today we're gonna be giving you a few tipsand tricks on how to wash your car if you live in a condo, an apartment, or somewhere that does not have access towater. a friend of mine recently moved from a houseto a condo, and for any automotive enthusiast who lovesdetailing, this is a hard situation. you go from having a driveway and a garagewith access to water and shade to a small parking spot that doesn't have any water. but he does have access to a coin-operatedcar wash. you may have a coin-operated car wash in yourneighborhood
or close to your home or apartment that youuse to wash your vehicle. today i'm going to show you a lot of tipsand tricks on how to get your car looking good while using a coin-operated car wash. a coin-operated car wash gets a bad rep becausepeople think that it's dirty, and you can often scratch your car using the tools theyhave. today i'll show you how to get the best resultsfrom a coin-operated car wash, how to use the tools properly, and how to bring a lot of your own tools withyou so you can keep your car looking good. my e39 has not been washed in about 4 weeks,it's ready for a wash.
we've had a cold spell here in californiaand it's been raining a lot. i'm gonna take my car to the coin wash andwe're gonna wash it just like you guys out there might do in an apartment or a condo. let's talk about everything we're gonna useand take with us to the coin-operated wash. i have four buckets set up with everythingthat i need. my first two buckets are gonna be my washbuckets. a lot of people use the brushes at the coinwash, but we're not gonna use that because those cause scratches!
these buckets have a gamma seal on the top,and i've also placed a grit guard in the bottom. i'm gonna take these buckets with me pre-filledwith water. i'll fill these buckets up here with water,and add my soap, so once i get to the coin wash across town, my buckets are ready to go and i just haveto suds up the soap. these gamma seal lids have a rubber o-ringseal that creates a water-tight seal when screwed on to the bucket. i can put these buckets in the back of mycar and not worry about them spilling. plus i have the grit guard to protect againstany scratches.
these next two buckets i use to carry everythingelse i'm going to use. i have my citrus wash & gloss to wash thecar. i'm gonna clean my wheels using our signatureseries wheel cleaner; this is great to clean my bbs wheels. when i dry my car i'll use hybrid v7 to addextra shine and protection. to clean the tires i'll use our signatureseries orange degreaser. this is already diluted 10:1 in a professionalgrade bottle with a tolco gold sprayer. i'm bringing my own chenille microfiber washmitt, if you're going to the coin wash it's alwaysa good idea to bring your own wash mitt.
the brushes at the coin wash are dirty, misused,and can scratch your vehicle. i've got a few waffle weave microfiber towelsto dry the car, and i've got a variety of towels like elegantedgeless black towels, premium blue towels, and a large elegant edgeless black towel todo any drying. i'm gonna go outside and fill my wash bucketswith water, then take this dirty car to wash it out! we're outside, and i'm gonna fill these bucketsup to take to the coin wash. i'm gonna fill these up with water and soapbefore i get to the coin wash to maximize the amount of time i have withthe washing system.
coin washes are operated by quarters; you put quarters in to gain more time on themachine. you don't want to pay for wasted time, so i'll prepare these buckets here so i getthe most time for the money at the coin wash. i've filled up my clean water bucket, andi'll use this one for my soap water. i'm gonna use our citrus wash &gloss for this, citrus wash & gloss is great because it cleansand shines, and this bmw is real dirty, so the citruscleaning power is gonna do a great job cleaning it up.
once my bucket is all filled up and readyto go, i'll add my soap... i'll add my soap here so i can leave my bottlehere so i don't have to worry about taking it with me. i'll add two ounces of soap to the bucket,and now i can actually seal up my bucket. now my buckets won't leak when i take themwith me. as you see they don't leak at all, so if it tips in my car, i won't have any leaks whatsoever.
i'll load everything in my trunk, and see you at the coin wash! we're on our way to the coin wash. a lot of you guys might have a coin wash closeto your house, we've got one close to our headquarters, sowe're gonna drive over there to use the coin wash. coin washes are also good to use if you havean off-road vehicle, if you have a lot of mud, dirt, or greaseon your car because the coin wash has its own drain.
so you don't have to worry about getting yourown driveway dirty. you can handle dirty messes at the coin wash. i brought everything to get the most timeout of the coin wash, i brought all my soaps, towels, and bucketsto get the job done. we also make other detailing solutions ifyou live in an apartment or condo like waterless detailing, i like using waterless detailing solutionsa lot. some people prefer to use the traditionalstyle of water and shampoo, and that's what we'll be using today.
once we get to the coin wash, we'll show youall the tips and tricks to keep your car looking great. we've arrived at the coin wash, and i've alreadyunloaded all my equipment before we start the machine. i'll tell you what to do before you startthe machine to get the most out of the coin wash experience. first thing you need to do: lay out all your equipment before you startthe machine i have about $4.00 in quarters right here,
i'll use 2 cycles on the machine: the first to clean the wheels and rinse thecar, then the second cycle to rinse all the soapoff the car after i wash it. i've got my two buckets here already set up: my soap bucket all ready to go, and my cleanwater bucket read to go. all i gotta do is suds up the soap bucket,and we're ready to rock! i've also got all my towels and brushes setaside within reach. the main tool we will use here is the pressurewasher. what you don't want to use is this: the brushat the coin wash!
