MK5 Golf GTI
General => Detailing => Topic started by: chris s on December 16, 2012, 07:22:27 pm
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What's would people suggest is the best thing to do, I have no spare time at the moment with a new job and 9mth old twins so wondered what I should do, leave my car until I find some time or get my car washed regularly in the local hand wash place? If I leave it I would only be Able to wash the car every 6ish weeks
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Right now I'd be trying to at minimum use a power washer on it once a week, until Spring.
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Right now I'd be trying to at minimum use a power washer on it once a week, until Spring.
Agreed. Avoid local hand wash places at all costs!!
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Right now I'd be trying to at minimum use a power washer on it once a week, until Spring.
Agreed. Avoid local hand wash places at all costs!!
There was a thread recently where someone had taken it to a local car wash and they had badly damaged his paint work. I can't remember who it was though...
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Right now I'd be trying to at minimum use a power washer on it once a week, until Spring.
Agreed. Avoid local hand wash places at all costs!!
There was a thread recently where someone had taken it to a local car wash and they had badly damaged his paint work. I can't remember who it was though...
Can remember that thread as well, think it was called something like "6 reasons not to use the local hand wash place" ?
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thought with the title it was some thing else :grin:
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Right now I'd be trying to at minimum use a power washer on it once a week, until Spring.
Agreed. Avoid local hand wash places at all costs!!
There was a thread recently where someone had taken it to a local car wash and they had badly damaged his paint work. I can't remember who it was though...
Can remember that thread as well, think it was called something like "6 reasons not to use the local hand wash place" ?
This is it - http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,47262.0.html
So yeah, don't use your local hand wash!
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Re: subject title
Yes please :laugh:
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to try and steer this thread back on topic.....
If you can spare a couple of hours to give the car a once over and get some sort of protection wax down, that would be best.
After that, through the winter months, mimimise contact with the paintwork due to the increase of general crap thats stuck to the paint work.
Today, i managed to give a quick wash and a coat of Collinite 476 down. I had already done a pre winter detail last week.
This will be the last time i hand wash the car for a few months. To keep the salt and crap to a minium, i take my car to a local tesco petrtol station, spray the whole car with Valet pro citrus pre wash (sprayed from a 5 litre pressure pump thingy) and then rinsed using the power washer at the petrol station.
I plan to do this every couple of weeks and will only take 20 mins tops! :happy2:
Hope this helps
Rich
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Even if it's not the best result; get as much salt off the car as you can when you can, it's better than leaving it 6 weeks, imho.
If these means an automated car wash, so be it... but your probably better off using that time with the manual service pressure washer on the underside / brakes / suspension / exhuast etc. areas...
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i have been doin a rush job on my car ,bein so busy....Its goin to take me a while to get it back up to pristine :sad1:
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Even if it's not the best result; get as much salt off the car as you can when you can, it's better than leaving it 6 weeks, imho.
If these means an automated car wash, so be it... but your probably better off using that time with the manual service pressure washer on the underside / brakes / suspension / exhuast etc. areas...
Sorry but :scared:
If you have time to take it to the car wash you only need an extra 20 mins top to wash it yourself with the 2 bucket method. If you are really quick you may even get a layer of wax on it too. :happy2:
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Even if it's not the best result; get as much salt off the car as you can when you can, it's better than leaving it 6 weeks, imho.
If these means an automated car wash, so be it... but your probably better off using that time with the manual service pressure washer on the underside / brakes / suspension / exhuast etc. areas...
Sorry but :scared:
If you have time to take it to the car wash you only need an extra 20 mins top to wash it yourself with the 2 bucket method. If you are really quick you may even get a layer of wax on it too. :happy2:
This guy has no time.
He wants the quickest method.
That has been suggested to him.
Esp.
When the temps really drop you don't want to be dropping water onto your driveway to create an ice rink...
Paint comes with a 10year+ warranty.
Get it off your components first.
IMO.
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Even if it's not the best result; get as much salt off the car as you can when you can, it's better than leaving it 6 weeks, imho.
If these means an automated car wash, so be it... but your probably better off using that time with the manual service pressure washer on the underside / brakes / suspension / exhuast etc. areas...
Sorry but :scared:
If you have time to take it to the car wash you only need an extra 20 mins top to wash it yourself with the 2 bucket method. If you are really quick you may even get a layer of wax on it too. :happy2:
This guy has no time.
He wants the quickest method.
That has been suggested to him.
Esp.
When the temps really drop you don't want to be dropping water onto your driveway to create an ice rink...
Paint comes with a 10year+ warranty.
Get it off your components first.
IMO.
No, definitely avoid an automated car wash.
Advice above (apart from these posts) is sound. Try and get something on the paint via a spray gun to break down the dirt, then jet wash off at a minimum. Avoid all other contact with the paintwork.
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A sponge isn't ok but a 100PSI jet of water is!? Interesting.
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A sponge isn't ok but a 100PSI jet of water is!? Interesting.
The problem with an automated wash at this time of year is the pre-wash stage won't remove much of the dirt before the brushes are applied, so you've got brushes that aren't particularly kind hitting paintwork that still has dirt in it, which is a recipe for disaster.
The best method at this time of year is to snowfoam them pressure wash off. If you're concerned about leaving pools of water on your drive then it's probably too cold to be washing your car anyway!
I think what people often forget is that these cars were continuously tested at sub-zero temperatures for months. Not washed them one week really won't do any harm.
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I'm in a similar position, since becoming a dad I've not got enough time in the day to do most of things I want let alone wash the car anymore. So I've stopped caring and frankly its quite liberating. When it comes to resale I've found it makes feck all difference (talking about trade ins - when I traded in the golf they didn't even look at it, for private sales its worth making the effort). If I get offended at the lack of shine I'll pay someone to polish it up nice! Having seen some of the amazing restoration work done just by cleaning / polishing I'm confident the 'damage' caused by a sponge / car wash can easily be rectified when ever the need arises.
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If your on good terms with your local hand car wash (Which I was where I used to live), I took my own sponges and Chamois leather and when they saw me they knew to rinse the buckets and use fresh water, they got tipped well so they always did it, if your not on good terms, power wash it yourself (dont use the brush tho as it will be full of grit!!!!!), again take your own sponge and use that instead of the brush :happy2: