Car wash

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pierceography

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My dealer said don't bother with the automatic car washes -- It's a tight fit, and they degrade your paint over time. They even had a Raptor owner bring one in that went through the wash and left a scratch down the side of the truck (too tight of a fit).

I was told to wash it by hand in the summer, and in the winter take it to a self-wash where you can use the pressure washer and bring your own buckets/towels.

This is especially notable if you have a darker paint, which will lose is luster in automatic washes faster than a lighter paint will.

Oh, and inB4 the "it's just a truck" comments. If you're as OCD as I am, you'll want to wash it by hand.
 

BigTomJR

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The car was by me in New York was just redone to fit larger size trucks mine fits with no problem just tight on the tire brushes comes out great too been there over 10 times with no issues at all
 

crash457

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Automatic car washes come in two varieties:
1. Touchless-This does nothing more than spraying some soap on your truck and then blasting the heavy dirt off with high pressure water. This will still leave dirt on your truck. The kids drying it at the end are just rubbing the leftover dirt into your paint.
2. Brush washes- These smack your truck with rubber fingers to get the big dirt off and scratch the hell out of your paint.

Both will destroy the paint. If you aren't going to handwash, go to a self service wash bay like was suggested by someone else or as a lesser of two evils, use the Touchless but don't let them dry it.
 

Heelfan1

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I inquired at the local chain (actually pretty good car washes) and one manager said it would fit and the other said it would not. Unless I actually see one going through it mine wont be in there on a "it should fit".
 

waddellw

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After 100k of pretty constant use of automatic carwashes alongside spraying off with a pressure washer beforehand, I manage to get all the big harmful dirt off the car that my car wash people won't even let you go through with.


If it's not too dirty and you fit, fold your mirrors in and it'll get really clean.

Just make sure to spray it off before you go, and I only trust the manned carwashes, where people are actually employed to send you through the automatic tube.


I have some swirl marks at 100k, but a good detail would clean those up and help it look new again!

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
 

smoothie

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My old one is too narrow, Raptor got stuck in it a few weeks ago. (Someone else's)

Found one near the house that is wider.
 
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