Magnetic Grey and brush washes

Hi - I just purchased my Tacoma in magnetic grey metallic and am wondering how the paint holds up to "gentle soft-touch" car washes?

I understand any brush style wash is frowned upon for your paint but unfortunately washing myself is a no go. The hand car wash runs $25 which is where I have been taking my previous car mainly because it was black and showed everything. We have a car wash facility that runs $17 a month for unlimited washes. The wash opened a few years ago and looks to be running newer equipment etc.

My Father has a 10 year old Silverado in a very similar grey. He has been running it through brush washes since he has owned it and you cannot see much of anything in his paint. I'm sure the washes have taken their toal on the paint and you just can't see it because of the color. I guess I am wondering if the Tacoma grey would hold up the same.

Opinions?

 

Toyota has relatively soft paint compared to GM. So I would expect more issues with it.

 

Are "touchless" washes an alternative in your area?

 

Yes there is in my neighboring city but the cost is identical to the hand wash.

 

Only touchless for me. All it takes is one person to go through the "soft touch" with a sandy/gritty vehicle before you and you'll see swirls as a result. Especially long term.

 

It looks like I will continue to use the hand wash facility.

Thanks for the input I really appreciate it.

 

Have you looked into any "waterless/hoseless" wash ideas that you can do at home? There are some really really good products out there that don't require much more than a bucket of warm water and a bunch of towels. Carpro ech20 is a good one and optimum no rinse. If your car is just dirty from normal road grime you can do amazing things without the need for a hose.

 

I used waterless on the car I just sold as well as the hand wash spot here in town and you are right its amazing how well it works. Challenge is with my schedule I just cant stay on top of it like I need to. Was hoping with the darker grey I could get away with the drive thru spot every week. Doesn't sound like that's going to be a good option. I want to take care of the paint as best I can.

 

Toyota paint is pretty soft and any touch carwash will do its damage. They use pretty harsh chemicals and like someone else mentioned, the car before you is the issues, those brushes must hold onto some crap that can damage your paint. You could look into ceramic coating and it would save your clearcoat for a year or 2 but depending on the level of paint correction needed it would likely cost $700-1000+ to get it done. With ceramic coatings you can get away with just hosing it off and drying now and then, and even though its not impervious to scratches, its hatred enough to protect your clear from some levels of damage

 

Very interesting with paint hardness being different across the manufacturers. The metallic grey is an awesome color and I absolutely want to keep it in pristine condition. I will continue the same wash regiment I maintained with my previous vehicle. I am already having it a bit easier with this color as my previous car was black!

Thanks for the info!

 

I have a 2013 MGM DCLB. Over the past 1 1/2 years I have been going through golden nozzle fast past car washes with full outer wash and undercarriage wash due to the new England winters with salting roads. I have never received a scratch from the washes. Just wanted to give you some real world numbers rather than info on Toyota paint.

 

My new favorite rinseless technique.... I got a gallon of Duragloss Rinseless Solution on Amazon (awesome stuff). Mix it up at the correct ratio in one of those small garden/weed sprayers from Home Depot (the ones you pump up). Then totally saturate the truck with it and use 2 or three drying towels to wipe it all off.

 

Difference between scratch and swirls. I would expect to see some swirls in the paint if it is a touch car wash. Especially if it’s somewhere that recycles the water.

 

It is not a "touchless carwash ", at all. I have not seen anything out of the ordinary in my paint regarding swirls actually. I do have a number of scratches but they are "trail beauty marks" if you will. I understand others problems regarding this but I am just giving my experience with my MGM truck. Personally, I think that small dents, dings, and scratches in a truck give it character because they are trucks and it shows that people are using them but I also understand how people want to keep their vehicles pristine to make them last.

 

I like to watch Scott's video's but I cannot watch them very long because my head starts hurting from gaining so much knowledge. Then I have to take a couple aspirin and take a nap.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldrE46U2yyU

 

I've never heard of rinseless washing, so I am clearly showing my ignorance here, but I fail to see why rinsing with water is not better than anything. Particularly if the vehicle is filthy I would think it would need to be rinsed to remove as much dust and dirt as possible before touching the paint. I can see why hard water might leave a residue, and where I live the water is pretty hard, but I can run a hose into the house and hook up to the softened source for the final rinse. In the video posted by ChaseFan, I thought I heard Scott mention that water somehow damages paint. What? How? One thing this has motivated me to do is to get hold of my local car wash and find out what, if anything they treat their water with.

I've had my shiny new 2019 4WD TRD Off Road for 2 weeks and have a thousand miles on it. I have a long commute, but have also been out doing some mild 4-wheeling the past 2 Saturday's. Both times I got the Taco filthy. It's been thru the car wash 3 times, including undercarriage (went thru a small river, so pretty muddy down there).

I am looking for an education here .....

And I forgot to mention I am lazy, the days of spending Saturday afternoon detailing my vehicles is long past.

 

Yeah, rinseless washing isn't for filthy vehicles. If there's any grit at all, it's a no go. A regular bucket wash is best. I don't do rinseless washes in the winter at all.

But in the spring/summer/fall, after a week of driving and sitting outside, if there's a layer of dust on the truck or it rained and the truck is grimy... rinseless washing is great.

The rinseless solution is specially formulated to encapsulate and break down dirt/grime, but mostly it's suuuuper slick. And some of them also contain gloss enhancers that give you some nice beading if it rains.

The advantage to me is I don't have to get out all my supplies for a bucket wash (hose, bucket, mits, etc). I just grab my premixed solution in the sprayer and a couple 3 drying towels. Saturate the vehicle and wipe it off, making sure to use different parts of the towel for each pass. The super slick solution (and high quality towels is what keeps you from getting scratches/swirls.

A more typical rinseless method involves solution in a bucket, toss in 8 microfiber towels, fold them in quads when you pull one out to wipe passes on a panel. If it's not super dirty you can make multiple passes before flipping the towel.

If it's easy for you to do bucket/hose washes, that's always the best way in my opinion. But to save time or for those with limited water resources, without a hose, or those that wanna just do a quick wash in the garage, rinseless is great.

 

Here in AZ, 15 minutes after going thru the car wash dust starts to settle .... a hazard of desert living.

 

You can also mix up a bucket of rinseless solution and use a mitt. By its nature, the rinseless solution releases the dirt/grime on the mitt back into the bucket when you rinse it. You use light passes with the mitt, rinse after each panel, and the slickness of the solution helps to avoid swirls.

It's all about finding what works for you. And rinseless is just another option that fits a nice niche for some people.

 

Then rinseless would be a nice option there! If you don't have water restrictions, spray off the truck with the hose to get the bulk off. Then wipe down the truck with a mitt and rinseless solution. Then dry it.