With winter well in the rearview mirror, it’s time for a little of car washing in the old-fashioned way. No pressure hoses, no power tools. Just buckets, bowls, sponges and additional period gear. And in that spirit, here’s a gallery of vintage images of that inevitable automotive activity, the wash.
And for those curious enough, this is the second such gallery in the series. Part one can be seen here.
I mentioned in a previous post this morning that I found a bunch of old photos at my brother’s place. Given the subject of this post, I took a quick shot of this photo of me vacuuming the family chariot, the ’65 Dodge Coronet wagon. I was always happy to wash it because I was allowed to back it out of the garage to do so. That was more than enough reward, to be handed the key and start it up and back it out and then back in again.
It was not easy to get the wagon in this position, as the garage was off to the left perpendicular to the way it sits now. A very odd garage location, behind the house with a very tight 90 degree turn to get in, and having to back out the other direction with a three pint turn to get out.
Until one day when my parents were gone and that just wasn’t enough for me and I headed out the driveway and just kept going.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/auto-biography/d-stands-for-drive-auto-biography-part-9/
Love the Dodge…and also the vintage vacuum. An Electrolux I believe (or at least an Electrolux wannabe).
Also, your description about the garage position is reminiscent of what JPC has written about re. the garage in his older (likely about the same age as your parents’ house) house. Crazy what used to be considered reasonable for getting into or out of a home’s garage.
I was tasked at a very young age, to washing and waxing my dad’s car(s). We lived in the country, so my fresh water source was an outdoor deep well, with a small electric pump. Water was always ice cold, even in peak summer heat. So, I usually washed mid-afternoon. To avoid frozen fingers. I typically picked up my supplies Saturday morning, when my dad shopped at Canadian Tire. Chicago-based Turtle Wax already dominated the Canadian market, with their DIY wash and wax lineup. I often bought the single use Zip Wax pouches for their convenience. And my kid budget.
Americans may not know this song, but ‘Sunny Days’ by the Toronto group Lighthouse was a radio staple and iconic summer anthem in Canada, circa early to mid ’70’s. Extremely popular AM Top forty radio song, for accompanying weekend car washing.
Turtle Wax often did a great job rendering generic cars, on their packaging.
I’m not sure if Turtle Wax outright dominated the car wash soap/wax market in the US, but it did seem to be the brand we most often had around the house. I had to wash my parents’ cars every month or so in the summer, except for the ’66 Dodge wagon in its final years in the early ’80s by which time it was deemed too old and worn out to bother washing anymore. I don’t recall that car getting any maintenance in the last few years we had it.
Lighthouse was nowhere near as popular in the US as Canada but they did notch up a few hits in the States, “One Fine Morning” being the biggest (and a great song).
‘Pretty Lady’ was another very popular radio staple through the mid-70’s in Canada. Another Top 10 hit for them here. Could have been much bigger in the US.
Loved hearing “Sunny Days” by Lighthouse back in the day!
I grew up in NW Washington state, so we got a steady stream of great Canadian Content from Vancouver stations like CFOX and CKLG.
We all loved the Guess Who (obviously) but also the Stampeders, and later, Chilliwack, Doug & the Slugs, Doucette, Prism, Down Child Blues Band and Rush. Go Canada!
I live in South Carolina. Our pollen season started early this year. I let my mom’s car and truck go way too long without a wash. I spent 3 hours washing them. The rags looked nasty. Next year I’ll do it weekly during pollen season.
Nice ;
I washed my ’59 VW yesterday, in the shade of course .
I tried letting our foster boys help washing the cars but they failed to grasp that dropping the sponge/rag in the dirt them rubbing it vigorously on the nice paint isn’t smart so it’s jjst me and the bucket .
I highly recommend synthetic chamois .
I love the ’54 Pontiac, I had one in 197…….?4? .
-Nate
I decided to throw some levity into this conversation with someone luring people to a topless car wash. Yours in mirth (and my girth), Tom
Well thank you for that Thomas 🙂
It connects with what I was going to say about the photo of the 5 ladies washing the Chrysler. And that’s that car wash fundraisers featuring women washing cars certainly looked a lot different in the early 1960s than they might today.
