Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

For speed/laziness i usually take my car to a drive-through carwash. Around 2 years ago i used a local "valet centre". I had used them twice before with no problem, foam on, jetwash off. The day before my holiday i took the car over. This time they sprayed the car with a clear liquid before the foam,and left it on for a couple of minutes. I was later told it was a concetrate of the foam. When it had dried, Disaster, the paint was bleached. The place was closed so i had to wait untill i got back from hols.
When confronted the owner tried to cut the paint with a buffer and god knows what compound. It didn't work, he said the panels were all different shades, and the paint was "done". He denied liability and said i should have gone straight back. (you know who you are, valet centre at craigshill garage)
So i bought a bottle of g3 (suberb stuff, lasts forever) and after several hours got the cav looking good again.
Fast forward to last month when i decided to try a new hand wash in edinburgh, as i had passed it a few times. I told two members of staff about my previous problem, that the car was celly and didn't have a clear-coat, and they assured me there would be no problem.
Guess what? Happened again!
When it dried you could see all the cloth marks and runs. The boss was on holiday so i was told to phone back 3 days later. To their credit they arranged for me to bring it in 4 days later and they made agreat job of half cutting it then shining it.
All looked good untill the rain washed all the wax off a week later.
Ah well, back out with the g3
the photos are from the first visit, it's a little better now

That's to much TFR(traffic film remover), they need to water it down abit more. They also shouldn't be letting it dry off on the car. As you say it eats into the paint as its basically acid.

I did the same to my old nova many years ago, sprayed it on and went to get the jetwash to blast it off quick but on the way the phone rang, and this bloke kept me talking for ages, I came back out and the paint was all exactly the same! It was white paint and looked a mess and like you I had to g3 the whole car to sort it.

Trouble with red the pigment gets badly damaged due to oxidisation from weathering. polishing and waxing can hide this but its always there. When you wash it your simply washing it all off. Respray is the only proper cure

This is why you shouldn't ever take it to be done elsewhere, especially at the dreaded carwash. Always do it by hand with a quality shampoo and a good condition sponge.

Doesn't make any difference where you wash it. In other hot countries, the colour red tarnishes very quickly. I have friends in nz. There problem is paint damage from the suns rays where red and white is the worst

bloody hell mate reasons like this are why i dont use them "hand car wash places" Its eather my self with a wash mitt and bucket or use the jet wash myself.


Someone "detaled my misses" car not long after she got it and made a messs of that.

I'm not on about just colours, I mean car washes scratch the shite out of any paint surface. But yes, red does wear out quicker than other colours.

I had a foreign woman stop at my unit the other day asking if I could fix her headlight.

She'd used the carwash at Tesco in Wigan. They've used a high concentrate of TFR by looks of it and damaged the plastic lens on the O/S headlight.
You can see where the acid has ate into the plastic. It;s also cracked the tint on the inside. The light looks shocking now.
The boss has denied all liability.

Personally I only ever wash my car myself. Never use these places, They're cowboys.

never had a problem with the guys on the a14 opposite the cambridge services they bring my cav up brilliant but i made the mistake of using the bp carwash in st ives cambs and lost my wingmirrors and now i'm banned yeah ok i kicked off but i believe i had a right too when they haven't even refunded the carwash cost so i don't use any bp's for anything now

I'd kick off as well, their fault, not yours, you're the customer.

I always drive through an imo arc wax my car after never had a problem tbh

The automatic drive through ones use the weakest chemicals and thats why you won't see damage to the paint. If you opt for wax you will see swirl marks.

I dont use the polish car washes becuase they are crap. Everyone ive been too they never get the crums from down the side of the seat or clean the badges correctly.

There was also an inncident at one recently where a lady as normal left her car in gear and handed the keys over. The guy started it and the car dived forward into a wall. £3k of damage to her brand new car and the car wash owner tried to blame her?

You need to be careful with these hand car washes as many have no insurnace!

To the op. keep going back. Dont let them fob you off with a polish. Take a civil law suit out and demand the respray.

They know thier chemicals and they would know that they are not safe on paint over 20yrs old.

Make the fudgery pay!

I get annoyed when you get out afterwards and find bits they've missed!

..but that takes the biscuit! wrist jockies!!

One would have thought they'd water the tfr down too much to reduce costs! Not the other way round! There's so many of them about too, I'm surprised there's so much demand for them!

There's a guy I work with who I can't stand. He drives a nearly new focus. So now I have hope that ill be laughing at him one day, as he uses these drive in immigrant car washes

I would rather my car sit dirty than let a car wash place do it!!! My mate does full valeting and is really into the car scene... So I've trusted him before...

I have to say that these places seem to be springing up all over the place. It seems every bit,of waste ground or closed down garage seems to have one. I saw one today where the inlet for the jet wash was in the drain on the road so they were using drain water to wash the cars!