I live in ny, and we got hit hard with snow. Naturally, the car is filthy beyond belief. I was going to wash my car, and I was reading in the forum that I should wash the undercarriage as well.. which i have never even considered in any car i have owned. here is what I don't understand. Washing the undercarriage seems very strange to me.....while I understand that water will always touch the undercarriage during driving in rain, hitting puddles, etc. it seems sort of dangerous to take a garden hose and shoot water directly up at the car from below.... because pressurized water will easily reach parts of the car that driving in rain or puddle cannot reach normally. Is washing the undercarriage truly safe or is there a room for disasterous results? Should i angle the hose so that it hits the undercarriage from the side and prevent the water from reaching up into the engine? Are there any parts of the undercarriage that I should watch out for with the hose so that I don't turn my x into a toaster???? Thanks in advance guys... and yes, I read car washes suck so I am trying to avoid it as long as possible.

 

It's designed to have water touch it from time to time, now all of the under carriage being submerged for a long period of time is a different story

 

We just got a new brushless auto carwash in town a year or two ago and it does a great job. Used it for the first time a couple of weeks ago and checked everything afterwards and all was fine. If its automatic and nothing touches your car except water I see no reason not to use it. And I dont see how high pressure water shooting the undercarriage could hurt anything. There is an tray that protects it.

 

I live in a snowy state as well and we use a ton of SALT during winter.. washing the under carriage helps remove that salt so it doesn't sit around and cause damage.

 

Well I went to a car wash today that apparently used recycled water.... there was no way for me to know and when I drove off, I saw scratches everywhere on my hood, window, etc. Yes it was brushless, it was a self service car wash with a pressurized hose. Apparently the recycled water had dirt and grit and it was like a dammed sand blaster. Now I have to go buy wax and try to do damage control.... so pisses. Wish these *******s put a sign on whether or not they use reclaimed water. Any recommendations on good wax?

 

Waxing will not help to when it comes to getting the back to tip top shape. All the wax does is put a layer of protection over paint. In order to do any form of correction you will need to use a polish. What this does is smooth out the clear coat around the scratches. I would suggest taking a look at the polishing guides at detailedimage.com

Good luck!

 

jbell is right,,, You Have to get the salt off, out asap!!! here in Minn. the damn DOT salts at the slightest hint of flurries!!! and yes i have called them on it...

 

I personally let the salt cake on until a nice balmy winter day arrives to wash the car myself. Unless you know an effective no-touch car wash, I think the repeated and frequent act of washing the car covered in salt is more damaging than leaving it on.

 

never washing it at a car wash like this again... my ride is covered in scratches and i wish i never went. before this, there was not one scratch on my car..... not one.

 

^it happens, get a good compund, wax and polish and you should be able to work out a decent amount of the scratches as long as they are not too deep. Personal preference is meguiars #205(compound), meguiars colorx(wax), and meguiars #7(show glaze) ***be sure to use the correct pads for each.**** I took my car to the car wash last saturday since my car was covered in salt from our last snow storm and i had a ton of scratches. I was able to get a decent amount of scratches out with that combination.

As far as washing the under carriage, my local car wash has a under carriage washing system (basically powerwashers that shoot up at the under carriage)

 

I bought meguiars ntx 2.0 wax, and was about to buy scratchx2.0 which I believe is a compound like ur recommending that's used to abrade and wear a thin layer of clear coat out to rub out the scratches correct?

I bought a turtle wax scratch removal kit that comes with a resin pen and wet sanding tools. I figured that filling in and sanding the excess resin off is better than rubbing the general area with a compound.... what do u think?

 

I personally would not try wetsanding, even if it is to get rid of the excess resin. My suggestion is to return the turtle wax kit and see if they have a bottle of the meguiars m205 compound and try that first only because wetsanding can cause more harm than help if you have never wetsanded a car.
The process i used was Compund, wax, and then glaze. As far as the nxt goes, it is a great wax.

 

Thx man.... ill give it a try. Wasn't too comfortable with the idea of wet sanding to begin with ya know?

 

I only washed my undercarriage once but I'll never do it again. First, it took ten of us to flip it on it's side and then to top it all off, the outside mirror broke.

Mike

 

Ummmmm what? Lol