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Car Washing...what are your tips and tricks

Glad I searched for this topic, if I understand what I have read this car either has to go touchless or a wash with a conveyor if I want a simple automatic car wash?
 
Electrified said:
Glad I searched for this topic, if I understand what I have read this car either has to go touchless or a wash with a conveyor if I want a simple automatic car wash?
Click to expand...
“Has to”. You can wash it like any other car, heh, most of us are just a bit more OCD with a really expensive car like this.
 
borski said:
“Has to”. You can wash it like any other car, heh, most of us are just a bit more OCD with a really expensive car like this.
Click to expand...
I ran it through an automatic wash today, it's my daily driver and while there are many hand car washes I can hit up in the city during the week on the weekends there just isn't any hand car washes near the house unless you make an appointment with a detail shop.
I took the folks out to dinner tonight and wanted to do it in a clean car so I did the deed, and honestly there will be weeks during the winter where this car will see the car wash three times a week easily as I just can't stand driving and getting in and out of a salty vehicle.
 
Electrified said:
I ran it through an automatic wash today, it's my daily driver and while there are many hand car washes I can hit up in the city during the week on the weekends there just isn't any hand car washes near the house unless you make an appointment with a detail shop.
I took the folks out to dinner tonight and wanted to do it in a clean car so I did the deed, and honestly there will be weeks during the winter where this car will see the car wash three times a week easily as I just can't stand driving and getting in and out of a salty vehicle.
Click to expand...

What brand car wash? Would be nice to see if they have pics online to compare to local wash.
 
dawktah LucidGT said:
What brand car wash? Would be nice to see if they have pics online to compare to local wash.
Click to expand...
I’ve driven mine through a touchless one once, another time washed it at a DIY wash because it was filthy and I didn’t have time. I do not recommend the DIY washes, some of the chemicals in there are acidic, the hoses can bump your car, doesn’t look that great after, etc. The drive through touch less one was ok cuz I had some good drying towels on me to get off water before it spotted. But still the forced air and high PSI from the water jets isn’t great for the car. Plus the waxes they use can be an issues if your e ceramic or PPf
 
bunnylebowski said:
I’ve driven mine through a touchless one once, another time washed it at a DIY wash because it was filthy and I didn’t have time. I do not recommend the DIY washes, some of the chemicals in there are acidic, the hoses can bump your car, doesn’t look that great after, etc. The drive through touch less one was ok cuz I had some good drying towels on me to get off water before it spotted. But still the forced air and high PSI from the water jets isn’t great for the car. Plus the waxes they use can be an issues if your e ceramic or PPf
Click to expand...
I was thinking about doing PPF on the front of the car but I've never done PPF or ceramic coat on any of my daily drivers, so why start now? I'll just do what I have been doing forever and just get the car detailed twice a year.

@dawktah LucidGT living in Indy has the same issue as I do living in NE Illinois, winters with snow and tons of salt spray that literally turn cars white. When I posted earlier about my car visiting the car wash three times a week during some winter weeks I was serious.
 
Electrified said:
I was thinking about doing PPF on the front of the car but I've never done PPF or ceramic coat on any of my daily drivers, so why start now? I'll just do what I have been doing forever and just get the car detailed twice a year.

@dawktah LucidGT living in Indy has the same issue as I do living in NE Illinois, winters with snow and tons of salt spray that literally turn cars white. When I posted earlier about my car visiting the car wash three times a week during some winter weeks I was serious.
Click to expand...

I'm going to have to find a solution. I previously drove a Toyota Tundra. So used Mike's now Crew.
 
Electrified said:
I was thinking about doing PPF on the front of the car but I've never done PPF or ceramic coat on any of my daily drivers, so why start now? I'll just do what I have been doing forever and just get the car detailed twice a year.

@dawktah LucidGT living in Indy has the same issue as I do living in NE Illinois, winters with snow and tons of salt spray that literally turn cars white. When I posted earlier about my car visiting the car wash three times a week during some winter weeks I was serious.
Click to expand...
I live in Oregon, sorta. (Across the border in Washington actually). AW, is the NW weather for us. Rain, occasional snow, occasional hard summers, beautiful spring & fall. But I digress...

