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Jack of All Trades,
Master of Nothing
Picture of 2000Z-71
posted
First world problems of living in the Great White North. Don't take your truck though an automated car wash when it's only 12 degrees outside.
Got off work this morning, driving by Alaska Laser Wash on the way home and thought, "Why not? It's heated inside, my truck looks absolutely nasty, the garage at the condo is heated, it's only 3 miles back to the condo from here. What could go wrong?"

Remember what I said about it being only 12 degrees outside? Get back to the condo, hit the garage door opener, attempt to get out to fold in the mirrors so I can park in the garage (another first world problem of driving a full sized pickup and living in a condo with a 1 car garage) and I cannot open the driver's side door, it's frozen shut, it's shut tighter than a mormon prom queen. Haul my fat ass across the dog house sized center console and I was able to get the passenger door open. Fold the mirrors in and notice that all the little water droplets are frozen in place as frozen little ice balls. It kind of looks like a Monte Carlo in South Phoenix with quarter sized metallic flake paint And there's all the miniature icicles. The crossbars of my grill looks like Sam Elliott's mustache after spending time outside in a blizzard while suffering a sinus infection.

Hopefully it will all thaw in the garage before I have to go back into work tonight.




My daughter can deflate your daughter's soccer ball.
 
Posts: 11749 | Location: Eagle River, AK | Registered: September 12, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Yep. Lived in rural Wisconsin. You washed your car the few days it got above freezing. It is the kind of mistake you only make once.
 
Posts: 17177 | Location: Stuck at home | Registered: January 02, 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Here in the Yoop, after paying all your fuel taxes and outrageous registration fees, the local road commission reward you with: Sand. They plow and spread sand. As a result, your ride gets a nasty sandy frozen mess on the rockers and wheel wells. Even if you manage to get an above freezing car wash done, the car gets the same sandy mess re-applied after you go 100 feet.
I wash my ride in late October or early November and then just wait until until spring for a decent cleaning.


End of Earth: 2 Miles
Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles
 
Posts: 16005 | Location: Marquette MI | Registered: July 08, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Constable
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In Montana the DOT spreads gravel. And I mean 1/4 to 1/2 inch GRAVEL. Along with a little DIRT in with the mix. So we get DIRTY as well as our vehicles get sandblasted paint and windshields broken EVERY Winter. Another joy to rural living!

I swear the DOT is in league with the Windshield and Insurance companies. Maybe getting a cut of the profits. They spread the stuff, then it takes MONTHS for it to finally get blown off the traffic lanes. They do near zero cleanup after the fact.

I'd gladly put up with dirt, even SALT to not get vehicles ruined by the gravel 8 months out of the year.
 
Posts: 7074 | Location: Craig, MT | Registered: December 17, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of Rev. A. J. Forsyth
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I'll take sand, gravel, cinders, and dirt for $2000, Alex. Growing up in Cleveland, which sits atop one of the largest underground salt mines, your car doesn't last much more than 6 years. They spread that shit around like MC Hammer on payday.

I would spend half of every working day in the shop blasting shit with oxy acetylene to get it apart.
 
Posts: 1639 | Location: Winston-Salem  | Registered: April 01, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of sigcrazy7
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Put Vaseline, or a silicone based lube, on your door gaskets. They won’t freeze shut, and you can keep the truck washed.



Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well. -Epictetus
 
Posts: 8202 | Location: Utah | Registered: December 18, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Drill Here, Drill Now
Picture of tatortodd
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I lived in Anchorage 5 years, but it was only 1 mile from the car wash to my heated garage. I never froze my doors shut but I could see how it could happen.

One tip is to be routinely squirting lock lube in door, toolbox, cap locks after every wash in the winter.



Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.
 
Posts: 23102 | Location: Northern Suburbs of Houston | Registered: November 14, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Several years back working the night shift, my partner and I were bored on a cold winter night, so we thought we would do the day shift a favor and have the cruiser nice and clean for them when they came in. We pulled the old Vic into the heated garage at the station and washed it. Just as we were finished, a code-3 weapons call comes in about a mile away.
It took a HARD shoulder into the doors to get them open from the inside. Didn't do that again... haha
 
Posts: 545 | Location: Ohio | Registered: April 13, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Non-Miscreant
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Its just another use for WD40. And its another reason I love retirement. I get to pick the sunny days when the air temp is high enough to let someone else wash my car/cars. The comment about salt was amusing. I hate salt. It eats the living crap out of what used to be metal. Just not if you leave it in the garage. Reminds me, I've got a gallon of washer fluid I found out in the garage. It was behind other fluids on a shelf. Its rain-x brand so it needs to be used.

The problem with taking a car to a dealer for any kind of service is that they fill the washer jug with crummy blue stuff, not the orange juice colored stuff.


Unhappy ammo seeker
 
Posts: 18385 | Location: Kentucky, USA | Registered: February 25, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of Fusternc
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Having lived in both Colorado and New Hampshire, the road maintenance is quite different. Its lots of gravel and bits of sand in Colorado and in New Hampshire its small amounts of sand with tons of salt. With Colorado you got cracked windshields every year and no rust, and in NH its beautiful windshields and rusted out frames in the matter of a few years. I knew there was a reason I switched to leasing! Smile
 
Posts: 1373 | Location: New Hampshire | Registered: December 05, 1999Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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