I just got an OB coupe and would like to keep the black paint looking nice. I am not sure what you guys do during the winter, but it seems a bit impractical to go and wash a car in the winter in Jersey lol. I'm very tempted to go through a touchless wash, but out of curiosity, what do you guys do?

EDIT: sorry, didn't see the washing & detailing sub section.

 

a touch-less car wash is ok if you really don't want to wash your car yourself, but its not going to do as good of a job as a person could. Also you may be able to find a local deatailer of some sort and just pay him to wash it. When I first got my car i washed it on a weekly basis if not even more, now its been 3 years and my goes weeks without being cleaned, Typing this makes me feel guilty but its like 42 outside (that's pretty cold for us Texans). Maybe ill clean my baby tomorrow.

 

I hear ya man... it sucks trying to keep a car clean in a winter place, particularly where they use road salt. I don't drive my G35 in the winter, but I do have a black Tacoma that I drive all winter long. I try to make sure that before winter gets here, I have a fresh coat of wax on the whole truck so it's ready for winter. The wax helps keep all of the road salt and debris from actually getting to and damaging the clearcoat and paint beneath it. Wax only lasts so long though. I don't really bother washing my car throughout the winter when it's super cold out, but we occasionally get some random 45 degree day in January or February, and I try to time it so that when those days happen, I can use them to wash and rewax my winter vehicle.

As the other guy mentioned though, if you really want to do it more often, you could always go to a professional detailer and let them wash/wax your car inside their facility. I wouldn't do that any more than twice during the winter though, because it would get very expensive very fast.

 

Coin op the road salt and dirt off first. Don't use their brush, just their pressurized water. Stop at that if you don't have access to an underground/indoor space.

If you do, get some optimum no rinse and warm water and clean the remaining road grime off. Usually it takes me around 15 mins to do a full car.

Some coin ops are heated too, but you gotta be fast or else it's $$$$

 

If I had to drive my G in the winter, I'd wash it every day at the coin op. Salt will F up a car quick. I hate dealing with rusty undersides.

I wouldn't actually hand wash it, just spray. Hand washing a black G daily will result in a swirled up mess.

 

Best advice you will get right there. I have used ONR as my primary way to wash the car for 3 years and it absolutely rocks. Make sure you have plenty of clean microfiber towels as well.

 

I go to the self-serve car wash bay. You have to pay $3 for 2 minutes or something but you can run around quickly and it does a pretty good job. I also have a pressure washer that I put soap in and wash cars with. I pull the car into my lawn so the water won't freeze all over the driveway.

 

Three words: Optimum No Rinse.

 

IF theres salt around where youre driving, id make sure to try my best to keep the undercarriage rinsed as much as possible. Salt will eat up the metal parts under the car and over time when you try to work on the car you will run into rusted brackets, bolts, body parts etc. Just my $0.02.

 

I'd love to hear some more info about this stuff from you guys who use it. I just did some research on it over on Amazon.com and it got good reviews... .surprisingly no bad ones.

Thoughts?

 

I also own an OB Coupe. I live in Nebraska where we have temps from Below zero to 100+. Generally, if it's above freezing I have no problem washing my car. During the summer I wash weekly, during the colder months (November - February) I wash about every 3 weeks or as needed. I own my own home, but since day 1 have always taken it to the coin-op places. My best advice for you is to drive it as little as possible when road conditions are sloppy, and to wash it whenever the weather is decent for you. I've found that with my coin-op location the water temp changes based on the time of year... during warmer months the water is cold as hell, but during the fall/winter they use heated water which makes the whole process not nearly as painful as it could be. I have a good routine down when I wash/detail my car, and unless it's absolutely freezing out, the whole process takes about an hour and a half for both inside/outside sections of my car. I generally spend between $5.50 and $7.50 at the wash. My routine goes...

1. Spray with super soap
2. Spray with regular soap.
3. Scrub car with Wash mit that's been soaked in regular soap.
4. Respray car with regular soap.
5. Wash car clean.
6. Spray heavily with Super Polish.
7. Rinse clean with Spot free wash.

I'll then drive VERY slowly (1-2mph) to the front where I can park, and will immediately dry with a microfiber towel or 3. From there I'll spray my tires with cleaner and rub them down, before spraying the wheels with water I have in a cheap spritzer. This removes any left over grime plus any tire over spray. From there I shake out rugs, scrub the whole dash and doors with cleaner, wipe my seats down with leather cleaner/conditioner, and generally put up a new air freshener (Tommy) about ever 3 weeks. I'm super SUPER clean inside my car, so I only vacuum every 4-6 weeks tops.

I've had a fantastic weather winter so far, so I last washed my car during the 1st week of December and it's stayed clean... here's a pic from my garage moments ago. My system isn't quick, but it sure works...

 

This...^...will work on the top but you still need to use high pressure water to remove the crud on the undercarriage. I bought a wand from Home Depot that quadruples the water pressure, it will remove anything including people...takes two hands to operate and gets er done!
Gary

 

What is this wand you speak of? Does it require a compressor, and how much did you pay for it?

I'm assuming it's just something that funnels the water from the hose down into a really narrow and direct spray pattern, so it increases the pressure on that one point? Most of the ones that I've used of that variety were absolute junk and no help whatsoever.

If you have a link to this product on Amazon or whatever, I wouldn't mind seeing it so I can look into it myself. I'm pretty **** about keeping the undercarriage of my Tacoma clean in the winter, but I usually just use a scrub brush and my hose on the few warm days that we get here in the winter.

 

I appreciate the advice and will take a lot of it into consideration, especially the optimum no rinse. I'm going to look around to see if I can find a touchless and/or coin op place. If a touchless does the job I might just go with that for now because I honestly can't stand the thought of even standing outside using a coin op (unless it's indoors and heated). I've heard that most touchless car washes also have machine that blasts your undercarriage with water and soap. Can anyone vouch for this?

 

No this wand doesn't require a compressor, just hooks up to your hose. I bought this one at Target and probably didn't spend more than $20. It really puts out a strong spray cause I use it on my driveway/garage after putting down detergent/bleach. Never used it on SLICK since she's only seen rain twice...Gary