living in an urban apartment/condo - I picked up a $20.00 two gallon plastic bug/chemical sprayer - I'm able to crank enough pressure to rinse off the dirt and bucket wash it. There's even enough water left to adequately do the wheels and tires! :-) And all the car wash stuff stores neatly on top of my stackable washer and dryer (out of sight no less!).

 

I thought this was going to be another female oriented thread.

Steve

 

interesting! post a pict or link please. (not really for me, but there's a
buddy of mine that's been looking for something like that).

 

I'll post some pics tomorrow. :-)

 

Interesting. I considered something similar, but was warned off of it by people who figured there wouldn't be enough pressure.

For $20, I just might try it. That's less than 4 trips through the touchless wash at the gas station that really only does a good job if my car isn't very dirty to start with.

Is there enough pressure for rinsing the suds off?

 

barely enough pressure to get the suds off - but hey it works and my car is clean.

 

Sounds like a nice solution...looking forward to pics! I don't have a hose handy either...but I live near a really ghetto, old-school coin-op car wash. A rinse is 50 cents and the place actually has a working (and free) faucet!!! If this place ever closes I'll definitely need a backup plan.

 

You can also get a 3 gallon one from here, but the pressure is pretty much the same. Takes me about twice as long to wash off the MINI over a normal tap.
http://www.actionhydro.com/

Here's a project I did with one of those 2 gallon pressure washers. I drilled a hole for a spigot, and made an adapter hose so I could attach it to my pressure washer. Using the bug sprayer as a source provides me with about 2 minutes of pressurized water, just enough to do the wheels! LOL. Of course you can easily refill it twice with a 5 gallon bucket of water ready to go.

http://www.c3club.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=316




I've got a little Karcher 1400psi pressure washer that I bought from Amazon for like $49 after rebates.

Another solution is to just use a rinseless product where you add it to a bucket of water, apply it to your car, and wipe it off a section at a time, no need to dry. This is a popular one. QEW
http://pakshak.com/protectall-qew-128oz.html

 

in the wintertime when i have a film of salt stuck on the panels, i
use large spray bottles filled with warm water to use as rinse.

for soap, i have another bottle with diluted car shampoo... i spray the
soap, use a small sponge to massage, dip the sponge into a bucket of
water to remove the dirt from the sponge, and rinse the soap from the
panel with the large spray bottle. wipe, go to the next section and
repeat.

 

If you combine that idea with a couple of 5-gallon buckets from Home Depot (or maybe plastic Carbuoys from a water cooler or homebrew shop), you should be able to get through most of a car... You could even splice 'em all together w/ some short sections of hose and quick connect fittings.