Car washing
I love washing my car properly. I am also OCD and hate having any blemish on my cars. Preventing damage to the paint through washing is very important to me. I use two bucket technique for washing the body but have a seperate bucket for the wheels. My process is as follows.
Prepare buckets
1 soap 1 water 1 wheel (your choice of soap, dilutions and type can vary for type of wash, use deep pile wash mit, I have three 2 for body 1 for lower portions that gather the most road debris)
Prepare surface of car
Rinse car thoroughly, taking time on each section at a medium pressure setting. Next snow foam entire car. While foam is soaking/taking dirt away, clean each tire with brush, 2 back tires first then front two. Rinse car and wheels off.
Wash car
Using soft wash mit and 2 bucket method (along with grit guards) start at roof wash half get new mit and do the other half, rinsing out the used mit in the rinse bucket thoroughly then into soap bucket then onto car. Move to hood then glass then sides of car (top to bottom used 3 mit for rocker and lower portion of car) Lastly the boot of the car. I am constantly moving the mit back to the rinse bucket trying to get any dirt and grit off the mitt, even one tiny particle can and will introduce swirls/belmishes. It is absolutely key to avoid this, hence a lot preparation time with initial rinse/snow foam. I do all of this in a car wash bay, I don't use any of there provided soap or spray except for the snow foam gun. After washing the car with a mit I rinse off and move to
Drying
I have tons of microfiber towels, different piles and sizes. My favorite are from chemical guys and are the oversize MF towels deep pile. I have 6 of them that I can cover the the entire top and hood with, I lay on top and pull off, no rubbing just pat dry. I spray the car with a quick detail/wax/sealant before drying the surface. Towels must be thoroughly cleaned prior to use. I again dry top to bottom with the 6 towels. After which I am about done, I use my quick detail and new smaller MF towels for any touch up. If the towel is too wet or dirty I stop using it.
I follow this by a wax or clay and wax every 3 months. I don't buy the most expensive products just products that work and are trusted. I don't spend more than an hour washing my car unless clay/wax or polish is needed. I am OCD but this keeps my car paint looking better than most and if I ever sell my car I am rewarded for it. I used this process for the life of my previous car (black paint) and had very very little to no swirling or blemish from washing. I will keep this process tho for my white car which I can't see dust accumulate hours after washing like on black (but i know is there), hence why I would never touch the car after the washing/drying process is complete. This is just MY process I wanted to type it out somewhere so I can reference it. Other tips: never use auto car wash, even the touch-less ones use super high pressure that can mar the paint even if it is completely clean add dirt on the surface and that high pressure just becomes higher grit sand paper. Hope this helps someone.