I have vinyl wrap on my car & took it a touchless car wash ($12/-). No issues. I did carry a mitt & microfiber cloth (Costco) to wipe the car down after the wash to avoid spotting.
 
Sorry to revive an old topic but as I'll be getting my AGT, soon I have a few questions about specific as I've always been meticulous about washing my cars, especially my new and shiny ones.. I feel Ike I've never been able to truly do it properly. I live in Utah where the water is really hard.
I think the manual car washes (with the hoses and you turn the knob to get what you want) have deionizers and stuff to help with the hardness of water, especially on spot free rinse.

I've always done this cycle:
Rinse, soap, wipe it or scrub it with towels to cover every inch, then wax wash, then spot free rinse to get it all off, then the wheel cleaner or acid for the wheels and brakes.

Please someone tell me if this is wrong or how it can be improved, or if I should avoid these all together and just use the rinse and soap and spot free rinse, but do everything else myself through online products that I bring with me to the wash? (if the car wash chemicals are too tough)


hydbob said:
Okay so here we go, prepare to spend money!

Since you have a pressure washer, buy this


Also buy 2 5 gallon buckets and...

A Grit Guard


Get 2 of these in different colors


A LOT of microfiber towels


Some window towels


Glass Cleaner

www.opticoat.com

Opti-Coat Opti-Glass Clean & Protect 16 oz. - Opti-Coat

Opti-Coat® Glass Clean & Protect is designed to clean and boost your Opti-Glass™ Pro Coating with a simple wipe on, wipe off application. It will clean glass surfaces without streaking while the polymers will bond to glass surfaces and continue to add protection every time you use this product...
www.opticoat.com www.opticoat.com

Wheel Cleaner


Okay now you are ready.

Fill both buckets with water, get both mits soaking. Spray your car, hook up that foam cannon and foam away. Using only 1 mit, wash foam on car. After 2 panels (my preference) rinse out in bucket with grit guard. Rinse again in other bucket. Continue until car is washed. Rinse off. Use 2nd mit now and use the wheel cleaner. Clean and rinse wheels. Grab your leaf blower and blow car from top down, get into the grooves and get that water out. Dry with microfiber cloth. After dry, take the Glass Cleaner and clean glass with the glass towels.

If you have ceramic coating, then you can get this https://www.opticoat.com/product/opti-coat-hyper-seal-16-oz/ to help top up the ceramic, but only need to do it once every 3 months or so
Click to expand...
So I've seen various threads about waxes and ceramic coatings, and ppf.

I'll get my full front and everything visible from the front ppf
And probably ceramic coating for everything else.
But I don't quite understand the whole wax, or the ceramic spray and wipe off stuff.

How do those work?
Don't wax and ceramics stick to the car?

Also I saw the video someone else mentioned by IMJOSH

Wouldn't doing something like possibly scratch the paint? If you coat the car in soap but then rub the same Towels throughout the whole car, I feel like the dirt you're wiping will stick to the towel and you'll just be dragging that all throughout the car and causing swirls or micro scratches
 
Ah too late to edit the post, but I did have one other thing.
For those of you, especially with luxury or expensive cars..
How do you park your car at every day places? Any tips or tricks to make sure my vehicle is always safe, avoiding someone scratching it, opening their doors too close to my car or hitting the car, or even bumping it, etc?

Maybe I'm just being super paranoid, but so many people especially kids obviously don't care and will just open their car doors all the way out even in tight parking and hit your car, I've seen it happen to other people's cars from afar.

What are some recommendations?
 
Volund said:
Sorry to revive an old topic but as I'll be getting my AGT, soon I have a few questions about specific as I've always been meticulous about washing my cars, especially my new and shiny ones.. I feel Ike I've never been able to truly do it properly. I live in Utah where the water is really hard.
I think the manual car washes (with the hoses and you turn the knob to get what you want) have deionizers and stuff to help with the hardness of water, especially on spot free rinse.

