We know you will enjoy having a brand-new looking vehicle. The best way to way maintain that is by cleaning, but not just any cleaning – proper cleaning. There is one fundamental principal you want to keep in mind, you want to touch the paint as least as possible.

Although it may seem counterintuitive touching the paint as least as possible will allow you to keep that brand new car shine longer. When something touches the paint there is always a possibility of marring or scratching the paint. We are talking about those small thin scratches you see on vehicles when light hits it, believe it or not that is what makes paint look ‘less shiny.’

Ok so how do you touch the paint and wash your vehicle? You have to use some easy, but practical methods.

First, you will want to use a two-bucket method. One bucket will be for your soap and water and the other bucket will be filled with just water.

You will dip your mitt into the “rinse” bucket (the one filled with only water) before getting more soap, repeat this every-time you go to your buckets. This reduces the amount of dirt that is recycled into your mitt, which safe-guards from wash induced marring.

Now that you have your buckets set up correctly, we can move into our first step.

Pre Rinse
Start off by pressure washing or hosing off as much grime and dirt as possible. You can use a foam cannon to help emulsify the dirt.

Doing this step, especially only heavily soiled vehicles, greatly reduces the amount of dirt that you will be touching with your wash mitt. This will keep your mitt cleaner.

Contact Wash
This is the part where we will use the wash mitt to remove the remaining surface contaminants. There are a couple of practical things to keep in mind when doing this that makes the wash process a lot safer. Remember we want to touch the paint as least as possible.

  1. We will always begin top to bottom, which almost always is cleanest to dirtiest.
  2. We will never use aggressive pressure with our wash mitt, in fact, the only weight put on the mitt should be of the mitt itself.  

If there is a spot that doesn’t become clean with a pass of the mitt, then we may need to repeat the “pre-rinse” process there.         
*be careful- using aggressive pressure is exactly what would cause those deeper scratches we are trying to avoid.


Rinse Off
Throughout the wash and after you should rinse off the soap from the vehicle

Dry and Protect
We are ready to dry the vehicle and put some protection on the paint. Remembering that we want to touch the paint as least as possible, we encourage you to either use a drying aid or to apply a sealant while you dry.
*The only difference in a drying aid and applying a “sealant” while drying is that sealants boost protection and longer durability of simple drying aids. If you choose to use your own sealant make sure it says it can be applied while the vehicle is wet.

Grab a plush, clean microfiber towel (leave the shammies at the store!) and begin drying the vehicle top to bottom. Spray your product, either on the paint or the towel – according to product instructions. Use the towel to spread the product and mop up the water at the same time.

You will realize using a drying aid/sealant during this step will make drying off your vehicle much more enjoyable!

Make sure to check out video on how to clean your wheels properly! God Bless – MW Auto Pros