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  #1  
Old 02-19-2011, 03:02 PM
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Automatic Car Wash

I wonder if anyone avoids or, on the contrary, has no problem with those automatic car washes that auger your vehicle along while it's in neutral via a chain-driven gizmo?

Not that the shifter on the X5 is overly complicated and perhaps the jockeys may be used to this type of shifter by now but I personally would not consider using this type of car wash on my vehicle.

My X5 has not arrived yet (2 more weeks) but I do not anticipate running it through one of these types of car washes after it does arrive. I will go for the wand wash or the touchless one that travels around your vehicle when parked.

Any comments on car washes?

---------------

I see there's a polling option but I don't think I'll tackle that just yet - still figuring out how to nav around the forum.

p.s. If this gets double posted, what the heck am I doing wrong?
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  #2  
Old 02-19-2011, 03:50 PM
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I don't take my X to car washes. Just do it myself at home or take to coin-operated self service car wash in winter.
Car wash places is where you get the swirls on the paint.
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  #3  
Old 02-19-2011, 04:10 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LeMansX5 View Post
I don't take my X to car washes. Just do it myself at home or take to coin-operated self service car wash in winter.
Car wash places is where you get the swirls on the paint.
Hum. I thought the touch less car wash wouldn't creat swirls. Or do you mean the " foaming brush" thing at the self serve one?
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Old 02-19-2011, 04:37 PM
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When you touch the paint it causes swirls. Period.

it is just a matter of how many and how bad.

I typically wash at home. On occasion I will use a self serve, BUT I bring my own bucket and wash/dry rags. I fill the bucket with soapy water, then wash.

All the usual stuff- control the dirt coming off, start high, rinse down, clean the wash mitt...

Conceptually it is simple: How to disrupt the dirt and get it off the paint as quickly as possible with as little interaction with the paint as possible.
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Old 02-19-2011, 06:09 PM
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In terms of methodology of self washing, I agree.

The drive-through's here in Alberta are either:

a) hand washing (by staff) + centrifugal towel whipping (that do touch) + hand drying (by staff) [no doubt this will lead to swirling] or

b) touchless (just water spraying)

Notwithstanding that, I'm curious if anyone allows their X5 to be placed on that chain auger? I would be afraid to do that in case the jockey didn't properly put it in neutral. I suggest that's an accident waiting to happen.

Of course, this is just a dream right now. Not only do I not have an X5 to wash quite yet, but it's currently about -17 degrees Celsius (I think that's similar to 0 degrees F). That is to day, no washing at home.
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Old 02-19-2011, 07:32 PM
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I just spent all day Zaino'ing my wife's "new-to-us" X5d in Monaco Blue. After the following steps to get rid of the swirls, I will never use an autowash again:
1. Wash with Dawn
2. Random orbit buff the whole car with Zaino Zpc
3. Apply Zaino AIO paint cleaner
3a. Spend the next two hours trying to get Zaino AIO off b/c I didn't read the directions and did the whole car at one time instead of finishing a single body panel at a time.
4. Re-attach arms where they seperated from my rotator cuffs being careful not to mix up L and R (of course, if they were mixed up, that would facilitate scratching my arse while I re-read the directions)
5. Apply 1st coat of Zaino Z5
6. Remove 1st coat of Z5
7. Re re-attach arms
8. Call it a day and plan to apply the 2nd and 3rd coat of Z5 next weekend (if my arms don't fall off again while I'm sleeping).



BTW, this was my first time using my random orbital to buff a car... it was VERY easy, and the results with the ZPC are VERY good!

Last edited by boyce89976; 02-19-2011 at 07:37 PM.
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  #7  
Old 02-19-2011, 07:37 PM
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Men do not read instructions in advance. No matter what the excuse. Thank you for confirming this and taking one for team. And after your tremendous effort, I'm surprised, and thankful, you can still type on a keyboard.
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  #8  
Old 02-19-2011, 08:07 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by boyce89976 View Post
I just spent all day Zaino'ing my wife's "new-to-us" X5d in Monaco Blue. After the following steps to get rid of the swirls, I will never use an autowash again:
1. Wash with Dawn
2. Random orbit buff the whole car with Zaino Zpc
3. Apply Zaino AIO paint cleaner
3a. Spend the next two hours trying to get Zaino AIO off b/c I didn't read the directions and did the whole car at one time instead of finishing a single body panel at a time.
4. Re-attach arms where they seperated from my rotator cuffs being careful not to mix up L and R (of course, if they were mixed up, that would facilitate scratching my arse while I re-read the directions)
5. Apply 1st coat of Zaino Z5
6. Remove 1st coat of Z5
7. Re re-attach arms
8. Call it a day and plan to apply the 2nd and 3rd coat of Z5 next weekend (if my arms don't fall off again while I'm sleeping).



BTW, this was my first time using my random orbital to buff a car... it was VERY easy, and the results with the ZPC are VERY good!
I used to be Zaino guy, moved over to Menzerna.......
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  #9  
Old 02-19-2011, 08:38 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LeMansX5 View Post
I used to be Zaino guy, moved over to Menzerna.......
Not to threadjack, but as a former Zaino user, what are the benefits of Menzerna over Zaino?
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  #10  
Old 02-19-2011, 08:42 PM
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Just got a call back from Sal with Zaino... I had called their tech support line when I realized I had screwed up somehow... pretty cool that the owner called! He said I probably applied enough AIO to do the car 3 times! Ha ha, that's probably only half the number of times I wiped it down getting the darn AIO off!
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