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Soft paint. Hand wash only.

Koja

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Am not sure all who care but a FYI, on your NEW Jeep's the paint is still soft (not cured) yet. stay out of the automatic car wash unless its touchless.. you should hand wash only. this is from a guy who used to do detail work. thew brushs in the car wash leave swirl scratchs in the paint
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fun2drum

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I agree that we should be careful as to what touches our new paint, but my experience is that touchless car washes don't work well. I don't like high pressure jets blasting my paint, and the vehicle still looks dirty afterward, so I'll never use one of those again.

I had been hand washing but now I've got a membership with a brush car wash where I can go any time I want unlimited. It's gone through there a couple of times a week since July and there are no problems with scratches. The paint looks like it did when I bought it. It's not exactly a cheap car wash and they maintain the brushes well, so maybe that's part of it.

Anyway I agree with you that we should be wise when choosing a car wash, but there's the old saying - "Your mileage may vary".
 

brianinca

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I have one of those memberships, too, and I've seen no paint damage of any kind since June 2020. One of the guys at work is a detailer, the kind that does show cars and such, and he's NOT a fan of the brush washes. I get it.

Like yours, my membership isn't cheap and they maintain their facility. Small family owned chain, that kind of thing.

In no wise is it a GOOD wash, the fenders and other odd places on the Gladiator don't really get cleaned, but when you have a ton of dirt on the truck it's nice to get it all sluiced off.

We had so many fires this Summer that the ash would build up on everything in a few hours; that really showed the value of a drive through wash subscription!

I agree that we should be careful as to what touches our new paint, but my experience is that touchless car washes don't work well. I don't like high pressure jets blasting my paint, and the vehicle still looks dirty afterward, so I'll never use one of those again.

I had been hand washing but now I've got a membership with a brush car wash where I can go any time I want unlimited. It's gone through there a couple of times a week since July and there are no problems with scratches. The paint looks like it did when I bought it. It's not exactly a cheap car wash and they maintain the brushes well, so maybe that's part of it.

Anyway I agree with you that we should be wise when choosing a car wash, but there's the old saying - "Your mileage may vary".
 

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Even though I have a monthly car wash membership for my cars, 90% of the time I hand wash them. In fact, my Gladiator has yet to see the car wash after buying 6 months ago. But, we haven't had much snow here yet and the temps have hit the upper 30's at least one day every week so far. So, I've been able to wash it (and my other cars) at home myself.

However, when it drops into the teens or single digits with snow and salt all over the roads, I'll be hitting that car wash daily. I think leaving salt on the truck is MUCH worse than going through the car wash. And, they do a pretty thorough undercarriage rinsing.
 

Blknblu

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Car wash with brushes does more damage to paint than leaving it dirty. Those are a no no. handwash with 2 bucket system and grit gaurds with good MF towels. the less you touch the paint the better.

Bruce
 

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Jeeperjamie

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I'm to lazy to hand wash and I got no free time. At the car wash I go to it's $35 a month unlimited washes, and that's pretty cheap to me. If it was $50 a month I'd still let them do it. If the paint craps out in 5yrs or so I'll just have it repainted or better still I'll have and excuses to do some hardcore crawling in it without having to worry about damaging the paint.
 
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Koja

Koja

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Even though I have a monthly car wash membership for my cars, 90% of the time I hand wash them. In fact, my Gladiator has yet to see the car wash after buying 6 months ago. But, we haven't had much snow here yet and the temps have hit the upper 30's at least one day every week so far. So, I've been able to wash it (and my other cars) at home myself.

However, when it drops into the teens or single digits with snow and salt all over the roads, I'll be hitting that car wash daily. I think leaving salt on the truck is MUCH worse than going through the car wash. And, they do a pretty thorough undercarriage rinsing.
Ya SALT is VERY ugly on cars. My uncle lived in ohio and he would set up a garden sprayer and coat the underside of his truck every season with cooking oil. donno if it worked but he said it did.
 

mazeppa

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I was adamant with my sales person to not allow my ordered JT to get washed or the interior detail, or I wasn't going to purchase it. I understand how the car wash person at the dealerships treats new soft paint with loving and delicate care, a little speck of dirt, no problem the 5-Giga psi power washer will remove it.

Also, no dealership stickers, and above all NO DAMN TIRE SHINE.

Jeep Gladiator Soft paint. Hand wash only. old-man-yells-at-cloud-blank-template-imgflip-50553079
 

danielspivey

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Car wash with brushes does more damage to paint than leaving it dirty. Those are a no no. handwash with 2 bucket system and grit gaurds with good MF towels. the less you touch the paint the better.

Bruce
I have no doubt you are conscious with your hand system, but most aren’t. I used to have a neighbor who bought this fancy two bucket wash system and used it on his new Jaguar. One day we had a heavy rain and he had all kids of debris and sand caked on the sides of his car. I watched him smear all that dirtiness in a circular motion ... I cringed just watching. It was a dark green and the swirls were so obvious after a couple months because he wasn’t conscious what he was doing.

Point being, while a hand wash can be the best.... it can also be just as bad as any crappy drive through wash if you don’t know what the heck your doing!
 

Nebulocity

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I was adamant with my sales person to not allow my ordered JT to get washed or the interior detail, or I wasn't going to purchase it. I understand how the car wash person at the dealerships treats new soft paint with loving and delicate care, a little speck of dirt, no problem the 5-Giga psi power washer will remove it.

Also, no dealership stickers, and above all NO DAMN TIRE SHINE.

Jeep Gladiator Soft paint. Hand wash only. old-man-yells-at-cloud-blank-template-imgflip-50553079
I totally agree about the dealership stickers, I hate those things. It seems lots of people like them though cause they are everywhere.

But why the hate for tire shine? It doesn't last long, adds some easy bling.
 

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Shackleton

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I have an unlimited car wash membership. If I go too many days without going through the one with brushes then I go through the touch less to get the heavy stuff off followed by the good one. you can read anything you want online about what is harmful and what is not. For me it’s a matter of convenience because I like a clean truck but am busy or lazy
 

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Just to add these JT's have very thin and soft water based clear coat. If you ever do need a full correction done consider it a one time deal. There's only like 2 mils of clear coat to work with. If you're going to run through brush washes it's a good idea to get a ceramic coating. At least something will be there as a sacrificial layer.
 

SuburbanGP88

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Guys... it's a Jeep. It's meant to be used. It's not going to be concours or collectors any time soon or ever.

Run it hard, clean it up, repaint it if need be. Don't overthink it like it's a Ferrari or Bugatti.
 
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Koja

Koja

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Guys... it's a Jeep. It's meant to be used. It's not going to be concours or collectors any time soon or ever.

Run it hard, clean it up, repaint it if need be. Don't overthink it like it's a Ferrari or Bugatti.
im glad at least one of us has that kind of money.. me i'll take care of my 50K investment
 
 



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