Its particular brand of automotive care prompted a police investigation and a local politician to complain to council. Now, its operations are being reviewed and it faces closure on a technicality.

Owner and strip-club entrepreneur Warren Armstrong has vowed to fight to keep his business going, but the girls who work there do not understand what the fuss is about. They say it is good money and good fun and they are contemptuous of suggestions their work is degrading. "The thing is, there's two brothels around the corner and there's touching, there's sex going on, everything else," a miffed Summer, 25, told brisbanetimes.com.au.

"They come here, they get a car wash; they're not allowed to touch us, they're not allowed to do anything, so what's the difference?" There is also no alcohol served on the premises, another reason why Summer and her 22-year-old colleague, Bailey, say they moved over from strip-club work.

Bailey was a receptionist before boredom and curiosity led her to dancing. When the late hours and wandering hands became too much for the petite brunette, the daylight car washing gig seemed like a good option. The girls pay to use the car wash bays and take the rest home and while the work can be erratic it can also be lucrative.

Isabelle and Eva are German backpackers financing trips home and further travel. "From three months of fruit-picking I got the same amount of money I can earn in three days here," Isabelle said.

"The most I earned in one day was $735 and of course it's not like that all the time, but it is still much better than waitressing." Isabelle says she needed the work to start with and had never done any stripping or dancing back home. Now, she says she enjoys the atmosphere and would consider something similar in Germany to help her through university. "Last weekend we had a bucks’ party and a whole lot of Chinese tourists in a bus and we just had a big water fight, it was really fun,” she said.

"Other times you can get some strange men but that doesn't bother me. "They're all really nice people - they're just perverts as well."

All girls agree they feel safe and have rarely had any problem customers. "A lot of them just come here to wank," Isabelle says. Does she mind washing their cars while they, ahem, wax their sticks?

"No, not really, it's hard to explain but it just doesn't worry me." So what is Brisbane's problem if the girls like the work and the clients like the product?

Why are brothels tolerated but a nude car wash - surely the definition of good, squeaky clean fun - is being run out of town? "Obviously people have nothing better to complain about," Summer says wearily, soaking up the afternoon sun on a pink rug in middle of the driveway. "They're obviously not complaining about brothels and strip-clubs that have been around for however many years, but then you open up a car wash and all of a sudden everyone's got… problems about it.

"We're not pushing it on people, it's not affecting anybody, if you don't want to come here you don't come. "It's a job, that's it."