Oddly enough I do have an infrared temperature gun. The highest recorded temp I've done was the shop floor concrete at 164F. Concrete actually gets hotter than blacktop due to its density.

Yeah well, our climate has its own pitfalls. Paint has a survival rate of under 10 years and de-lamination at about 3 years is not uncommon. Rubber? Plastic? Vinyl? What are those? Lifespan of under 3 years if not protected. That includes the interior of the car. There's no need to pay to have your car sand blasted. It's a free public service provided by Ma Nature.

I wash my cars early in the morning (5:00 AM-ish). Air temp is usually around 70-80F (yup, 80F at 5:00AM, it was 86F last night at 9:00PM and it's just now May, ain't hot yet!) and I do it in my shaded work shop area.

Ummm, what would be the point of putting water on the ground if the idea is to use the minimal amount of water? Sounds a bit counter productive. I tried running a mister. All I ever accomplished was millions of water spots which took me forever to remove. The water we have is HARD!

I'll attach a picture of the same car showing what the sun does to clear coat in 5 years.

I was just wondering if for the commercial car washes it would be worth while making a humid environment in which to wash the cars and so in the end if you wash enough of them you save water...

...but if you've got more calcium in the water than your teeth well that's that then isn't it?

Actually the impurities in your hard water might actually be helping with evaporation. Water tends to boil / cavitate at lower temperatures / pressures with impurities in it. Have you tried washing with distilled water or water from a tumble dryer?

Perhaps tumble dryers are not really needed where you are but then again with really hard water your wash would come out rather crispy wouldn't it?

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!