I finally understand why!!!

After reading here and there about why you shouldn't wash your vehicle at the "do it yourself car washes" I finally stopped and have been strictly washing at home for the past 6 months.

I wax regularly to help protect from the AZ sun, and recently clay barred (is that the right word? Lol) the truck and it's so smooth!!!

I noticed bird poo on my truck today and on my way home I decided to hit up a car wash to clean the truck real quick. I did all the normal stuff I always did high pressure rinse, tire degreaser, tricolor foam, foam brush, rinse, spray on wax then another rinse... Prior to taking my truck to the car wash, only washing at home, the water would ALWAYS bead up on the hood/roof as expected. As I rinsed off my truck tonight no more beads of water... I don't know if it was the car wash soap or the wax I sprayed on there but it must have stripped off all my wax on there!!! Wow!

Needless to say I will no longer be going to those places. I now understand how deadly these friendly looking places really are... Haha

 

I wash all the time at the car wash places with no problems. I am pretty OCD so I like to clean under the truck etc, so the car wash place works well with the gun and stuff. Some rules I follow:

1)Always spray the scrub brush with high power pressure washer before using. It can have dirt and rocks in them.
2)I just use soap, brush and rinse, never anything else.
3) I always keep a good distance with the gun from the paint.
I still wax regularly at home but yea I've heard the tire cleaner and stuff can harmful to some finishes.

 

I'm pretty sure I let all the tire cleaner shoot out of the gun prior to moving onto the painted surfaces...

Does it seem possible that the spray on wax did this?

 

Maybe. It doesn't make much sense to spray wax on to me. But there is other crap in the system too so who knows what your really getting ie- ultra shine, bug remover, spot free rinse, tire vs wheel. I keep it simple with soap and rinse. But sometimes even the soap is hi liter green and I get sketched out.

 

I rinse, Wash, brush, Rinse, Spot free and then dry, Then wax and polish.

And for people who go mudding, CLEAN YOUR BAY AFTER USING IT! Hate rolling into a bay with chunks of mud and grass everywhere.

 

soap, bucket, pressure washer at the house. rinse and done

 

a lot of the soaps that car wash places use is fairly strong, and will almost always strip whatever wax is on the vehicle. there are special car soaps that are used to only "clean" the surface of the wax, and not strip it off. That being said, this truck has never seen a carwash (except when im just using the gun) i'll never touch it w/ a car wash brush, ever

 

I own a car wash and I only use the best soaps and wax. I make sure the ph is good and never run the cheap stuff. If you do get a chance try rain shield as a wax if they have it. It has a drying agent in also and really does work.
I pay over 300.00 for 15 gallons so it better work.
Like the man said above always rinse the brush as most are to lazy to hang it up. And don't use a nylon brush. Use a hogs hair brush.

 

Thanks for the heads up!
Is there any way of really knowing if the local car wash's use good products?

So I'm guess buying your own brush and bringing it would be a good idea ?

 

I haven't used a actual car wash for many years, but when I did I never used any of the soaps/coatings/agents since I did not know what, or if, they were.

I would use the non-soap wash with the spray gun, then clean the brush, then just use the brush (without the soap/etc. spewing from it, then the non-soap wash again. Then, depending on the weather, chamoise it, or get lazy and drive-dry it. Waxing was always done at home, following an at-home wash, or the above car wash method.

 

At least we are cleaning the vehicle; I wish I could find the post I ran across some time ago where, in response to " How do you clean your truck", the response was - ( and this is a verbatim quote) I never clean it, it looks badass

Speaks to the maturity level one finds here and there on the Internet

 

Should be proud enough to put signs up. And you can tell if the brushes are nylon or hogs hair. Hogs hair is real soft

 

Jay Lenos advice, wash car rarely...water=rust. Wax, use a big duster brush often, with detailer for spots. I.Jays H.O.

 

That's bad advice lol. Washing your truck isn't going to hurt anything unless you salt your water or something obscenely stupid like that. Following that logic my truck should just be a pile of rust now considering it sits in rain for 11/12 months of the year. If your truck actually gets used you won't be able to clean it with a duster anyways


I would avoid using the brushes at any car wash place because who knows how badly abused they have been. Some guy could have just cleaned his mudding rig up with it and now your scratching the hell out of your paint with the brush