Who doesn’t love the look of a freshly cleaned car?

Today I'll be talking about how to properly wash your car to protect your vehicles paint work with techniques and products. To understand why special care is needed while washing your car, we need to understand what can happen when a vehicle is washed improperly. While driving, you can have all kinds of things that can get stuck to the paint work like dirt, bugs, sand etc. If these are not removed properly, these can induce swirls and scratches into the paint work. 
 
To start the process, we begin with a foam bath to help break down all of the dirt and grime on the paint work. For this you can use your favorite snow foam. We like to use Gtechniq Citrous foam or P&S pearl. These soaps are PH neutral and offer phenomenal cleaning ability. These soaps will be added to a foam cannon or foam gun. Once applied you will let the foam dwell on the car for a few minutes to help break down any dirt on the car. While waiting, you can clean the wheels and tires.  For this you can use a non acid wheel cleaner. If your car has carbon ceramic brakes I recommend not using any chemicals just soap and water. Be sure you have a specific wheel and tire bucket for this task. 

Once the wheels and tires are done, we can rinse off the car. Now its time to wash the car. I recommend using the two bucket method. One bucket will have just water and the other will have your soap and water mixture. For the soap, you can use the same soaps used in the foam cannon (just a few ounces). When starting, grab your microfiber wash mitt out of the soap/water bucket and start from the top of the vehicle and work down doing a panel at a time. After each panel, rinse the mitt in the water only bucket then back in the soap/water mix and repeat until the car is completely washed. 

When drying the car use a microfiber drying towel and gently dry the water off the car. You can also use compressed air or a blower (can find automotive car dryers on most popular detail supply sites). I do recommend using your favorite detail spray while drying the car for added slickness reducing the chances of scratching the car. Once the car has been carefully dried, you can touch up the rims, apply your favorite tire shine, and clean your windows. The last step is to stand back and admire your clean car. 

All products listed plus more can be purchased through Helios Detail Studio or at your favorite detail supply site.  If you need any more information or have questions, please reach out to Helios and we will be happy to help.

Wes Odum of Helios Detail Studio