I haven't hand washed my cars in a LONG time

[mclasser]

I used to but haven't for the past 2 yrs. All I do now is go through the local automated wash twice during each season. In the winter, I make sure to choose the undercarriage rinse option. I can't say I notice any new swirls or scratches from the automated washes but then again, I don't have a detailer's eye for these things. How bad is this for the paint? My Pilot is still relatively new so the paint does a good job bouncing off dirt and debris. The other cars are older and attract filth like a magnet.

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: mclasser
I used to but haven't for the past 2 yrs. All I do now is go through the local automated wash twice during each season. In the winter, I make sure to choose the undercarriage rinse option. I can't say I notice any new swirls or scratches from the automated washes but then again, I don't have a detailer's eye for these things. How bad is this for the paint? My Pilot is still relatively new so the paint does a good job bouncing off dirt and debris. The other cars are older and attract filth like a magnet.


If you put a good wax job on it BY HAND they will do the same thing.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Chronic nerve pain from a severe shingle attack has limited what I can do so I now run my vehicle through the automated car wash when I have to get gasoline. We don't drive much anymore(probably about 3000 miles a year) so the car gets washed about four or five times a year.Maybe less. I did manged to rotate the tires this last week. Did one side at a time since I have directional tires and rotation is just back to front/front to back.Times change and space/time rolls on.

 

[CKN]

Here in the winter the automated washes are the only option-can be too cold for anything else. I do find that they create superficial scratches on the paint. I remedy this by using Meguiars cleaner wax and a small bottle of scratch remover-those two products combined on my orbital polisher seems to take them off.

Hope this helps.

 

[sciphi]

It's been too hot to wash ours. Or by the time it's cool enough, the sun has set. Maybe this week.

 

[gregk24]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
It's been too hot to wash ours. Or by the time it's cool enough, the sun has set. Maybe this week.

 

[gregk24]

Automatic car washes will swirl up your paint, period. They can do a whole lot more damage though when something gets stuck in one of the cloth brushes, then your car gets beat over and over again inflicting scratches. You may not notice any damage at first, but over time they will trash your paint. If you don't keep your cars long and don't care about swirls then go ahead and use them. Before I knew any better I took my previous Accord to our local car wash every week for a solid year, it had metallic paint so it didn't always show the swirls but when it hit the sun right...OUCH! It didn't look good. Swirls everywhere. I then started hand washing and got into detailing and have never looked back.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted By: gregk24
Automatic car washes will swirl up your paint, period. They can do a whole lot more damage though when something gets stuck in one of the cloth brushes, then your car gets beat over and over again inflicting scratches. You may not notice any damage at first, but over time they will trash your paint. If you don't keep your cars long and don't care about swirls then go ahead and use them. Before I knew any better I took my previous Accord to our local car wash every week for a solid year, it had metallic paint so it didn't always show the swirls but when it hit the sun right...OUCH! It didn't look good. Swirls everywhere. I then started hand washing and got into detailing and have never looked back.



Paint for the most part is very durable. While what you say in theory can happen-based on the cars I have seen on used car lots-many with a lot of miles it doesn't happen too often. Swirls BTW can be either minimized or erased completely depending on the severity.

 

[mcgophers]

I've been doing touchless washes since I live in an apartment complex and hand washing can be a chore. I may wash the Sentra by hand at a commercial wash next time just to see if that gets it any better. The bugs around here are really showing up on the white paint.

 

[gregk24]

Originally Posted By: CKN
Originally Posted By: gregk24
Automatic car washes will swirl up your paint, period. They can do a whole lot more damage though when something gets stuck in one of the cloth brushes, then your car gets beat over and over again inflicting scratches. You may not notice any damage at first, but over time they will trash your paint. If you don't keep your cars long and don't care about swirls then go ahead and use them. Before I knew any better I took my previous Accord to our local car wash every week for a solid year, it had metallic paint so it didn't always show the swirls but when it hit the sun right...OUCH! It didn't look good. Swirls everywhere. I then started hand washing and got into detailing and have never looked back.



Paint for the most part is very durable. While what you say in theory can happen-based on the cars I have seen on used car lots-many with a lot of miles it doesn't happen too often. Swirls BTW can be either minimized or erased completely depending on the severity.


Yes, you can polish out most swirls...but as soon as you run back through the car wash they re appear. I spend a couple hours detailing the girlfriends Jetta a couple months back, then got lazy and took it to our local car wash. As soon as the sun hit the paint I felt like kicking myself because its all swirled up now ;(

 

[JXW]

Hand wash properly vs. MacHine soft cloth

No comparison. Between the abrasives grit sand and the super cheap economy foaming soaps there is no point in trying to do anything other than r remove heavy dirt from the vehicle. All the grinder does is beat the snot out of the paint and surfaces they touch.

Hand wash, 2 buckets, great soaps that aren't harsh, clay bars, dual action polishing, glaze etc. Your paint will be impressive, for years, not days or months.

If one isn't concerned, go to the grinder. If one is concious of paint perfection, hand wash soley, exclusively.

 

[Nick1994]

It's best to hand wash. Doesn't take all that long unless you're meticulous.

I have always hand washed and waxed the 2013 VW Beetle TDI, but VW is buying it back 11/1/16 so I took it to the $3 car wash. Who cares at this point, it's getting crushed.

 

[hpb]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
It's been too hot to wash ours. Or by the time it's cool enough, the sun has set. Maybe this week.


LOL. That's up there with not changing your own flat tyre because it's too hot

I'm not a fan of the automatic carwash. They definitely scratch the paint, and the one time I've used a touchless one in Melbourne earlier this year, it did a poor job. Washing and drying each car by hand in the driveway only takes 15 minutes per vehicle anyway, and it's basically free! So half an hour out in the fresh air, getting some sun, some exercise, saving a few bucks, and knowing the job's done properly, what's not to like?

 

[gfh77665]

The abundant torrential rains we have in SE TX generally cleans my cars enough. Occasionally I will spray the under carriage after a trip to the beach, just to blast away any salt residue. Otherwise, I never hand wash.

 

[Bear]

I normally hand wash. but during winter months I use either the hand wand self wash or the nearby automated car wash. It's the kind that has the washer mechanism travel around the vehicle without ever touching it. Also does the under carriage spray. I will not go to the very popular "touch less" car wash place that slaps the fiber mats up against the vehicles.
And yes a good waxing will reduce the dust attraction greatly.

 

[SirTanon]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
It's been too hot to wash ours. Or by the time it's cool enough, the sun has set. Maybe this week.


You're in upstate, NY.. and you're saying it's too hot to wash your car until the evening? Not buying it.

I'm in Phoenix, and I still hand wash my car in my driveway nearly every weekend, even in the summer. Granted, I wait until it's later in the day and the sun is low in the sky, but it's still usually in the mid-to-upper 90's when I get to it. A few weeks back, it was still 100 degrees at 7:00 PM when I washed the car.

If it's important to you, you get it done.

 

[SavagePatch]

...and aren't the pH adjusters added to automatic carwashes' water (even touchless) one of the culprits for yellowing headlight lenses?