Apparently most of us don't tinyurl.com/knaoa3k
Well I for one still do and always will. Two cars on the drive get washed as and when needed with just a bucket of cold water preceded by a watering can of the same to loosen any dust/dirt. Polishing happens twice a year, in the Autumn and again in the Spring.
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I wash my cars as required, it stops clothes picking up dirt as you use the boot and doors. More important to me is having the inside of the car clean, it only takes a couple of minutes every week or so with the old vacuum cleaner that is kept in the garage. That is the bit of the car that I see and sit in so is my priority in car cleaning.
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I have never washed a car by hand. Of all the things I could be doing on my increasingly rare days off work, cleaning the car is so far off the bottom it's not even worth mentioning. It's the car equivalent of hoovering the stairs.
It gets washed by the dealer when it's serviced in January, and every so often I blitz the glass with Windolene and wipe the lights / numberplates. That's it.
May hand it over to the local car wash before I return it to the finance company so they can rescue all the coins and other detritus from under the seats and deal with the problem in the boot after I left a wet and muddy bike in the back for a week.
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Sounds like you treat your cars like your aircraft, not your problem as long as they work. :-)
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I always used to wash it by hand myself but for the last few months I have been taking it to the local Eastern European car wash place where they clean it inside and out for a tenner. However yesterday it was a nice day and I had nothing else to do so I dug the cleaning kit out and did it myself including giving it 2 coats of Autoglym polish followed by a layer of extra gloss wax. I found it somewhat satisfying. I like having a clean car, I know that some people don't care, my other halfs car is like a mobile compost heap, but I guess that we are all different.
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I love washing and polishing our cars by hand, but between family commitments and the weather, the opportunities I get to do so are all too rare. As was mentioned above, there always seem to be more pressing things to be done.
Standing back and looking at a gleaming car that you've put a few hours work into is very satisfying IMO. SWMBO just takes hers to the local Eastern Europeans who admittedly do a great job for a tenner.
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My jamjar always gets an, um, hand job. I use Meguiars 'Ultimate' Wash + Wax.
I start at the bottom and work my way up (I'm the same with my women)
(*_~)
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In so far as I wash it all it gets done by hand. Not very often though.
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I have got a bottle of waterless cleaner but have never used it, somehow washing a car without using gallons of water just doesn't seem right to me. Must be an age thing as all the youngsters at work use it !
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I used to almost every week when I lived with the olduns, nice big drive and outside tap. Difficult now due to no side access to house and limited space.
You really cant beat the local hand wash, £5 once a month and 15-20 minutes later does a better job than an hours plus slaving with the bucket and sponge.
I do object the way they direct high pressured water in to my grille, I protest by switching the engine off.
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I used to use the local hand car wash who do a very good job. But then I worked out how much it cost over a year, and how much exercise and satisfaction I used to get when I washed my car myself, and I thought I was mad to be paying other people to do it.
Yes, a hand car wash is convenient. In the same way that a take-away food is. But home cooked (or washed) is far more satisfying all round. Just need to find the time to do it!
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Yes I do and I collect rain water with which to do it.
SWMBO gave me a spray of that waterless cleaner stuff recently but I just don't get it.
Not much pleases me these days but I do find having a clean (inside and out) and shiny car is a morale booster in a harmless way.
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Not having a drive, it's not that often I can do it. Sometimes pay the local boys - particularly to vac it out, which is very difficult on the street. Washed it myself last weekend, first time since Octoberish. Living on the streets in London (the car, not me) there are always more scratches and bashes every time I wash it, so it's always a slightly upsetting process. I ought to buy myself a new (pre-loved) rear bumper really, after a towbar (presumably) got to know it rather too well. In an ideal world I hate the car looking scruffy. In the real world...
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My previous had no driveway, so cleaning of car was done during servicing and occasional visits to local hand car wash. But long queues put me off visiting them.
Moved to a new house recently with a driveway! Now planning to buy a pressure washer and do it more often.
I sometimes wonder whether I need to change car. But after the car is cleaned, it looks as good as those in dealer's forecourt and then I realize I don't need to change :-)
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...an hours plus slaving with the bucket and sponge.
An hour, NBD? Nothing Better to Do?
};---)
Ten minutes does the S60; fifteen for the LEC, because it has an enormous surface area and its silver paint can disguise a huge amount of dirt. Less for both if it's about to rain, because that saves the bother of rinsing.
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Yes, as I have the time now. Gives a chance to see any paint chips that need attention.
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Yes, doesn't generally get anywhere near as dirty as in the UK since there's no salt on the road but it gets a proper wash by hand about once a month. Have to watch out for tree sap and bird poo too, both of which seem to be left behind by car washes.
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Handwash the car regulary.Less in summer more in winter.
Also hoover depends what it's like inside the car.When our daughter is visiting wash and hoover her car when needed.Her car is a little Fiat Panda not a big job.I am lucky have our own drive.
