Proper Car Wash?

[YOHAN]

Is it true that touchless car washes scratch your paintjob? You know, those automatic car washes wehre your car just goes into a building and comes out on the other end.

[Impelled]

Touchless is excatly that. The water jets or dryer jets are the only thing that hits the cars, thus you get little to no scratches. If you go into an automatic carwash that have the spinning brushes (and their in many styles of brush types) they will leave little scratches.....and sometimes big ones if some foreign object is lodged in them. Stay away from those. Spend an extra couple of buck for the no touch, or spray it yourself. Wipe off with a clean chamois.

That will do a good job for most of us.

Now others will probably reply and go into an involved process of meticulous care and materials to use, for the ultimate car wash. That's okay for them, but it's just a car to me and I don't have that much time or patience. Don't get me wrong, My stuff is clean, but I'm not OCB

[imEric!]

If you have to use the automatic car-wash, make sure you don't choose those with the wheel-rail as it can scratch your rims...

[JeuneTurc]

Originally Posted by Impelled

Touchless is excatly that. The water jets or dryer jets are the only thing that hits the cars, thus you get little to no scratches. If you go into an automatic carwash that have the spinning brushes (and their in many styles of brush types) they will leave little scratches.....and sometimes big ones if some foreign object is lodged in them. Stay away from those. Spend an extra couple of buck for the no touch, or spray it yourself. Wipe off with a clean chamois.

arrgh, that is sooo true. I made that mistake with the last 'rolla--stupid me, I took the "Touch Less" car wash to mean "touchless" [very tiny difference, that little space made--they had those stupid spinning brushes at the very end, although most of the wash was of the water jet/spray type] and I know EXACTLY which major scratch(es) came out of that on my then-brand-new car. Needless to say, that Esso station has not gotten any more car wash traffic from me, although I think they have finally switched to the fully "touchless" system.

[YOHAN]

Thanks, guys! Now I know!

[corollarondorandy]

Here is my system; wash top to bottom using Griots Garage car shampoo[very slippery],while car still wet use paint-cleaning clay to remove fallout/road grime,etc.,I find water works just fine as a lubricant for the clay;use sheepskin mitt or Maguiars long-handle brush[if c-c-cold out]but use a separate device to wash wheels[Griots whl. clnr. is awesome];chamois dry;I use KLASSE ALL-IN-ONE as a wax{German Gold -medal winning product];I do not recommend sealant over Klasse but carnauba over it is great!!