Not Cleaning Your vehicle Will Cost You
A regular car wash protects the body of the vehicle from a variety of environmental elements and other material, such as splattering bugs, bird droppings, and dirt among other, bigger issues. If the vehicle goes without a wash for months on end, materials could build up on the paint surface and damage it. You may already perform an entire wash service on your vehicle, but are you using the correct detail care products? Furthermore, are you using the proper washing technique to avoid swirl marks and scratches? Not only does this page include instructions on how to clean the body of your vehicle, it also contains a number of helpful tips.
It is important to wash the vehicle often, but even more important than the regular wash interval is using the proper wash practices. If you have a perfect finish and want to preserve the impeccable paint, it's an ALL OR NOTHING deal. You either commit to these practices entirely, of if you ever slack, this advice is going to go right down the drain and hurt your paint. In the worst case scenario, if you are ever in the dilemma of either wash your vehicle unsafely or be forced to let it stay dirty for an extended timeframe. Let it sit dirty.
Proper washing is easier than most people think. There are a number of ways to safely wash your vehicle, from a quick automatic touchless car wash or a self service wash bay (without using the brush), to the more personal at-home DIY car wash.
If you have questions, PLEASE contact me for free advice, before you risk scratching the paint.
Remember this
When cleaning the car, think of the life cycle of a rock, you wouldn't drag a rock along the hood of your car, but when you wipe dust from the paint, that's exactly what you are doing. The life cycle goes: Rock, Smaller rock, Pebble, Dust. And the high majority of the dirt on cars, is actually just dust, aka lots of tiny rocks.
Don't use tunnels
Tunnel car washes make detailers so much money in paint repair. NEVER EVER take your car through a car wash like this.
These car washes have spinning brushes called "wraps" in the industry, wraps are hardly ever cleaned. And the brushes themselves are so aggressive that they scratch the paint.
Not only do these washes create scratches, but because of the insanely high level of water use, they are forced to recycle the water. Leading to an extremely high risk of getting hard water spots.
This picture makes me cringe in pain for the paint
Touchless, Automatic
The touchless, automatic car washes (that kind-of walk around the parked car) are safe for the paint, although they aren't the most ideal because of the risk of mechanical damage due to the high water pressures.
Self Service Bay
Better than the above mentioned automatic touchless car washes are the self service car wash bays, just NEVER USE THE BRUSH.
DIY at home wash
When washing at home:
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Don't ever consider using dish soap, only use purpose made car wash soap. The options with added chemicals like "wax" or "ceramic" aren't necessary as the protectants (wax/ceramic) will only end up protecting the dirt that you are trying to wash off.
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Do this on a cloudy day, or super early in the morning, when the temperature is cooler, as to reduce the risk of the water drying on the paint.
START FROM TOP TO BOTTOM
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Clean the tires, wheels, and exhaust. Using tire and wheel brushes to work the cleaning chemicals into crevices. If you clean the wheels last, you might splash road grime to the body of a clean car.
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Make sure everything in the engine bay is closed and tight then you can gently rinse down everything under the hood.
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Using a garden hose or pressure washer, thoroughly rinse the outside of your vehicle, starting from the top to the bottom. This starts loosening dirt and grime and bugs from your car so they can run off.
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If you have one, this is a great time to use a soap foam gun (although not required)
It's important to use a good-quality wash mitt, this will reduce the likelihood of any marring or light scratches or swirls, the deep pile fabric allow any particles to be absorbed in to the mitt as opposed to being pressed and dragged across the surface. Further precaution against causing damage is the Dual Wash Bucket method: Fill one bucket with wash solution, the other with plain water. Apply wash solution to the vehicle (washing from top down small sections at a time) - Rinse the mitt first in the water bucket before taking fresh wash solution to the car. This method ensures you don't contaminate your wash solution and are always using clean wash water on your car.
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Use the wash mitt from top to bottom, rinsing the mitt at least once per panel
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Rinse the soap off
Start at the top of the vehicle and work your way down. Tackling it panel by panel will be the easiest way to make sure you get every area streak free. It's important to work quickly (to avoid water spots), while being thorough so not to leave any streaks from the drying process. If you are left with any water spots, a quick detailer is a great product to clean them up with after.
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Dry the vehicle