HOW TO WASH YOUR CAR SAFELY: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE

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We've said it a million times, the wash stages are the most important part of any detail, whether that's routine maintenance, periodic deep cleaning, or in preparation for other detailing stages such as paintwork decontamination and machine polishing. In many ways, it's also the only part of the process where you mobile detailing damage yourself - such as swirl-marks, scratches and abrasion to previously-applied protection layers - rather than working on correcting them. Besides, even if you're planning on fully correcting your car later, there's no sense in making your life more difficult by putting in more defects during the wet work, is there?

 

Maintaining any vehicle is as much about holding the value and protecting from the early onset of corrosion as it is keeping your car looking good. And the simple truth is that doing the job in the safest possible way - simply by following the basic pro valeting and detailing principles - is actually the foundation to all detailing.

 

This goes for the majority of real-world vehicles out there, too. We're not so much talking about pampered show cars, with a spot of light dust and grime that can easily be taken care of with a show wash or a spot of quick detailer (you can see more on that in our article - How To Perform An Indoor Wash And Show Car Detail). Here we're thinking about maintaining the cars that we drive every day, year-round, rain or shine. Or at least those vehicles that actually get used in anger from time to time.

 

The good news though, is that the safe wash process is straightforward and pretty much the same no matter what you drive. So, here's our most in-depth guide on how it's done, what to look out for, and all the reasons why safe washing is the biggest detailing essential of all…

 

 

FIRST, WHAT'S THE WEATHER LIKE?

Summertime is arguably when you'll want your pride and joy to look its best, be that for the odd car show, or simply because the sun is shining and that paintwork should be glistening for all to see, and rightly so we say. But, when it comes to cleaning, the warm weather - particularly all those recent auto detailing philadelphia over here in Europe - is always the enemy. In fact, from a detailing point of view, it might not be the most pleasant washing a car in the cold and rain, or getting up early to do the job, but it's far better when looking to rid surfaces of contamination in the safest possible way.

 

Now, we all know that you shouldn't clean any car in direct sunshine, or while the vehicle is hot to the touch - it says right there on the bottle of many car cleaning products - but why is that? The short answer is to avoid premature drying.

 

When you wash your car certain cleaning agents are essential to break the bonds of contaminants to release them from surfaces, this is the process that allows them to be removed for the car and, over the course of your wet work, you'll use a combination of this chemical cleaning, along with a little mechanical (or physical) cleaning. Technically speaking, both the cleaning chemicals and your rinse water are your cleaning agents, and neither should be allowed to dry on the car naturally because it prevents them from doing their job.

 

No matter whether it's a snow foam, pre-cleaner or shampoo. Modern car cleaners are designed to lift particulates and residues, trapping them within their solution, and allow them to be rinsed away without physically touching the surfaces. This process is designed to prevent scratching, swirl marks or abrading previously applied protection layers. There are exceptions, such as solvent-based cleaners and mobile detailing near me products we may use for specific tasks, but the protection-safe chemical cleaners we typically employ on exterior surfaces are classed as aqueous agents, and that means that in part they contain water molecules, an important part of the mix that allows them to clean. By mixing these with special polar molecules, known as surfactants - which are attracted to the water at one end, and the grime at the other - a chemical cleaning agent pulls contaminants from surfaces by using both the surfactants and the water - one cannot work without the other. You can learn more about these products and the science of how they work, in our article - All Car Cleaning Products Explained.

 

The point here is that, when an aqueous agent is applied to any hot surface, the water will quickly evaporate off leaving behind the other chemicals before they've had a chance to work with the water. First this prevents the surfactants molecules from actually pulling bonded grime off of surfaces, and second it prevents the cleaner from trapping the free grime in the solution ready to be rinsed away safely. With no solute of cleaning solution and contamination created, essentially, you're leaving both the potentially harmful particles and the actual cleaning agents stuck to the surface.

 

As for the tap water you're using to rinse, while it doesn't contain surfactants to clean (your aqueous cleaning agent will also be attracted to the water when you rinse, helping to get it off the car), what it will contain is a certain percentage of mineral impurities and other hard deposits depending on where you live. In fact, unless you're using pure distilled water, technically you'll always be rinsing your car with another solution - a mixture of pure water, minerals and all sorts of other trace contaminants. Here in the UK the tap water is safe to drink and classed as some of the purest in the world, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't contain traces of limescale, fluoride, lead, microplastics, interior detailing, copper and more. Of course, there's also the chlorine that the water board use to purify it in the first place. This means that, when your water is allowed to dry on the vehicle, the pure water molecules will evaporate off, leaving behind just about everything else. The mineral deposits in particular are what cause water spots, and some of these can even scratch when dragged across surfaces.