800 miles for a car wash?

[CoBeerToad]

Got stuck at work a couple weeks ago with the Porsche and it started snowing followed by the inevitable salt (stupid Chicago). To my knowledge, this car has never seen salt. I got it parked now, but the temperature won't warm up enough to wash it. All I can think of now is that there is stupid salt on my car.

Decided to take a couple of days off work in conjunction with the holidays and taking a trip to OKC to visit some friends tomorrow. Is it bad that I'm more excited to get the car washed than to see my friends?

Also, it's looking like it will be 60 degrees there on Saturday, so you know what means! I'll be the idiot driving topless while everybody else is still in their winter coats. I cannot wait.

[healthservices]

For me 45-60 degrees is the perfect weather for top down, seat heater on, drives!!!

[recycledsixtie]

My 2001 Box base gets regularly salted on our city roads.
I have a carwash one block from home. I would not be afraid of driving on salted/sandied roads but would try and handwash/wandwash your car shortly after driving in the crud.
G.

[woodsman]

Salt doesn't react with iron until it's near freezing or warmer. That's why a heated garage is the worst thing for a winter-driven car. I just remembered that underneath a Boxster it's about 95% aluminum! Not sure about what temp. it begins to oxidize with salt.

[RawleyD]

Originally Posted by CoBeerToad

Is it bad that I'm more excited to get the car washed than to see my friends?

You can't be serious..

[CoBeerToad]

OK. Maybe not that much. Stopped for gas in Pacific MO and found a car wash place to spray the hell out of it. The Chicago nastiness on my car was terrible. So I feel better now. Car made it smoothly. Roughly 26 mpg. Except for the last stretch where they closed I-44 right before Tulsa and I had to detour. Being a guy, I had no idea where I was going, but I had to make sure I got there fast so I got to beat up the car for about 40 miles before I eventually found my way around the detour.

Bad news is when I got here the girl I was driving with wouldn't let me put the top down when it was 60 degrees yesterday. Today, it's 28 degrees. I think it will be close to 60 on Tuesday and she will have the option of having the top down or walking.

[CoBeerToad]

Talk about your all-time backfires. When I left for OK on 12/27, the weather forecast for Chicago for the next week was clear and cold. Was supposed to drive back on 1/1, but due to the weather in Chicago, I stayed an extra day. About a foot of snow dropped here over the past day or two and probably about 2 feet of salt. My car is 10x worse now than when I left. And with a forecast in the negative teens over the next few days, it's going to stay that way.

At least I got the top down for about an hour in December while I was there.

[Perfectlap]

Next time find an underground parking garage that is somewhat heated. Fill two buckets from Home Depot or Lowes with hot water. (get the buckets that you can put a lid on).
Drop an ounce or two of either Optimum No Rinse or the Turtle Wax Waterless Wash (Wal-Mart) into one of the buckets. Wet down the car with a gallon of distilled water from the Supermarket to loose up the dirt/salt. Then take a chenille wash mitt and dunk it in the bucket with the waterless wash solution. Take one long pass from front of car to the rear. Dunk the sponge again to clean it off. Repeat until all of the paint is done. Grab a long handle car wash brush and get at as much of the stuff underneath and under the bumpers. This part is a bit of trick because the brushes won't hold as much water so you'll have to do a lot of dunking. Or you can buy a 2 gallon pesticide sprayer and fill it with the No-Rinse water and solution mix. Pump the handle and you can spray down all the stuff underneath and follow with the brushes. Spray again and again. I use blue shop towels to clean off the wheels with the waterless solution and to dry.
Dry the car by spraying it down with a quick detailer or a car wash spray like Griot's Garage (green liquid). Use their green or blue long-nap towels to buff the paint dry (long passes).
Sounds like a lot but I can do this in about 20 minutes (I don't clean underneath, new Porsches are not like the old). I've started using an outdoor car cover so I have to do a quick waterless wash before the cover goes on.
Putting a cover over a dirty car will only scratch up the paint.

[CoBeerToad]

A heated garage is not really an option for me. Once I get it cleaned, it will not be moving until springtime. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 20s so I'm planning on hitting a U-spray it type car wash and spray it down as good as I can. I should be able to use a bucket as it shouldn't be too crowded. Then I'll drive it home through the salt and get it in the garage. It will at least be better than it is now. As soon as the weather breaks, I'll wash it using your method. I'll feel much better about it than doing nothing. I swear I can hear the salt eroding my car right now.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Perfectlap]

Oh wait you have a garage? Okay simple solution. Go to Costco and get a decent space heater.
It might take an hour to warm up and you might have to throw down some towels near the bottom edge of the garage door, maybe even hang an old down comforter over the garage door for some quick insulation, but I've raised the temp not quiet room temp but warm enough to be able to work in just a button down shirt. Get out the buckets of hot water, drop in the no rinse solution and you'll have a clean car for storage.