Rules to Wash by
By Don Ford
January 20th, 2022
The following list of rules are the rules we follow in our own car detailing business.
Rule #1: Work Clean
The number one rule we follow is to work clean. This rule means that all of the tools, buckets, brushes and wash media we use are clean before we start touching the car. Even the water we use we filter to help with minimizing water spots.
Rule #2: Use Lubrication
Anytime you touch your car you risk creating scratches or swirls. The risk is much higher if you rub on your car while it’s dry. Using lubrication helps minimize the risk by creating lubricity for dirt to be lifted off of the paint instead of being ground into it. If a bird poops on your car don’t use a napkin or paper towel, as it will scratch the paint. Use a clean microfiber with a quick detailer to help with lubrication when quick clean up situations arise.
Rule #3: No Cross contamination
Keep your wheel cleaning media separate from your car washing media. Keeping up with working clean means to not cross contaminate different areas of the vehicle. If you used a wash mitt to clean the wheels and then start using that same wash mitt on the body of the car that would be like rubbing a scotch-brite pad on your paint. Now all of the brake dust and grit from your wheels is being dragged across your paintwork. Swirls and scratches guaranteed!
Rule #4 : Stay Cool and in the Shade
The majority of car cleaning products prefer being in the shade. It’s not a necessity, but it will definitely make your life easier. A hot car will evaporate water and dry out soap quickly and you’ll be sweating. You can work more methodically in the shade and your products will work more effectively.
Rule # 5: Use Quality Products
Use products that have a good track record and are known for quality results. Cheap, household or No name products can do more harm than good. We swear by Meguiar’s, 303 and Griot’s Garage to name a few. It’s hard to go wrong with any of these brands. They are readily available and safe to use. Always follow the directions on products, as there can be performance limitations to products if used in extreme weather conditions like heat or cold.
Car Wash Steps, Tools and Techniques
This is not meant to be the definitive guide, but it’s the general way we wash cars and we hope it’s helpful as a guide to caring for your own car. We have included links to the tools and consumer products we recommend.
Prep: Prepare for washing your car by being organized and having everything ready to go before you even start. Fill your bucket or buckets and have your wash mitts and drying towels near by. We keep all of our supplies in airtight bins so there is no chance that dust in the air or other contaminants will get into our wash media. We also keep things away from the ground and we clean our wash towels and wash mitts after every use so they are always clean and ready to use. To keep from constantly bending over we keep everything off the ground with a fold-able work bench that serves as our home base to keep things organized.
Dirty Jobs first: We wash areas like the engine bay, door jams and wheel’s first. Since cleaning those areas can create overspray it makes sense to clean them first so you don’t have to repeat steps later. We also use separate wash media and brushes for these tasks as to not cross contaminate.
Wheel Cleaning: First and foremost use a quality wheel cleaner. Brands like Meguiar’s, Griot’s Garage make very good products.
The safest type of wheel cleaner is one that says it is PH neutral or Acid Free. An Acid based wheel cleaner is only safe for painted wheels, but can cause damage to bare metal like aluminum or magnesium wheels. Meguiar’s All Wheel Cleaner is a great option and can be found at local auto parts or big box stores.
Make your way around the car and clean one wheel at a time. Use a bucket a wash mitt or a brush that you only use on the wheels. We fill our bucket with car wash shampoo so the brushes are soapy and there is plenty of lubrication.
A boar’s hair brush is great because it’s not too harsh, but sturdy enough to do the job. You can also use a nylon wheel brush or a chenille wash mitt.
For cleaning the tires a dedicated tire cleaner or All Purpose Cleaner is great. Meguiar’s also makes a great All Wheel and Tire Cleaner called Hot Rims.
Pre-Rinse: Using clean water rinse off the whole vehicle. This helps remove loose dust, dirt and debris before you start touching the car. Having a pressure washer makes this step faster and more effective, however it’s not a necessity. If you do use a pressure washer you’ll want to keep the PSI between 1200 and 1400 and only use a wide spraying nozzle (25-40).
Bugs and tar: Once you’ve given the car a good rinse take a look around to see if there is any bugs or tar stuck to the paint. For stuck on bugs and tar you can use a quality bug and tar remover. We use Seafoam Bug and Tar remover, which is easily available in most auto parts stores.
Another option for removing bugs using no chemicals is to place wet towels over the nose of the car and let them sit for several minutes. This will soften the bug guts so they should more easily be removed. You can use a bug sponge or a microfiber towel to gently remove the bugs. Make sure to use car soap as a lubricant and try not to scrub hard, as you’re likely to cause scratching.
Sno-Foam: We use a Sno-Foam cannon that attaches to our pressure washer to lubricate the car with a thick layer of luscious car shampoo. The Shampoo both helps clean and lubricate the paint to help mitigate the risk of creating swirls while washing the car. We use Meguiar’s Hyper Wash. A great consumer equivalent would be Meguiar’s Gold Class Car Wash or Adam’s Car Shampoo.
It’s important to use a Car shampoo that is PH Neutral. This helps if you have a wax or sealant on your car that you want to preserve. The soap is not harsh enough to strip off your wax. If you use a harsher soap like Dawn Dish soap it can compromise or effect the durability, performance and longevity of the wax or sealant on your vehicle.
If you don’t have a foam cannon or a pressure washer you can also get soap dispensing garden hose attachments available at places like Wal-Mart or Meier’s.
Contact Wash/Bucket Wash: Now comes the step where you get to know your car in an up close and personal way with a good old hand wash.
You’ll want to use a quality wash mitt. We like the microfiber chenille wash mitts, as they are super soft and the little microfiber fingers help grab the dirt and pull the particles into the mitt and away from the paint. Leave the sponges in the kitchen. They are too harsh on the paint and the dirt will collect on the surface of the sponge and act as an abrasive and grind across the paint.
We wash the car in sections and from the top to the bottom. We will either use two buckets or a single bucket and multiple mitts.
The two-bucket method is based on the idea that you have one bucket with clean water and one bucket with soap. After each section is washed on the car you rinse the wash mitt in the clean water bucket before putting it back in the soap bucket. This helps reduce the amount of dirt that is being moved around from panel to panel on your car since your wash mitt is cleaner.
The other method is to use one bucket with soap and have several mitts so you’re using a fresh mitt on different sections of the car. Breaking up the car by its body panels is a good way to create sections.
We also section off the car in thirds. We’ll clean the top portion first since it’s typically cleaner than the bottom portions and work our way down. This helps keep your wash media cleaner longer as your washing from the cleanest areas to the dirtiest.
Another tool that we find helpful is called a Grit Guard or Dirt Trap. This is a mesh like devise that you can put in the bottom of your buckets. You can then agitate your mitt against them after washing a panel so that the dirt that’s in the mitt can be released into the water. The grit guard then acts like a dirt trap keeping the dirt in the bottoms of the buckets.
Final Rinse: Now that you’re done with loving on your car it’s time to give your car a good rinse. Having spotless water is very helpful for this step since water spots can be a big problem, especially when working in direct sunlight. If you have a shaded area it’s not as necessary, but if you have hard water there are ways to make your life easier.
We utilize Camco RV filters. They will remove the majority of minerals and particulates that may be in the water that are the main culprits of water spots. You could also invest in a spotless water system that uses resin canisters. This resin can be replaced when the filters become saturated.
If you don’t have the option then a coin operated spray booth would be ideal as they usually have spotless water available. This option is great for those who live in an apartment or who still want to utilize a pressure washer system. You can still perform your hand wash there as well. They make buckets that have screw on tops so you could fill your buckets with your water and shampoo before you go and transport them with you.
Drying: We recommend using a leaf blower or compressed air to dry your car since you’re minimizing touching it. Less touching means less chances for causing swirls. You will also be able to blow water out from areas where the water will pool like seams, light bezels, grills, vents and trim so that when you start driving you don’t end up with streaks or water spots.
The only downside to this method is that if the car is bare of protection the water won’t have very hydrophobic behavior. It will tend to stick to the car and not run off fast enough and may leave streaks. Using a quick detailer is a way you can do a final wipe down to remove any streaking, but still minimizing how much you need to touch or rub on the car. If the car is waxed or has a coating or sealant on it the water will fly right off the paint.
It is also fine to use towels to dry the car. We recommend a big plush microfiber-drying towel. These types of towels are very absorbent and you can dry a large SUV or van with just one. When towel drying we will use a detail spray as a drying aid and lubricant. Using a drying aid will help neutralize water spots and act as a lubricant while using a towel to dry the car.
Protection: After washing your car applying a wax, sealant or coating is a great way to make washing your car easier the next time as well as provide protection to your vehicles finish. There are thousands of products on the market from old school paste wax to cutting edge ceramic and graphine coatings. At the end of the day choosing a product to protect your paint comes down to personal preference.
Our go to product for protecting paint is Griot’s Garage Ceramic 3-1 Wax. We love it for it’s durability, ease of use and gorgeous appearance.
If you are washing your car in between details and the car is already coated or has a sealant or a wax on it you can boost the performance of the protection on your cars paint by applying a compatible spray wax or quick detailer.
We love Meguiar’s Ceramic Quick Detailer as it goes on effortlessly and is great for boosting ceramic coatings or sealants. Using a spray wax is a good way to boost or lengthen the protection of a wax. It also will make your car look freshly detailed again.
Tips for cleaning your wash media: Microfiber towels, mitts and drying towels are the best for washing cars. Microfiber alone provides great cleaning power by its static cling nature. Unfortunately this also means that if you wash microfiber with regular cotton towels or clothing they will become filled with lint. The next time you go to clean your glass with a microfiber towel you’ll be seeing lint everywhere.
Heat is the enemy of microfiber so wash on cool or warm and tumble dry with no heat. Make sure your lint trap is clean. There are special microfiber detergents available. We use 3D Towel Kleen, but you can use a regular detergent as long as it is free and clear with no scents or dyes.
© 2022 Dream Machine Detailing, LLC