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Car Wash with Soft Top?

AmericanYidiot

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People say not to do it, but I'm planning to. I took my Wrangler (JL) soft top through a regular old automatic car wash a good handful of times without any problems. No scratches, no damage, etc. Going to take the new Bronco through this week — I'm up in Boston and also covered in salt. I'll report back.
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Big Boss

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How does the car move through the car wash if there are no tracks?
By me there are two styles, theres one with the tracks and the rollers. the other is like a conveyor belt on the floor that has little pop up studs
 

GiveItaTri

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I'm in northern Wisconsin, so my Bronco has been covered in salt and sand and ice and slush and snow. I have taken her into a touchless wash multiple times. This is the kind where you pull in and wait while the magical arms goes around and around, spraying all sorts of liquids and detergents and waxes. When it's done, you pull out through the air blowers. So far I've had no troubles with the soft top.
 

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Took my soft top to the touchless car wash yesterday in northern Idaho. Everything was fine. Just dropped it off this morning to have an undercoating sprayed on to help with the rust
 

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I’ve owned dozens of convertibles and I’ve run them all through the auto washes. I’ve taken the Bronco through several times already this winter to wag off the salt. I usually do the touchfree washes. Never had a leak nor a problem on any of the cars, except for an 02 Mustang GT convertible that would leak if I did the touchfree wash.
 

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2Tonic

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I have done it twice - each time I did a complete inspection of the roof contact points and overlap areas. No leaks, and so far no damage/scratches to plastic windows. I dry as much as I can immediately after exit from the wash.

The Soft Top gets soaked and in freezing temperatures I would be concerned about freeze/thaw of the material. We garage our Bronco, so freezing is not an issue.

The front and rear parking sensors hold water and freeze - heat from my hand seem to correct this issue easily. If I had done proper preparation I would have used a hair dryer on low temp.
 

Blitzjb

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I take my soft top through the car wash all the time. Probably a dozen times since I've had it. I have never had a problem, the soft top doesn't leak or anything.

My Bronco is fine.
^^^ ditto ^^^
 

Headsong

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Uh, aren't the detergents used in the touchless automatic the very same used in the do it yourself bays? Of course they are.
 

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Uh, aren't the detergents used in the touchless automatic the very same used in the do it yourself bays? Of course they are.
You use plain water in the self service bay on your top.

Yes, they use the same detergent. Generally the cheapest crap they can buy in a 30-55 gallon drum. A business associate of mine owns a car wash, he pays less than a buck a gallon for detergent concentrate. That must be quality.

The company that makes your top fabric (Haartz) says not to use detergents on it, but what do they know. Like I said before, the detergents strip the UV stabilizers out of the fabric over time, so, yeah, you're not going to notice a difference the next day.
 

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annieVonBebop

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I did a self wash last weekend and it worked out really well, then we got 11" of snow and I was unable to resist the urge to bomb around the neighborhood doing snownuts. Without splash guards the sides of my rig are absolutely covered in dirt and probably salt, and I don't even want to think about the undercarriage right now 👀

It's supposed to be in the high 30s/low 40s the next couple of days, so I'm trying to suss out if that's warm enough for another self wash to get all that grime off?

Also as far as touchless washes, are those alright in moderation, like once or twice a month, just to get thr undercarriage cleaned?
 

AmericanYidiot

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People say not to do it, but I'm planning to. I took my Wrangler (JL) soft top through a regular old automatic car wash a good handful of times without any problems. No scratches, no damage, etc. Going to take the new Bronco through this week — I'm up in Boston and also covered in salt. I'll report back.
Following up on this. Finally got around to the car wash today. The soft top was absolutely fine. No scratches or anything on the windows, even with the brushes and scrubbers and such. Same results as the JL soft top. Also, not a drop of water inside, which has me feeling a lot more confident about rain/snow intrusion.
 

2Jeeps&PatriotX1

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Never taken my jeep through an automatic or touchless carwash in 8 yrs and not planning to with the wife’s Bronco either. Only one that does is my giant truck because its too dang big to wash by hand multiple times a week.

I take the jeep & bronco to the self service bays and wash myself to get all the magchloride and crap off of them. I live in CO and do this very early in the am, so temps tend to be in the upper 20s when I wash it.

In the summer, my wife will be out there in the driveway washing her own dang bronco.
 

JohnnyBronco

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Uh, aren't the detergents used in the touchless automatic the very same used in the do it yourself bays? Of course they are.
But if like me at the hand wand wash I only hit the top with a mist of rinse water and never soap. I am only playing on the snowy roads and even from salt the top never gers dirty. Rear window and side quarters, yeah I hit them with a little soap but not much.
 

PaBronco

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I do not like the automated car washes. Every now and then in the winter, we will get a day in the mid 40s or 50s so I break out the hose, a bucket of warm water, and use decoy gloves to keep the hands from getting too cold.

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