Wash and Polish

Northern Advocate, 17 December 1938, Page 6 (Supplement)

Wash and Polish

Washing in five stages on an elaborate scale in a new South London garage is described in the Motor.

The cars pass through drawn by a moving chain. The first #tage is the chassis wash. The car rests over a white-tiled pit, brilliantly illuminated underneath, so that a floodlighting effect is obtained. Jacked up, all wheels are free to rotate, and the operators stand at a height convenient for their work.

Then on to the body rinse, where the car passes under a six-jet shower bath with men on each side washing the dirt from the roof with long handled brooms arid generally cleaning the body panels. Stage three is me most important. Operators on each side hold hoses, from the nozzles of which large lumps of rich, soapy lather shoot out in . continuous succession. In <a few moments the car looks as if it has been through a snowstorm. ' Then the men proceed thoroughly to sponge the body down with this mixture and hot water, fol-

lowing which the whole thing is rinsed then dried by means of compressed air and leathers (which, incidentally are repeatedly washed in an electric washer nearby); Simultaneously with the drying and leathering process other men vacuum the upholstery and carpets and generally clean up the internal fittings and windows. The final step is that of spraying liquid polish ini a fine mist over the dried panels, then polishing with electrically operated 1 lambs’ wool mobs with a final rub down by hand -giving the gloss. The whole thing takes about twenty

minutes, and sometimes like fourteen men are occupied on the job. Yet the charges are moderate —2/6 for cars up to 9 h.p., 3/- for 10 h.p. to 14 h.p. inclusive, and 3/6 for large types.

So great is the number of would-be motorists that no fewer than 12,000 applications for the driving test were made in England during a recent week.