people leave these on the ground, just like that! now all that dirt gets picked up and can getrubbed into your paint. word of advice: don't use this! that's why we brought our own wash mitt. i'm gonna go ahead and put some coins in,and let's get started! first i'll put just enough coins in to workthe wheels and wet down the paint. i'll wash my wheels first with the signatureseries wheel cleaner, and then wash the whole vehicle.
let's do it right now! i've gone ahead and cleaned the wheels, andthey're full of wheel cleaner and degreaser. i'll go ahead and rinse them off as i rinsethe whole vehicle. i only have $4.00, so that gives me two cyclesbefore i run out of time. i have everything set up, i'll rinse the cleaner off the wheels, i'll rinse down the car before i start washingit. set the pressure washer to high pressure rinse! no soap, just rinse.
once i rinse off the wheels and car, i'llsuds up my wash bucket, then begin the wash process. let's do it! so i've rinsed all the cleaner and degreaseroff my wheels and tires, and i've rinsed the whole body. it's good to rinse the body first, that's why we came to the coin wash: to usethe pressure washer to knock off all the heavy dirt. so if you don't have a pressure washer athome,
the coin wash is a great way to pay a fewdollars to use their facility. you get a good wash and do all the dirty workhere. i've got my two buckets set up: i foamed up my wash bucket and i've got my clean bucket with clean water to make sure we get a swirl-free wash withthe two-bucket method. let's wash the whole car and make sure itlooks great! just like the standard two-bucket method: we always go back to the clean water bucket,
wring the mitt out on the ground, recharge with soapy foam, and keep on cleaning! so i've finished washing the vehicle. the car is still full of soap, but now we'reready to rinse it off. i've still got $2.00 for another 4 minuteson the machine. here's my plan: i'm going to high-pressure wash off all thesoap. then i'll rinse the car again using the "spot-freerinse" setting.
some coin-operated car washes have a filterinside the facility to give a clean spot-free rinse. this reduces water spots because the filtercleans out all the calcium and hard minerals that lead to spots on the car. i'll use that spot-free rinse for the finalrinse to remove any of the soap and minerals off the car for a spot-free shine. i'll deposit the last $2.00... some coin washes are cheaper, some more expensive. this one is $0.50/minute, so it's not thatbad.
so: high-pressure rinse, then spot-free rinse. now i'll go ahead and switch to the spot-freerinse, and rinse the car off again to reduce anywater spots. as you notice, this setting does not haveas much pressure, so it's about rinsing off the hard water toget all the spots off! you notice this filtered water simply runsoff the car. this car has second skin 6 on it, so the filteredwater will help push any stains and hard water off the ss6. we're at the last step, the hardest step forme, and that's drying the car!
we want to make sure we don't get any waterspots when we dry the car, so we want to do this as quickly as possible. to help me dry the car and add some glossand extra protection, i'm gonna use hybrid v7. this is gonna help push off the water andleave the car with a smoother, deeper shine. it'll also work with the ss6 that's on thecar now. i've got two drying towels: my big black elegantedgeless microfiber, and a waffle weave. i'll start with the waffle weave, then buffoff the streaks with the edgeless. let's do this!
always remember to wipe down the door jambs! use hybrid v7 to wipe down the door jambs. if you don't, you'll end up with dirty doorjambs full of water spots, and they won't look good. i'll wipe down the jambs, dry the wheels,and then we'll go back to the facility. now we're back at our detailing training center, and this bmw is looking great. we did the full wash at the coin-operatedwash, we did the whole vehicle and it looks fantastic.
the coin-operated wash is a great place togo if you don't have access to water, or you live in a condo or apartment. plus you can wash your car any time of theyear, even if it's extremely dirty, because the coin-operated wash has accessto a pressure washer, and you can bring your own equipment. we brought our own soap, wheel cleaner, degreaser,towels, buckets, everything! all we used was the wash center's water. you can always take your chemical guys productsanywhere you go using the grit guard, gamma seal, and ourcool chemical guys buckets with all our best
stuff. if you want to use all the best products,check out our website chemicalguys.com for the world's best detailing products. you can always check out our facebook forawesome deals, subscribe to our youtube channel for over400 videos with tips on tricks on detailing any type of vehicle. if you want to talk to the pros or ask mea question, you can pop on to our brand new forum at
chemicalguysforum.com you can access it from our homepage on ourwebsite, you can talk to pros, other enthusiasts, orany of the chemical guys team to get your answers quickly and easily. always remember: have fun, stay clean, and keep on detailing!