Why should I wash and dry my car?
At the heart of every car detail is the washing and drying process and it's important that in this step of the external auto detailing process it is done properly. While at first glance you would think that any car owner would take pride in their car’s external appearance, there’s another reason for washing and drying that a lot of car owners actually neglect.
A lot of the small scratches, waterspots and swirl marks on your car’s paint can come from the washing and drying phase when done incorrectly. This is why you need to have the proper tools and method in place and we pride ourselves on this part of the auto detail. Afterall, this is what you (and everyone) will see when you look at your car.
So now that you know why you need to properly wash and dry your car, let’s break down our process for how we do so.
Before we even start washing your car, we make sure that it's properly placed in the shade so that it’s not sitting in the hot sun. The reason for this is because a hot surface will typically make water evaporate much quicker, which isn’t ideal since it’ll increase the likelihood of waterspots appearing.
It’s worth mentioning that the process we use is the traditional two-bucket wash system. The first bucket holds soapy water while the second bucket holds rinse water, we use the latter to rinse our sponge before we dump it back into the soapy water. The two bucket wash method is one of the safest methods to wash your car while minimizing any imperfections your car’s body paint might sustain. It does so by keeping the grime and dirt out of the soapy water where it could cause damage to your car. Moreover, it allows the soapy water to last even longer since it's not being contaminated with the dirt that’s coming from your car.
The first step in washing your car is taking care of your car’s wheels and tires. We do this first for two reasons. First, your car’s wheels and tires are typically dirtier than your car body which means that it has way dirt, dust, and other fine particles layered between the folds and on the axles. If we were to wash the car altogether, there’s a chance that your car body’s paint would be scratched from debris that came from the wheels and tires. Suffice to say, we don’t use the same wash water for your car and we use a different one with clean water. Second, if we wash the car body first then the water will evaporate and spots will remain afterwards even before we get to the wheels and tires.
To properly clean your car’s wheels and tires, we’ll use an eco-friendly acid-free spray wheel cleaner, a soft tire and wheel scrub brush, a sponge, a water hose attached with a nozzle, a pH neutral car shampoo, and last but not least the standard 5 gallon heavy duty bucket. We always clean one wheel at a time using a mixture of soapy water and our car wash shampoo. Afterwards, we rinse the wheel with a strong water stream using the attached nozzle to the hose. If your wheel and tires are heavily caked in grime and dirt, then we’ll soak them in our spray wheel cleaner for about 90 seconds. After a minute-and-a-half, we use our soft tire to get in the grooves of the tire and get between the axles of the wheel. Keep in mind that when we rinse the wheel and tires, we use enough water to eliminate all traces of the soap and wheel cleaner. Lastly, we dry the tires and wheels using a microfiber towel.
The process that we use to clean your wheel and tires is the exact same for cleaning the car body. Any insect stains or bird droppings on your car exterior can be removed through a microfiber bug sponge. As professionals, we like to use a high-quality microfiber wash mitt for washing your car body. These are useful in that they can simultaneously hold a lot of sudsy water and drag dirt and debris away from the car exterior.
When it comes to drying the car body, we start from the top and work all the way down using a large microfiber towel to prevent scratching. For the windows, we use a clean squeegee then another microfiber towel to take care of any excess water and to prevent streaks. Once we finish your car’s exteriors, we open all the doors and the trunk to wipe down the seals, sill areas, and jambs. This final step ensures that the areas underneath the doors and trunk won’t get wet after we close them.
