There.....I said it. I have learned so much about how to keep the MINI looking showroom new and thank you all for your insight.

While it is still a few months away, I would like to start working on my learning curve as to how to keep the MINI looking somewhat show room new in the winters months. I live in the Chicago area, salted roads are abundant, below freezing temps are the norm. The MINI is garaged.

What tips are out there for keeping her clean? I have no desire to use car commercialized car washes.

 

Do your last full detail while the temps are still well above freezing - make sure you have plenty of time for polish to cure. It can take a whole weekend for me to do a few coats of Zaino when it's only 40-50 in the garage.
As for keeping it clean, I take my own bucket to the carwash. Once I'm there I don't use it, but I bring my own soap (Z-7 in my case), lambswool mitt, wheel brush, fake chamois, a few cheap-o microfibers for the door sills and around the boot, and a waffleweave. Oh - best: a rubber glove for wearing under the mitt so you don't freeze your fingers off.
Pump it full of quarters and pressure wash most of the crap off and wet your mitt. I dump soap on the mitt and suds it up (work quick because your time is ticking) and wipe him down. Take a few breaks to rinse off the mitt, too. Lots of soap will protect you from swirlies. Then hit the wheels and rinse it all off (the mat holders work good for your mitt, too).
Again, assuming no angrier carwashers are waiting I wipe down with chamois. Make sure to get where the doors and boot seal in the winter even better (ice!) That's what the crappy towels are for. Then if you're inclined, wipe it down with the good waffleweave.

 

easy, get a HondaFit Sport 5MT like me and drive that in the winter.

 

I use hot water and my garage about once a month or whenever the car is so gross that I can't touch it. I back the other car out of the garage and park it in the driveway, then put the car to be washed in the middle of the garage just above the floor drain. Soak it with a couple buckets of hot water, soap, rinse with hot water... then dry. As far as waxing goes, I usually hit the car with a couple of coats of paste wax before winter sets in, and then wash and wax it as soon as the temps get above 60, even if they are only going to be there for a day.

Is this ideal? No. But it does remove most of the chemicals and salts used on the roads from your car and I think the extra coats of paste wax add some extra protection for your paint.

Of course, I understand most folks don't have hot running water in their garage... the dude that built my house thought of everything, I swear.

I should also mention, I haven't done this with my MINI yet, but it's worked to keep my corolla rust free for 10 years now.

 

Move to Arizona.

 

I stow my mini when the first snow hits, and drive my landrover until the spring. That way my Mini stays nice and clean...

 

Clay and polish the car so that it is nice and clean and you have a good surface for products to adhere to, then apply a good sealant and follow up with a insulator wax.

Once the bottom falls out pick up a no rinse car soap. Go to your local self service wash and rinse if off really good. No soap or scrubbing, just rinse (if you have the technology to rinse at home, then do that. my pipes would freeze in a instant if I tried). When you get home fill up a bucket with water, add your no rinse wash to it, and then wash a panel normally. Once your done with a panel dry it off. Repeat for the whole of the car and you are done.

 

interesting way to go

 

I live in Vancouver, so we only get a few snow days per year. The city uses a salt-sand mix (yuck!!). I only have street parking, but underground at work. My plan was to use a touchless wash on my way to work during the really lousy days, buy the best cycle possible (with under-car wash and spray wax), drive to my underground and wipe up around doors, etc. with an old MF cloth. Do this as long as the lousy weather lasts, with some finer detailing in my work parking (like glass), and then back to normal as soon as the weather breaks.

 

I was just wondering the same thing-WI resident here. I don't garage my Mini-yes a big sin I know and use an outside hose to do all my washings. Is touchless the only way to go?

 

You can touch it, just only with things that won't scratch it. Carwashes with brushes will install many many fine swirl marks on your car on a good day and on a bad day will scratch the paint by dragging dirt from your neighbor's SUV across the body.
All of the do it yourself bays here have heated water so it really isn't unpleasant in the winter as long as I remember my glove for my wash hand. I go when it isn't busy (like all winter or later at night on nicer days) so there isn't a line and I can get him dried off in the bay before he freezes over.
That said, Lewis just stays dirty when its below 40. Winter happens and he'll get cleaned up in the spring.

 

you may want to put some vaseline on the exposed nuts and bolts then
if you dont plan on washing the undercarriage... at least the silicon(?) will
protect it from the salt... sort of.

 

Are you serious? You expect someone (me?) to wiggle under my car with a tub of vaseline and lube up everything that looks like it might rust? You'd know how funny I found that if we'd met or you had any idea how much I just avoid getting dirty.

During our trips to the quarter wash, I make sure to get the wand all up in Lewis' wheel wells, as well as up under him as much as I can. Underbody washes in carwashes are no better than puddles for the most part, anyway. I live in Michigan, I expect things to rust. That's just kind of how it happens. I have a budget for a car, I want a nice one, so I only get one, and I have to get to work all year, so I just deal with the consequences.

 

you pay the price or the car pays the price. but at the end, you still
pay the price.

 

Don't forget, there's always the "turn on the sprinkler under the car" trick to get salt/sand off (as long as it's above freezing out, or you have hose access to hot water).

 

yah, that does help quite a bit. it takes a while for the salt to dissolve
so it needs to be a goood soaking but it works (thanks to lotsie).

 

I'm glad I don't live up north! there's probably only about 1-2 weeks total of bad weather that we get in Arkansas each winter. I don't think I'll have to take all the extra precautions yall yankees will. Our winters are pretty mild here and I'm thankful for that.

 

I wasn't aware that us tree huggers out here on the left coast were actually considered "Yankees". *chuckle*

That said, I hadn't considered the idea of washing the underbody of my cars either... though believe me, I am thinking about it now.