SAN FRANCISCO — For decades, Divisadero Touchless Car Wash has served the area around Divisadero, according to Hoodline.
However, this longstanding carwash may soon be demolished to make way for a residential and retail development, stated the article.
The property, which features the carwash and a gas station, reported the article, is also known for its solar panels, a gift shop, an ongoing child-abuse prevention campaign and Burning Man promotions.
The Professional Carwashing & Detailing team recently covered Divisadero Touchless Car Wash’s Burning Man promotion, which charged event goers $100 per wash, in a past edition of Carwash eNews. You can find this coverage here.
Roy and Patty Shimek are the longtime owners of the business, continued the article, and Roy started to work at the on-site Shell station in 1960 to help pay for undergrad at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and law school at Golden Gate University.
The Shell station was built in 1958, informed the article, two years before Roy came on board to manage it, and it was a carwash known as the Lester Wash before that.
When his boss told Roy he was planning to sell the gas station, a fellow student told him he should buy the business, stated the article, which cost $4,000.
Roy said he didn’t have the money, reported the article, however his fellow classmate gave him a loan, and Roy owned and operated the gas station throughout his time at UCSF and even acquired seven more locations by the time he graduated law school.
The permit to run the Lester Wash expired in 1980, which caused Roy to have to build a new one, added the article, and he decided to stray from the norm at that time for a carwash that uses “nothing but water and air.”
“Other people in the carwash industry said, ‘It can’t be done. You cannot get the car clean if you don’t have the brushes scrubbing it all,’” recalled Patty in the article. “Well, we proved them wrong.”
According to the Shimeks, the carwash was “the first in the U.S. to operate without mechanical scrubbing,” which they designed and hired engineers to help them develop, and the wash opened in 1987.
During their peak time in business, the carwash was washing 1,200 cars on a Saturday, noted the article.
Read the entire article here.
