frig

I have officially crossed over into the dark world of insanity. I could no longer stand how dirty my black 8 was. It was 16 degrees out Saturday morning when I decided to wash it IN MY GARAGE. Now my garage isn't normal either. It's an oversized 2 car garage that is insulated, sheet rocked and painted(soon to have murals on walls). The only things in tha garage besides the cars are 4 bikes hanging fron the ceiling. So I filled a 5 gal bucket and poured it over the car. Filled a small bucket w/ soapy water and proceded to wash as "normal". Then rinsed w/5 gal bucket. Dried it and now it looks great! Then I just took my floor squeegee and cleaned up the floor. In my world this didn't seem so bad. It may become my private winter car wash. I wonder how hard it would be to put a floor drain in?

tiggerlee

Dude! That's too weird. I did the same just yesterday. I love my black 8 but keeping it clean has almost become an obsession with me(glad to see i'm not alone). of course,we don't get the cold temps that you get in NJ. On my way home from work yesterday it started to rain and it was real windy. When I pulled my car in the garage I noticed it was not only wet but it had sand stuck to the sides from the road and rain. I got my hose and my bucket, cranked the tunes and decided to wash her in the garage. Luckily my garage floor in pitched so the water runs right out the garage door. Why didn't I do this earlier? I usually take it to Shiners here in Orlando to have it hand washed and detailed(which btw I did thursday).It was actually somewhat theraputic. Maybe I'll save my $30 and just do it myself from now on(in the garage). :D

quack_p

Not insane at all! Well, maybe a little insane to the piston impaired. My only concern would be making sure the car is rinsed well enough that you're not rubbing dirt into the paint. Can you run a hose into the garage?

tiggerlee

The outside garden hose attachment is located next to the garage door. So all I have to do is hook it up and run it into the garage. No problem. I live in a one level bungalow style apartment w/attached garage(rather roomy garage at that) so it has concrete walls and floor. No need to worry about damaging drywall etc. As far as the paint is concerned, here in Florida it seems that a lot of what you see flying through the air on a windy day is sand not dirt. So by biggest concern BEFORE washing is the initial rinsing off of the car. This is probably the most important step prior to my washing it. Even when I take it to get hand washed , I make sure I can watch them while their washing it. I've been there so much that usually one guy does it and knows how **** retentive I can be,so he tends to do a better job.

markd

Wait wait wait, did I just misread that, or did you just say that you washed your car two days in a row? Thursday at Shiners and then yesterday in your garage??? I either call your bluff or you, my friend, are the most OCD person I've ever known!

If it is the truth, you may be doing yourself a disservice by not allowing enough time for any wax/sealant to cure.

frig

If I ever go to Orlando I'll have to look you up. The two of us togeter could be trouble. 2 nuts for the price of one.

magixpuma

lol. I go onto route 37 where there is a personal car wash where you put in 1.50 worth of quarters and you have a power washer with soap and wax and water capabilitys. sure it doesnt clean teh wheels well but it does everything else well. I do it weekly its nice to stay warm and do a decent 4 minute job. Then you have a huge excuse to run teh car at 80 mph to dry it off thuroughly.

tiggerlee

You caught me! Yes I washed my car two days in a row. I don't usually do that but as I said in my post, there's alot of sand that blows around down here. To keep the sand on my car to a minimum I tend to rinse it off every few days. I guess you could say I'm obssesive,cumpulsive or whatever it is. I just like the look of my eight when it's super clean and shiny. As for Shiners,they do a great job! they even take a air hose and blow excess water out from around tail lights,doorhandles etc. They say they do that so when you drive off you don't have water coming out from all the crevises and leaving water streaks. :D

tiggerlee

OK I NEED TO VENT! After all the trouble I've gone to to keep my 8 clean here's what I found today.
A co-worker and I decided to catch-up on some work at the office and have lunch today. So this morning he came by and picked me up(I didn't want to drive the 8 in,it looked like rain). When leaving I noticed that they were starting to fix the roofs in our area from hurricane damage that occured back in September. Great I said and went on to work. When I returned I noticed that they had stripped off the shingles from my place and had started to put on the new shingles,great I said. It happened when I opened my garage door! I saw my poor 8 sitting there in the garage covered in a thin white film. Arrrghhh! apparently when they where hammering on the roof all day they were also knocking down loose drywall dust all over my car from the garage ceiling. Me was pissed! Now what? Do I wash it again? or drive really fast into work Monday and hope I can blow it off? Oh well, it seems to be a quest of sorts with me lately.
*walks away feeling defeated.

markd

Oh my gosh, are you considering washing your car for the third time in a week?? That's hilarious! :D Do you by any chance detail your own car, or do you leave that to the Shiners? I ask because if you're going to re-wash your 8, you may want to go ahead and apply another layer of wax (depending on what you/they use) for safe measure. All this washing has probably hampered the present layer's durability. Even if the wax was intact, it would still be about the right time to do a second layer.

That's a lot of trouble to get rid of that thin layer of film (heavy dust from all the roof work, I am assuming?). If I were you, I would probably just douse it with the hose and then drive-dry it. If you don't soap it (which I wouldn't, if you don't re-wax), I wouldn't towel/chamaois it down.

tiggerlee

Actually Shiners only does the hand washing/drying,I wax it myself. Since I bought it in October
it's been waxed three times. Once at the dealers,twice by me. My brother got me a gift certificate
for christmas to Doctor Detail here in Orlando(I posted a thread about it last month). Full detail
plus wax using Liquid Glass,which I had never used. The hard part is getting it there. He told me that it usually takes 4-6 hours to properly detail a car. With the holidays and my busy work schedule I haven't been able to take it in yet. And yes it's probably overdue for a good waxing.

frig

Why all the fuss? You now have your own personal car wash just like me. And you control how much/little soap you use. This way it shouldn't affect the wax. I prefer Zaino products.