How To Properly Wash & Dry Your Vehicle

Let us start by addressing some proper procedures to follow prior to actually washing the vehicle. First, find an area to work in with plenty of shade. With the sun beating on hot soapy water, it can cause water etching and spots on your vehicles paint. This will add more time in your routine removing them especially if you are just washing and drying for maintenance and not planning on doing a full routine.

The paint and wheels should be cool to the touch prior to washing. Next step, take a look at your attire, no jeans, no belts, no buttons, no rivets, no zippers, and no jewelry or other potentially hazardous objects. You may ask why, but the reasoning is pretty simple, they all will easily scratch your paints surface even with very minimal pressure. Also at this time ensure that all windows are completely up and doors, hood and trunk are completely closed and remove license plates or other easily removable items from the vehicle.

Prep Stage:

1. Fill up one 5 gallon wash bucket about 3/4 full of water and the remaining 1/4 full of suds.

2. Fill up the second 5 gallon wash bucket about 1/2 full of water.

Washing:

1. Rinse down an area of the vehicle that you plan on washing. Start from the top of the vehicle and work your way down. Also, work in sections such as front fenders and hood, or passenger side and half of the roof.
2. Walk around your vehicle and pre-treat any areas that have a lot of contamination, such as bug splatter, tar, and other road grime that may be difficult to remove, with a paint safe degreaser.
3. Allow degreaser to sit on the contaminated surface for a few minutes (see manufacturers suggestion)
4. Dunk your wash mitt dedicated for heavily contaminated areas in the bucket of suds.
5. Gently glide your wash mitt across the areas that were treated with degreaser and heavily contaminated areas, such as, lower panels, front bumper and rear bumper.
6. Return to the second wash bucket without suds and shake out your wash mitt in the clean water to remove loose contamination in the pile of the mitt. Then place the mitt back into the bucket of suds to continue washing.
7. Rinse off of each panel of the vehicle as it is completed.
8. Continue washing and rinsing the vehicle in the same fashion for all panels heavily contaminated.
9. Empty the two buckets and refill them per instructions in the prep stage listed above.
10. Dunk your second wash mitt into the suds, which should be your cleanest wash mitt, and gently glide your wash mitt across the rest of the vehicle starting top down. Work in a logical pattern and rinse the vehicle every couple of panels.
11. Return to the second wash bucket without suds and shake out your wash mitt in the clean water to remove loose contamination in the pile of the mitt. Then place the mitt back into the bucket of suds to continue washing.
12. Rinse off of each panel of the vehicle as it is completed.
13. Once the entire vehicle has been washed and rinsed, remove the spray nozzle from the hose. Starting from the top of the vehicle sheet free flowing water from the hose off of the vehicle. You should begin to notice less water accumulation on the surface compared to just rinsing off the vehicle. When working down the sides of the vehicle, move the hose from left to right while getting lower and lower, this will ensure the water floods off of the vehicle and will cut your drying time down considerably.

Drying:

Dry any remaining water on the car’s surface with your waffle weave microfiber towel. To reduce the possibility of marring, do not drag the towel over the car’s paint. Instead, blot the water with the towel. This will help to reduce marring caused by the drying process.

After Washing & Drying Your Vehicle...

The next step in the complete detailing process is to use a clay bar on your vehicle. Using a clay bar on your paint will completely remove surface contamination that was not able to be removed from a normal wash. To test to see if your paint could benefit from a clay bar, glide your hand across your paint to feel for rough spots. To amplify the ability to feel for contamination, put your hand in a plastic sandwhich bag as your inspect your paint.