I NEED to winterize my paint. I just want to give it a wash, polish and wax while i'm home over Christmas; I have access to a garage. So, if I can wash the car, hopefully it won't be too cold, or maybe I can take it to a touchless and drive it home, would it ever be too cold to wax? I'm talking mid 20s F.

Thanks.

 

Ehhh...the very reason I made sure to get several coats of wax on before winter hit. Now I hardly wash the car except the occasional spray-off to get rid of road salt.

To answer your question...I don't think it's too cold to detail so long as you're in a garage that isn't below 0º.

 

Your wax of choice should indicate the minimum temp for application. I just bring it into the garage and use a space heater and I'm sweating in there putting the wax on in the middle of January.

 

A good tip for detailing in your garage is to pull your car out. Start the engine, and let it warm up, pull your car in. Turn off and pop the hood, and close the garage door. The heat from the engine should make your garage toasty.

Optimal temps to apply a wax or polish are about 50-90, but I've done it when the temps are below freezing, it just take much longer for the waxes to cure.

 

its ok to detail in the winter, but if you have leather make sure the interior is warm enough (leather needs to be 50* or more to "accept" conditioners).

I used to detail my car when it was in the 20s/30s out, but i cant anymore. i guess I am getting old

 

Thanks guys. I'll see how it turns out over next weekend.

 

At the risk of being flamed, might I ask if you mean mechanics garage or residential garage? The reason I ask is because I have been short on time these past couple of months from moving into a new home, so I was unable to wax my car before "winter" got here. I would like to squeeze this in and I will have a few days off shortly (as will many). I have access to a small kerosene heater (which I will use carefully of course), so the detailing portion I'm okay with. It's the washing and rinsing of the car in my garage that I haven't figured out yet. I may try to find a self wash I used to use several years ago that uses heated water to wash and rinse it first, then fine clean and then detail it at home, but I would like to avoid putting back on road grime if possible. I may instead use a bucket to wash and a fresh one to rinse at home, but I don't know about getting so much water on my garage floor. Any suggestions please? Please don't flame too much if these are silly questions or if I missed a thread with these answers already posted. It's the end of my graveyard shift here and I'm all out of coffee.

 

I just try to detail my car when a warm weekend comes around, say 40's or those rare 50's in the middle of winter. Otherwise you can still wash it outside in the upper 30's, you'll just have to deal with the strange looks from people passing by.

I've thought about designing a house where the garage is set up with the proper drainage to allow washing your car inside rather than having to race the sun in the driveway. It would be very convenient but there must be a reason why you don't see a lot of people doing it.

 

Hey jafo2com, do a search for QEW, it's a low water usage wash that can be done in the garage or driveway if it's warm enough, we hit 60 here in KC today, so you should see some days with a good temp. try www.autopia.org for more QEW threads. It takes me about an hour and I use the 2 bucket method. I have a drain in the garage although I don't have too much on the floor after anyways. Enjoy your time off.

 

Exactly, I just washed my Maxima Friday and applied meguiars NXT gen wax and buffed yesterday (temp was about 60 in the garage). I have to vacuum it and detail the inteior tommorow.

 

heated garage....im been up over break till 2am detailing my car.

 

Sorry for the late response but I meant residential. And that's only when I drive home to NY.