How many car washes are too many washes?

Socalramfan said:

Drive through car washes have their place, just not for me. The damage that is caused to the paint, just isn't worth to for me.

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Pretty sure that your handwash causes more damage to the paint than my auto-wash. Unless you're just using a hose. Nothing touches my truck but water/detergent. The biggest danger is to my tires, since I have oversize tires and spacers - I have, I think, about 3" of clearance between the "pipe" guides. I generally am scrubbing one side and/or the other before I get through.

TestPilot57 said:

Pretty sure that your handwash causes more damage to the paint than my auto-wash. Unless you're just using a hose. Nothing touches my truck but water/detergent. The biggest danger is to my tires, since I have oversize tires and spacers - I have, I think, about 3" of clearance between the "pipe" guides. I generally am scrubbing one side and/or the other before I get through.

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Not in my case..... it's total OCD, but then again... it's my thing

Have used the (3) bucket method on all my vehicles, particularly the show and "black" ones, and use a Master Blaster for drying off. The less times your touching the paint, the better. But like I said.... that's me, living in So. Calf weather, and lots of OCD

Don't see too many Ferrari's or Porsches' going through the car wash, and there is no lack of them here. Just a thought.

Socalramfan said:

Have used the (3) bucket method on all my vehicles...

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Meaning you are putting some kind of sponge/whatever on the paint, right? Or are you just dumping water on? You cannot convince me that any "device" (sponge/whatever) is less abrasive than water, which is all that touches my paint.

Maybe in some parts of the country there is no such thing, which leads people to not understand what we have here. Maybe we have true touchless (water is the only thing that touches your car) because of a large percentage of dirt roads, and heavy salt usage, both of which would be very difficult to clean with a brush/pad without causing scratches/swirls.

By the way, I would take my Porsche through the auto-wash, but I never drive it in poor weather so it doesn't get dirty enough to justify washing it. I have it professionally detailed once a year - yes, they hand wash it, but it's so clean it hardly needs it, and the dust is so fine that I'm not worried about it.

TestPilot57 said:

Meaning you are putting some kind of sponge/whatever on the paint, right? Or are you just dumping water on? You cannot convince me that any "device" (sponge/whatever) is less abrasive than water, which is all that touches my paint.

Maybe in some parts of the country there is no such thing, which leads people to not understand what we have here. Maybe we have true touchless (water is the only thing that touches your car) because of a large percentage of dirt roads, and heavy salt usage, both of which would be very difficult to clean with a brush/pad without causing scratches/swirls.

By the way, I would take my Porsche through the auto-wash, but I never drive it in poor weather so it doesn't get dirty enough to justify washing it. I have it professionally detailed once a year - yes, they hand wash it, but it's so clean it hardly needs it, and the dust is so fine that I'm not worried about it.

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I'm thinking the same thing, that some people here don't seem to know what a true touchless car wash even is. That's all that any of my vehicles ever see. I usually do one hand wash in the spring to get rid of all the winter crud that the touchless car wash won't remove. Then use the touchless wash the rest of the year.

TestPilot57 said:

Meaning you are putting some kind of sponge/whatever on the paint, right? Or are you just dumping water on? You cannot convince me that any "device" (sponge/whatever) is less abrasive than water, which is all that touches my paint.

Maybe in some parts of the country there is no such thing, which leads people to not understand what we have here. Maybe we have true touchless (water is the only thing that touches your car) because of a large percentage of dirt roads, and heavy salt usage, both of which would be very difficult to clean with a brush/pad without causing scratches/swirls.

By the way, I would take my Porsche through the auto-wash, but I never drive it in poor weather so it doesn't get dirty enough to justify washing it. I have it professionally detailed once a year - yes, they hand wash it, but it's so clean it hardly needs it, and the dust is so fine that I'm not worried about it.

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Not trying to convince anyone of anything, simply stating a tried and true method that works and is recognized as the optimum cleaning method in the show / concours community, and sharing it with

Any time..... again, anytime you touch the vehicles paint you expose it to damage and contaminants besides any environmental.

There literally is no way around that, wish there was.

I agree that many may have a misunderstand, or have a misconception of what "touches" actually is and may involve. Unfortunately, the majority of commercial car washes will interchange "Touchless and Brushless" as the same, which we know is not, and certainly is false advertising in my book.

Not bashing commercial car washes, as previously mentioned they have a place and a need.

Given the same vehicle, I'll put up a properly done hand wash, to a commercial car wash any day of the week. Glad to hear your detail guy is doing it the way he is. I'm sure you are too

And I should say, no auto wash can get your vehicle as clean as a proper hand wash, regardless of type.

If you are ceramic coated this soap works well. I use it on my Charger. It was filthy from having to DD it some this week while I was doing maintenance on the Ram. Foam cannon and the two bucket method with drying it off with the blower took me 20 minutes. I cheated and used adams wheel cleaner, so that cut down on washing them.

Dirt is man glitter. One wash every three months. Drive thru only out here.

I’ll let you know. My wife and I just recently purchased a touchless car wash business. I have a 2021 1500 limited eco in billet silver. Some days, I have to run the truck through the wash two or three times to test everything out. So that’s going to add up quickly.

Treburkulosis said:

By touchless I meant drive through car wash. Me not physically touching and to elaborate more scratches and hazing. It looked like it had gotten into a fight with steel wool.

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Words mean things! A touchless car wash is one that does not touch the car. Automatic car wash is the generic term that covers brush, water only, drive in and park, or conveyor.

