How To Fully Detail A Vehicle
There are various ways to wash your car or vehicle, but there is only one correct way to do this and ensure there is no damage made to your vehicle. Many individuals take their personal vehicle to machine car washes that tend to damage their cars paint as it goes through the wash which can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars in damages to their car’s value. I personally own my own private mobile car detailing company where I hand wash and wax customers cars. Over the past few years, I’ve discovered the best way to efficiently wash a car and have created a step by step process on the correct way to do so.
Here’s the products and materials that you will need:
A garden hose with hose gun
A car pressure washer if available
Two buckets: A wash bucket and a rinse bucket
A car wash soap with wax infused
A decent sponge
A wheel cleaning brush
Wheel cleaner spray
Window cleaning spray
Exterior plastic trim reconditioning paste
Plastic working gloves
Detail spray
Multiple small clean microfiber towels
Tire Shine
Tire shine applicator
Car cleaner wax
Car polish wax
Two buffing pads
3 large microfiber towels
The process is as follows:
Step 1: Park your vehicle in a relatively shaded area away from dirt or debris. It is best to have your vehicle parked on pavement away from wind and rain. Gather all of the necessary supplies, connect the hose gun to the garden hose, and turn on the hose. Put on your plastic working gloves.
Step 2: Start filling one bucket with water at about half way. This will be your designated rinse bucket where you will periodically rinse off your sponge. Then, pour about half of a cup worth of your car washing soap into the other bucket. Take your hose gun and point it towards the inside of that bucket and spray into it until it is about half full of soapy water. Put your washing sponge into that bucket, and submerge it all the way.
Step 3: Grab you wheel cleaning spray and spray each wheel and its respective tire with the spray until each wheel is fairly covered in the spray. Let the wheel spray sit on each wheel for about two minutes until you see the wheels bleed a purple residue that indicates that chemicals have reacted with dirt, oil, and brake dust that is sitting on each wheel.
Step 4: Take your wheel cleaning brush and scrub each wheel in circles, which will help to remove the brake dust and dirt that is sitting on each wheel. Continue to do this for each wheel until each area of the wheel has been scrubbed. Next, rinse off each wheel and tire with the garden hose until the brake dust and dirt has been removed from each wheel. Do not dry the wheels quite yet.
Step 5: Now, lift the windshield wipers up so that they are out of the way and so that you now have access to more areas along the windshield. Take the garden hose and start rinsing your vehicle until the whole car is covered in water. The vehicle is now ready to be washed.
Step 6: Grab the wash sponge out of the wash bucket, and start scrubbing your vehicle starting from the top of the roof down to the bottom of the vehicle in a circular motion. The goal is to start from the top and work your way to the bottom, which uses the aid from gravity to help remove dirt and oil from your car. Periodically rinse your sponge in the rinse bucket to allow for dirt and grime to come off of your wash sponge. This will allow for a clean and smooth wash sponge, and will ensure that as you wash your vehicle with that sponge, you are not rubbing dirt and contaminates back and forth across your vehicle. Also, it is important to have a clean sponge because it will help to hinder the chances that you are rubbing something sharp that is being held on the sponge back and forth across your vehicle paint, which can be doing damage to your vehicle's clear coat.
Step 7: Continue scrubbing your car with the wash sponge until each area of the vehicle has been washed and scrubbed. Now, take the garden hose and rinse off the remaining soap from the vehicle. Again, it’s important that you work with a top to down motion to allow for the remaining dirt and contaminates sitting on your car to rinse downward and be collected by the stream of water moving with gravity towards the bottom of your vehicle. Once this has been done to every area of the vehicle, walk over and turn off your garden hose.
Step 8: At this point, your vehicle should have just finished being washed. It is now time to dry the entire vehicle. Take one of the large microfiber towels and start by drying off each window of the vehicle until fully dry. Now, start drying your vehicle’s paint starting from the roof down to the bottom of your vehicle until 100% dry to the touch. Make sure that the towel that you are using is either new or fully clean, and that it is not carrying and particles of dirt, sand, grass, or any object. If this is left unchecked, your car’s top coat may be at stake and vulnerable to small scratches along the surface of the paint caused when you are drying the vehicle with that contaminated towel. Vehicle owners tend to forget this essential check, and always unintentionally cause damage to their vehicles paint which can destroy the appearance and value of their vehicle.
