What do you guys do about washing your car in the winter time? Its been a while since I've washed my car. The car looks ok, thanks DG and NXT, but my wheels are hit. Brakedust is a bastard. Do you guys wash it at home, take it to the quarter places or what? Its starting to get cold and I dont really feel like busting out the hose and turning the pipes back on.

 

Well it's damn tough in the rain but if I do get the guts to wash the car in the cold, I usually do this. Grab some rubber gloves. Run a bucket of warm water and then wash the car. I say amazingly confortable doing this.

 

Warm water in a bucket and then just buck up and do it.

 

I do the two bucket method. Fill one bucket with hot water. (Don't mix with cold water). This is the soap bucket.

The other bucket, I just fill with the hose. This is the rinse bucket.

When I wash the car, the hot water keeps me nice and toasty. even when the hot-soap water cools off, the cold rinse bucket makes the soapy water feel warmer than it is.

(Offtopic: Try this trick: Take 3 cups. Fill one with ice water, one with hot water, and one with room-temp water. Put one hand in the hot one in the cold. Wait 5 seconds. Put both hands in the third cup. The cold hand will feel hot, and the hot hand will feel cold)

But anyways, then when I'm done, I dry the car with a leafblower, and apply NXT Spray Wax. The spray wax is very easy to apply and buff off. Be sure to wax your rims too.

If you keep the rims waxed, brake dust becomes a non-issue. I can back my car out. Put my hose in "mist" mode. And mist the wheels. The brakedust just washes right out. Then a quick dry with the leaf-blower, and the wheels look like I just washed them.

I've been known to wash my car at 2am when it's below freezing. (Guests coming over the next day). If you wash the car when it's < freezing, be sure to hose the driveway down every once in a while to melt any ice. (This can suck when you have an inclined driveway like me)

And stay away from any and all car-wash places in the winter time. They may be time savers, and appear to be easy. But keep in mind that the only way to remove dissolved salts from recycled water is through reverse-osmosis. 99.99% of the carwash places only filter the water, which only removed suspended particulates. End result, is that you are just giving your car a salt-bath. Nevermind the grimy towels they probably use on your car.

Also... Never leave your hose connected to the faucet. That's how you bust pipes. I have mine on a separate cart, and I wheel it out when I need it. (This was on the advice of a gardener friend)

 

Thanks for the advice, I guess I'll try and wait for a better day, suck it up and wash the car by hand.

"I've been known to wash my car at 2am when it's below freezing. (Guests coming over the next day). If you wash the car when it's < freezing, be sure to hose the driveway down every once in a while to melt any ice. (This can suck when you have an inclined driveway like me)"

That just sounds crazy. After you're done washing the car, wouldn't that just make your driveway into a wicked cool ice ramp?

 

Yes. I didn't think about that when I washed the car... Was no problem to back down the driveway

Getting up tho..... Let's just say, I backed the car up to the other side of the street, and got a running start

In all seriousness, even though the driveway was covered in ice, I didn't need to go that fast. I just needed to get a bit of momentum before making the incline. Was prob only going about 5-10 mph. I only had problems, if I stopped on the driveway to wait for the door to open, then try to accelerate on top of the ice...

Some of my friends took a more creative approach, and actually connected the outside water spigot to the hotwater heater. That way they always had hot water to wash the car.

 

wierdo - some good advice mixed in though

 

If you have a garage, buy some protectall quick and easy wash or optimum no rinse, both are rinseless washes