How OCD are you about car washing and detailing?
How OCD are you about car washing and detailing? 23 votes
2 votes
2 votes
13 votes
6 votes
Comments
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1st Place in the local car show level detailing
I have all the tools, lotions, potions, etc. Several shelves full of shit and have my own profile on Autogeek because I'm a loser. Have done some insane level of detailing on several cars (full wet sanding and all that), used to detail on the side for money, yada yada yada.
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My car looks like the domicile of a homeless person
Looks like?
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I hand wash only, wax and Armor All regularly (i.e., better than 99% of the general public)
So @BleachedAnusDawg I'm probably not too far behind you.
Cars are expensive as fuck these days- e.g., my 2022 Toyota Sequoia TRD PRO was $75,000 ( @creepycoug made me do it with his 4 Runner Bullying). So, I'm gonna have this thing for 15 year plus (had my old 4 Runner for 14 years) and I need to take care of it.
Both our cars are garaged. I only hand wash, and wash and clean the interior regularly. I even get out the clay bars once in while although the car is new enough to not need that yet. But I cheat on stuff and don't quite get to car show level detailing. For example, I use the spray on quick wax vs a more traditional harder wax. Or I clean the wheels but I don't Armor All the tires. If there's some kid crumbs in spots I can't reach with the Dyson, I don't sweat it. I get 95% of the bugs off the front bumper, but I'm not getting out the bug and tar remover products.
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1st Place in the local car show level detailing
You are definitely doing more than 95% of people are willing to do. The next level is doing your own polishing and ceramic coating the wheels, trim, paint, etc with various forms of those products. It's an investment in proper equipment, lighting, and higher-end products (throw that Armor All away!) that most people aren't willing to spend the money on. Not really worth it unless car detailing is your hobby or you have higher end vehicles. Not many people are willing to put 10+ hours into just the polishing stage to get mirror-perfect paint.
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I hand wash only, wax and Armor All regularly (i.e., better than 99% of the general public)
I think it's a use case thing. If cars were my number one hobby, I'd be at your level. They aren't and that's fine. But I'm big on pride of ownership and protecting resale value. Most people treat their cars like shit.
I think if you stay on top the hand washing, waxing etc you're going to keep the pain in great shape which is most important. Kiddy sunscreen is the bane of the existence with interiors. It's nearly impossible to get off plastic or vinyl in the interior unless you're on the shit right away every time. You got any tips on this (i.e., sunscreen) BTW @BleachedAnusDawg ?
The other key to keeping a car looking great is USE YOUR GARAGE PEOPLE!! You wouldn't believe how many neighbors I have with nice cars parked outside in the drive way or on the curb, and garage cluttered with shit. Hoarders I tell ya!
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I go to the Brown Bear Car Wash a few times a year and use the scratchy brush and/or drive through
People not parking cars in their garage is one of my biggest pet peeves. I get very judgy about people who don’t park in their garage.
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I hand wash only, wax and Armor All regularly (i.e., better than 99% of the general public)
I mean it's not as bad not returning the shopping cart @CFetters_Nacho_Lover, but I'm like come on peeps: the garage is one of mankind's greatest advancement to quality of life.
The problem here in Bend is that everyone has so much fucking ski, bike, paddle board, etc, gear that the garage becomes like a REI store. I got all that shit and I park 2 cars, but we've got a shit ton of shelving an racks to make it work.
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I go to the Brown Bear Car Wash a few times a year and use the scratchy brush and/or drive through
What a person does with a shopping cart tells me everything I need to know about them.
When we bought our house, the 2.5 car garage was my tipping point. In our previous 2 houses, we had standard 2 car garages but at least my house in Burien was a deep garage. The Chicago burbs house barely had room for anything besides the cars.
As for this poll, there should probably be 1 more middle option
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I go to the Brown Bear Car Wash a few times a year and use the scratchy brush and/or drive through
I've never parked a car indoors in my life. Cars are waterproof. Expensive tools and machinery and motorcycles aren't. I roll my cars in to work on them and then roll them back out when I'm done.
Ideally, I'd have both a 2-car attached garage AND a detached shop, but they didn't build many attached garages in my town in the 1920s.
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1st Place in the local car show level detailing
To get the sunscreen cleaned off I would recommend either Optimum Powerclean (the best all-purpose cleaner I've ever used) or you might need a steam gun. I'd go with the cleaner, first, since you can use it around the house, etc. You can buy it pre-mixed or get larger quantities and dilute it yourself. Bulk and dilute is a far better value. I just used it to clean up some kind of lotion spots on my in-laws' door panel the other day.
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I hand wash only, wax and Armor All regularly (i.e., better than 99% of the general public)
@BleachedAnusDawg can I buy this product at Oreillys or do you have special order ?
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1st Place in the local car show level detailing
Should be able to find it on Amazon. Definitely not going to be on a local store shelf.
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I hand wash only, wax and Armor All regularly (i.e., better than 99% of the general public)
Ordered off Amazon. I will dilute to 1 to 3 and see how it does on the sunscreen statins that I can't get out with regular Armor All all purpose interior cleaner.
