So the place I live in now is an apartment with a parking garage, so I no longer have a driveway available to 2 bucket wash my car. The options are either those brush places (would rather not wash then use those) so either touchless or not do anything. Do the soaps those places use strip the car of any wax/sealants? I'm guessing they aren't PH balanced and have to be relatively strong. If so if rather just wait every 4-5 months to wash my car properly.

 

since we live in a fairly low dusty and dirty area, I would put off the washes as long as possible! but if the car gets too dusty or too muddy, then you probably have no choice but to go through the touchless car washes.

or you can try the "No rinse" car shampoos. only need one bucket and probably can do it out in apartment complex parking lot

 

I recently got my car detailed professionally for the first time and I spent considerable amount of money getting my paint corrected and sealed. I NEEDED to get rid of the swirls. I asked the detailer how I should be washing my car, even though I almost always hand wash. He told me nothing is better than hand wash, and to always avoid car washes as the products they use are way too harsh for your cars paint. He did say, as a last resort to use a touchless wash, but even that will have soaps and chemicals that will "hurt" your paint. So unless your car is extremely filthy, don't use a car wash and find an alternative to wash it by hand (with a wash mitt, not a brush!)

Hope this helps!

 

Man, I don't know VR1, a place with a parking garage actually sounds ideal to me.

Presumably that means covered, shaded, perhaps even a little cool because of the thermal mass in all the concrete?

Have you looked around to see if you could find a hose spigot somewhere in the garage? I'd be surprised if there wasn't one somewhere for maintenance use or something.

It'd be tits if you could find one in a less traveled corner of the garage somewhere to be able to wash under cover.

 

What I used to do when I didn't have a driveway:

1) Bring 2 buckets to the self wash bay
2) Pour your own soap into the wash bucket, then pay to activate the pressure washer & fill both buckets with water
3) Stop the wash so they don't continue to charge you
4) Hand wash your car
5) Pay to activate pressure washer again to rinse off soap

I recommend going at a time when it's not too busy, or you may have to deal with irritated customers waiting to use your bay

 

^good thinking!
sounds like a solid attack plan on getting grime off your car

 

I've noticed that, counter to what some cities seem to think, when I wash the car, I don't use a whole lot of water to rinse. I've always been curious about if there was enough capacity in one of those garden sprayers to do a full wash with?



I remember reading about a lot of guys in the motorcycle world using one of those to wash their bike. Might be an option?

 

Touchless soaps are really harsh .. Look into Optimum No Rinse . you just need a 4 Gal pail , Sheepskin mitts and a few WW drying towels and you do it without a hose.

 

Thanks, I'll look into those no rinse washes.

I looked and I couldn't find a spigot anywhere in there. It's a college apartment which means it's a really crappy parking garage. The spaces are super tight and there's less spaces then there are occupants so it's pretty much always full lol. Maybe I can do a no rinse wash tho.

That's a good idea, I'll definitely look into that.

 

I recently switched to an apartment, and I think I've finally figured out my favorite method.

1. Clean inside wheel barrels with cleaner & brush

2. Pressure rinse entire vehicle at self serve wash

3. Clean wheels with Boar's hair bubble brush. I've never polished my wheels and can't see any scratches, so I have to assume the paint is much harder than the rest of the vehicle and a natural boar's hair brush isn't going to noticeably marr the wheels.

4. Pressure rinse vehicle again and then do spotless rinse so hard water spot don't dry on the vehicle

5. Pull out of wash bay and spray a dilution of 1 part Optimum No-Rinse : 8-10 parts distilled water liberally to damp vehicle in sections. I use 2 microfibers around the vehicle with extremely light pressure and never any scrubbing.

6. Use the damp microfibers to dry door jambs, gas jambs, wheels, exhaust tips.

7. Use a third microfiber and a bit of spray to remove streaks from previous step. It doesn't have to be perfectly dry when you're done; because you used spot-free (soft water) rinse and distilled water, there are no impurities left to create spots or streaks once the water dries.

8. Use a clean, dry microfiber and just wipe the windows and mirrors. No window cleaner required due to lack of impurities from the water used.

9. Dress/preserve tires in 303 Aerospace.

Wish I had a more recent photo, but here she looks after over 140k miles:

 

I really like the idea of the waterless wash spray bottles. If you don't let your car get too dirty and keep up with the waterless washes with some quick detailer in between washes, you might be okay. If your car gets really dirty, you can find lids that screw on top of your standard wash buckets and bring your buckets to the DIY wash bays, and wash your car like you normally would there.

Last at time I went into a touchless wash, it broke off a piece of trim to my door handle. Luckily, I was able to realize before I left and later super glued it back on.