I used to hit an auto wash once or twice a day in my Saturn. Was driving a thousand miles a week and expected to have a clean looking car, and being in wash was a great excuse for not taking phone calls. I'd use a manual wash bay once a month to do a deep scrub and wax, or hit a detailer. Tended to avoid touchless as they just sealed the bug splatters and bird **** they missed with with the wax steps, so did a lot of soft brush auto washes. Paint and clear coat were perfect when I turned it in, as was the frame. In hind sight way to much wasted effort on that cheap P.O.S..

People run though cars that had been sitting in the baking hot sun, then complain of clear coat cracking. People with damage visible to me don't do a quick pre wash walk around and loose their **** after a wash, believing the wash did it when they just didn't notice while it was dirty.

I too was of the mindset that one should only handwash their vehicles and do it at least once a week. I was pretty good doing just that then I started slipping. My vehicles, all 5 of them (69 Cougar, 10 Maxima, 16 Suzuki Burgman 650, 20 Outback & my 19 RAM) looked great until my 2006 back surgery flared up again.

I just got my RAM last month and it looks great. Today I ran it thru its 2nd brushless car wash since I've owned it. I then drove it home where I toweled and compressed air dried it. This will be my routine from this point forward.

Fellas, it's only a piece of metal at the end of the day. Do what you wish to keep it looking nice and mechanically sound.

I went to an estate sale today where the guy had everything car related. Models, tools, posters, parts, work clothes, you name it. But you know what, he's gone now and his house was full of strangers rummaging through his beloved "TREASURES". I don't want to be that guy; I like my vehicles and take pride in them but I no longer "OBSESS" over them.

So, thank you for putting up such an eye-opening post.

MaxGig said:

I too was of the mindset that one should only handwash their vehicles and do it at least once a week. I was pretty good doing just that then I started slipping. My vehicles, all 5 of them (69 Cougar, 10 Maxima, 16 Suzuki Burgman 650, 20 Outback & my 19 RAM) looked great until my 2006 back surgery flared up again.

I just got my RAM last month and it looks great. Today I ran it thru its 2nd brushless car wash since I've owned it. I then drove it home where I toweled and compressed air dried it. This will be my routine from this point forward.

Fellas, it's only a piece of metal at the end of the day. Do what you wish to keep it looking nice and mechanically sound.

I went to an estate sale today where the guy had everything car related. Models, tools, posters, parts, work clothes, you name it. But you know what, he's gone now and his house was full of strangers rummaging through his beloved "TREASURES". I don't want to be that guy; I like my vehicles and take pride in them but I no longer "OBSESS" over them.

So, thank you for putting up such an eye-opening post.

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I'd like to check out that estate sale

Good and valid points. Well put.

I spray mine with a pressure washer to get the heavy stuff off and then hand wash it. I don't have a particular schedule, just when it gets dirty. I have a pavement princess or garage queen or whatever else people want to call it. When I first got married my wife had an uncle that saw me outside cleaning my vehicle and he told her that was the sign of a lazy man who kept a clean vehicle. She replied cleaning a vehicle was a job, not cleaning a vehicle was lazy. He had nothing else to say. I like a clean vehicle, sue me! Never owned a vehicle I wasn't proud of. LOL

7,342,998. +/-

I am amazed that car washes with brushes still exist at all. Here in Edmonton you would have to look hard to find one. They are either wand, touchless or the manned hand wash types. Brushes make such a mess of paint that has mud, salt, grime on it I can't for the life of me imagine running a car through one let alone a pickup.

I wash my vehicles at least weekly, more often if needed. I want to keep the salt and road grime off as much as possible. Wand wash takes less then 8 minutes and I never use a brush or sponge on it. Bug and tar remover first, let it soak, use soap setting, then rinse with the clear coat setting. Truck come out great and after 26 years of year round use, this one still has its original paint. It would not look like that if it hadn't been kept clean or if I used a car wash with brushes.

I have the advantage that in all the places I have lived I have been able to park my pickups in a garage so they can dry. If you have to park outside, that makes keeping a truck clean quite a challenge as everything wants to freeze up. You have to dry the locks, door seals etc really well if you park outside in 0 C or colder weather.

mikeru said:

Haha...thanks for clarifying. So what you meant is any car wash that uses mechanical means to clean the car, that doesn't involve you doing the work. It sounds like you haven't ever used a true touchless car wash.

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Do they still have car washes with brushes? I'm in my early 50's and haven't seen them in 30 years.
Here in the NYC suburbs, very few people have garages that can accommodate our trucks, so the weather is the worst enemy of our truck finishes - not washing the car (also the jealous a-holes or soccer-mom-loaded parking lots of which I park way out at the end of).
I hand wash just because I'd rather do it it my driveway and hate the lines of a car wash. You can't go anywhere on LI without waiting in line. I take reasonable care when washing (2 buckets) but other than that, I use Wolfgang paint seal twice a year and spray waxes in-between. I keep the interior immaculate and outside clean, but don't have the need or desire to review the exterior with a magnifying glass. I turn-in or trade-in vehicles in beautiful, low mileage condition, so it's been working for me.

It's a personal decision....have a ball with touchless washes if you want.

No brush washes allowed. Only touchless. I usually hit the Wand wash bout every 2 weeks, lots of dirt blowing in Texas. I hand wash and wax when looking for a better clean, and use the Ceramic Wax at least twice a year. But never, never brushes. Just IMHO...

I would not recommend washing every day. As a person posted above, U might start getting a lot of water pooling in areas and the word "RUST" is an evil word.

Only have soft brush washes by me. Hand wash I summer and use the car wash in the winter.

Drive up put the front wheel in the track and the roller comes up behind the rear wheel and pushes the truck down the tunnel full of soft rotating kind of micro fiber brushes all kinds of water sprays and soaps the rinses and blow dryer at the end. Try to go through at least once a week. My 15 had 5 years of it and still looked good with no rust, it was waxolyed also.