Before we begin, we must realize that the main goal in a car wash is to get a clean car, but doing so without scratching or instilling swirls (which are actually millions of tiny scratches) into the paint. Using dirty towels or wash mitts that have been dropped on the ground is like rubbing Dirt into your paint and will induce scratches and swirls. ALWAYS use clean towels and wash mitts. When you take your car to the car wash, they grind the same dirt that is on their mitt that they picked up from the 20 cars before you. Their dirty towels and mitts will put swirls all over your car.

Swirls from bad wash technique:

The first step in washing your car is to obtain two five gallon buckets for washing. One bucket will be used for the soap solution, while the other will be rinse water for your wash mitt. Another very useful item to grab is a grit guard, which is put on the bottom of your buckets. Any dirt that falls off of the wash mitt will sink to the bottom of the bucket where the grit guard is and get trapped because of the grit guard. This ensures that old dirt doesn’t get picked up on your wash mitt and rubbed back onto your paint. Begin by filling one of the buckets completely full of water and the other half way.

You now need soap to wash your car. Never use dish washing soap to wash your car because it has heavy chemical ingredients which are intended to cut heavy grease off of dishes. Dish washing soap will dry out your paint and make it flake off. Go to your local Wal-Mart or auto parts store and pick up some dedicated car washing soap. My favorite soap is Meguiar’s Gold Class Shampoo. I highly suggest purchasing some even though it is a tad bit more expensive. The results are outstanding and worth every penny, plus it contains paint conditioners.

Whatever dedicated car wash soap you purchase, read the back label and find the dilution instruction. Meguiar’s Gold Class says that 1 ounce of soap should be added per gallon of water. Since we have a 5 gallon bucket, we need 5 ounces. In order to make measuring easier for in the future, I took an old cup, filled it with 5 ounces of water and then drew a line around the water level. Now I just fill my soap in this dedicated cup to that line every time I was my car. It is important to use the proper dilution rather than eye-balling it. Too much soap will strip your wax since it is too strong of a solution, and too little soap will not provide enough lubrication for your mitt and cleaning power, and will cause you to instill scratches and swirls in your paint.

Next, pour your car wash soap in the bucket half full and then fill the bucket to the top with water. The point of filling the bucket half way is to prevent excessive foaming. Now take your hose and completely rinse down your vehicle to rinse away any loose dirt. The more dirt we can get off of the vehicle’s surface before even touching the vehicle, the less potential there is for you scratching your car while washing.

After the surface has been rinsed off, take a clean quality wash mitt and soak up some soapy solution. Wash one panel at a time per side of the wash mitt. There is no need to scrub hard, but use just enough pressure to make the mitt glide across the paint. If too much pressure is used, it will grind the dirt into the paint and cause swirls and scratches. So once you have washed one panel with one side of the mitt, and another panel with the other side of the mitt, rinse your mitt off in the rinse bucket. This ensures that all the dirt removed from your car and transferred on to your wash mitt is now in your rinse bucket, and not being picked up in your soapy solution and be rubbed into your paint.

Now soak your mitt in the soapy solution again and move on and do two more panels, one per side. I typically count the hood and the roof as two panels, separating them into halves since they are so large. I also like to wash from the top of the car down, that way there isn’t any dirt flowing down onto a part of the car that I already washed.

If the soap starts drying on the car while you are still washing, just rinse down that panel. Once you have completely cleaned each panel, rinse down all of the panels with the hose. If your car has a good coat of wax on it this next step is recommended. Unscrew the nozzle on the hose and let the water flow freely onto the painted panels. The water should “sheet” off of the paint only leaving small amounts of water residue behind. This makes drying easier because there is less water on the car to clean up.

Dry your car with a CLEAN dedicated drying towel. I like using waffle weave towels which can absorb tons of water and can be located at any Wal-Mart or auto parts store. Dry with light pressure as well. If by chance you missed a spot and there is still some dirt, you don’t want to be rubbing it across your paint with heavy pressure. If you did a good job of washing, you should not get any dirt on your drying towel. If you have an air compressor, or leaf blower, it can be used to blow water out of the crack of the car. Make sure not to blow any dirt from the ground onto your freshly washed car!

And now your car is clean and looks stellar! It may have taken longer than normal, but you did not scratch your paint or instill any swirls, and your choice to use a dedicated car wash will help prolong the lifespan of your vehicle’s finish.

Check later for other articles such as “How to Clean Wheels and Tires” , “How to Clean Windows Streak Free”, “How to Wax a Car”, and “How to Remove Swirls.”