I’ll wash the 68 Mustang today before it gets confined in the garage for possibly the rest of the year. With the Sable coming out there will be two cars waiting on new engines in the way of the Mustang and Cougar. Now with Nate mentioning synthetic chamois, which I concur over many years of experience, I first blow dry my cars to minimize wiping of any kind.
I seldom wash my hobby cars. Maybe once a season. I have two of them outside under good covers. Two are in the garage and they are rotated out. Then I’ll use a duster every day after driving them. I’ll also use a waterless wash/ shine spray, which I was amazed to find worked quite well. Old cars usually are not as water tight as a new car, and even a hose can introduce more water into the bodywork than I’d like. I also had some paintwork done on a couple of them and that paint is not as durable as OEM process paint. I will run my Dailys through the local brushless car wash every few months. We’ve been experiencing this drought for so long, I try to keep my water use under control. We have three newer car washes on one nearby major intersection.
The pictures of kids washing cars long ago reminds me of a story that my father told me.
In the early 1950s Dad’s parents owned an old LaSalle (well past its prime as a luxury car). My grandmother told my dad (then age 10 or so) to wash and polish the LaSalle at some point when his father was away. For some bizarre reason, she gave him furniture polish for this task. Dad said the furniture polish turned the blue LaSalle some bizarre shade of purple. Needless to say, his dad was not pleased.
Ahhhh yes! The Saturday afternoon ritual of washing the family chariot. Remember it well. But once I got my fist car, it was the cheap carwash and the self-service vacuums. I think back then the price was $1.49 but gas was only 40 cents per gallon, if it cost that much.
My dad started me on this at a very young age! His Saturday routine was to get up, eat breakfast, get the yard mowed (something I also started being tasked with!) getting at the hedges as needed, and then wash and wax the 62 Buick Invicta convertible!
Dad was lucky because mom never drove, so it was a one car ordeal.
I used to wash and wax the cars after I got married, but now it an occasional drive through wash
I’ve mentioned this tale before, but whenever my always nice Uncle David visited my parents, I’d volunteer to hand wash his 1975 Thunderbird. I recall by the late ’70’s, how bad the rust already was, on the auto’s bodywork. I was genuinely shocked, and felt bad, he’d be having to buy a new car soon. During one of his visits, I actually broke off his T-Bird’s hood ornament. and I was a carefully washer. Broke my heart, having to bring him the ornament, and tell him what happened.
Looks like the ’61 Chrysler is showing the Foreign Exchange Student how we do things here in America.
Curious about the car wash , right next to the construction site there..
I do find that second-last photo intriguing, and will guess it was a news photo published somewhere in SC. The construction suggests a campus to me, but who knows?
Rich Baron, this was a fun theme and a fun selection–thanks!
George, great catch. Looks like the building is Maudlin Hall at Clemson University. The building was constructed as a women’s dormitory in 1965 (and it appears it’s still a women’s dorm today):
As Jose mentioned above, water restrictions in parts of the West seem to have really brought an end to home car washing here. My town gets almost 100% of its water from local watersheds and our rainy season is often only 6 months, not always enough to refill our one major reservoir. And our local watershed is too low for any snow and spring melt. Smaller nearby water districts get groundwater, which is sometimes shared with us, but agricultural depletion and seawater intrusion create their own issues. When I was a kid, everyone washed their cars in the driveway on summer evenings. After getting my first car, I discovered the “Magic Wand” self serve car washes and still use them once or twice a year. I like to keep the inside of my cars pretty clean but the outside, meh, I’ll wait a few months until it starts raining. I do wonder if the home car wash ritual, like crank windows and manual transmissions (and land lines and folding paper maps) is something today’s kids will never know.
I am in the Contra Costa Water District and they allot me 70,000 gallons every two months. My actual use ranges from 7,000-10,000 gallons every two months. That includes washing my Focus and Mazda every week, my wife’s every two weeks, and my vintage cars twice a year. I will wash the Polara in 30 minutes, not the Mustang as mentioned previously. Tomorrow will be it’s turn. After the Polara will be the Sable for the first time since 2017.
Today turned out really auspicious. Took a drive in the Cougar and 17 miles from home burned out the Pertronix 2 module. Fourth time in two cars but first in Cougar. Had to get towed but while parked on the side of the road had driver’s slow down asking if I needed help and to say nice car. One asked if for sale. At home had to push into garage. Then had to push the Parklane 1/2 block to the new house and get it into the driveway. Neighbors popped out to help push and guide. Then back to get the 98 Sable and push it down the street and next to the F100 and Parklane in the driveway. I’m exhausted.
