Chapter 27
Appearance of the coin operated car wash

In the mid-60s, the car wash business was filled with the excitement of a still-new industry in various stages of development. There seemed to be no limit to the creativity of these new adventures.

During the previous few years, the sound of clinking coins had started to be heard in the vicinity of some car washes. In fact, this sound resembled that heard around slot machines, with many winnings coming out of the slots.

Now there was nothing new about the use of slot machines to vend services. The old penny chewing gum machines had become standards on train platforms many years before anyone thought of car washing as a business. What’s more, laundromats had been taking the country by storm in the 1950s with woman carrying baskets of laundry to feed into glassy-eyed washers that did their bidding at the deposit of a few quarters, while they sat down to read the latest romance off the magazine racks.

So it wasn’t too surprising when an article appeared in the July 1963 issue of “Auto Laundry News” that started out something like this:

“The first coin operated car wash system constructed in the country opened in Villa Park, Illinois, last month. A product of extensive research of the automatic car washing industry, the unit is in operation seven days a week. The building and all equipment are designed to wash automobiles with speed, efficiency and economy. The deposit of a dollar in coins by the customer activates the conveyor to send the car on a three-minute trip where it is completely washed and blower dried.”

Depending upon the definition you used, this was not completely accurate. Back in 1959, Rob Bell, who later founded Southern Pride Carwash Equipment Company, got involved with coin operated self-serves prior to 1963. He had started to sell automotive supplies on the road in Michigan. Some of his sales included supplies such as chamois, cleaning products and waxes to car wash racks. But as Ron explained in an interview:

“In 1962 we took on a line of car washers, which were high pressure sprayers with a pump. One of my customers asked me about putting a coin meter on one of these washers and hanging it on the side of their gas station. Then they wanted to know if we couldn’t supply a vacuum cleaner with a coin meter. So we bought a vacuum and added a coin meter to it. All of this was very primitive compared to what we have today, but the customer ended up buying about 30 sets of these units for use at their gas stations.”

It was Ron’s love of experimenting that led him into selling automotive parts and later supplies to car wash racks and eventually into the act of actually putting together coin operated sprays for Michigan Gasoline Company.