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Did Yella make the poll? And it needs that middle option where I qualify? Shocking.
I’m a car wash guy every couple weeks and weekly in the summer.
I don’t care that much, but don’t want to look like a total schlep.
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I hand wash only, wax and Armor All regularly (i.e., better than 99% of the general public)
Disagree. 4 options is sufficient. You wash you're car, but are nothing special in this regard.
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Significantly more than option 3 implies.
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I hand wash only, wax and Armor All regularly (i.e., better than 99% of the general public)
Then start hand washing the Bimmer, boss!
You think @PurpleJ is taking his Bimmers to the Brown Bear?
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I go to the Brown Bear Car Wash a few times a year and use the scratchy brush and/or drive through
I got a "Detail Kit" when I got a new rig a couple years ago, and deep clean a couple times a year / as needed, which is not very often now. I am not fanatical about it, but put my foot down on eating in the car many years ago. My daughters were notorious for eating stuff and leaving the remnants. The tipping point was smelling something foul, investigating, and finding cereal bowls and small plates jammed under the front seats, with silverware, along with half-eaten breakfast/protein bars.
My old Highlander was pristine for a long time, but too many trips to the dump / nursery / big box stores wore the interior down…I refuse to own a truck, in that if I don't have a truck, friends won't ask me to "help" them…
I will go hand-wash when the weather is nice, do the tires, but that's about it.
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I go to the Brown Bear Car Wash a few times a year and use the scratchy brush and/or drive through
I waddle with Pawz!
PS - fuck off Vanilla and your "Body is 92355 characters too long." bullshit.
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I go to the Brown Bear Car Wash a few times a year and use the scratchy brush and/or drive through
In Texas, there are car washes on every corner, like a Starbucks. They offer monthly unlimited memberships. Free vacuums and window cleaner along with compressed air to blow out any water. I go about once a month. Wash the wheels at home as some car washes suck at wheels. And I get the front bumper done at home to get the dead bugs.
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My car looks like the domicile of a homeless person
Im in Bumfuck Idaho. I moved here and cleaned my truck to show n shine levels then was immediately shit on by the gravel roads with oil. The dust, grit, and grim are on another level, and don't even get me started on the size 6 caddis that destroy the front grill. I don't give a shit anymore, I'll go through the scratch n wax drive through once a year...meh
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My car looks like the domicile of a homeless person
Yeah, you ain’t keeping your rig clean in Idaho between about September and July.
August is usually good clean rig time.
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My car looks like the domicile of a homeless person
August is dust and forest fire season, which does equate to a cleaner rig. I love my gravel, keystone can covered roads, keeps the city folk away
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I go to the Brown Bear Car Wash a few times a year and use the scratchy brush and/or drive through
Brown Bear has the same thing and I subscribe and I get my car washed even when it rains.
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I go to the Brown Bear Car Wash a few times a year and use the scratchy brush and/or drive through
Do you use a pressure washer on your cars?
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I go to the Brown Bear Car Wash a few times a year and use the scratchy brush and/or drive through
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I hand wash only, wax and Armor All regularly (i.e., better than 99% of the general public)
Cars aren't really waterproof, per se, over 20 years outside. They last much longer in doors.
But it's a use case thing. If I had a shitty 1992 Aerostar or Astro Van (you're true dream cars) and a bunch of nice tools, I too would park outside. Instead, I have a decent fleet of 1 to 2 year old vehicles and a shitty tool box.
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1st Place in the local car show level detailing
Not really. Never directly. I have a foam cannon setup and quit bothering with it since, in reality, all that method really does is pre-soak the panels on the car. It doesn't actually make it so you can spray foam and, blast foam off, and the car is clean. Looks cool in the YouTube videos, but the hassle getting all that stuff set up isn't worth it. If you want dirt to release/blast off of the paint really easily you need to have a ceramic coating on the paint.
I used to do the two-bucket method for washing which is one bucket of soapy water, one bucket of clean water. You use the clean water bucket to rinse the wash mitt after cleaning a section of the car at a time. The problem I found with that method is that by rinsing the mitt in a bucket of clean water you introduce a bunch of 100% water back in to the soap bucket and end up diluting the soap bucket with too much water which can impact the lubricity that the soapy water is supposed to have at a proper dilution.
So now I just use a grit guard in the bottom of my soap bucket and scrub the mitt against it after each panel. Does a good job of keeping the actual dirt at the bottom of the bucket rather than it getting back on the mitt and then rubbing against the paint.
Typing this out, I realize how nerdy this all sounds. This is the tip of the spear with how wonky some of this car detailing stuff can get.
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I hand wash only, wax and Armor All regularly (i.e., better than 99% of the general public)
See this what I'm talking about. I have a micro fiber mitt which is light years better than the scratchy foaming brush at the Brown Bear, but even with this you still get some swirl marks in the clear coat.
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1st Place in the local car show level detailing
And not all clear coats are alike. Some manufacturers are softer than others. I've found that to be the case with Japanese cars. I remember detailing a new-ish Caddy many years back and the clear coat very hard and the paint correction took twice as long as normal.
I've heard great things about this wash mitt.