This is why I will never listen to the endless advice I get about installing a Pertronix module in my truck. I keep hearing stories like yours, of them failing and stranding old cars. I have never been stranded by points. They don’t just suddenly fail, they give plenty of warning if they’re starting to wear out.
I don’t get why folks are so enamored with them, in older cars that don’t exactly rack up a lot of miles either. The points in my truck are some ten years old; I’ve touched them up with a file maybe once.
Ah, but you are missing the context. I have run the Pertronix 1 in both the Cougar and Mustang since they came out with no trouble and the resistor wire was in place. So that was about 25 years on those two modules. Those modules will burn out IF you leave the ignition at “On”.
What I believe is going on here is that while the Pertronix 2 says it needs 12 volts to run I am suspicious that it can’t handle more than that even though it is said they can go to 16 volts.The Polara and Cougar put almost 14 volts to the module. So I think Pertronix is wrong. That is why I went GM HEI in the Polara which is tried and true, I am researching for the Cougar now for when that module comes out this week. There is an outside chance that their coil couldn’t handle the current running through it. That is an easy checck.
Love these photos! Although I cannot figure out what the lady is washing the Olds (Pontiac? I’m really horrible identifying mid-1950s vehicles) with. Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem like it’s probably going to be doing the paint much good.
I do wonder (and this is a rabbit hole that comes from Paul’s comment, above, and the comment that he references from earlier today) how many of these great photos are online due to the fact that someone related to these various pictures just tossed the slides and they wound up in some thriftshop…and then in the hands of someone who took an interest in scanning them and posting them online.
So many lost stories, that are left for total strangers (i.e. us) to comment upon.
Getting us kids back then to wash the car always ending up being a mistake, buckets and hoses everywhere, a window left open and always one kid in tears and good old dad wondering why the next water bill was so much lol
Oh that brings back some memories… 1968, washing our 64 Ford Fairlane in Israel. Seems like another universe now.
When I see examples of washing cars using soapy water I’m reminded of the “ultimate car washing exhibition” in the movie, Cool Hand Luke. Imagine a bunch of love starved prisoners watching Joy Harmon and actor George Kennedy going crazy and repeating over and over, “Oh Lucille, Oh Lucille”
You’ll know I’m suffering from some form of Alzheimers Disease when I can no longer recall that scene.
Ahh, back when America was great! Look at all those American cars on the neighborhood streets. A veritable treasure trove.
I used to beg my mother to let me wash her car, and she always refused, claiming that the automatic car wash did the job properly and that hand washing was not as good. I wonder if she just didn’t want me getting wet and making a mess. I eventually started washing and waxing her cars, and mine. Then I eventually came to prefer running a dirty car through the automatic wash and spending my time and energy with wax and chrome polish.
The CC effect is strong – Sunday morning I pulled up next to a 1968 Olds Cutlass at a traffic light.
At 6 years old or so, I decided to wax Dad’s ’60 maroon Buick LeSabre. Not knowing anything, I used the entire tin of Turtle Wax paste!
Good thing the car was garaged, otherwise I’d have baked that wax right in! Crawling around on the roof, trunk, and hood never left a dent.
In later years, I always won the “debate” ovr taking the clean car or pickup over the dirty one.
I still wash them myself here Mn. Nice self serve with heated bays 3 miles from the house for winter. I’ll go there in the summer sometimes if it’s windy or sunny. Never wash outside in either condition. Best time is early morning at sunrise.
Like that “50’s Pontiac” way near the start of the article..
I would always beg my Aunt Janie to come over and let me wash her beautiful 1969 Thunderbird 4-door Landau, but it usually ended up with me in trouble. I’d have the doors open vacuuming the carpet, interior lights galore and by the time she was ready to go home the battery would be dead. You’d think this dumb kid would’ve learned, but it happened over and over.
I’m trying to figure out why the lady washing the ‘58 Chevy is using a stick!?!?!
What is that, a broom? A squeeze type sponge mop?
She is just asking to scratch the paint on that beautiful car.