Keeping it Clean

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by SLVRSRFR

A lot of touchless drive-thru car washes use a LOT of "quick dry" chemicals in the water, so that the water dries faster. This can be bad for your paint/clear-coat.

It can also be totally harmless. Sun and pollution from large urban centers are far worse then any chemicals from a touchless wash.

[Dawan]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Cars live outside. It is dirty outside. Cars get dirty. Wax it. Wash it. Wax it. Wash it. It never ends until you just don't care anymore.


The rust control modules work beautifully on pipelines and ships. They are not worth shit on cars. The car will last at least 10 years before the rust even remotely starts to become an issue. These are not 1980s Chryslers.


The tires do not "cause" static. Dry air combined with friction cause static. The tires just insulate the car from the ground so that it cant discharge. Changing tires does not eliminate static. The trick is to touch the metal part of the car as you get out. If touching already then the charge just passes through you to ground and you never know it. You get the arc when you get out and then reach to touch the metal and the charge jumps from the car to you. Grounding straps may help but are not always effective due to the area of the car that collects the charge.

[krayzie]

Dam you baby on board hang tags and stick family stickers!

[KL]

The water "sticking" to the paint is likely the result of needing a claybar/lacking a wax or sealant. The less that sticks to your paint, the longer it takes to get dirty. The smoother your paint is, the less sticks.

[Ashikabi]

I'm pretty sure everyone covered everything but... It's gonna rust, don't worry about it. Static I'd natural, you can't eliminate or reduce it. You need real wax. Not touchless car wash at the gas station. Real wax that you put on by hand. It won't stop all water spots(nothing can except drying your car by hand before the water evaporates) but it'll help

[DM7]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

...The tires do not "cause" static. Dry air combined with friction cause static. The tires just insulate the car from the ground so that it cant discharge. Changing tires does not eliminate static. The trick is to touch the metal part of the car as you get out. If touching already then the charge just passes through you to ground and you never know it. You get the arc when you get out and then reach to touch the metal and the charge jumps from the car to you. Grounding straps may help but are not always effective due to the area of the car that collects the charge.

Some tires will have a section of tread made of conductive compound that dissipates static charge when the tires are on the ground.

http://www.google.com/patents/US7029544

I'm surprised that the Dunlop tires on the car now do not have this feature.

The only set of tires that I've owned that did not dissipate static charge were Motomaster AW (lowest price tire) I got from Canadian Tire.

[Lynxis]

I use the local coin-op pretty frequently for 4$ washes. At least around here, the trick to avoiding water spots is to go over the car with the spotless rinse once you've finished the high pressure rinse, then drive it maybe 5 minutes to let the wind dry it.

As always, YMMV.

[FirestormHachiroku]

Okay, just got in from doing a full wash, dry, clay bar and wax in my driveway. I think it was almost 4 hours all told. So many chips in the paint!!! At least a dozen! Stupid Canadian roads...

But I did every detail carefully.
The front end of the car made the clay bar go brown. The rest was pretty good.

I have Invisible Glass for the windows but I don't like it. I used to use RainX but now I can't find it anywhere. Any suggestions?

Pictures tomorrow in the daylight.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[krayzie]

Originally Posted by FirestormHachiroku

I have Invisible Glass for the windows but I don't like it. I used to use RainX but now I can't find it anywhere. Any suggestions?

Stoner Invisible Glass should be the best on the market actually.

I'm using the variant with the water repellent. Try newspaper.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by krayzie

Try newspaper.

That didn't work. I couldn't see worth shit!

[krayzie]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

That didn't work. I couldn't see worth shit!

Learn from the pros.

[Gibtronikz]

Hey guys, I wash my car 1-2 times a week. I wax it maybe every other week. Weeks where I dont wax; I use this product from Auto Glym. Its just an aqua wax. I live in Woodstock and commute to KW everyday and the bugs really piss me off. It takes time and effort to make your car beautiful but its well worth the work.