kplackmeyer

Had a great experience this morning...thought I would share. (fun is used in a sarcastic form here.)

Stopped for gas this morning at my regular BP gas station, and they had just opened their new and improved touchless car wash. The old one was pretty lame...bad pressure, etc. The old girl needed a bath, so I thought what the heck. Drive in, and the little arms start dancing around the car, spraying the low pressure foam on the car. I'm just hanging out listening to the radio...the high pressure wash starts....WOW...this is really high pressure I think to myself. Then...as the sprayer gets halfway past the door (you know where that rubber bumper is to keep the door from bouncing around?) a waterfall comes in both sides, and a spray of foamy water in my face. I scramble for paper towels that I keep in the door pocket to dry my face and now very wet arm/leg off. By this time the sprayers are at the back quarter windows...which on my car are pop-outs that usually leak a little bit. Not this time....a foamy river of water pours in both of them. I realize now that my paper towels are virtually useless. Now for the fun part. The air vent above the rear window....oh boy. As the sprayers move and point directly toward the rear of the car, the pressure and volume of water is so great that more soapy water than I EVER thought I would see in the car pours in from the headliner holes. HOLY S#!T. At this point I realize this is going to happen at least one more time, as this was only the first pass of the soap...and I NATURALLY bought the "works" car wash. As the multi-colored low pressure foam squirts all over the car I am dreading the next pass of spray...pushing the fruity-smelling red-green-blue colored foam into the same areas. Driving out was never an option...there are arms everywhere and I would have undoubtedly hit one. So...after getting a really good car wash...inside AND out, I drove next door to home depot and bought a bag of terrycloth rags and mopped up the carpet, seats, windows and myself. I then went home and changed my dripping wet clothes. All that...and only 20 minutes late to work.
I guess the pressure was a little TOO high.

But it does smell fruity-fresh inside now, and the carpets are cleaner than they were!!!

Happy Friday!

Mike Murphy

Good story. As the driver of many old vehicles, I also tried this once or twice, but never again. Good thing my '49 truck had a steel dashboard and leather/steel interior doors because cleanup was easier than in something like your car.

Graufuchs

That sux....at work we have contracted car washes for work vehicles.....well the windows dont seal well sometimes and have caught a face full of water and foam before...it makes me furious.....but by the end of the carwash.....im over it...scares the crap outta you when you dont expect it.

Amber Gramps

guys, it's casual friday. just think last saturday I ran to my neighbor who works at 911 Design 'cause I couldn't get it to fire after a wash. washed, dried, drove it around the block twice even. parked and put the ice chest in the back and the suitcase in the trunk. got my wife to leave and it would crank, but not fire. I'm sure I owe him a $100 service call. he looked at it, scratched his head, had me turn the key and figured it out right away. flooded(with water). it next sputtered and fired up. I had visions of an $8,000 repair bill.

Pedro356C

Vintage Porsches and water don't mix...

Beware of the Porsche gods' wrath....

Super_Dave_D

Reminds me of Letterman driving through the car wash in a convertible

kplackmeyer

HA!
It truly felt that way....and no where to run!

I wish like hell now that I would have had the sense to pull out the digital camera. Would've made GREAT shots.

Went out for lunch...mostly dry now...just a little damp under the back seats...I have them pulled out for now.

WolfeMacleod

There was a short article about car washes in one of our local PCA things..I'll find it and post it.

I've always wondered about the vent above the rear window. Exactly where does water go if it enters there?

VNTGSPD

Well said! I try to not even wash my '69 with the hose if I can help it! Too many places for water to get in and hide! It was a real bear when I used to daily drive it and it rained - it took a week to dry it out after that. Fortunately, we don't get much rain in SoCal and now the car is reserved for recreation purposes only.

kplackmeyer

Based on my experience today...EVERYWHERE!

kplackmeyer

Right now, it's primarily a daily driver. Once winter gets here, it'll get mothballed untill ALL of the road salt is gone in the spring. She hasn't seen winter in at least 20 years. Rain doesn't seem to infiltrate too badly. A hose washing always pushes a little in around the back windows...but nothing like today.

psychoideas

Kerry,
My wife heard me laughing as I was reading your post. She came in to see what all the fuss was about and proceeded to read it out aloud over my shoulder. We have not laughed so much in a while. Not at the actual event you realize, but at the fantastic way in which you wrote it. I'm sure it was posted with the humorous side intended.
We are both glad that all it cost you was experience.

take care.

v8_ranch

geesh! if only you'd had a camera!

Glad you're all right man...

Amber Gramps

can you say: security camera video feed. you know its on tape if it's a gas station that close to the beltway. one frame a second with Kerry screaming like a rat in a cage trying to stop the flow. some stoner in the store going "this guy's old car needs bonus time." another guy at Homeland Security is calling "code RED, it looks like Noah's Ark in there"

Doug&Julie

How is the car today? The good news is you use it as a daily driver, so it won't just sit in it's own wetness. If you're having as nice of weather as we're having, spend a lot of time driving with the windows down this weekend. This will help thoroughly dry the interior. You might want to park it in the sun (if you haven't already) for an afternoon with the windows down, etc.

If you think that was bad, imagine if you had a Targa?!?!?