Wash & Shine Refill [#64128] - $34.00 : PROLONG ENGINE TREATMENT LIFETIME WARRANTY, PROLONG ENGINE BOOSTER, ENGINE TREATMENT WATERLESS WASH SHINE TRANSMISSION TREATMENT

Waterless Car Wash - Bayes Eco-Friendly Cleaners