2 buckets, no SWIRLS or scratches

Have you ever noticed a swirling pattern on the body of your car or discovered new scratches and wonder where did those come from? One of the main causes of scratches is improper car washing techniques including using a dry rag or towel, using the wrong wash method, only using 1 bucket, not using enough soap or putting the car through a poor quality self-service car wash. The best technique for washing your car is to use 2 buckets, a high quality mitt, premium towels, and some sort of wash solution.

It is of the utmost importance to keep abrasive dirt and debris off your car and away from the paintwork. If you take a mitt to a filthy car, the mitt becomes filthy. Dipping that mitt into a single wash bucket will remove all the dirt and debris, but then it will just be floating in the bucket, subsequently as you dip the mitt into the bucket again the mitt will just pick up some of the dirt from the bucket, when you next use the mitt on your car it gets all over your paintwork, which causes swirls and scratches.

Professional detailers like us here at Corrib Detailing use a 2 bucket method, dipping the filthy mitt first into a rinse bucket to dislodge the heavy dirt and debris. Only once that mitt has been rinsed, does it go into the wash bucket, where it picks up soapy water and suds to once again be applied to your car.

Follow the steps below to get the perfect scratch free wash each and every time!

STEP 1: GET A RINSE BUCKET

Take 1 bucket and fill it with water and a Dirt Trap. This is our rinse bucket and will be used for putting the filthy mitt in to rinse dirt off.

STEP 2: GET A WASH BUCKET

Fill a second bucket with a dirt trap and 1 – 3 oz of your favourite wash solution. This will be your Wash Bucket, which is where we will put the mitt after it has been properly rinsed off. We will use a high pressure water spray directed into the bucket to help produce suds.

STEP 3: RINSE THE CAR

The first steps on the car itself is to rinse the car using pressurized water to remove the largest dirt and debris, getting rid of this before we even have a chance to put mitt to paintwork.

STEP 4: WASH THE CAR

Dip wash mitt into soapy water and wipe car from top to bottom in straight lines, one small section at a time. When the mitt has become soiled, remove it from paintwork.

STEP 5: WRING WASH MITT

Wring mitt out well away from the car. This ensures the dirt doesn’t end up in your rinse bucket or on  your car.

STEP 6: WASH THE MITT

Return the soiled wash mitt to the rinse bucket first. Rub the dirty wash mitt against the Dirt Trap to remove the dirty from the mitt and into the trap below. When all dirt has been dislodged, we remove it from the rinse bucket, and wring out.

STEP 7: RESOAP MITT & REPEAT

We place our clean wash mitt back into the wash bucket to soap it up again and repeat the process until the entire car is clean, then finally we rinse and dry the car.