YOUR CAR DETAILING 101 GUIDE!

There’s a few rules and tips you should follow when washing and detailing your vehicle to make it the quickest and easiest process while reducing the chance of leaving behind any scratches or swirls in your vehicle’s paint.

#1 Always try and wash in a cool and shaded environment. If you have an awning to pull your vehicle under, maybe some trees or if you have to do it during the cooler parts of the day like sunrise or sunset! This will minimize the risk of detailing products and potentially causing damage! If this isn’t really an option for you than get yourself a really nice high foaming and pH neutral soap. It being pH neutral means it won’t damage your paint if it dries or gets too hot and a really nice thick foam helps coat your vehicle’s paint and helps keep it cool from the direct sunlight!

#2 Always rinse your vehicle first before any actual washing is done. This will help get a majority of the dirt off of your ride and if the vehicle is warm for whatever reason from driving or sitting out in the sun then this will help cool it off, again to prevent any detailing products from drying. Pressure washers are much more efficient, not only from a time saving aspect but also from a water saving aspect compared to a hose!

#3 Wheels and tires should be washed first. Why? They are the dirtiest and sometimes even the most time consuming part of any wash and the last thing you want to do is wash the rest of your vehicle, doing the wheels last and seeing all the dirt and grime from them splashing up onto the other painted panels of your car or truck.  You’ll need a variety of brushes and products for your wheels and tires and if you want we have another whole blog post specifically just about washing your wheels and tires!

#4 Make sure you’re using high quality microfiber towels and mitts. 70/30 blend is regarded as the best mixture as they’re the softest. The last thing you want to do is cause any scratches  because whatever towel’s and products you’re using to wash your vehicle are too abrasive! We also have another blog talking specifically about microfiber towels!

#5 Presoaking your vehicle isn’t a much but it will help lighten up the amount of elbow grease you’ll need. So why presoak and why does it help? Well if you have a foam cannon you can coat your vehicle with a layer of foam which will stick to the paint and breakdown all the contaminants that are on your car or truck. Meaning some will wash away when you rinse all of this foam off and some of it may not come off but it will be much easier to take off once you go over it with a mitt!

 #6 It’s not always necessary to but you generally want to have 2 buckets for the 2-bucket wash method. One bucket is for rinsing your mitt off and the other is for dipping into your soapy mixture to hand wash your vehicle. The reason for the reason for the rinse bucket is to rinse off the contaminants and grime from the microfiber you were using to wash your vehicle with so you don’t take it back to your vehicle and potentially scratch the paint.

#7 Dry your vehicle. Nothing sucks more than to take time from your busy schedule to wash your car, truck or motorcycle just for it to end up drying and you have water spots afterwards. Sure the paint may overall be shinier but the look is just completely ruined by the spots everywhere. What causes water spots? Well it’s usually a mixture of the water drying from heat but also the minerals in your water source. Everybody has calcium and other minerals/metals in their water and when then they dry that’s what causes these water spots. Take an extra 5-10 minutes with some microfiber drying clothes and wipe down your vehicle or if you have a hydrophobic coating applied to the surface of your vehicle you can take a leaf blower or air compressor and just blow all the water off!

#8 The last and possibly the most important tip. Always…Wash top to bottom. Why? Well the bottom of your car or truck is going to be the dirtiest and if you’re going from the bottom to the top there’s a chance you’re bringing all those contaminants and dirt from the bottom to the top and what will it do from the top? It will run right back down to the bottom and not only are you defeating the soul purpose of washing your car at that point but you’re also increasing the chance of scratching your vehicle’s paint.

There is even more tips or “hacks” we could go into but for today these are the most essential one’s you’ll need to know so you can get to detailing your car or truck the right way!

We all at Detail Medic hope you find our blog post useful and informing. We appreciate you taking the time to read our blog and supporting our small family run car detailing manufacturing business. Remember, Do The Job Right The First Time with Detail Medic!