# Why you shouldn't use a car wash



## Divine (Jul 16, 2009)

Hi guys,

This is something I did a few months back...

Task - Get a nice swirly car, correct a patch, take to car wash, see what happens 

So, the car....Black Polo, nice and swirly


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What I was dealing with, plenty of swirls, and lots of RDS's (Not all removed obviously)


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Getting started - 50/50


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And again


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Waxed with Dodo Juice of some sort, cant remember now...


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Direct sun shots of a natural 50/50


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Un-corrected


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Here goes - £1.90 of the finest


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And after - Bearing in mind, I've spent an hour correcting 5 years of swirls, the car wash then managed to put in about 3 years of swirls back in 2 minutes!


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They were very formulated all going in one direction (nature of car wash obviously) and tbh I was shocked at how bad the car was after, considering the car was totally clean when it went in, imagine how it would of looked if it wasnt washed for 6 months before hand...

Thanks for looking


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## Deanvtec (Mar 3, 2008)

Brilliant, cheers for posting and doing that, £1.90 = £0000 correctional costs. Cheap and Cheerful means Crap and Expensive.:thumb:


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## declanswan (Feb 27, 2008)

Good post. Just shows how evil these machines are. The devils creation :thumb::thumb:


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## 888-Dave (Jul 30, 2010)

Nice work mate :thumb:


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## dooka (Aug 1, 2006)

I've seen a lot worse come out of a car wash, your car wash is fairly gentle by the looks of it..

Still goes to show modern gentle automate washes are bad, go through a few more times and have a look ..


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## W23 AJH (Oct 19, 2010)

Wow that is amazing :O


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## james. (Mar 1, 2010)

Great test! thanks for posting


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## ksm1985 (Dec 27, 2008)

my dad keeps puttin his black rav4 through these,  and uses a brush attached to the end of the hose to wash it on other occasions :lol:


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## andyt13 (May 21, 2009)

quality post mate


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## mundo (Sep 7, 2010)

fooking shocking just think six month ago i used these.....and the ones with the brush on the end :doublesho

no more though.......:thumb::buffer::argie::lol:


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Amazing - but the worst thing is - you could show most people (who aren't keen detailers/car nuts) those pics and they wouldn't care! Makes me sick!


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## james. (Mar 1, 2010)

JBirchy said:


> Amazing - but the worst thing is - you could show most people (who aren't keen detailers/car nuts) those pics and they wouldn't care! Makes me sick!


You're completely right!


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## lucky_paddy (Feb 14, 2010)

brilliant test


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## The Sheriff (Jul 15, 2008)

Superb post:thumb:


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## Mirror Finish Details (Aug 21, 2008)

JBirchy said:


> Amazing - but the worst thing is - you could show most people (who aren't keen detailers/car nuts) those pics and they wouldn't care! Makes me sick!


As long as it is not your car why let it bother you. 98% of cars are treated to this weekly as I did weekly 5 years ago before I saw the light.

I don't even flinch anymore when I see a Bentley etc in a car wash, is their choice.

Great post though and just goes to show how nasty those car washed are.


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## Davemm (Mar 9, 2009)

i put mine through one once after a load of cow and farm muck, i got it home and went to polish it and noticed all the marks that it had left never again will a car i own go through a car wash.


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## nath69uk (Dec 29, 2008)

Good idea, glad someone has shown just how bad those things are.


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## Bensenn_GER (Mar 24, 2010)

I was always interested in that point, but didn't wanted to bring mine to the car wash.  
Now you should correct the whole car. :buffer:


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## Fatman Soldier (Sep 24, 2009)

I would of liked to see that with a 50/50 of Cquartz stuff on it.


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## Juicy Jen (May 4, 2010)

Great post :thumb:


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## Jonny_McC (Apr 19, 2010)

nice work mate. does prove the fact the car washes are the work of the devil! lol


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## chch (Jan 2, 2010)

I'd be interested what kind of mops are in that car wash. There are two kinds now here where I live. The classics are equipped with brushes made of very thin nylon wires (ouch!), the newer ones have thin foam strips.

The operators of the newer ones say they make no harm. (oh yeah)


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## rsdan1984 (Jul 31, 2009)

nice experiment, thats why you dont use a car wash!!


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## Footballer (Dec 7, 2010)

Quality post and a sure education for the car washer manufacturers!

Nothing like testing your product before customer use.


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## dooka (Aug 1, 2006)

Maybe this should be come a sticky, or someone write a sticky post for this topic ..


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## Renegade (Nov 8, 2010)

Great post! 

Thanks for showing the true effects.


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## BLADE (Oct 13, 2010)

Good post mate, shocking to see what happens.


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## NovalutionGSi (Apr 19, 2010)

chch said:


> I'd be interested what kind of mops are in that car wash. There are two kinds now here where I live. The classics are equipped with brushes made of very thin nylon wires (ouch!), the newer ones have thin foam strips.
> 
> The operators of the newer ones say they make no harm. (oh yeah)


As that is an ARC one it should be one of the newer ones with the Foam strips, so just shows that your final comment is true!

and no... i've not been through a car wash..... i'd much rather have a dirty car niggling at me than take it through one of those!


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## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

Mirror Finish said:


> As long as it is not your car why let it bother you. 98% of cars are treated to this weekly as I did weekly 5 years ago before I saw the light.
> 
> I don't even flinch anymore when I see a Bentley etc in a car wash, is their choice.
> 
> Great post though and just goes to show how nasty those car washed are.


Yep totally agree its the owners decision and not worth loosing sleep over.

I have told anyone at work that asks me how to clean the car and wax etc but dont go round preaching to them.

Those that care about there motor get sent to see me for advice.

Love the test as its great to have the 100% visual proof.

