'bouta bitch!!

[Lee]

I live in NorthWest Wisconsin and have made my car suffer this whole winter with just one sloppy wet mophead washdown...so Thursday I say, "Car, you deserve a wash."

 

I drive over to the touchless carwash.......machine won't take bills. So I drive over to the carwash at the "one" dealership in our town. This one has the straps that hang down and slap your car and the spinning thread/string brushes...no prob, I've been through it with both cars before.

 

Wrong

 

I'm concentrating on the little pins that hold my plexiglass driverside window in and suddenly the car's rear end lifts a bit and there's a big thud, the car settles to normal. I'm thinking, shit, what was that? Then I'm thinking it just caught on my muffler tip again.

 

Wrong

 

I look over to my antena and the thing has been plucked out of the trunk. It is 2/3rds ripped out and pointing forward and outward.

 

I get out of the wash, look at it....the paint is all spintered because it had some rust bubbles under it already (lousy autobody repair in 98, some vandal bent my antena and that bent the sheetmetal it is mounted in).

 

The metal is pulled outward from the tightening nut being yanked through the hole. The antena itself is bent over at the base and curled in an arc at the top. It must have tried to wrap around the spinning thread brush.

 

I twisted it in a bit, removed the antena and went home. I later got it pounded back in and staightened the antena but the sheetmetal is a tad twisted. I siliconed the entire area and called it a Murphy's Law attack.

 

I'm sure glad I decided last summer to let it slowly go downhill.

I promised the car that I'd take it to the touchless only from now on.

[92LuminaRS]

You should have taken pictures of the damage and brought it to the owners attention. As far as I know they don't pay for any damage of non-factory antennas, but for factory ones they do.

 

If that was me I would have beat the car wash to death with my antenna

[THe_DeTAiL3R]

We have the same kind of carwash at the dealership. I've seen all sorts of things get ripped off cars including a side mirror! Personally, I've had it tear off 2 antenna off Sunfires, cause I forgot to take them off. You are safe leaving a front antenna on cause the brushes don't spin as hard, but the rear you gotta take them off.

[19Cutlass94]

I usually brng my car through the normal car wash. They always do a good job, and the brushes and such have never (*Knock on wood*) let any scratches or anything.

[5speedz34]

FWIW: Most car washes won't do shit for you, but that sucks!

[chadz34]

FWIW: Most car washes won't do shit for you, but that sucks!

There are a few that work nicely, however I will always prefer to wash my car myself.

[White93z34]

never once have any of my cars been through a carwash, touchless or not, i always wash them by hand or use the carwash with the quater operated spary gun.

[lazytik]

Hmm. Whenever we use the cheap washes on my dad's car (with a nonremovable, nonretractable antenna), nothing happens except scratches.

 

I always use the semi-hand was carwash around here. They provide you with all the hoses and brushes and a space to wash it in, all you have to do is wash it from a distance. $5 for 15 minutes.