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I usually rely on the yearly service, when this is part of the service. This year the car has got particularly grubby however. I got it done by a Mitteleuropean mother/son team in Sainsbury's car park. They took 20 minutes for a lovely job and charged only £5.
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Presumably you don't realise that some of these "side of the road" and "supermarket hand car wash" outlets use chemicals that not only gets rid of ingrained dirt, but can also strip off any wax/polish protection that you might have previously applied to your vehicle?
Not to mention their cloths and sponges they've used on countless other cars and picked up allsorts of things on/in them.
Saw a car that had been washed the other day that looked like they had gone over it with a scouring pad.
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>> Presumably you don't realise that some of these "side of the road" and "supermarket hand
>> car wash" outlets use chemicals that not only gets rid of ingrained dirt, but can
>> also strip off any wax/polish protection that you might have previously applied to your vehicle?
I'm fairly sure that people that use them won't care in the slightest.
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>> Presumably you don't realise that some of these "side of the road" and "supermarket hand car wash" outlets use chemicals that not only gets rid of ingrained dirt, but can also strip off any wax/polish protection that you might have previously applied to your vehicle?
Yes, that was one of the things that made me do mine myself this time Dave as there was no sign of any wax on it at all when it rained. I guess that they have been using TFR on it. Thinnk I shall carry on doing it myself now. However I guess that the majority of people don't care what they put on it !
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>> Presumably you don't realise that some of these "side of the road" and "supermarket hand
>> car wash" outlets use chemicals that not only gets rid of ingrained dirt, but can
>> also strip off any wax/polish protection that you might have previously applied to your vehicle?
>>
>> Not to mention their cloths and sponges they've used on countless other cars and picked
>> up allsorts of things on/in them.
>>
>> Saw a car that had been washed the other day that looked like they had
>> gone over it with a scouring pad.
And wheel acid that might or might not be properly rinsed off.
I do my own. I don't like polishing much so I just spray with express wax now and again before drying off with a microfibre cloth.
I discovered some really good non-acidic wheel cleaner in Home Bargains for about £1 a spray bottle - 'Astonish' I think.
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>>I discovered some really good non-acidic wheel cleaner in Home Bargains for about £1 a spray bottle - 'Astonish' I think.
Cor blimey guvnor, why didn't I think of that. Especialmente as I have some Astonish in the cupboard.
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>>I discovered some really good non-acidic wheel cleaner in Home Bargains for about �£1 a spray bottle - 'Astonish' I think.
Which product did you use, they do a number: www.astonishcleaners.com/categories.html
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>> Which product did you use, they do a number: www.astonishcleaners.com/categories.html
Astonish Wheel Cleaner, in the Car Care category. It just seems like very good detergent. Those "surfactants" I suppose.
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A thread like this amuses me so much with the ever expected replies such as "I never wash my car........" blah, blah blah. "Got better things to do....." blah blah blah.
At 77 years old I have always found time to clean my cars as it's just a simple matter of looking after your own property but I suspect in a country, where so many cars are 'Company cars' then perhaps it's not so surprising at people's indifference and laziness.
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There ARE better things to do though. I live in a flat, so washing the car myself is a major operation, carting buckets up and down stairs. I therefore only do it when it really needs it, and even then it is just as dirty within a week of cleaning it.
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>> carting buckets up and down stairs.
Park under the balcony and/or kitchen window?
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>>where so many cars are 'Company cars' then perhaps it's not so surprising at people's indifference and laziness.
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I will be given a clean one every three years mentality. :-)
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I usually leave it to the weather to clean mine. That and the screenwashers. And an occasional wipe of the headlight glasses to get the mud off.
The hand carwashers at the top of the Grove near the old gasworks used to wash the car with dirty-looking stuff from one of several buckets. It had polish in it though and left the car looking good. I think they were Poles.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Wed 13 May 15 at 18:55
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The car washers in the Sainsburys car park next to the gas works (to be redeveloped by the way) are mostly of African extraction these days.
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>> At 77 years old I have always found time to clean my cars as it's
>> just a simple matter of looking after your own property but I suspect in a
>> country, where so many cars are 'Company cars' then perhaps it's not so surprising at
>> people's indifference and laziness.
At 39 years old and juggling a 60 hr a week job, a wife who works full time, and two small children for whom I share equal parental responsibility (and would have it no other way), I can assure you it isn't about indifference and laziness.
Time is precious. Washing a car, enjoyable as I find it, is something I do when the four or five priorities above it are taken care of, and the weather co-operates. This alignment of circumstances happens half a dozen times a year.
EDIT: I am assuming here that a car cant be satisfactorily washed in the pouring rain or the dark.
Last edited by: DP on Tue 19 May 15 at 11:12
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>> EDIT: I am assuming here that a car cant be satisfactorily washed in the pouring rain or the dark.
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Not the dark. but washing a car in the rain is good.
The dirt is softened, and rinsing doesn't take so much tap water...
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Does anyone wash their own car anymore? - Old Navy
