What’s the best way to wash my car?
In the Walnut Creek area, I commonly get the question, “Nick, what is the best way to properly wash my car?” I love when I get this question. I get to drop some knowledge. I think everyone should know how to properly wash their car. I’ll actually go as far as saying that the world would be a better place if everyone knew how to properly wash their car. Yes.. it would be. Just imagine all of those shiny, sparkly cars going down the street. Oh the joy.
Before I go on, I want to say that the instructions below are more like tips. And they are with the average Joe/Jane in mind using a basic hose, bucket, and chemical. Use this as a starting guide. Use YouTube University to dive deeper.
Okay, so first things first, use the correct soap-Your car isn’t a dish, so leave the Dawn in the kitchen- Pick any one of your favorite car shampoo’s that smells good, is Ph neutral, and fits your budget. Don’t get too hung up on brand names, or which one is the best. Most automotive dedicated soaps from any of the reputable brands (Meguiar’s P&S, CarPro, Turtle Wax, etc) put out a good product. They all pretty much do the same thing. They clean cars, they get soapy, and they act as a lubricant as you clean.
Second, use the correct wash media. Do not use that old, ratty T-shirt of uncle Bob’s from 12 years ago. My favorite wash media are simple microfiber towels. You can’t beat the 36 pack of Costco Brand Kirkland Microfiber towels (just remove the tags first!). Yes, use towels to actually wash your car. Why? Towels are great, you can fold them in fourths and essentially turn one towel into an eight-sided wash mit. This allows you to take eight fresh sides of one towel to the car as you move from panel, to panel.
Next, rinse your car clean with just your hose. Work top, to bottom doing your best to rinse free as much dirt and debris as you can. You want to start top down so that you don’t work over yourself and recontaminate the car with additional dirt. Also.. gravity.
After rinsing is the contact wash. So take a 5-Gallon bucket, fill it with water, add roughly 3 or 4 ounces of soap to the bucket and drop in about 3 or 4 of those Costco towels. This is called the “one bucket method” or OBM. Take one of your towels out of the bucket, fold into fourths, and start washing the vehicle, again top to bottom. After passing over a panel or two, switch the towel to a clean side. Repeat the process around the entire car. Go back to your bucket as needed to get a new, soapy towel.
Finally, rinse the car (top to bottom) and dry with a dedicated drying towel. I like the double twisted loop towels that are big. They cover more ground and absorb a lot of water.
Congrats, you know how to wash your car! Now comes the hard part…keeping it that way.
