+1
the 2 bucket method will scratch your car if you have all that salt on it. Rinsing in the same bucket will be worthless after your first panel. You really need some high water pressure to get it all out from underneath the car, especially under the doors! The bucket system would be of no help there!
There should be a public wash someplace. I guess the problem would be getting her back home without getting more salt on her?

 

This is one of the only nice-ish looking carwashs I could find in my immediate area. Does it look bad..?

http://www.cloudninecarwash.com/default.aspx?pId=2

 

That looks pretty good to me.....better than the $6 wash at the shell station.

 

I drive year round too. As far as the local car wash use "presoak". It works good on the set in grim. Then soap, rinse. If you just soap/rinse it will never clean it good.I never like the soap brush because as the attendent tells me alot of people clean engines, truck beds etc that are really dirty and you know some of that crap stays on the brush. So every 3 days I'm atthe carwash. Just can't wait for spring.

 

I'd move where the annual temperature is fit for human life. But thats me.

 

Yeah, spring will be nice.

Getting home without gaining more salt is going to **** me off. Luckily it is only a 5 minute drive.

Also, which one of their "packages" would you go for?

 

If the temperature is above freezing, there should be main roads you can take which will have clean tracks on them from everyone driving and so you can probably keep out of the salt.

Or, if it goes below freezing at night, that's even better. I wash mine very shortly before the place closes, so it's late at night (no line-up to get in, and the roads are frozen) so then I can get home with a clean car.

If you wash in the middle of the afternoon and drive home you're more likely to get your car dirty on the way back. So main roads with clear tracks in them where everyone else has been driving is the ideal way to go.

And although rinsing and soaping and rinsing again will take the dirt and salt off, it's no real substitute for scrubbing your car clean (to get off any dirty film that builds up), so an occassional full-service wash at an expensive car wash place (ie. not the gas station) might be the way to go, or just make sure you give it a good clean scrubbing when the weather permits. But for just keeping the salt and most of the dirt off, a soapy rinse will do the trick during the winter months.

 

I would goto an all hands car wash if they have those over there.

 

Drive in Carwash would be your best bet. I live in texas where there isn't much salt(if any) on the road. I still take it for a cheapo wash($7) and get a pretty good wash weekly. You just need to take a towel to it after the wash and your fine.

 

Hang around some intersections and give the bum an extra dollar to do the whole car.