haha I know the quality is horseshit! I took it w/ my camera phone it was zoomed in @ 4x...so thats the horrible picture quality...but the ppl did a really good job, and i thought the foam might Fuck up my paint, but it didnt at all...

all that for $7.99...and they put silicon on my tires and than dry it by a giant air dryer... they clean my exhaust tips and my door sills...and they clean my wheels by hand and by machine...my rims are soo clean i can practically eat of them...I deffinately recommend them... (SUPERSUDS)


- Veeral

 

Veeral, your pics are ass....nonetheless, your ride and rims are sweet.

 

Ahhhhh............I feel soo bad for you car. How can you take it to a place that uses those big spinning rags? That sucks for your paint.

I hand wash my car 98% of the time, but if I don't have time I go to a NO TOUCH car wash.

 

i didnt think they would hurt my paint...there arent any more swirls than before...

 

washed mine up at the quarter stall wash today, just to get some of the loose dirt off.....god i hate the winter time. whenever you spend some time washing your car it just gets shitty the next day.

 

Well winter time isnt too bad for me, just that I dont like washing my car in the winter cause its soo cold!! Thats why I did it @ Super Suds...

But it doesnt really know here in Atlanta...and its not raining until wednesday...so clear skies for like a week!! I just use my Meguiars Detail Spray to get the dirt off, and than put on that Tire Wet

 

EEEEEK!

The day my car sees a brushing auto wash like that is the day I die! I guess I say that because im a detail nut, but if you think about those washes you may see my reasoning:

1. How many vehichles go through those washes, often VERY dirty?
2. Where does all the dirt go? Yes some washes off in the water or foam, but yes some does transfer to those rag things BRUSHING against your car.
3. Those "rags" the workers use to clean or dry the car, do you think they clean them after every car or use new ones? What ever dirt the wash didnt get, those rags are definately gonna moved the dirt along the finish!
4. The soap cleaners often used in auto washes are usually very harsh to break down build up of grime and dirt, usually the used soap cleaners are overly harsh and strip your wax a little faster than normal car soap.
5. Swirls are inevitable on a daily driver, but swirls and those car washes are like best friends.

Not listing this to make you feel bad or beat you down, but being a detail freak, I wouldnt recommending using those kinda of washes. As spdy0001 said, if you have to use a car wash because its too cold then use BRUSHLESS washes. Pic number 7 looks scary to me! LOL

Oh BTW, I thought I was going blind looking at your pics! You scaaaared me man! lol jk

Sweet ride and love the rims and drop....your pics in your album look much better!

 

don't go through there again... I don't even take my winter unit through those because of all the reasons 01bluecls stated.

Go to a bay wash. Bring your own bucket and soap. It takes a while and might cost more (because of all the quarters to keep the water running), but you'll save your paint!

 

Thanks for the advice...nomore of that shiiitt...

but they also offer hand washes...do you think that would be ok?

 

you guys are hilarious.

I take my car through those washes at least once a week and have been doing so for years. my paint looks perfect, the wax stays on, I have no scuffs or scratches.

but then again, I don't really give a shit. when I get my ferrari maybe I'll reconsider my preferred method of washing.

 

Danny's family for me!!

Plus, there's always hot chicks at the car wash getting their cars done.

 

Allow me to retort, from a guy who was either worked, managed, or consulted with car washes for almost 10 years-

1. How many vehichles go through those washes, often VERY dirty?
Probably a lot. But if the car wash is any good at all, they usually spray all the dirt off with water guns before the car even goes into the tunnel. Most cars going thru have been thru numerous rinses, so minimal dirt is present.
2. Where does all the dirt go? Yes some washes off in the water or foam, but yes some does transfer to those rag things BRUSHING against your car.
All the dirt goes into what we call 'the pit' underneath the carwash. Again, sending a car with a lot of dirt on it is not a common occurence.
3. Those "rags" the workers use to clean or dry the car, do you think they clean them after every car or use new ones? What ever dirt the wash didnt get, those rags are definately gonna moved the dirt along the finish!
Actually, those "rags" are usually high end towels made especially for car finishes. Its not a t-shirt or a bath towel. And only one or two towels gets used to dry any 'drips', and then the towels go into a bucket to get machine washed.
4. The soap cleaners often used in auto washes are usually very harsh to break down build up of grime and dirt, usually the used soap cleaners are overly harsh and strip your wax a little faster than normal car soap.
I've compared car wash soap to things such as Meguiar's Gold Class, and they are very similar. Most even have wax in them.
5. Swirls are inevitable on a daily driver, but swirls and those car washes are like best friends.
Swirls are NOT inevitable on a daily driver. I ll invite you to look at mine anytime. And that swirls and car washes are 'best friends' is a common misconception. I've seen plenty of black Bentleys, Ferraris, and even a new Phantom go thru the machine wash, with no swirls on the other end.




Not trying to talk down or anything, but a lot of that stuff are like old wives tales. But then again, its all about where you go to, dont get me wrong, im' sure there are some car washes that do employ those practices, but the ones i've been at have not.

 

well put Kat,
I have an unlimited car wash card for just such a place for the winters here. Upper-midwest winters are brutal on cars here and I usually take mine through once or twice a week.
I would RATHER do it by hand, but that is not a very practical practice around these parts this time of year. I hand wash and detail it in the summer and the difference is negligable. Of course the paint will look better after it's first detail come spring and it's hand washing from then until the next freeze, but for the time being, brushes on the car is better then a ton of road salt.....
$.02

B

 

I hand wash about 95% of the time.

I use car washes occasionally.

Mainly to get salt of the car.

 

I hate taking my car through the car wash, but this time of year makes it hard to hand wash, even if you have a bucket of warm soapy water to keep your hands from freezing solid! I have one of those touch type car washes near my house, and it does a great job. I way prefer it over touchless. Here's why. I used to work for a truck rental company in upstate NY, and they had their own touchless bay for washing for all size trucks and cars, from a Ford Focus to a Kenworth. So that touching was not necessary, the system used strong solvents to cut through the grease and road crud.
The service manager told me those solvents were the same stuff that the Laser Wash and other touchless washers use, and that that stuff will remove the clearcoat and outermost layers of the paint ten times faster than those huge red felt strips. Then, whether you choose the cheesy spray wax job or not, a certain amount of that crap is applied anyway to restore a small measure of sheen and slippery feel that was ripped away when the solvent bath was applied.

Neither the touchless nor the touch method is acceptable, really, but it appears to me that the purported benefits of "touchless" method are very misleading. For the truck rental company who simply wants a quick way to clean their product and could care less about the shine or the long term affects of the strong solvents, I guess the touchless method is ideal. For those of us who really care about the condition of our paint finish, I think "touched" method is the lesser of the two evils. I really wish I could afford to own a beater car to drive in the winter, and keep my CLS in the garage during the cold, salty winter months. ...If I had a garage.

 

hand wash 100% of the time, but we have an indoor bay at work that is warm, so i do it there in the winter

 

I'll put my car through a brush-less wash about every 6 weeks or so. Now that its cold out probably even a bit more.

The first time i did it i was worried about the rims being scuffed up. However even with the stock '03 wheels and 5mm spacers for the BBK they still have yet to get scuffed.

 

I'll only put my car through a touch-less car wash. Ain't nothing touching my paint. The last time I used a brush-less car wash on my previous black '01 CLS, it messed up my paint.

 

Any hits for telling the good car washes from the bad?

The spinning cloth/brushes worry me. I had a past car get some bad swirls. After some snow up north, every car the cloth brushes touch will be filthy. The mixture of salt, sand, and gravel does not rinse off.

Are the brushes rinsed or changed?

 

Hints....hmm, well, just go by the appearance, but most importantly, word of mouth. I dont know too much about the operations up north, but down here, the brushes get constantly rinsed, cleaned at the end of the day, and they put in a new set of brush wraps every 6 wks or so.

 

I have some pretty bad swirls...but after a wax it looks much better...i'm cleaning my car only by hand w/ warm water now...

 

those pics aren't of the best quality, but its nice to see the step process of the car wash for your CL.

 

Thanks, But i'm going to do warm water hand washes now.. and i need to get rid of those swirls

 

There are good and bad car washes, it's all about just finding the right one.

 

my car has never had anything but a hand wash, ever.

 

A great trick to tell if they will actually be a decent detailer/carwasher..

ask them "how many buckets they use to wash a car with?"
if they say "one,... why?"
thank them and walk away..

To properly wash a car you should have two buckets one with your soap and water and another bucket with just water. Reason being, once you first use the washmit on the car to apply the soap you are also picking up dirt. That's what the second bucket is for! Clean you wash mit in the water, then put it back into the soapy water and finally back onto the car. Once you do this two or three times you will notice that the "clean" bucket of water is not so clean anymore, in fact it's pretty dirty. "and I used to put this water back on my car?? " Sometimes I willl change the clean bucket of water multiple times during one wash, depending on how dirty the water gets.

The reason I say this is a good "hint" on how to judge the car washer, is because this is the basic two-bucket wash method which can be found on any detailer forum or website. There are many little tricks to washing and detailing a car proplerly, however I would view the two bucket wash method as a fundamental in a good professional detailer. Simply because using one bucket will scratch your car and especially if done by professionals they will not be as "carful" with you car, or the cleanliness items used on your car.

Another reason is, after seeing how dirty the water gets when washing with the two bucket method I would never go back and couldn't bare to see someone use one bucket washing their car.

If the detailer is using the two bucket method it would lead me to think they know to detail and clean a car, because they have at least done some professional research. It would be like going to a performance car store and having them not know who Mugen or Comptech is... your reaction would be "go to any basic import car website, you can't miss them!!" . Well that's also how the two bucket wash method is viewed, go to any detailers website, you can miss it...

Cheers guys I hope I didn't ramble too much...

Patrick

 

or, you could just do like I do. I only use one bucket, but I am constantly rinsing my mitt with my hose. Just hold it up and spray it out. Problem solved my good friend.

 

While rincing the washmitt with a hose will get some loose dirt off , it can also push dirt and sand deeper into the washmit. Submerging the washmit in water allows the dirt and sand to escape into the water resulting in a cleaner washmit.

Try washing your clothes with a hose.. you'll see why the most efficient way to wash something is under water.

 

I wash my clothes with a hose frequently, especially in the early morning.

You make a good point, but still, either way works just as well. It really doesnt matter. Even if you dip the mitt in the bucket, you ll still catch something coming back out. No real way to avoid it.

 

Just the fact that you recognise the washmit gathers dirt and can cause possible damage to the paint if not washed after each application to the car, says plenty, cheers

 

As I stroll through the pics, I was like, hmmm...nice rims!! ...Until I see the brushes!!! Ahhhhhhhh... There goes the nice paint and replaced with mad swirls and scratches.