I've always done this cycle:
Rinse, soap, wipe it or scrub it with towels to cover every inch, then wax wash, then spot free rinse to get it all off, then the wheel cleaner or acid for the wheels and brakes.

Please someone tell me if this is wrong or how it can be improved, or if I should avoid these all together and just use the rinse and soap and spot free rinse, but do everything else myself through online products that I bring with me to the wash? (if the car wash chemicals are too tough)



So I've seen various threads about waxes and ceramic coatings, and ppf.

I'll get my full front and everything visible from the front ppf
And probably ceramic coating for everything else.
But I don't quite understand the whole wax, or the ceramic spray and wipe off stuff.

How do those work?
Don't wax and ceramics stick to the car?

Also I saw the video someone else mentioned by IMJOSH

Wouldn't doing something like possibly scratch the paint? If you coat the car in soap but then rub the same Towels throughout the whole car, I feel like the dirt you're wiping will stick to the towel and you'll just be dragging that all throughout the car and causing swirls or micro scratches
Click to expand...
If you get ceramic you can skip the wax.
 
Volund said:
. . . so many people especially kids obviously don't care and will just open their car doors all the way out even in tight parking and hit your car, I've seen it happen to other people's cars from afar.

What are some recommendations?
Click to expand...

It's also a problem in Florida where there are so many elderly people who have trouble contorting into and out of a car with a door only partially opened. (This is the reason Lucid brags about the 90-degree opening of its long rear doors.) Even in parking lots with generously-sized parking spaces, so many of them are occupied by monster SUVs and pickups that it can be hard to find a place that leaves your mind at ease. My favorite thing to park next to is a minivan, which typically has a relatively short front door coupled to a long sliding rear door.

I park in more remote spots when I see fewer cars there to reduce my chances of a door ding. But with the snowbirds now arriving for the winter season, those open parking spaces start to disappear. At the same time, the number of drivers who cannot pull into a parking space straight increases with the winter climb in average age.

All this conspires to make any attempt at insuring against door dings a total crap shoot.
 
Volund said:
Ah too late to edit the post, but I did have one other thing.
For those of you, especially with luxury or expensive cars..
How do you park your car at every day places? Any tips or tricks to make sure my vehicle is always safe, avoiding someone scratching it, opening their doors too close to my car or hitting the car, or even bumping it, etc?

Maybe I'm just being super paranoid, but so many people especially kids obviously don't care and will just open their car doors all the way out even in tight parking and hit your car, I've seen it happen to other people's cars from afar.

What are some recommendations?
Click to expand...
PPF may help decrease the chances of door dings, though only the minor ones, I believe.
 
Volund said:
Sorry to revive an old topic but as I'll be getting my AGT, soon I have a few questions about specific as I've always been meticulous about washing my cars, especially my new and shiny ones.. I feel Ike I've never been able to truly do it properly. I live in Utah where the water is really hard.
I think the manual car washes (with the hoses and you turn the knob to get what you want) have deionizers and stuff to help with the hardness of water, especially on spot free rinse.

I've always done this cycle:
Rinse, soap, wipe it or scrub it with towels to cover every inch, then wax wash, then spot free rinse to get it all off, then the wheel cleaner or acid for the wheels and brakes.

Please someone tell me if this is wrong or how it can be improved, or if I should avoid these all together and just use the rinse and soap and spot free rinse, but do everything else myself through online products that I bring with me to the wash? (if the car wash chemicals are too tough)



So I've seen various threads about waxes and ceramic coatings, and ppf.

I'll get my full front and everything visible from the front ppf
And probably ceramic coating for everything else.
But I don't quite understand the whole wax, or the ceramic spray and wipe off stuff.

How do those work?
Don't wax and ceramics stick to the car?