Out of interest i noticed you had a menz bottle in the background what pad and compounds did you use please on the correction?
We have a black polo the same as the one you used.
That although garaged all its life from the previous family member only ever had the car wash treatment so you can imagine its a horror in the sun. Its life is out doors 24/7 now.

I did a test on pads and compounds on a test section a bit back will get round to posting some time, i found it was the menz glos and 3m green that took out the swirls first hit.
How about your findings?

Thanks again and all the best.


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## oriboy (May 8, 2007)

I just bought a new pressure washer with a brush attachment, total waste of time that`ll be as I`m not gonna use it.

I de-swirled my daughters car a few weeks back with a rotary and some megs, only to find that a week later she took it through a car wash!!!!! grrrrrrrr


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## toni (Oct 30, 2005)

Great post! Thanks for taking this test, I always wondered how much damage a car wash can make...


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## Divine (Jul 16, 2009)

james_death said:


> Out of interest i noticed you had a menz bottle in the background what pad and compounds did you use please on the correction?
> We have a black polo the same as the one you used.
> That although garaged all its life from the previous family member only ever had the car wash treatment so you can imagine its a horror in the sun. Its life is out doors 24/7 now.


I think I ended up using a yellow hexi logic pad and 3.02 menz, possibly my harshest combo but it worked and just refined on a black hexi pad with menz final finish I think


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## Bee (Jun 1, 2010)

top work, known to me as stratch and shine once the weather got slightly warmer there was a massive queue for my local one. most people see their cars as a method of transport not a hobby or something to be proud of.


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2010)

great test :thumb: was glad I came across this, even tho I have no intention of ever using a car wash


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## Divine (Jul 16, 2009)

Should have an update for this soon


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## JakeWhite (Oct 14, 2011)

It always annoys me when people take their cars to these places and say 'yeah they did a really cracking job, the same as a more expensive valeter' alot of people don't seem to understand there's a difference between car washes,valeting and detailing. Thanks for the thread :thumb:


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## Sirmally2 (Feb 28, 2011)

I'm glad i seen sense a looooong time ago!!!

Good test matey, its a real shame that people go to these places with 20k+ expensive pieces of automobile!


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## JakeWhite (Oct 14, 2011)

Sirmally2 said:


> I'm glad i seen sense a looooong time ago!!!
> 
> Good test matey, its a real shame that people go to these places with 20k+ expensive pieces of automobile!


With the car generally being the second most expensive investment apart from your house, you gotta ask yourself 'would I like it if the builders left cracks in all the walls?' if not then why should their cars be any different?


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## -Kev- (Oct 30, 2007)

99.99% of people just want a clean car, doin't know or care what swirls are and probably have more important things to do with their time and money, irrevant of the cars cost.


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## -Kev- (Oct 30, 2007)

Divine said:


> Should have an update for this soon


and that was nearly a month ago lol


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## Snowman_© (Dec 9, 2011)

True people see there cars as purely going a - b to and from work etc. without a care in the world..

Each to there own i guess, Someone should email the makers of one of these companies to see if there is a genuine solution to this problem. Dragons den?


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## wish wash (Aug 25, 2011)

Most people tend not to realise what happens to there car, 90% wouldn't have a clue what a swirl mark was if you even asked them.

If it had a sign saying- caution using this machine will scratch your paint, im sure alot of people would be put off.


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## JakeWhite (Oct 14, 2011)

Yeah don't get me wrong, alot just see it as transport. I think it's just after being on the forum and seeing what results can be achieved with proper techniques has altered my thinking completely


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## Rob_Quads (Jul 17, 2006)

JakeWhite said:


> With the car generally being the second most expensive investment apart from your house, you gotta ask yourself 'would I like it if the builders left cracks in all the walls?' if not then why should their cars be any different?


Big difference is 99.9% of people would spot cracks in the walls.

A much better comparison would be saying to someone who has got the builders in did they make sure they got every panel spray painted during the finishing? Anything less than they are introducing imperfections. 99.99% of people won't care about the odd brush/roller mark over the perfect sprayed finish.


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## bigmc (Mar 22, 2010)

Nobody outside this weird ocd world is interested though tbh, they see a car with no muck/dirt on it and it's clean, job accomplished.


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## GraemeM (Aug 18, 2011)

Alot of people don't care though, more and more would rather go to the hand washes because there cheap and quick 

I for one wouldn't use them as they don't care when there washing your car


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## JakeWhite (Oct 14, 2011)

bigmc said:


> Nobody outside this weird ocd world is interested though tbh, they see a car with no muck/dirt on it and it's clean, job accomplished.


I think people who genuinely appreciate their vehicle understand the difference but alot don't. It's surprising how many of my friends and family members come to me saying 'I used one of those car washes the other day and there's lots of little marks all over my car, what can I/you do?' I also had 2 friends how had personal items taken from their car, one of them being a commando dagger pin. A guy I work with also said how when he last used one, there was alot of smearing and how dust and muck was sticking to the trims and plastics. High silicone?


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## JakeWhite (Oct 14, 2011)

Rob_Quads said:


> Big difference is 99.9% of people would spot cracks in the walls.
> 
> A much better comparison would be saying to someone who has got the builders in did they make sure they got every panel spray painted during the finishing? Anything less than they are introducing imperfections. 99.99% of people won't care about the odd brush/roller mark over the perfect sprayed finish.


True mate not a great comparison from me :lol:


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## alfajim (May 4, 2011)

they say a car is the second biggest purchased you're ever likely to make, after a house. why you'd not look after your investment, is beyond me.


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## bigslippy (Sep 19, 2010)

Unbelievable....just shows you ... people I know like to use these but have no idea how bad they really are ....thanks for posting:thumb:


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