DIY Touchless Car Wash

[PianoAl]

I've taken our car to touchless car washes twice, and the results have been spectacular (I'd do it regularly if there were any in our area).

What are the reasons one couldn't do the same thing at home? That is, use a pressure washer and not actually wipe the car with cloths?

 

[Transformer]

It sounds like it'd take special equipment.

It'd be incompatible with drought restrictions.

 

[Black306]

One could. Without contact though, there will be some [minor] debris left on the paint. If a person wasn’t critical on the absolute cleanliness of the paint, that’s an option.

 

[Zacster]

I took mine to a touchless wash the other day and it didn't really get clean. I'm going to hand wash it tomorrow if the rain stops.

 

[pandam3]

When I’m lazy I do this at home.

1) you need a spotless water filter such as CR Spotless
2) you need a good pressure washer and foam cannon. The Active 2.0 pressure washer is good with the MTM cannon (MJCC and Griots Boss is probably even better)
3) set the CR spotless to just use non filtered water and foam the car. A more aggressive soap such as Bilt Hamber works well. I’ve just used Adam’s graphene wash which seems more aggressive than their regular wash but not as aggressive as Bilt Hamber.
4) then rinse the car with non filtered water
5) then rinse car with the CR Spotless set to filtered water
6) blow dry the car. I use one of the higher force Ego blowers

Your car will need to be ceramic coated for this to work well. You might need to wipe the windows down after.

If the car is not too dirty I’ll skip foaming and rinse with non filtered then rinse with filtered.

At least once I month I’ll do a contact wash. I used the Adam’s graphene wash as a prefoam then Adam’s mega foam for the contact wash.

 

[804son]

I'm lucky to have a touchless car wash near by that uses soaps and chemicals that don't harm stain the black trim. I typically run the car through the touchless wash, then a quick wipe down with a microfiber in the parking lot while it's still wet. I'm getting really good results and it takes very little effort for a quick wipe down.

 

[Zacster]

I did a hand wash after the touchless didn't work, and everything came off except the artillery fungus. I picked those off with my nail but then there was a brown spot underneath it that wouldn't come off. I tried clay, and while it got the hood nice and smooth the brown spots remained, but with the lubricant spray I was able to use a fingernail to get them. I wiped it all clean, poured some fresh water over it and then dried. I then applied HydroSlick ceramic coating to it and wow does that sparkle now. It should make it possible to use the touchless too since the dirt won't stick to it the way it did to the paint. I only clayed and coated the frunk hood because it was cold out. It'll be warmer tomorrow to do the rest.

 

[Zacster]

I did the rest and it looks spectacular, better than new. The rags and bottle are still on top!

 

[Kandiru]

At home I use a dual pail bucket and wash mitts, always rinsing mitts before dipping in shampoo mix for next surface. If you truly care about your car it is important to notice that pressure washing will make any sand on the surface scratch the paint, much more so using a single very powerful jet than with lower pressure multijets at laser touch free washes that also have a low pressure presoak detergent cycle to coat the particles so they can fly off without scratching before the jets start running in earnest.