Any thoughts about "Touchless Car Wash" for old Volvo?

Will it damage the paint on my 1993 240 sedan?

Reply to
Sammy
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Plain soap*, warm water, and carnuba wax.

This is hard to find anymore. It shouldn't have ammonia in it, skin softeners, antibacterial agents, or be concentrated. Just plain soap.

That leaves basically something like Ivory - like the stuff you use on baby clothes and maybe one of the cheap brands. IIRC, Chyrstal White Octagon comes in unscented and works pretty well as it's pretty close to plain soap.

Wash and wax takes a little time, but it's worth it doing it the old fashioned way.

Reply to
Joseph Oberlander

Reply to
Rob Guenther

I think the original poster means a product they sell on TV infomercials. You smear it all over the car and then wipe it off again with a clean cloth (like the way you wax). No soak down, rinse, or chamois.

Reply to
Jim Carriere

No, actually, I meant a car wash that is "touchless". As Rob said, in some part of the world you have 2 feet of snow on the ground and it's darn cold to wash your car. Spring, Summer and fall is not a problem, but washing a car at below freezing temp!!!!!

In any case, after spending more than an hour searching the net, I found someone who did go through a touchless car wash with a '89 corvette and the car needed a new paint job after. Must be pretty bad since the car wash owner agreed to pay $2,000, but the corvette owner wants them to pay the $3,900 he was quoted.

Thanks for your replies.

Reply to
Sammy

I've never even heard of a touchless car wash, what is it?

Reply to
James Sweet

I did too. It's crap. You have to lift the dirt off the paint and suspend it. Carefully. Or else you create tons of micro fine scratches from the crud. Soap and gentle washing does a good job. smear+dirt and wipe off just sounds like asking for trouble to me.

Reply to
Joseph Oberlander

AH!

It's a car wash that uses no cloths/brushes and instead uses nothing but high pressure oscillating jets of water.

As you might imagine, it's simmilar to the self-service coin operated car washes of doom(tm) that you commonly see around town. Poor job and hard on the finish.

Reply to
Joseph Oberlander

Weird, never seen one.

I know what you mean about those self serv washes though, they do generally have a foam brush for scrubbing so you can do a decent job, but it's not much cheaper than an automatic wash and takes more time. They do work nicely for cleaning oily old engine compartments and washing down parts like transmissions to make them ready for an install.

Reply to
James Sweet

You can see a pic at the link below.

It costs the same than old fashioned car wash (with brush and all).

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I don't deny it does a good job. BUT, water penetrates the keyholes of doors and trunk. Water freezes and you might not be able to lock/unlock. Also, the water pressure is so strong, I ended up with a small amount of water in the trunk. And some soap residue above the doors.

My >

Reply to
Sammy

Reply to
Rob Guenther

Reply to
Rob Guenther

perforations

That sucks, you almost need plastic or stainless cars in those areas, around here it's rare to see significant rust on even a 30 year old car.

Reply to
James Sweet

I'm no far from you in Rochester, NY and we have the same problem.

Here we have two kinds of touchless car washes. There is the Laserwash

4000, which is an automated car wash that has no employees you can see. There is also a Delta Sonic which is a gas station that has a touchless car wash called "Super Kiss", but this one is much more like a brushed car wash of old. It only has some hanging felts that snake fore and aft after some blue soap has been placed on the car. It has an air knife dryer followed by a soft rag equipped human that dries the car. You also get an underbody wash and some "clearcoat protectant".

Conveniently, they also offer a three cent discount per gallon on gas if you buy the Super Kiss wash.

This is the one that I use all the time. The wash is about $10, but it has a "return in 5 days free rewash" (no questions asked).

My problem is to get from the car wash to home without getting the salt spray all over the car again, so I take odd routes at low traffic times and at lowered speeds. It's a goofy game.

I use a Canadian service called Krown Rustproofing. You go once per year and they shoot thin oil inside your body panels and in areas where rust typically develops. The supposed advantage of the Krown process is that it gets into nooks and crannies where the thicker Ziebart would never get. Their motto is "It has to drip to work". When you get it done, your car drips this thin oil for about two days. It's not too bad, and so far (for the last 4 years) I think it has stopped much rust. But you need to do it every year. I don't know why they don't offer a similar service in the US, but I've never seen it. Only costs about $75 a treatment when Canadian/US exchange is considered.

Every four years I have a complete rust removal with metal replacement, and a complete repaint. I get it done very economically (1/2 US Prices) in Canada at a shop that specializes in this kind of work. People think I'm nuts, but I love the car, and it's cheaper than new car payments.

PS: I do this on my pristine '78 245DL with 250000 current miles.

Reply to
Steve Rogers

Reply to
Rob Guenther

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