Also I saw the video someone else mentioned by IMJOSH

Wouldn't doing something like possibly scratch the paint? If you coat the car in soap but then rub the same Towels throughout the whole car, I feel like the dirt you're wiping will stick to the towel and you'll just be dragging that all throughout the car and causing swirls or micro scratches
Click to expand...
I just got back from my PPF & ceramic installation, here in MN at a place that has now down 6 Lucids. A few tips: the guy said any product you use to wash your car that has a wax built in will just build up on the exisiting ceramic and is not helpful. Said to stay away from any detergents that cut grease (like Dawn) or are acidic, as they'll wear your film down. Ditto any automatic car washes that have the blue stuff (strangely said the touchless basic was ok). He recommended mitts over sponges for the potential swirl problem you know, and said a light pressure wash before soaping is best to break down the dirt before soaping. Big shammy towels after blow dry.

There are some additional in between spray products for bugs, hard water issues, etc. that he recommended but I don't have them in front of me right now.
 
Volund said:
Ah too late to edit the post, but I did have one other thing.
For those of you, especially with luxury or expensive cars..
How do you park your car at every day places? Any tips or tricks to make sure my vehicle is always safe, avoiding someone scratching it, opening their doors too close to my car or hitting the car, or even bumping it, etc?

Maybe I'm just being super paranoid, but so many people especially kids obviously don't care and will just open their car doors all the way out even in tight parking and hit your car, I've seen it happen to other people's cars from afar.

What are some recommendations?
Click to expand...
I already got a door ding at work, thought I was being careful but somehow someone got my rear passenger door. So then I found a perfect spot where the right side of the car is protected by a curb and another person who doesn’t have kids/passengers is on my left so they don’t open their passenger door…only to discover it’s next to a very tall lamp post which has some bird’s nest on it so now my car gets covered in bird crap to avoid a door ding. It’s pretty much the only safe door spot in the lot ☹️

Moral of the story: don’t worry about it, enjoy the car and fix things if something gets damaged. I think just be cautious enough but no amount of caution is going to fully protect you.
 
Volund said:
Ah too late to edit the post, but I did have one other thing.
For those of you, especially with luxury or expensive cars..
How do you park your car at every day places? Any tips or tricks to make sure my vehicle is always safe, avoiding someone scratching it, opening their doors too close to my car or hitting the car, or even bumping it, etc?

Maybe I'm just being super paranoid, but so many people especially kids obviously don't care and will just open their car doors all the way out even in tight parking and hit your car, I've seen it happen to other people's cars from afar.

What are some recommendations?
Click to expand...
I find a far spot in a parking lot that doesn't have any or many cars parked there, and I park like an a$$---- and take two spots. Yesterday I did this at the gym I work at and some idiot in a big lifted truck still parked in one of the spots I was taking half of. He was literally 4 inches from my car. He had to climb out the passenger side to make his exit after parking like that to prove his point. I was only 10 feet away in the building so I came out and said there was no way I could get in my car with him parked so close, and that I knew I was parked like an a$$ and said it was new and I was still a little paranoid. He happily moved it. Then told me he respected my honesty and said it was a "Godfather type of move" and he loved it. (I'm a girl though, and wouldn't necessarily confront anyone like that-I did it in a joking around way which made it less confrontational. It was also daylight with my co-workers close by watching out the window)
 
Yeah, if you park far away and take multiple spots when there's plenty of parking available, I don't see that as an ass move at all, personally. It's understandable you don't want anyone to park next to you. And I really like @bunnylebowski idea of parking in a corner where you have curb on one side and so you only have to worry about 1 person parking next to you rather than 2
 
TotalDetailingPA said:
Hi there. Professional detail & film shop owner here. Happy to answer any questions. I'll be providing you guys with an updated product list as well to compliment the list from @hydbob
Click to expand...
Thanks! I think it was you that recommended those pink edgeless microfiber towels? They’re great. It’s funny my cleaning regimen has changed a lot since I got the car, now I mostly just wash with ONR, only break out the pressure washer/foam cannon every 6 weeks or so.
 
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