[svede1212]

i'm suprised that no one has brought this up before but reading this on another thread made me wonder. i take my black car thru the soft cloth car wash at least once a week as well as hand wash. the finish looks fine (with my NanoWax ) also, what kind of soap does everyone use on their goat?

 

[Shocker]

I just use water I always like the outcome of my blazer when i used just water. When I used soap it came out crappy.

 

[desertgoat]

When I get a fill up of more than 10 gallons, I get a free touchless car wash at the gas station. This is how all my cars get washed. All done in less than 5 minutes while I am sitting inside the car and NO brush touches the cars, just some really powerful jet streams of water spray.

So the cars get washed as often as I fill gas, which means very often....

 

[gto_in_nc]

I liked the touchless carwash idea for rinsing off dust - until one ripped the front plate cover off of my Bonneville as I was exiting. It never stayed on right after that. I decided then that powerful jet streams of water playing all over the outside of my car without me even seeing what it was doing might not be something I want to have happen. And I definitely don't want spinning brushes or swishing walls of potentially crud-encrusted fabric rubbing back and forth on it! So, until the "newness" wears off for me, it's had-wash only (with TurtleWax car wash, BTW, 'cause I bought a big-ass jug a couple of years ago...)

 

[DFWGTO]

I used to hand wash my black car all the time... When you hand wash, you don't get the towels recleaned as they should be... caused swirling. I now only take mine to a soft touch cloth carwash. No marks.... I hear the chems that they have to use to do a touchfree wash are harder on the paint than most bug gut or bird poop... So far so swirlies or scratches

 

[TonyTJ]

I ONLY wash it by hand and I let no one else wash it. The reasons area first off I'm very anal about washing the GTO, in particualr drying. I HATE swirals in the clear coat so I first use the california water blade to get the majority of water off, then I use a 100% cotton white towel and lightly dry offf the rest. If you rub too hard with the towel, swirals appear. After the wash and dry I spray down the car with the Zaino spray.

It all comes down to that If I have someone else wash her, I won't be happy and will have to do it over myself.

 

[Holeshot]

I only do a touchless automatic wash on Christine if I have to.
Otherwise its by hand and a chamois dry rub down :hail:

 

[Dbluegoat]

hand wash only

 

[Alex]

hand wash only every weekend (if its not raining or a hurracaine coming over) and i use Meguires NXT carwash, and to dry the california water blade and towels

 

[GMH GTO]

Do mine by hand unfortunetly like TonyTJ it has to be perfict, wash mine every weekend. I use Meguires Mirror Glaze 62 car wash, detailer grade stuff buy it by the gallon. The wash mit and chamios i'll replace couple times a year. Recently I found a 3'x3' microfiber "drying towel" that picks up where the chamois leaves off, works well!

Touchless car washes use very harsh detergents, not a fan of them.

 

[Huntress]

Hand wash with Zanio products

 

[slick50]

Washing

I use the Mr Clean system. Wash by hand, everything else with spray. No drying. Works well most of the time. Leaves water marks once in a while I believe because the filter needs changing.

slick50

 

[BowdawG]

I go through the touchless spray wash at the gas station when I fill up on occasion, but it doesn't remove bugs or dust/dirt all that well, so I hand wash as well with Rain Dance carwash I got a while ago. I will never use a 'soft touch' carwash after seeing how my mom uses one all the time and her 98 explorer now looks like it was washed with steelwool... I tried the Mr. Clean and it left spots all over the place (not a bad filter- it was brand new) I used it a second time a month or so later and it worked a little better but still left spots. Not sure if it didn't like my Meguiars wax or what...

 

[Red98gt]

Excellent Article on How to wash your car. I have a Red and a Indigo Blue and there are NO Swirls from washing........ And yes, Touchless detergents are very harsh, and do not clean like a hand wash.

http://www.bettercarcare.com/articles.php?articleId=9

 

[svede1212]

that was a very good article and reaffirms some of my thoughts on hand washing. i however always wash the wheels and bottom last so i don't have to make 2 buckets of soapy water up. i turn the hose with no sprayer on full blast and really give a copious soaking with water. i have a large tree over the driveway and that keeps the cars from spotting while i'm doing the rest of it. i didn't like the idea of plain water as i could feel it didn't lubricate as well. is there a good, inexpensive car wash soap anyone recommends?

 

[GTOdriver7]

Excellent Article on How to wash your car. I have a Red and a Indigo Blue and there are NO Swirls from washing........ And yes, Touchless detergents are very harsh, and do not clean like a hand wash.

http://www.bettercarcare.com/articles.php?articleId=9

very good article. im glad to know that i do about 90% of the stuff he mentioned and use most of the products he mentioned and in the fashion he described
(geez that guy has a lot of porsches)

 

[flyinlow]

Just about any brand of car wash will be OK (turtle wax, armorall, etc.).

He did leave out one thing though. The best way to dry the car is with a 200 mph leaf blower. I bought an electric Craftsmen at Sears for $50 and it does a great job of getting all the water off and out of the cracks. Much easier to dry and no risk of scratching.

 

[bobby]

Hand wash with Zanio products

ditto

 

[dmonty]

My friend owns a car wash and I use it exclusively

 

[gtofan]

Hand wash, Meguire's car wash soap, genuine sheepskin mitt and Griots wash bucket with ledge for the mitt - keeps mitt from picking up grit at the bottom of the bucket. Use Griots wheel cleaner and extra soft finish brushes for wheels. Dry with 100% cotton towels. No swirls, no scratches so far.