How to Wash Your Car at Home
The best way to make sure your car makes it from detail to detail is to give it a proper wash. This means avoiding the drive-through car wash at the gas station and going back to basics at home.
By just using one bucket, the dirt and grit from your car just gets transferred to the water, and then back to your vehicle.
Most people’s intuition has them using a hose and a bucket of warm soapy water, with a wash mitt. This method appears to do an okay job, but the reality is that after a few dips into the bucket, you are just swirling around dirty water on your vehicle, rather than getting it clean. By using just one bucket, the dirt and grit from your car just gets transferred to the water, and then back to your vehicle. That’s a whole lot of work to end up with dirty, scratched paint.
The Two Bucket Car Wash
Here’s what you do: Get yourself two buckets and using a marker, label one “rinse” and one “wash”. After hosing down your car to get rid of the large pieces of dirt, dip your wash mitt into the “wash” bucket and clean a body panel. After that panel has been scrubbed, clean the mitt in the “rinse” bucket. Make sure to use linear motions when scrubbing to avoid leaving swirl marks.
The second bucket prevents you from wiping your car down with dirty water, which risks scratching the paint. Many people will take the precaution a step further by using a separate mitt for the bottom half of the car and one for the upper half. The bottom half is usually the dirtier one, so using separate mitts helps you prevent the spread of grit.
You can also purchase a grit guard to trap contaminants at the bottom of the bucket. The grit guard prevents dirt from swirling upwards, and gives you something to help clean the dirt off of the mitt.
Looking to Save Some Time?
If your schedule just doesn’t permit you to spend the appropriate amount of time washing your car, don’t worry. We are here to help you out with our Quick Wash service. Quick Washes are fast, efficient, and effective. Drop us a line today to ask any questions you may have about any of our services, from Quick Washes to Ceramic Coatings.