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Carwashing

10 Aug 2025 · Detailing · Washing

How I wash our cars

Overview

There are many ways to wash a car, this is mine. My car is old, Nicky's is new, same technique on them both. Both are shinier than the day they rolled out of the factory.

Start inside by cleaning the windows. Be thorough, use glass cleaner and a waffle weave towel. Some people swear by newspapers, but who buys them! I use Chrome Cleaning blue glass cleaner. Make sure once you've cleaned it you dry the glass with another waffle weave towel.

Next vacuum, make sure you get everywhere, under the seats, in the cup holders, everywhere. Wipe all the surfaces down with a microfibre cloth and a little bit of Gtechniq C6 matt dash. Stripe the mats if you're that way inclined (I am). Give the carpets a good few pumps of your favourite liquid air freshener.

Now you've got the boring bit out of the way, you can get to the fun stuff, the wash!

I start with the wheels. Give them a good spraying with Korrosol (there's loads of iron & fallout removers out there, I use the Bilt Hamber stuff). Then set up your hosepipe, jet washer and fill your buckets. Bucket 1 gets a good glug of Meguiar's shampoo plus (the blue one that smells nice) and filled with warm water. Bucket 2 gets filled with cold water. Both buckets have grit guards and are labelled Wash & Rinse. By the time you've done that the Korrosol will have done it's work.

Wheel & Korrosol
Dirty wheel & reacted Korrosol.

Jetwash all the Korrosol off, happy days, they look loads better. Next give them a good squirt of Bilberry wheel cleaner and fill your snow foam lance up. I use Bilt Hamber auto foam. When you've done that look over the whole car and anywhere that has bird poop or other heavy stains give it a bit of pre wash with dilute all purpose cleaner to soften it. Then cover the car in foam, including the wheels which have wheel cleaner soaking on them. Start at the bottom and work up.
Foamy Car
Foamy. Not too thick, you want it to run down the car bringing dirt with it.


Give the wheels a good brushing, get between all the spokes, the inner wheel, and give the tyre a good scrubbing with a stiffer brush. You've got to work pretty quick here, don't let the foam dry on the car, if you are slow and need to add more foam, add more!
Clean Wheel
Wheel mid clean.


Then rinse everything off, start at the top and work down. You'll use less water and it'll take less time. Although washing is fun, you want time to enjoy the results of your work.

Clean Wheel
Clean Wheel. The wheels need refurbished, until then they look fine at 6 feet.

Celebrate the first mini victory, you have clean wheels. The body of the car should be cleaner than when you started. Give your wash mits a good swishing about in the rinse bucket and then ring them out (not in the bucket) before you stick them in the soapy water.

One body section at a time wash away. Do half the area you want to wash, then flip your mit over. When the mit is used, put it in the rinse bucket and wring it out before you put it back in the soapy bucket.

Once you've done each body section rinse it off.

My body sections.
Once you've washed everything give it a good looking over and if there's any missed bits, go over them again.

Next step is to lightly dress the tyres. I don't like shiny tyres, but I do like them black. I use Gtechniq tyre or Zaino tyre gloss. Don't put too much on or when you go for a drive it'll sling off up the side of your newly clean paint. If you're not going to use it until the next day stick one coat on and then come back an hour later and stick another on.

The cars is now clean. Now you need to dry it. If you don't dry it you'll end up with ugly water spots.

If you're just washing you can stop here. If you're going deep, crack on. If you are going deep you don't need to dry the car, because next you're going to clay it. I use a clay towel for the panels & exterior glass and clay for the fiddly bits.

Make sure your clay is well lubricated, you can heavily dilute quick detailer or use clay lube. If you're using a towel, just water works for me. Lightly clay the whole car, you'll know when it's done because the panel will be buttery smooth and your towel will glide over the surface.
Clay Bar
Clay Bar.

When you've done the whole car and it all feels buttery smooth, foam the whole car again, leave it to dwell for a couple of minutes then rinse it all off. Starting at the top and working down.

Claying puts imperfections in your paint. You now need to remove them with polish. Polish makes paint shiny. Wax provides a sacrificial layer that protects the smooth shiny paint. If you don't have a polisher, then you can get waxes with filler in them that work, but polishers are cheap. Buy one.

Polishing a car is a whole series of video tutorials, which I won't go into, head to YouTube and search Junkman Machine Polishing. There's a 2 hour video that'll teach you everything you need to know.

I use Meguiar's Ultra Cut Compund (105) and Meguiar's Ultra Finishing Polish (205) on Hexlogic Orange (cut) White (low cut) & Red (no cut) pads. Orange pad & 205 compound will shift most scratches. White pad & 205 compound will then remove all the scratches the 205 put in the paint. Red is for wax.
Hexlogic Pads
Hexlogic Pads. With these, Meguiar's Compund & Polish you'll be able to fix 90% of paint problems.

Your paint is now shiny. Next step is to protect it. LSP (Last Step Protection) is as big a can of worms as you are ever likely to find. There's a million different points of view on what's best.

I choose to use Collinite 845 Liquid wax. It's easy to put on with a machine, easy to buff off and lasts for 4 - 6 months.

Out of direct sunlight put 6 small blobs on a red hexlogic pad (no cut & super soft) then do the bonnet. If you can't not be in direct sunlight do one panel at a time and buff it before you move on. You put 6 on the first panel to prime the pad. On every other panel you only need 3 blobs. Depending on temperature, you'll be able to do 3 panels at a time. If you can't get out of the sun only put it on one and buff it off before you move on.

Wait until the wax has 'gone off' you'll know it's right when you can run your finger over it and leave a clear mark, if it smudges, it hasn't gone off. Once it's gone off buff the excess off with a clean soft cloth. Two coats will provide epic beads, ensure you don't miss anything and last and last. If you've only got the time for one, one is better than none!

When you're applying the wax you don't need to put loads on, when you've done a panel it should be hard to see which bits are waxed. If you put too much on, it'll take for ever to go off, will be hard to buff and you'll waste your wax. More does not equal more betterer. For best durability & beading you want 2 light coats, with about 60 minutes between coats.

Now take your shiny car for a drive somewhere nice. When you get in it the next time, very gently run your fingers over the smooth paint. Nice isn't it.
Shiny Duster
Nicky's shiny Duster.
Shiny e46
Mine is fast approaching 20 years young and has done 146,000 miles.

Maintenance Washing


Once your car is clean and shiny it's much easier to wash. If it's not really dirty, just give it a foam, let it dwell and then jetwash it. The dirt will come off the waxy paint much easier. By not touching the paint you're not putting scratches in it, you're not rubbing the wax off and saving yourself time.

If a foam doesn't quite hit the spot. Use the same 2 bucket method from above, be gentle, no scrubby scrubby required. The mit will glide over the waxy surface bringing the dirt with it.

When the beads are not quite as beady as you like you need to strip the wax off and put more on.

Deep clean the car, LIGHTLY clay the paint, so lightly that you don't put more scratches in it. Then rewax it. I tend to put the polisher (white pad, 205) on once a year and wax 4 times. End of Spring, End of Summer, End of Autumn & End of Winter. 2 coats going in to summer & 2 coats going into winter. But you do you. The cars are always shiny, always protected and always easy to clean.

Products I use on our cars.