Miata Mailing List: February 1994, Message #7
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   From: "craig" 
Subject: RE: MIATA digest 171
   Date: Tue, 1 Feb 1994 10:05:07 -0500

GOZUMM@JEFLIN.TJU.EDU writes:

I know this sounds stupid ... can you car wash a miata
(I don't) with those non-brush car washes?

its just that handwashing is a great deal of time and
I can't do it frequently, and for those rapid washes,
I just use a high pressure hose to get the bugs and
big chunkcs of gook out but not the best kind of clean.


Beware.  I try to hand wash mine every weekend.  Dont use soap unless
I am ready to wax and use a Sears buffer for 90% of that so is not
the project it used to be.  I have also used spray washes when in a
bind and typically on the road away from home.  However, I discovered
the hard way that minor chips in the paint on the nose can turn into
a major disaster with a power washer.  I ended up with a silver
dollar size yellow patch right in the center of the nose that I
presume was a stone chip that got some moisture under it and loosened
the paint.  The pressure washer just blew away the loose paint.  The
dealer supplied touch up paint in the totally worthless bottle
applicator sufficed to make the yellow spot a closer red, but from a
1/4 mile away was of sufficiently different color to be noticable.
(perhaps we should add the mazda touch up paint to the list of
imperfections everyone has been writing about lately).

Course, being in Texas, the initial chip was probably not a rock at
all, probably just a Texas size bug.  Keep your distance with the
spray washes!

cb

********************************
Craig Blakely, Assoc. Director
Public Policy Research Institute
H.C. Dulie Bell Bldg. / Suite 314
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX  77843-4476
(409) 845-8800
CRAIG@PPRI.TAMU.EDU