Step 9: Take another large microfiber towel and finish drying off the rest of the body of the vehicle until there is no water left on the vehicle and to ensure that their are no water spots left over on the vehicle's paint. Now, use the last large microfiber towel to dry off each wheel completely. You should be able to see any left over brake dust on each wheel, which can easily be wiped away with this damp towel. Lastly, make another trip around the vehicle to ensure that every angle and area of the vehicle has been completely dried. If so, open up each door of the vehicle to reveal the interior door components of your vehicle that possible maybe wet and dirty. Next, grab your detail spray and spray two times onto a damp towel. Take this towel and now dry off the door jams until they are completely dry. Do this to every door on the vehicle. At this point, the entire exterior of your vehicle’s paint has been cleaned to the touch. It is now time to apply protective wax and paste to your vehicle’s paintwork that will ensure overall durability and shine.
Step 10: Grab a clean buffing pad and apply a dab of cleaner wax onto the pad. Take both ends of the pad, and fold them hot dog style to ensure an even application of the cleaner wax on the pad. Now, take the pad and scrub in a circular-like motion along your car’s paint. This cleaner wax will help remove and other remaining contaminants that are still sitting on your car’s paint or that have been stuck within the clear coating of your car. Keep reapplying the cleaner wax to the surface of the pad when necessary, and work your way along the entirety of your vehicle’s paintwork until each area has been coated in cleaner wax. Let the cleaner wax sit on your vehicle’s paint until it drys to the touch. It should turn into a white haze, which indicates that it’s ready to be buffed off of your car’s paint. Take a clean microfiber rag, and start buffing off the dry cleaner wax off of your vehicle’s paint. This is down by rubbing the clean microfiber rag in a circle like motion along the car’s paint. The cleaner wax should come off immediately, leaving a clean shine. Do this until all of the cleaner wax has been removed from the vehicle. The cleaner wax is important because it guarantees that your vehicle’s paint is completely free from contaminants on the surface and within the car’s clear coat and protects your vehicle’s paintwork by adding another layer of protective over your vehicle’s clear coat.
Step 11: At this point, your vehicle should have been washed and waxed. But, in order to emphasize this wash and wax, polish must be applied to the surface of your vehicle’s paintwork. Start by grabbing your other buffing pad, and apply a dab of vehicle polish to the pad. Again, fold your pad hotdog style to that each area of the pad has an even coating of car polish on its surface. Now, take the pad just like you did with the cleaner wax, and rub in a circular motion along the surface of your vehicle’s paintwork. If necessary, apply periodically more polish onto the pad and continue to rub the polish along the surface of your vehicle’s paintwork. Do this until the entirety of your car’s paintwork has had polish applied to it. Again, wait for the polish to dry to a white haze indicating that you may begin to remove the polish from the vehicle’s paintwork. Take a clean microfiber towel, and scrub away the polish in a circular-like motion until all of the polish has been removed from your vehicle’s paintwork.
Step 12: At this point, your vehicle has been cleaned, waxed, and polished. The final step of detailing the exterior of your car is as follows. Grab your car detailing spray and a clean microfiber towel, and spray three sprays of the car detailing spray on the towel. Now, spray a spray of the detailing spray onto the surface of the vehicles paint that you are working with and wipe that surface dry to the touch using the microfiber towel that you just sprayed. Do this to every part of your vehicle’s paintwork. This will allow for emphasis of your car’s clear coat shine, and ensure that your vehicle is left 100% clean to the touch and appearance wise.
Step 13: Lastly, take your tire shine paste and your tire shine applicator pad and apply a fair amount of the tire shine paste onto your applicator pad. Take this pad and scrub along the surface of the visible part of each tire on your vehicle. This should leave a visually shiny appearance along the surface of each tire, emphasizing the black shine of each tire. If your vehicle has any plastic trim on the exterior of it, you may take your exterior trim shine paste and apply some on an application pad and coat each part until left shiny and protected.
Step 14: Now, it’s time to gather all of your materials and products and clean up. Dump each bucket of soap and water until dry, and rinse your sponge. Gather up your materials, and put them away. Take your wet towels, applicator pads, and sponge and put them into the washing machine to be washed later on.
Step 15: Admire the shine of your clean detailed car. Acknowledge that your vehicle’s paint has been unharmed by a car washing machine that otherwise would have damaged your paint and not cleaned your vehicle as well. Be proud that you did this job all by yourself.