is it safe to bring the bimmer w/ a metallic paint to a drive thru hand wash car wash. People wash it w/ their hands and then run it thru water sprays? Is it better to buy the bmw cleaning supplies than the stuffs at pep boys?
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 wash it yourself, take a look at the detail forum 
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Yes it's safe. I have some recent pics of my 2001 e46 posted at the link here. You can see that it has held up well after 5 years of use. This has been a combination of drive through touchless and hand washes. However, the hand wash definately does a much better job. ALso I Zymol my car twice a year.
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I take my car to a hand car wash place because I live in a city condo with no outside faucet.
You will have some swirling but it is a better alternative to the drive through car washes with harsh chemicals, dirty brushes and wheel tracks.
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‘Touch less’ carwash:
Never use a car wash, period touchless or not, there are a variety of reasons: You should never, under any circumstances use a car wash that requires you to let another person drive your vehicle onto the ramps or into the wash, notice the disclaimer of ‘No responsibility for damage to customer’s vehicle.
•To remove snow/sand/road dirt and grit without agitation (brushes etc) requires the use of very strong chemical cleaners.
•Probably the most important is that this type of automatic car wash use high-pressure water and strong alkaline detergent to clean vehicles that will strip the wax/polish
•You will also need to renew the vehicles sealant / wax to ensure the paint surface protection on a regular basis to counteract the effects of the harsh detergents.
•Also be aware of those that use ‘wheel guides’ as they will cause scratches / etching to the wheel surfaces, as many wash facilities will not accommodate either the tire width or the clearance, thus causing sidewall damage
•Vehicle with lower than ‘standard’ suspension (Corvette C6 and other sports cars) should also be aware the wheel guides could cause body damage
•As an alternative in colder winter months I would suggest using a waterless vehicle cleaning product Protect All’s Quick Easy Wash (QEW)
•If you get a chance, attend a car wash / wax vendors symposiums where they give demonstrations of the different soap products that these type of facilities use. You'll come away a convert to never using them again, on any vehicle.
JonM
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I think I went through this subject with you before.
First you live in Florida and not the snow belt, second winters are very cold up here and not many people want to wash their car outside when the weather is freezing, third I would be very skeptical about a "water less" car wash product, have you every tried to clean a car that has two weeks worth of salt and grim off a car?
My advice if you will be driving the car in snow and salt conditions is to give the car a good application of AIO or similar product late in the fall, and take the car to a touchless or good hand wash place.
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Metallic paint safe for hand wash carwash