Poll: Hand wash or drive through?

Hand wash, auto wash, or both?

  • Total voters
    93
I do both - but only within the past two years have I started hand washing. Once or maybe twice a year it should be an 8 hour job.

Tim, this is a whole other area to get into and there is some good info in the detailing threads. Until about two years ago I hand washed only occasionally. Now it's the norm, unless there is a huge amount of build up. Then I'll do the drive through just to do most of the dirty work. But I always try to go over the entire car again with a quick detailer.

Clay bar and wax cleaner, sealant and sooooo many types of waxes really make a HUGE difference. If you have the patience to take apart your interior and have the attention to detail that so many of your posts illustrate - I'm actually SURPRISED you don't take pride in your Tchuck special hand wash detailing extravaganzas!
 
I am usually a hand-wash guy but like alot of the others, I'll break down and run it through a quick car wash.
 
I've never had someone else (or any machine) wash my fx other than myself. Even when I wash, I use a two-bucket wash. Basically one soap bucket and one rinse bucket with a grit guard. Even with this method, I still manage to get few swirls over time, so I don't see how I can ever take the car through a wash tunnel. :err:
 
jumbosrule said:
I do both - but only within the past two years have I started hand washing. Once or maybe twice a year it should be an 8 hour job.

Tim, this is a whole other area to get into and there is some good info in the detailing threads. Until about two years ago I hand washed only occasionally. Now it's the norm, unless there is a huge amount of build up. Then I'll do the drive through just to do most of the dirty work. But I always try to go over the entire car again with a quick detailer.

Clay bar and wax cleaner, sealant and sooooo many types of waxes really make a HUGE difference. If you have the patience to take apart your interior and have the attention to detail that so many of your posts illustrate - I'm actually SURPRISED you don't take pride in your Tchuck special hand wash detailing extravaganzas!
Click to expand...

Dude, it's on. The title did it for me. :tup: This weekend for sure.
 
tchuck said:
Dude, it's on. The title did it for me. :tup: This weekend for sure.
Click to expand...

lol. Your going to hate me. Once you start caring about your paint it's another world. That being said, notice I still do the drive through occasionally. Call it lazy, a lack of time or a compromise. I'll still go over the entire thing by hand afterwards.

Do your standard research and you'll be fine. Just going to be sore from going over your car by hand four times in one day.

My take on all the products out there - most of the mainstream auto-store products work just fine. Some are better than others and the forums are a good place to look for starting points. Beware the professional detailer recommending products, but definitely pay him to do your car once in a while. Doing paint correction is a skill and machine polishing is not something I'd want to learn on my own car.
 
I use the wand type at the car wash, soap and rinse only, then hand dry with microfiber. They have a soft water sink and wringer at my local car wash which is nice.

I know in the time it takes me to do a thorough wash and dry, including door jambs, wheels, and under the hood, the line for the auto-wash advances maybe a car or two. I wouldn't say it's any quicker to auto-wash. Less effort, yes, but I'm not paying $5 more for an inferior wash and dry just to save myself some elbow grease.
 
I definitely prefer hand wash, but I use 'touchless' drive-thru washes when I'm in a hurry or its too cold out. Just about time for a full spring cleaning though, with a proper detail and polish. Can't wait
 
Depends

In the summer, I'll hand wash but in the winter, I'll go through a brushless car wash to clean the salt off and hit the under carriage.

---------- Post added at 08:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:26 AM ----------
IvoRoyfx35 said:
I've never had someone else (or any machine) wash my fx other than myself. Even when I wash, I use a two-bucket wash. Basically one soap bucket and one rinse bucket with a grit guard. Even with this method, I still manage to get few swirls over time, so I don't see how I can ever take the car through a wash tunnel. :err:
Click to expand...

I use the two bucket method too. One for soap one for rinse. I squeeze the soap out of the sponge over the drive, dunk it in the rinse then squeeze that out over the drive. Wash only in a straight line and here is where I'm sure the neighbors look and just shake their heads :rolleyes:. To get most of the water off the fx, I use my leaf blower. Most car washes use air for this so why not at home. I tested my blower against white poster board, just to make sure it wasn't blowing oil and gas and didn't get any thing blown against it except air. This reduces drying time too.
 
too lazy with the hand wash but last time i did, hot chic walked passed and said NICE car, so ill be hand washing more often and hopefully ill see her again:wink (2):
 
been at the drive through once..... and never again... to many missed spots
 
Hand wash only,
No drive through and
no custom hand washes with winged monkeys hopping around my car with pre used towels.
I notice that people who wash your car don't care where they lay their towels or how many cars they have wiped with them.
If I can't wash my car it does not get washed.
 
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