wash in winter snow/road salt months

[jatee]

here in n.e. ohio they use a ton of salt on the roads in the winter. i store my hemi wagon for the couple of months and use a winter vehicle. i did a full detail on my new winter vehicle, a 1997 ranger, and she was looking like a new truck right before the first snow. how often should i try to wash her through the winter? i put at least 60 miles a day on her and she gets covered with road wash almost every commute. it almost seems to me that i would be taking off some of the protective layers i put on before the snow/salt was here by washing.

[Murr1525]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

Anytime the surface is touched, some wax would be removed. Using the correct products would remove as little as possible.

You may want to be considering something like Ultimate Quick Wax after washing to get some wax back on there, or using Ultimate Wash and Wax to get some wax back while washing.

As far as how often, doesnt really matter, whenever it isnt freezing is ok.

[mswerb]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

It was close to 60 degrees here in Cleveland today! I got both cars washed and Quick waxed today and now I feel sooo much better. I HATE WINTER!!!

[Black1]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

If you have a newer touchless car wash in your area, you could run it through every week or so.... just the undercarriage spray would be beneficial.

[jatee]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

i hear ya mswerb. it was nice today.

hey black1. i kinda think the same. however my other thought is not to. i had to do some welding under her when i did the build 1st week of november. at that time i scraped the whole under side, rust ended everything and then did an undercoating so it comes back to the same question in my mind. should i hit it regulary throughout the winter and lose some of the protection i put on her or leave it be until the salt is off the roads. just a thought i have been tossing around in my head that i thought i would bring on this forum for opnions.

[Blazebro]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

We've had the same problem here. Record low temps of around -12C in my area, and loads of salt.

The answer to your question is that winter prep is the key. Choose something which is more robust than looks. My choices are Colli 915/476 or FK1000p. However I'm going Nano tech in the new year. This offers protection up to 1yr+.

Washing wise, I go quite aggressive with degreasing shampoos and Heavy Duty Snow foams. I use these in the summer too, but increase the amount I put in for winter.

Those tend to see me through.

[Blueline]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

I do not wash my cars in the winter. They get covered in salt and look terrible. That said, I give them a super waxing in late November, and have the carssprayed under and inner panels. My thought is firstly...why wash, when the next day it will be coated with salt again. Second, washing is taking some of the protection off and going to a touchless and having the undercarriage flushed, it also flushing off the protective spray. Each year when I wash the cars in March, the water still beads like day one. (M16 is fantastic) and my undercarriage is like new on a 5 year old car.

[aris]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

I normally spray mine off with just water at coin washes to remove the salt off my car when ever it's dirty

[Black1]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

I do not wash my cars in the winter. They get covered in salt and look terrible. That said, I give them a super waxing in late November, and have the carssprayed under and inner panels. My thought is firstly...why wash, when the next day it will be coated with salt again. Second, washing is taking some of the protection off and going to a touchless and having the undercarriage flushed, it also flushing off the protective spray. Each year when I wash the cars in March, the water still beads like day one. (M16 is fantastic) and my undercarriage is like new on a 5 year old car.

If you are using a chemical undercoating, that would be true. It would remove some of the product during a undercarriage spray.

However, that is not the type of undercoating I'm talking about... The stuff I use is sprayed on like a paint. It's a rubberized epoxy (like spray-in bedliner, but thinner). The stuff is darn-near bullet proof. It doesn't come off with high pressure spray. Works wonders as a sound deadener too.

[DailyDriver]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

...My thought is firstly...why wash, when the next day it will be coated with salt again. ...

But it will be coated with less salt and look better?

[mattya802]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

I normally spray mine off with just water at coin washes to remove the salt off my car when ever it's dirty

Pretty much do the same....Even if it does get covered back up with salt, at least I feel better about it for a couple days lol

[akimel]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

This may be a dumb question, but doesn't the salt eventually eat through the wax/sealant and pose a potential "threat" to the clearcoat? I guess the answer is no, given Blueline's evident success. Fortunately, here in Roanoke we do not get a lot of snow (though we sure did last winter), so all I have to worry about is periodically washing our vehicles. I don't think I could ever go through the entire winter without washing them.

Both of our cars are kept in our unheated garage. My S2K is fairly easy, because of its size. I usually wait for a day when the temperature gets into the upper 30s or better and then wash it with ONR in the driveway. If the temps are not cooperating, I can still wash it in the garage--ah, the beauty of ONR.

The CR-V is a bit more challenging. I have resigned myself to washing it at the coin-op if necessary. I applied three coats of Finish Kare 1000p to it in early October. The car has been through multiple washings, including two visits to the coin-op. So far the wax is still beading well. I'm curious to see how well the 1000p stands up to the coin-op washings. If it looks like the wax has seriously degraded, I'll apply a fresh coat of something, probably Ultimate Quik Wax, as it can be applied to both paint and cladding. Anyway, that's my plan.

[Blueline]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

This may be a dumb question, but doesn't the salt eventually eat through the wax/sealant and pose a potential "threat" to the clearcoat? I guess the answer is no, given Blueline's evident success.

To the best of my knowledge and from experience, salt will not harm clearcoat or even single stage paint. It certainly doesn't seem to bother the M16 either. It is however, a killer on bare metal, when wet.

[tcope1]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

I usually take the vehicle to a self serve and spray it down with water to get the grime off. I then use QD (Last Touch) or ONR when drying if it's pretty clean. If not, I use ONR as a wash. If I need to apply product I break out the propane heater (45,000 btu) and warm the garage up to a reasonable temp.

For winter prep I apply a sealant (Opti-Seal) with Collinte 476 or Megs 16 on top.

[Golden]

Re: wash in winter snow/road salt months

I also use the quarter wash to spray salt off. I then give it an ONR wash if my garage isn't too cold (insulation and drywall will come in 2012).