Red Cell

I washed it in freezing weather (-15C) and with exception to frozen fingers, I've never had a problem.

I dislike driving a dirty car (today, it's -2C and I was complimented on my "new" corvette-as it was that clean). You really had to have been there and seen her expression when I said it was 3 years old.

Red Cell.

Mr. Wonderful

A long, long time ago, I washed my car in the winter (NY).
Got real cold that night, and I'm sure there was water in the stainless molding around the rear glass.
You guessed it - it froze, expanded, and totally shattered the glass. At least I think that's what happened.

jrizzuto

somehow I would stay away from a bucket of hot water on a cold windshield - could it shatter? Just keep the car running with the heat blasting inside so nothing freezes until you hand dry it. Have fun pulling out of the place...should have a nice ice slick to slide on !!

Licit

Well I would live in Florida but I don't really dig on paying more than my mortgage payment amount monthly on the homeowners insurance. My grandma lives outside Orlando and I could not believe what she pays in homeowner's insurance.
Back on topic, it sucks to do the drive through wash in cold temps but if you hurry you can get it more than 90% dry.

Vasta

This would have to happen first...


Before I got out and froze my azz off to wash a 'effin car.

Vette4Lyfe

Washing a car at that temperature is a very bad idea. I was dumb enough to wash my SUV (2003 Lincoln Navigator) at that temperature. Everything was going great, I initially sprayed it with water and applied the soap with a sponge and immediately everything froze.. Imagine the size of this SUV! there was ice everywhere! I didnt want to chamois the surface because the ice would end up scratching the paint. So I ended up washing all the soap off with the pressure washer and soon after, that turned into ice. So I just gave up and parked it in the garage to melt by the next day.

LTN detailing

You guys never heard of OPTIMUM NO RINSE??!!! It's the latest car washing trend! Especially in freezing weather, you can park you car in your garage while washing it with ONR.

You can buy it here: www.DetailedImage.com

You can learn how to use it here: Youtube Video

vette.mix

and down the street

3GenVettes

I've washed my car many, many times in the mid-20s including the vette with absolutely no ill effects and the benefit of having a clean car. I've done the car both in the driveway and at spray washes. You will have time to dry the vast majority of water. Driving immediately afterward is essential to blow out nooks and heat up things. One word of caution, Watch your footing! The water on the ground will freeze faster than the water on the car.

cclive

I've done it when necessary and its not a problem if you have a garage to ultimately get the car into. Get what water you can dried up at the place then drive home into the garage and finish up...no biggie.

Vette5.5

Why not just wash it in your own garage, as I do it all the time. Don't know your set up, but mine's well insulated with a water source and some heat tapped into my house system. If I open the heat vent, and pull the car in hot, thing's stay pretty decent. You could probably do something similar with a couple space heater's. I've got an old Rain Bird hose nozzle with a very fine mist setting, so not generating much water. I just sweep it out or shop vac it up. Take heed on some of the comment's about washing your car on cold day's, as I've known several guy's who've had their door's freeze shut.

MSO4

Ha ha that's funny.

About 10 years ago, I was living in Boston. One Sunday afternoon I decided to go to the car wash and wash my car. It was probably in the 40s. Being a guy from southern CA, I didn't know any better.

The next morning I woke up at 4am to go to work. Well apparently there was a huge snow storm overnight. Worse yet, when I got to my car I couldn't open it. It had gotten frozen shut. Fortunately I managed to open the trunk and got in that way. The whole time I'm saying, wow can't wait to tell my CA buddies about this.

Good luck with your ordeal.

Foleys4fun

Don't do it. Save it for a nice warm day and keep it in the garage

mforman42

I used to do a quick wash of my 'winter' car in Colorado from time to time. It does work to get the really bad stuff off, but you won't end up with a show quality result.

Rednblack

Tried it once at 20 but my wife complained that her hand were getting cold - not worth the fight!

FireRoc

We've done it for years and years (used to live on the Canadian Prairies and now live in Ontario). However, I would not do it outside if the air temperature is below about 0 deg F.

You do have to dry the paint quickly, and you will problably get a thin layer of ice. As others have stated that is no big deal. It will evaporate over a day or two even if the car stays outside.

It is also very important to wipe down/dry off all the weatherstripping for the doors and rear hatch (if you are going to use it). For this we would leave the heat on full and dry one door at a time (leave the other door closed). With the C6 make sure you dry the weatherseals that the window indexes into.

Another trick (if the car stays outside) is to go out and open the doors and windows a couple of hours after the car is cold. This will break the ice when it is just starting to form. This, I would say is very important to do with the indexing windows.

For the hands, I use divers wet gloves. There is an initial shot of cold, but then the hands stay relatively warm.

Good luck with it.

Two007

I do it in Oklahoma, where it can get below freezing and stay there. But...I insulated my garage doors (very easy to do with 1" styrofoam from Lowes and Liquid Nails) AND I bought a "cannon" like heater from Lowes as well. (about $190) 70 to 100K BTUs using a regular bottle of BBQ propane. That baby is designed to heat up 2500 square feet. I have a large three car garage and it can raise it 10 degrees in 10 minutes. Blower on the heater. Just crack open a garage door for some ventilation. Heat it up, close the doors and you have a warm garage. So I wash my baby outside using hot water from the kitchen, hose it off with cold from the outside faucet (valve is inside the wall, so it doesnt freeze up) pull it into the warmed up garage, and have fun. Music, nice towels, take my time drying, etc. What cold?

PETE O.

No problem here, I only go to the car wash(s) that use soft water.
Sorry, I just bounced over here from the C5 forum to see what y'all were doin. One day I'll have a C6, you'll see...........

AORoads

I have, too. It depends on the facilities: some, in colder climates, have doors that close on both front and back, making it easier to do in reallly cold weather. If you're taking the car back to an unheated (or even an attached) garage, you'll be fine. Just don't plan on opening the windows to back or guide the car in. I'd say, prepare the door stripping that you will be opening by lubricating it so it won't stick. Remember: ice evaporates, eventually. Plan ahead for it; don't use the car, don't open things for (depending on the intitial ambient temps) days, and don't cover it up yet--wait awhile.

For me, the best way was to do it late at night when there would be no one waiting to use it after me, and I could take as much time as I wanted and the management also wouldn't bother me. And plan on more than one cycle, more like 3 full cycles to clean and thoroughly wash off whatever was on there.

BSE1956

I've done my car (not Vette) with all kinds of methods, but not without being able to put it in my garage, which stays at about 45-50 degrees when its freezing outside.