That's why I buy white and have my own clean and wax goodies. This allows waxing the weathered roof and hood more often than the sides, and as often as the weather dictates. No swirls.

Black and the dark colors look great, but like a high maintenance date they require a lot of intimidating attention. However.....to each his own.

 

I agree, I leased two white Expeditions and wanted a color change. My first choice on my 05 Lariat was silver but Ford doesn't make a silver Lariat. Until I replace this truck I'm stuck with black.

 

you can go to the automatic car wash, but just tell the guy don't do the door jams, there is one here in mandeville where you can grab a towel and do it your self. just as long as you tip the guys, they will be ok with it.

 

Man this thread brought back some memories. From my sophomore year of high school 'til my senior year of college, I ran two of those self coin-op car washes.

When he first approached me about taking over the job (I worked at the Hardee's in front of one of his car washes - thus his office LOL!) I thought what's there for me to do in order to get decent hours in while in school and/or summer. OTOH, he paid me $5/hour to start and min wage at the time was $3.35. I also got flat fee cash to shovel out the pits. Boy was I wrong, you could work there 100 hours/week if you wanted.

The guy I worked for was formerly an electrical engineer and in retirement bought these car washes. He was then reknowned for building car washes. He was kind of a side line inventor also. He invented the mechanism that keeps the foam brushes from freezing, it's patented and everything. Used to owners just put antifreeze in their soap and then it got on your car. He sold this invention all over the country. All of them were made in his basement by him and lil ole me. He was so **** about someone figuring out his invention. When he bought new spools of wire, part of my job was to take this liquid on a rag and unspool all of it, wiping all writing off the romex covering that had gauge size and all. I thought that was a bit much, but he paid me.LOL!

Sorry so long, but it felt good to relive.
Brad

 

I try to avoid the auto-wash places, especially in the winter. The water is filtered and reused. The problem, as I see it, is that the dirt will get filtered out, but the salt from the road won't.

 

The way the brushes in the auto-washes slap up against the truck has to be bad. I just imagine them full of the dirt and salt from all the other cars and trucks that roll through there. I swear they beat the truck so hard that it takes the wax off. Oh, but they have that great long-lasting spray on wax that they put on for you! Yeah right!

Overall, I just go to the auto-washes in the dead of winter as my last resort to get the salt off and look forward to doing a hand polish and wax as soon as it hits 50 degrees again.

 

I've never sent my cars in to the carwash. I've always hand-washed, waxed, and polished them; I used used lots of good ol' elbow grease. My 84 totota's original metallic silver paint job is in better shape than the rest of the car which was starting to fall apart years ago. :-(

Boy, I tell you black is really beautiful to have on a truck, but I decided not on mine due to practical reasons and my intentions of how I'd be using it. I also have an old schwarz black 88 BMW. It's been a lifelong job to keep it looking good. It's totally unforgiving when it comes to showing off swirl marks, dirt, dust, water/mineral deposits, door dents, and paint blemishes--You name it, it's on the list!

The other disadvantage is black gets blistering hot to the touch in hot sunlight. Add that to an already weak AC system...