solitarycheese

I love the convenience of self-serve washes (plus, its actually illegal to wash your car at home in Austin right now), but I noticed after one wash with just high pressure water and soap at a self-service the luster from my one week old wax job was gone.

Its certainly a better option than an automated wash with brushes, but a rinsless product or wash mitt with mild diluted car soap is probably the best bet.

NH_s2k_Guy

I don't use the soap in the automated washes for that reason, they are VERY HARSH!

Bring a bucket, some car soap and a wash mitt, rinse the car down with the water gun, put soap in the bucket,
fill it with the gun, wash the car with the mitt then rinse again with the gun.

Crumbeliveable

Essentially, all I need from a self service car wash is Shade and a water source.

The rest I bring along with me.

Even the water to fill my two buckets I bring with me, since it is impossible to fill a bucket with the high pressure hose. Lol

NH_s2k_Guy

Yeah that can be a challenge.

MrKlean187

I find its easier, although thunder loud, to place the hose at the bottom of the bucket at full speed. It keeps the "vortex" down and im able to fill up about 90% before overflow. You can use an old sponge to "cushion" the pressure and lower the volume as the pressure sucks the sponge/bottom of bucket to the tip of the gun. Of course, you would have to remove the grit guard and replace after filling.

Also, if you fill with the gun and use your own soap it helps to agitate it for maximum suds!

The 2 biggest issues I have are the rinse water (which I use to fill buckets) is hot and soapy water is cold. I always hear to use cold water so I try to let the water cool as I clean the interior. The second issue is that I like to dry with an electric leaf blower and they don't have outlets. There is an office building with an outlet but I think they disable it or I tried after hours.