For drying towels, snag up a few Microfiber Madness Dry Me Crazy 25x17 towels.
For washing the uppers, I am a big fan of Microfiber Madness Incredimitts.
Washing lowers? Get a micro chenille mitt.
Shampoo: CarPro Reset
Snag up 2 grit guards, 3 buckets, a foam lance and p21s Total Auto Wash.
The idea behind a safe maintenance wash is to remove debris as gently as possible from the surface before using force. Scratches and swirl marks are not caused by dirt getting on your car. They are caused by rubbing dirt while it's on the car. While there are general rules for car washes and detailing, I like to think in terms of theory. If you follow good practice, the rest should fall into place.
Always use a separate bucket for your wheel, wheel well and tire cleaning tools. Do not share buckets with these tools ever.
Place your grit guards into each of your other 2 buckets and use these 2 buckets for washing the car. Follow the mixing instructions for shampoo and create your wash mix in 1 bucket. The other bucket should have fresh water in it.
Have your p21s TAW ready to go. (this can be cut with water upwards of 1-10)
The Wash Starts
Clean the wheels, wheel wells and tires first. Follow our guides for doing that, here:
Southeast Detailing, Paint Protection, Tint - Sponsored
Rinse off the car to remove all of the loose dirt and debris. This also starts to soften harder set contaminants.
Spritz p21s TAW onto the front, lower sides and rear areas of the car to begin a safe chemical breakdown of bug marks, tar, heavier bonded dirt and other similar junk. Using a gentle boar's hair brush, you can agitate some of the finer gaps or you can just go ahead and rinse. If the car is very dirty, it may be best to wait to clean gaps with a brush.
Rinse the car once more and then foam it with a solution of Carpro Reset and a few drops of p21s TAW. Allow the foam to dwell only if the car and air is not warm or hot. Rinse the foam from the car.
The idea behind a 2 bucket wash method is to use one bucket to wash the paint and the other bucket to wash the mitt before returning it to the car wash bucket. This limits the debris that can find its way back into the bucket you wash your car's paint with. The grit guards are there to allow the debris to settle in the bottle of the buckets and not agitate upwards and back into the wash mitt.
When cleaning the paint, start at the top and work your way down. We like to wash the roof and glass in one step, then rinse. Hood and top of the front fenders, then rinse. Top halves of the doors, then rinse. Trunk lid, then rinse. Respray p21s TAW to the lowers, wash the front bumper then the sides and finally the rear. We feel this fairly keeps the dirtiest parts of the car for the last. Again, the idea is to limit how much debris you could be scrubbing with a mitt.
Once you've rinsed the whole car free of any residue, dry it with your new towels. Drying is straight forward. Place it on the paint and you can drag it across the surface. On the sides this may not work as well, so grab the towel and as gently as you can pull it along the paint. With 2 Dry Me Crazy towels you should be able to dry the whole car.
Sit back and enjoy your freshly cleaned car.
so proper hand washing isn't something I have really done in the past.
