Washing Car at a Self Service Car Wash Station
Why self service station?
I am currently living in an apartment complex, and I use a garden hose hookup (daisy chained 3 hoses) from my bathroom faucet all the way to the car port to wash my cars. The apartment management didn't like my hack, and promptly sent a charming cease and desist notice. I have previously used rinseless washes to clean cars in apartments- but nothing can be substituted for a proper car wash with flowing water. Regular car wash places are a big no no for me, so the only place where I could wash cars are at these self service car wash stations.
Few Suggestions
DO NOT use the brush that is available along with the hose. It is highly abrasive and with people throwing it on the ground, it picks up even more paint-ruining dirt and debris. Also, the hose is connected at the ceiling using a rotating arm. Ensure that the arm doesn't rotate quickly so that the hose drags along the paint work. Use your non dominant hand to hold the hose away from the paint and your dominant hand to hold the sprayer.
Don't use the brush that's available. Don't. Please.
Free rotating arm connecting the water hose. Ensure the hose doesn't touch the paintwork.
Before we get started, one thing to note that bucket washing at these places is highly frowned upon if there is a line. Therefore, I go late at night when there is no crowd. These are the basic things you need to bring with you:
- About 7 gallons of water (I use a camping water container). These places only provide high pressure water hose, which will take forever to fill up the buckets and will require quite a bit of cash.
- Waffle weave towels
- Two buckets
- Shampoo
- Wash mitt
- Quick detailer/gloss sealant
Step 1
Take out all the supplies, and keep them near your reach. Fill in the buckets with the water that you brought. Then look at the control panel- the only one we will use is the rinse setting. Rest of the settings have additives in the water that are generally of very low quality and can harm the sealant/wax that is on the vehicle.
After you have your buckets ready with water and shampoo, feed the quarters and froth up the main wash bucket.
The control panel to select what comes out of the hose and to feed quarters. We will only use the rinse mode.
Foam up the main wash bucket. Note that the water in the buckets is from the container we brought from home.
step 2
Rinse the whole car with the wand- without depressing the trigger to introduce high pressure water. The high pressure water will damage the paint and erode the paint protection film or coatings that you may have. High pressure should be used only on the wheels to remove the brake dust, but we need to be careful so that we don't force the water into any bearings.
Using low pressure water, rinse the car before using the wash mitt to remove most of the debris.
Using high pressure water, clean the wheels. High pressure should be used only on the wheels from a distance to prevent water from forcing into bearings or panel gaps.
Step 3
Now, we will start washing the vehicle using our techniques. Start from top and work your way to the bottom making sure the wash mitt is frequently rinsed in the rinse bucket. Once the car has been washed, feed the machine with quarters to get the hose running again. Use the hose to rinse the car off the shampoo.
Use the wash mitt from the top down making sure you rinse the mitt frequently.
Feed quarters to get the water flowing and rinse off the shampoo.
Step 4
Now we need to dry the vehicle using the same techniques we have discussed before.
All done. Get out of the bay before anyone yells.
