Hi, everyone, I can +1 to all the reports of winter weather, just survived my second winter in Wisconsin, and yes, the salt gets all over everything, and no, you don't see any older cars that aren't all rusted out. I noticed just about a week ago that suddenly everyone's driving their nice car to work - the Mustang, the Mercedes SL convertible, the Corvette. They must have all been in the garage all winter.

Before this I lived for 15 years in Australia, and in Brisbane they don't have skywalks but do have covered walkways everywhere, which is for walking between shops downtown during tropical storms. And it did remind me of Minneapolis that way even when I lived there.

Our grass here is just greening up, so I don't think anyone's even cut theirs for the first time yet, and the daffodils are only just up this week. So it looks like we're nearly done with Winter, and ready for the start of Road Construction Season!

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2008 MIM Strat w 3-tone sunburst
2002 LP Special Ebony Faded
2008 G-Dec
'59 Reissue Bassman 4x10 combo
TS 808
DS 1
Gretsch 6120DS (on loan)

Hey Gang - as you may know I am from MN. It looks as though the car wash details were covered but no one mentioned the all important "High Volume Air Dryer" at the end of the wash. That dryer simply blow dries your car as you inch slowly forward while watching the timer to make sure you get your monies worth. I actually does a pretty good job of blowing the water out of the door seams etc.

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I Can't Explain

Well Tex,I live in Bklyn N.Y AND NOTHING CHANGES DURING THE WINTER CAR WASHES ARE OPEN UESR ROUND,You might have 3 to 4 times a winter after a heavy snow a day or two where things come to a crawl but the city never sleeps.I have to say N,Y is a place where you can get just about anything you want when you want it.I have been to other states where people have to go 2 miles to get to a store.Where I live you can walk out your door and just about any kind of store is in walking distance.The city is differant than most places in the U.S as houses are mostly attached in long strips with aspalt streets and side walks with stores in between the houses .The one thing I love is we get all four seasons I could not imagine CHRISTMAS with warm weather it just dont seem right.Not when your a kid but as you get older the snow can be a pain in the $@! .

where at in iowa im in cedar rapids my self. yes our car washes work in winter but air compressors freeze up pretty easy so it makes it hard to fill up your tires in winter

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Stratohawk Guitar Works Custom Handwound Pickups-
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bump

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Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

Hi TGS We really need to have our car washes open in the winter because we use a mixture of sand and salt on the icey roads and that makes a terrible mess on all vehicles. Not only is this mixture ugly it also leaves a very saline solution on the metal that causes premature rusting if not washed offf immediately.You can buy deicers for your car so the locking mechanism isn't prone to freezing.Vehicle rustproofing is big business here because without it you could have your car rust out in 1/3 the time it usually takes to corrode.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I'll have you know that even on the coldest day of the year so far, the carwash nearest me still ran.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

All over western Washington (Seattle). When it dose get cold, which isn't very often. I And many others, let the car go. I'ts seldom more than a week or so untill it worms up again. 40/50* then the car washes are packed with customers all trying to get rid of the damaging salt and other Chemical's that have accumulated all over and under our cars/trucks. In the warmer months folks like every where else Hit the drive way with a hose/bucket of soapy water and a sponge and get thoroughly wet. Sparkle+Sparkle.
----Danny,

I live within a half hour of Edmonton, Alberta. I might be mistaken but I think I am the most northerly member here, although we do have some Scandinavians here as well and I'm not sure how far north they are. I'm sure if I'm not the most northerly member in North America someone will correct me.

Like twelvebar and others have already indicated, I wash my car WAY more often in winter than I do in summer. Way more. Typically every evening before I park for the night. I don't want the day's salt eating away at my car, but that's only when it's warm enough that the salt can melt the snow and ice.

As soon as I'm done the last rinse I wipe down all the door seals and sealing surfaces and the windows so they don't freeze shut. Vaseline on the door seals can also help and many people do it especially further north but you have to be careful not to let your clothes brush against the entry way getting in or out. (Obviously) Vaseline is tough to launder out but it does prevent water from bridging the gap between rubber seal and sealing surface and then freezing them together.

Once it gets cold I can go weeks without washing because there's nothing on the roads to be kicked up except maybe some occaisional fresh snow which is not an issue by itself. When I say cold, I mean colder than -20C (-5F). Coincidentally -20C is also right around the temp when the car washes usually close up shop. Any colder and they can't open the doors in the morning because the standing water will freeze around the bottom of the O/H doors even with all the salt in the water (from the cars) laying on the floors.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Did any of you notice how old this topic is...?

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Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies

Yes...Yes...Yes...And Yes...!!!

TGS, this could be a question which elicits more than you might want to know about the NE...

Last year, I probably washed my car as often as the temperature rose above 40-35 so that would be perhaps 5 times....However we received the most snow last year that I can recall in quite some time.....My driveway was down to one car lane with 5 feet of snow on either side, it snowed just about every 3 to 5 days...

This year, we had a snowstorm in October... since then NaDa....It was 65F the day before yesterday, it should reach the mid 40's as that has been the average temps predicted.
Much warmer than normal, so I will wash it today.....Washed it last week....

It is imperative here in NE CT to wash the car in the winter...That crap ( salt ) that they spread at the sound of the first snowflake dropping is extremely corrosive to cars and highly toxic to the environment....I drive a Quattro so getting around in snow has never been a question
However a majority of people in the CT/MA/RI/NY region don't seem to understand that one needs a set of dedicated snow tires in the winter regardless of what you drive..FWD...RWD..or AWD..

As for using car washes, i rarely do so since I have Yakima bike racks on top of the rails on the Avant and they tend to get caught in most of the Car wash systems.....I'd also rather save the $10 of cost of automatic washing. All you need is a bucket, rubber gloves, a couple of big commercial sized sponges and a Shammy ( I'm including the outdoor hose ) and it is therapeutic...

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

After what I just posted.... ...No...
I posted than scrolled back up.......Hmmmmm...!!!

Where is that emo of palm to the forehead...

Nice Prank there Floyd.....
Shouldn't you be checking on wether the guests in the rear of your barbershop are draining....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

I am in Massachusetts. There are some drive through automatic car washes which remain open year round and others that close. The self service car washes are always open.