Tips on cleaning for apartment dwellers?

[voodoo22]

I think there should should be some sort of official thread for how to keep your car clean when you live in an apartment. I know I find it difficult to keep my car clean now that I don't have a private garage, driveway and water hose.

Any ideas from my fellow apartmentites?

[steved]

I don't live in an apartment, but you can go to a car wash.
There are some in my area for $6-10 they hand wash and clean the interior also. The only thing I do at home is wax the car.

[death is my gift]

x's 2
I also live in an apartment. I usually just take it to Car Spa or go hose it down myself at those "self" wash thingies. Insert two dollars worth of quarters, get 10 minutes of usage from their sprayer/foam brush/etc.

[brickhardmeat]

I take mine to the car wash and get it clean for 2 dollars

[sherryberry]

I would just take it to my dad's house and wash it down there :smile:

[death is my gift]

there ya go voodoo22, take it over to sherryberry's dads house.

[driver centric]

there ya go voodoo22, take it over to sherryberry's dads house.


:bellyroll:

[Meteorite Man]

You could drop it off at Sherry's dad's house and let "him" clean it while you and Sherry went out for ice cream.

Chuck

[voodoo22]

You could drop it off at Sherry's dad's house and let "him" clean it while you and Sherry went out for ice cream.

Chuck

It guess that would be alright, depending on the flavour of ice cream.

[death is my gift]

It guess that would be alright, depending on the flavour of ice cream.

strawBERRY

[sherryberry]

lol my dad probably would clean it for you. He's been washing my cars since I was able to drive haha.

[Kioshi]

There are some in my area for $6-10 they hand wash and clean the interior also.

Sometimes those hand wash people I dont trust....my Dad had his car washed at those hand wash place's near 76 gas station and....a day or so later...his shine and polish just started fading away. His shiny paint color was no longer visible. He learned his lesson of paying hard working people and getting his car's paint messed up~

I dont let anyone touch my baby's body, only my hands are allowed on it and....maybe a mechanic ~

My recomm. to you is park it on the curb and hopefully theres a hose near laundry room....and drag it out from there and wash..

[slvryaris]

I just wait for a good rain..

[Kioshi]

rain leaves spots :(

[slvryaris]

Just jokin. I hand wash all my cars.

[steved]

Sometimes those hand wash people I dont trust....my Dad had his car washed at those hand wash place's near 76 gas station and....a day or so later...his shine and polish just started fading away. His shiny paint color was no longer visible. He learned his lesson of paying hard working people and getting his car's paint messed up~

I dont let anyone touch my baby's body, only my hands are allowed on it and....maybe a mechanic ~

My recomm. to you is park it on the curb and hopefully theres a hose near laundry room....and drag it out from there and wash..

I learned that if you want to go to one of those hand washing places you have to scope out the place first to see what kind of job they do. If you see that they work like an assembly line to wash as many cars possible, then avoid those places. Were I go they take there time to wash the exterior and clean the interior, and they clean off the concrete floor before each car enters the garage.

But saying the above I usually go self car wash, and go to the hand wash one when the car really needs a good cleaning on the inside.

[sherryberry]

Sometimes those hand wash people I dont trust....my Dad had his car washed at those hand wash place's near 76 gas station and....a day or so later...his shine and polish just started fading away. His shiny paint color was no longer visible. He learned his lesson of paying hard working people and getting his car's paint messed up~

I dont let anyone touch my baby's body, only my hands are allowed on it and....maybe a mechanic ~

My recomm. to you is park it on the curb and hopefully theres a hose near laundry room....and drag it out from there and wash..

Sometimes, there are apartment complexes and other complexes that will not allow someone taking a hose over to a curb and washing their car. It all depends on apartment complex's rules..

[bugnuts]

I have got washing the Yaris Lb down to a science at the do-it-yourself wash, I can get a wash rinse and wax for $2.00, This is possible by standing on one side of the car in the middle and spraying from front to back (and vise-versa) doing the top at the same time.:thumbup:

[Kioshi]

Sometimes, there are apartment complexes and other complexes that will not allow someone taking a hose over to a curb and washing their car. It all depends on apartment complex's rules..

rules suck.....you guys should do it at night unless they shut off the water line at night. Thats what I did when washing clothes because in the day too many people crowd the laudery room~

To steved......Oh really? I think thats what it looked like, not to be offensive or anything. It was a bunch of Latino workers doing each thing at a time and quickly....
Well lessons are learned, not happening again. Thanks for the advice.

