i live in an apartment so i dont have a hose to wash my car and the space and i have a white tc, which as you all know shows dirt quickly and easily

i know that those automatic machine washers scratch the paint because of the high pressure

but what about those that you wash on your on by placing quarters on the side and it has soap and all

im not sure if thats a great description of it but im sure you know what it is

out here in so cal there is one every few miles, so will this hurt my car and paint? :?:

thanks for any responses

if you dont understand just say so and ill try to say it a little more clearly

 

I've used it before, just use the soapy brush only on the wheels, and stand back when using the pressure washer.

 

so no soap for the actual body of the car?

yea i was thinking about standing for back to lighten up the pressure it hits the car...but still worried

any more thoughts on this?

 

my cars black, and i washed mine a good 5-10 times at those, and once at a touch free laser wash....my friend washes his 2 cars alll the time, and they are fine...I use the pressure washer ones w/ the soap built in, and mines fine. Maybe slight swirls if you look REAL close, but its hard not to w/ a black car :-/ I'd rather have it clean and shiney. :-) I washed my other car plenty of times at those, and its held up fine....just done wipe it down w/ a ruff towel...

 

Ok... here's the deal - those washes you're referring to have a sprayer, which is ok as long as you don't put it close, but they also have a big soapy brush. DONT GET THIS THING ANYWHERE NEAR YOUR CAR! They're full of dirt and grit, no matter how clean it might look. Anyway, I'm in your same situation. It's a rip, but here's what you do. Get a bucket or two. Fill it with car soap and get a wash mit or two. Put in the quarters and spray down your car. Then fill up the bucket with water from the sprayer. Wash your car with the hand mits and the bucket, and then put in more quarters, rinse your car with the sprayer, and rinse out your buckets and stuff. At my place it costs a grand total of $4, plus i have to bring all my own stuff, but they're always open, they recycle the waste water, and when I do it, i get to take my time and i do a good job.

 

They are OK, but not ideal. I'm forced to use them in the winter here as hosing them in my driveway in michigan is just impossible. The problem with self serve car washes is that the soap is too abrasive. If you can use your own soap, all the better but most do not allow bucket washing in the bays.

 

At least around here I've never seen anyone prohibit you from bringing your own stuff. At first I figured that they might get mad at me for doing it, but two things:

1. I probably end up paying more this way, since I have to pay to start the water twice and
2. I'm not hurting anything or getting anything free.

Plus the people at my car wash are never really around anyway.

 

but if there are people waiting behind you are are taking up time, and time is money. if they aren't busy they prolly won't care. but on a busy summer day they'll most likely say something to you

 

Yeah... I can see that. So go at off hours or something. Honestly, if i didn't go and do it myself, I'd have to take it to a nice place who would still probably scratch my car - they deffinitely wouldn't do as good a job as i do. I envy people who just have a hose and a driveway, but for those of us in apartments, the choices are limited.

 

I'm in the same boat... I can't wash my xB at my townhouse so I have to do the coin-op thing too. I'd rather have the car dirty than to have it washed by someone else.

 

I live in an apartment and I have the luzury of being able to wash my car by hand. They have taps outside but I have to supply my own hose. The biggest problem is that they use unfiltered well water (read: lots of sand and dirt in the water). I use it for now because the paint is already shot on my Crown Vic. When I get my Scion then I have to start paying again to wash my car.

 

having a hose is great I lived in a condo and apt and used the spray washers and never had a problem I still use the preassuer to clean my off road vehicles after I go offroading