Getting vehicle wrapping on your car can make it look great. But what happens when, after some time on the road, various deposits of mud, dust, bird droppings and other debris have left it looking in serious need of a wash?
A key question is how you go about washing such a car. Should you only do it on your driveway with a bucket of soapy water and a sponge, or could it survive a drive-through car wash with the wrap still looking great afterward? The one thing you will hope is not the case is that the wrap gets damaged.
Car enthusiast and YouTuber Smeedia tested out the car wash option on his freshly wrapped car, having been frequently advised not to try this. The vehicle went in with a new and immaculate green wrap, with no peeling edges or other obvious blemishes.
Two types of car wash were tried, a touchless version and a “violent” contact type with the heavy rollers. In the first instance, Smeedia reported that the touchless wash “did no damage at all”, largely as he expected.
However, it came as a much greater surprise that the second wash, with all the rollers coming into contact with the car, did not “destroy the wrap” as he anticipated, but that in fact “nothing happened”.
From this, it might be concluded that if a car is wrapped very well, there should be no problem putting it through any sort of car wash.
However, matters may not be quite so simple. According to Car Wash Country, there are some instances when you have to take the greatest of care if you are thinking of taking a wrapped car through the wash.
It warned against pressure washing - which is probably harsher than what Smeedia took his car through - but also raised a red flag over using car washes in general, recommending a hand wash instead, with scrubbing and “being heavy-handed” listed as something to avoid in both the washing and drying process.
However, this was not just a contrary opinion. It also raised the issue of stickers on a car, like letters and numbers. If you have these on top of a wrap, that could pose a greater risk of peeling.
This may leave you wondering just who to trust. Car Wash Country wrote with the benefit of experience, yet Smeedia tested the theory of ruined wrapping and found it wanting.
Much may depend on the sheer quality of wrapping. Smeedia proclaimed that he had wrapped his car himself and was very happy with what he had done. But perhaps other DIY jobs will contain small blemishes that could end up being the points at which a car wash will bring damage.
That is why you need to make sure your wrap is undertaken by the experts in the first place. By ensuring it does not have any loose edges or blemishes, you can reduce the vulnerability of it to being damaged by the wash, whatever method you might choose to clean your car.
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