Salt does not need years to start working. A cart parked two blocks off the beach picks up a film of it in weeks, and that film is hygroscopic: it pulls water out of the humid air and holds it against your paint, chrome, and fasteners around the clock. The exterior detail exists to break that cycle on a schedule, before anything needs restoring.
This is a hand wash, not a pressure blast. High pressure drives salty water into light sockets, seat hinges, and battery compartments, which is how a wash ends up causing the corrosion it was supposed to prevent. We use a two-bucket wash with a pH-neutral soap, soft mitts, and controlled water, then chase the spots a hose never reaches: under the fender flares, behind the bumper, around the roof strut mounts.
The windshield gets cleaned inside and out with a plastic-safe polish rather than glass cleaner. Most cart windshields are acrylic or polycarbonate, and ammonia-based cleaners are the reason so many of them fog up early. Wheels and tires get their own buckets and brushes so brake dust never touches the paint.
Who this is for
Carts that get regular use near the water and owners who want maintenance instead of rescue. This is the service behind our monthly plan: at $79 a visit on the plan, it is the cheapest insurance a coastal cart can carry.
It also suits the cart that just came back from a week at a beach rental, or a Folly cart after a sandy weekend, when what it needs is everything off, not everything fixed.
How long it takes
Sixty to ninety minutes at your home. It is the shortest visit we make, and plenty of customers schedule it for the same morning every month and never think about it again.
What it costs
From $89 for a 4-passenger cart as a one-off. On the monthly maintenance plan the same visit is $79, billed after each service, cancel anytime. Six-passenger carts add $40, lifted carts add $25.
Fair questions
Why not just hose it off myself?
A freshwater rinse helps and we encourage it between visits. What it misses is the film that bonds to paint and the salt sitting in seams and around fasteners, which need contact washing to release. It also tends to miss the underside entirely, which is where frames rust first.
Is a pressure washer bad for a golf cart?
Used close up, yes. Carts are not sealed the way cars are, and pressure drives water into electrical connections, bearings, and seat foam. We use pressure only at a distance for the undercarriage on bigger services, never on the body or interior.
How often does a coastal cart need this?
Monthly if it lives outside within a mile of salt water, which covers most of Isle of Palms, Sullivan's, and Folly. Quarterly for garaged carts or ones further inland, like much of Mount Pleasant.
Can you get water spots off the windshield?
Fresh spots, yes, as part of this service. Etched spots and haze need the windshield polish add-on at $45, which resurfaces the plastic rather than just cleaning it.