I just put a set of Bully stainless steel nerf bars on my truck. And I was wondering if I can still go through the automatic car washes? I figured they might stick out to much, and the "swirly things" that clean your vehicle might screw them up. They stick out from the bottom of the cab about 4". Do any of you guys with nerf bars take your truck through automated car washes? Thanks for any help.

Peace...

 

I take my 99 F150 through the touchless water washes with no problems.

 

Ok cool man. A touchless car wash is one of those washes with the swirly things that spin around isn't it? Sorry if that sounds stupid. But I've heard a few different terms for those kinds of car washes (automatic, automated, touchless.) Are they all the same? My truck is filthy, and it's too cold outside to wash it by hand. I want to get the salt off of it and get it clean so I can upload some pics of my nerf bars.

 

The wash I use is just water only, no swirly spinny things. It has something like 6 jets on each side then 6 for the top front and back.


Better watch out for those swirly spinning things....they sould like they could do some scratching.

 

Bummer. There's a swirly wash here at a Shell station that has the rubber strings on it instead of the mop thread kind. You reckon' that would be safe? Hell, I'm just gonna go through it. If it does it does, if it don't it don't.

 

 

I've had to go through a few of these in my time. Salt on the road plus 20 degree weather makes for a nasty truck. I've never had a problem with the nerf bars on either of the 3 trucks I've owned. I do cringe a little thinking about all that crap touching my truck though. Probably better than the salt though.

 

I don't think the "swirly things" will hurt the nerf bars, but you might be concerned about what those things may do when they contact the paint. Really you should always try to go to a touchless car wash where the only thing that contacts your vehicle comes from jets of water, soap, and air. Just my two cents.

 

Well, just got back from the carwash. The truck is clean and the nerf bars didn't get a scratch. But one of those "twirly things" knocked one side of my dual exhaust loose. It broke the weld where it holds the pipe to the muffler. I figured that would happen one day, since my truck's exhaust was welded on by an exhaust shop in 2001. Good thing my brother has a welder. Lmao!

 

Alittle advice from a guy who runs a carwash. The worst car wash to take your car through, is a touchless one. And there are several reasons behind that statement.

Think about it for a moment. Essentially, in a touchless wash, all your getting is a chemical applied and a high pressure water rinse. Whats the difference in that and spraying soap on the car and hosing it off with your home hose? I'll tell you, nothing. You can't chemically without touch clean a car to an acceptable level. Its not possible. The amount of chemical required to do that woud be 1)cost prohibitive 2) would cause a high PH "flashing" of the painted surface The main problems with touch free's is that the owners are so damn cheap, they turn the chemicals down as far as possible and the water and air up as high as possible. (the chemicals are air/water injected) The flashing I am speaking of, occurs when over the years the painted surface isn't cared for and begins to degrade. The chemicals will then sit into the porous surface of the paint, causing what looks like a dripping stain in the paint. Sure, maybe your paint is new and great, but think, not all cars that go through will be, and they don't want bitchy people calling and complaining that their 1983 olds got chitty looking after a wash in their touch free.

A good quality soft cloth car wash, or even lambs wool car wash is the way to go. (the full service kind being the best) That way, you're assured of a quality wash and most reputable places will take care of any damage that occurs in their tunnel, which is very rare. (in 5 years, @ over 40,000 cars a year I have had 3 instances of tunnel cuased damage)

And no, the wheel wraps won't damage nerf bars

 

I have the big tubular ford nerf bars on my truck and have been through carwashes hundreds of times with no problems. As long as your bars are not loose there is nothing to worry about. If you stand on them and they are solid then you are good to go.

 

Peacemaker-- That must have been one hell of a carwash

 

The best car wash is always a hand wash. I worked at Classy Chassis in Mississippi when I was in high school. Trust me, the only reason they use the car wash tunnels is because it is much cheaper and cost effective than washing every car by hand. My new truck will never see and automated car wash or car wash center that uses things that rub the dirt off until I have several scratches on the vehicle. At that point I won't care. I do take my other vehicles through the automated washes but only because those cars (2000 Dakota and 2004 Camry) already have lots of scratches on them from abuse and Hurricane Katrina.

 

Yeah, that ain't all of it either. The lady in line in front of me was trying to feed dollar bills in the electronic teller and it was all jambed up and wouldn't work. There I was, behind her in line with another woman on my bumper. So I couldn't back up to get out of there. So I sat there and bit my tongue as long as I could.

Anyway, I go up there and ask her if she needs help and she says, "It won't take mah money". I ask her if she would like me to go in the gas station and buy her a car wash ticket. She says yeah and hands me eight bucks and says get her the eight dollar car wash. So I walk all the way across the parking lot and go in and get her a car wash ticket.

The lady behind me in line met me at the door and asked what was going on. I told her "It's ok, I'm getting the woman a car wash ticket" because the electronic teller wouldn't take dollars. So, I go back and give her the ticket, and it takes her five minutes to punch in a five-digit number code to activate the car wash. So by now I'm about to go cross-eyed.

She finally figured it out. Bless her little heart. Then it was my turn. I went in worrying about the nerf bars getting scratched up, and it rips my damn exhaust off. I guess it was just one of those days.

 

That is, the most MYTHICAL statement in the industry. I was waiting for someone to say that. And now I'll explain it too.

When you hand wash your car, you dip the pad into the solutions and proceed to wipe in a circular motion, moving all the sand and grit on the car around and scarring the clearcoat, even if only very minorly, but doing it. Now, you take the same car to an online full service wash, and run it through. Watch it from the glass and notice that there is constantly a stream of chemical agents or water running through the soft cloth. The water never stops in there. Everything that those wraps touch are washed down as soon as it hits them. THey never retain dirt or debris. And they do not scratch, swirl, or in any other manner harm the painted surface of your vehicle. I have washed everything from a POS 1983 honda to a 1959 Bentley. I only wash certian cars by hand, the short list of Limosines, Hummer H1's, ferarri's, Lambos, and vipers. I regularly wash NSX's and the sor tthrough the tunnel with no issue. I even washed a 190,000 dollar mercedes cl65 last week.