[denrybiker]

I've learned that if you go to one of those places to wash your hands you have to reach the first to see what kind of work they do. If you see work like an assembly line to wash as many cars as possible, avoid places. If I had to go there take the time to wash the outside and clean the inside and clean the concrete floor before each car enters the garage.

[Hamster]

I'm a renter myself, but the solution to cleaning your car is really easy. Get yourself a rinseless car wash. You don't need a hose, and you obviously don't need to worry about paying someone else to scratch up your car. There are several brands of rinseless car washes available, but the one I use is called Optimum No-Rinse. Just do a search on Google if you want to find out more about it, or you can look on YouTube for instructional videos. The product seems to be aimed towards professional detailers, though, so you can't find it in stores. You have to buy it online. I buy it from autogeek.net, but there are several sites out there that sell it.

[Klink10]

Yea I use ONR as a clay lube. I'm not a renter however.

[Hamster]

Wow, cool, I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one here who uses ONR. I don't clay my car, though, because I don't know how to do it properly. By the way, while you don't need to rinse off the car before using ONR, I'm still super-cautious and I take it to one of those coin-operated places to blast off some of the major dirt immediately prior to using it. I also use the two-bucket method, with a Grit Guard in each bucket. My car is completely free of swirl marks, so ONR works really great. Even if I owned a house, I would continue to use ONR to wash my car. It's just more environmentally friendly. I would feel guilty washing all those contaminants into a storm drain.

[Klink10]

Hamster...stick with AG and check out their instructional videos. There are some on how to clay along with everything else. I get most of my supplies from them as I'm in the business. I find that most folks here neither have the time or facilities or equipment to do a comprehensive detail on their vehicle and prefer to just wash at the tunnel and wax with OTC stuff. Nothing wrong with it but it tends to do damage over time.

[Hamster]

Cool, I looked at AG's instructional pages, and I found the videos that you're referring to. Like you, I don't buy anything from the store that's going to touch my car. I buy everything from AG. I get the Cobra microfiber towels from them. In terms of waxes, I stick to Optimum products, since they by coincidence are very easy to use for renters or for beginners like me. I like their car wax, and Opti-Seal is the greatest thing ever! But yeah, it's true, it takes a lot of time. I can easily spend a combined 6-7 hours just to wash, dry (I actually pat the surface of the car dry inch by inch), apply sealant, wax, clean tires and add tire shine, and clean the windows. If I did fancy stuff like claying or polishing, it would take even longer. But it's worth it to me, because the finish on my car is perfect. By the way, I've used a touchless car was a few times, but for the sole purpose of washing salt residue off the car at the end of winter. Rust would be an expensive problem to fix. I would never use a touchless car wash all of the time, though, because my understanding is that it can dry out the trim over time, and it's too strong for the paint.

If course, both you and I are a bit nutty about keeping our cars perfect. For someone who looks at their Yaris and thinks, "meh, it's just a car", well, then I guess all this wouldn't matter to them.

[Klink10]

Very true and yes you could say I have OCD when it comes to my Yaris. I'm an old fart, it is now paid for and it will be my last car.

[Marcintosh]

When I was in apartments I'd go to the carwash after midnight and just set up with what ever I wanted to do - wash?-ok wax?-ok detail the wheels?-ok Bring a plastic milk crate to sit on and away I went.

As long as you don't have an "open container" the police usually don't care and if you've bought a wash it's all good.

Only other advice is to go slow at this and get to know the area. Don't try this with dealers sitting in the next bay. Do a wash a few times then a wash & wax.
No Blue Coral paste - Liquid wax only - You'll trust the area but don't push your luck
It would take me a few weeks to trust the area. OTOH, I'm a 6'2" male so that counts for some security.

Word to the wise- don't do this if you have an outstanding warrant. :eek: