Greetings,
As I stated in the Pet Peeves thread, I take car washing very seriously. I want to be able to show everyone what is important when it comes to washing a car, and what is wrong. You may not have all the materials I will be using in this first part of the process, but they are not that expensive, nor complicated to use. I have provided pictures to help guide you along as well.
First are the products and methods. For many people, it's a hot bucket of water with dish soap and a brush. This is wrong in every single way. Hot water is a no-no when it comes to cleaning cars, as it softens the clear coat, and makes it more susceptible to swirling. Dish soap is wrong, as it stripes any protecting wax/sealant off the paint, leaving it bare in a world with many enemies (UV light, Tar, Dirt, Sap, Bugs, Rocks). Wax can protect your car from all of those, even rocks. Not all waxes will, and that's where some research will come in. Lastly, the brush. This is far to rough on the paint. No matter what anyone tells you, an bristle style brush will swirl paint. Only mitts with extremely fine hair or synthetic fibers should be used ( this includes wheels).
So, now that we've torn down the common misguided way to wash a car, lets rebuild it with the proper methods and materials.
Materials list:
- 2 5 gallon buckets (or large buckets).
- Wash mitt (hair or synthetic, no brushes).
- Car specific soap solution (no Dish detergent)
- Chamois (Sheep skin or synthetic. And no, I won't give you one).
- Clay bar with Clay lubrication spray.
- Pressure washer (Optional)
- Wheel cleaning soap solution (and preferably a mitt to go with it. be sure to keep this mitt for wheels only. Don't use it on paint afterwords).
This is a basic start up list, that will get to you a good, clean car. It won't be protected as there won't be fresh wax, and the swirls will still be there because it hasn't been cut polished. I will get to these later on, as they're more complicated and require extra attention. For now the focus is just cleaning and prepping for those next steps.
Lets explain why I've selected these materials and what you should be doing with them. The 2 bucket technique is very common method among detailers for many good reasons. One bucket has the soapy water solution, while the other has plain cold water. This second bucket is for rinsing out the mitt after you've cleaned a section of the car. It will remove most of dirt from the mitt, so it doesn't ruin your soapy water, nor get rubbed into the paint. This will also make a little soap go a long way. Using nothing more then half a 5 gallon pail, I can clean 3 cars and still have leftovers. Simply dump and refill the plain water when it becomes dirty, or when you start a new car.
When using the mitt, you want to work in side to side, or up and down motions. Going in circles can cause you to miss spots. Also, it's important to start at the top, especially when you're working at home with a normal hose. I recommend to those that can afford it a pressure washer, as you can scrub the lower half of the car with it, which is the dirtiest. It's also great for wheel wells and cracks between panels and doors. I'm planning to purchase a simple electric unit for car washing. You may use a gas one, but it will be more expensive, and complicated to run. You also don't need that much pressure for washing. When selecting a soap, you can be overwhelmed with choices, but as long as it is of high lubricity and doesn't remove wax, you should be just fine. If you become more particular, there is higher end companies that sell exotic style soaps and products for car cleaning. I can't tell you if they work better, but they sure look fancy. I currently use a Meguiar's soap, that has been decent, but I'm replacing it with a custom solution made for high quality cleaning. I happen to know someone that is a distributor.
A chamois will be required for drying, but it doesn't matter if it's Sheep skin style, or Synthetic. I will say that I have had a poorly made Sheep skin chamois, that didn't work very well. I bought a Synthetic chamois after called the "absorber" which works much better, and feels nicer. Be sure to only dry visible areas of the car, and not door jams or under the hood etc. You will end up ruining the chamois. Every once is a while you will also need to clean it out with hot water and some kind of soap. Clothing detergent with do the job, just make sure you rising it out thoroughly afterwords.
Clay barring is a process some people might not be familiar with. It's purpose is to removed pitted dirt from the paints finish, and smooth it out to the touch. It is not for removing dirt in general, that is what the washing is for. This is used after the car has been washed, with a spray lubricant of some sort (most clay bars have accompanying lubricants). I use a Toyota Touch Clay Bar, with their Spray Wax (which is how it's meant to be used). The process for using this is similar to washing a car. First, you must wash the car, and rise it off. Afterwords, you soap it up again, and then rub the clay bar on the panels with spray lubricant around it. It will make a scraping like sound, similar to a faint sand paper, and you should feel it hitting the pitted dirt as it moves around. Move it just like you would the wash mitt, up and down, side to side. When the sound goes away, and the bar moves freely around the paint, the panel is clean. You must remember to keep the panel nice and soapy as well as lubricated while your claying. If you don't the clay bar can stick, and it is very hard to remove from the paint. Do this for any painted panel, black trim and windows/mirrors don't require this. Rinse off the soap and lubricant solution and the paint should feel very smooth on the back of your fingers.
Wheels are the dirtiest part of most cars. Brake dust and road grim can pit into the wheels paint, and pit much deeper due to the wheels heating up form braking. If you leave your wheels dirty for too long, you may find that some brake dust won't come off. Most wheel cleaners are designed to be sprayed on, and sprayed off. If you do this regularly, this will work. If you don't want to clean your wheels every few days, I recommend using a mitt with the soap (and gloves to protect your hands) and giving them a nice scrub. There is some products out there that are much stronger acid based solutions, which will remove every bit of pitted braked dust, but should be avoided if possible. Eventually, they will wear away the finish on the wheels, plus they're also very hard on your braking components (rotors in particular). So keep them clean all the time, and you won't have to resort to these acids based solutions.
This warps up the basic products and how they would be used to clean your car. I will now show these products in action on my own car, so you can see how they are properly applied.
Fisrt, have your soap and rinse buckets ready.
Then, rinse down the car.
Wash the car using the proper techniques I described above.
Remember to use your rinse bucket to clean out your mitt when it becomes dirty. You can flip between sides when one gets dirty as well. Also, never leave the mitt in dirty bucket after you're finished washing the car. Hang it on the side of the clean bucket, so it doesn't get dirty again.
Get your clay Bar ready. Have a bucket with extremely hot water in it, and let the bar soften up. Once it is easily pliable, flatted it out and begin rubbing it onto the re-soaped car. Be sure to spray lubricant where you're rubbing at the same time.
Even after washing the car, you can see, there is still a lot of dirt left behind. This dirt is what causes your paint to feel rough. This example here is just from my hood and front fenders. When the clay bar gets really dirty, you need to flip to the other side. When that side gets dirty, you need to put it back into the hot water, and fold it in on itself. Do this numerous times until the bar is clean again. It helps to need it between your hands, and twist to free the dirt from the bar.
When that is done, it should look brand new again.
After the car is rinsed, get your chamois out and begin drying. It's best to start at the top, as water runs down hill. You want to wet your chamois and ring it out before you start drying. It won't work well if it isn't fully damped.
When you're all done, your car should look and feel very clean.
Stay tuned to this thread, as on Wednesday I will be doing a full cut polish and documenting it. I will have pictures and instructions on how to do that as well.
SheepStar
