Winter Washing

[dkory22]

What's the suggested method for winter washing? I've tried various auto washes in the past with terrible results so I'll not be trusting them with my new truck :). Also, I'm fairly certain it's too big.

I may be getting a garage soon, so ONR will obviously work on light dirt. Would you suggest foam gun or a quarter car wash spray followed by ONR?

[Too Stroked]

In the winter here - and we're talking the road salt capital of the world - I go to the quarter car wash about 5 miles from home. I use the Rinse setting and blast the whole car - top to bottom, then underneath. I then go straight home and pull out 2-3 buckets of like warm water with ONR and do the rest. (Yes, my garage does have a drain.) I then use microfiber towels to dry carefully. I've used this method on everything I've owned for years.

How well does it work? My son (a Lexus Technician) had my 2006 Scion xB up on the lft at work last week going through it before winter. None of the Techs he works with could believe how clean and rust free the car was - with 107,000 miles on it. I'd say the method works pretty well based on that.

[Obsessive Detail]

I prefer to ONR wash in the winter, well actually that is all I mainly use.  For a precaution, you can put No Rinse in a chemical sprayer and pretreat the bad areas with this first, then proceed with the normal No Rinse washing.  I know of a lot of people that like to do this and it also works great for wheels/tires/fenderwells too.

[dkory22]

ONR sounds like the way to go. Luckily I did pick up a chemical sprayer when I bought it. And here in Michigan I'll be seeing plenty of salt...especially in the Ann Arbor area. I'm pumped for my first winter with a 4x4 8).

[Too Stroked]

Just remember that the quarter car wash removes a ton of salt, road grime and dirt that can easily marr your finish. No matter how much water and ONR you use, your wash mitt will still pick up and move that kind of stuff around. I prefer to touch / rub my paint finish as little as possible with salt all over it.

[dkory22]

Will do! Thanks for the advice!

[Need4racin]

Panels rust from the INSIDE OUT. So washing the exterior of the vehicle really is doing nothing for you. The underside of the body and the inner fenders wells need some water pumped through them. Really the best solutions is a winter beater if we are talking about a brand new vehicle.

[dkory22]

Good point - I'll pay attention to those areas during the pre-wash. Unfortunately they don't make any wheel well covers for my truck and the local line-x place doesn't do wheel wells anymore. My skid plates should protect a good portion of the under body though. No winter beater for me 8).

[Need4racin]

Wheel well liners and line-x wouldn't prevent anything anyway. The salt sits in between the inner and outer wheel well. It's a design flaw to make the vehicle last only so long and cut manufacturing costs by leaving inner panels with no paint on them.

[Too Stroked]

Wheel well liners and line-x wouldn't prevent anything anyway. The salt sits in between the inner and outer wheel well. It's a design flaw to make the vehicle last only so long and cut manufacturing costs by leaving inner panels with no paint on them.

Actually, the inner panels are pretty well protected these days. Most of the body is stamped out of double sided galvanized steel, then the whole body goes through an electrodeposition primer bath. (Think "river of paint.") True, the inner panels do not see the basecoat / clearcoat final layers, but most of the corrosion resistance is in the primer anyway.

Periodically flushing inner body panels that you can get to isn't a half bad idea though. I take a hose and flush upwards both in front and and behind my rear wheels on my F-150. You won't believe what comes out the bed rail caps and tail light openings.  I also spend at least a minute or two during each quarter car wash with the wand under the truck or car. This leads to lots of folks behind me thinking I'm nuts. For those of you thaty know me, it's just normal OCD behavior.