I know this seems like a no brainer, but for dark colored cars (especially black) there is a very specific process that must be followed to prevent creating swirl marks and scratches. For those of you who are detailing masters, dont waste your time! but for those of you who dont have 1337 car washing skills, read up. I garuntee this will reduce the amount of scratches made to your car. Washing and drying is where the majority of surface blemishes are formed. People thinkbeach towels are fine for drying and they arent, the polyester backing causes scratching like a ****, just look at any black car you see driving around town, when the sun hits the side and theres like this hologram and ghosting scratches and swirl marks, thats because they use the drive through or beach towels. My car only gets microfiber and quality washing products.
For washing, just keep the item ur using clean, rinse it often in a seperate bucket of water to get the dirt off of it otherwise your rubbing dirt on your paint...




Step One: Prep

Park Car on in the shade on an incline if possible. Get all of your product together and connect your hose to a faucet (if at all possible get it hooked up to filtered water from the garage or through the door into the bathroom. Filtered water will have fewer minerals to leave behind if evaporation occurs before you get a chance to dry. With everything hooked up and ready to go, rinse down your vehicle thoroughly, get into the wheel wells and underbody, spray down the engine if you so desire (protect important electrical components with plastic bags if you are paranoid) Spray the whole car down to remove any loose dirt, this step will minimize the potential swirls and also gives you a layer of water as a sort of lubrication for the work ahead.



Step Two: Product

Now that the car is sprayed down and wet, it's time to start applying product. Fill one of your two buckets with the appropriate ratio of water to soap, and the other with just water. This will be your suds-bucket and your rinse bucket. You might want to take the time now to spray some simple green or other cleaner into your wheel wells to let it start working on the dirt and grime. Use a separate sponge or brush and soap up your wheels and tires first, then get your wash mitt and dunk it into your soapy bucket and start at the roof of the car. Start by going directly down the middle of the roof from front to back to get a borderline and gently scrub while flipping over the mitt frequently. Clean from the middle of the roof towards yourself and go only in front back straight lines. Once this 2x4 section is finished, dip your mitt into the rinse bucket and shake it vigorously. This should remove any trapped dirt particles and leave your mitt clean with no potential scratching ability. Repeat this process with the other side of the roof. Remember to work quickly to prevent the drying out of the soapy mix on the roof. If you are fast, do the second side and thoroughly rinse the roof off. If you are doing an intricate wash for the first time, you may want to rinse after each section just to be safe. Repeat the process of dipping into the soap bucket, washing the panel, shaking in the water bucket, and rinsing the area just washed with all paint surfaces. Don’t forget to do the windows while you are at it. I prefer to do the windows right after the roof is done. Just go around the vehicle. Start at the driver side, soap up the mitt and rub the first half of the windshield, then the driver side window, then move to the first half of the hatch glass, then go to the other half, then the pass window, then the last half of the windshield. Rinse from the roof down to make sure that the roof stays wet and get all of the soap off of the car. Finish the washing the car with soap making sure to use only straight motions, flipping the mitt, and going top down, front to back. Remember to rinse the entire vehicle to keep it wet from time to time to prevent water spotting. Steps two and three are where most of the cars scratches are inflicted, washing with a dirty mitt means you are rubbing dirt and dust into the finish, scratching it on every pass. You can go back to the wheels now and use your bare hand with water to just rub the wheels. For chrome I found this to be extremely easy, its easier than using a brush or some other tool, the lines on your hand will grab the grime of easily and won’t scratch. Just spray water at the wheels and rub every inch of the finish. Rinse off the wheel wells that were sitting with cleaner and anywhere else you may have applied chemicals. The car should have nothing but water on it now.



Step Three: Dry

Now that the car has been soaped up and rinsed off, take off your nozzle and let the water flow freely. You may want to drape the hose over your shoulder to keep it from hitting the cars body. Starting at the roof. Let the water sheet off and take the little droplets with it. This will reduce your drying time. Once the entire car has been rinsed with this method, you may then get your waffle weave micro fiber towel or whatever other drying device you have and wipe the remainder of the car down. You should go in straight lines from front to back once again, starting at the top of the car, but do not get lazy towards the bottom of the doors, this is the most commonly missed spot. It is very dirty down there and when the sun hits the car and you have dirt and grime down there, it will stand out a lot compared to your clean and shiny car.

Go over the entire car, get behind the mirrors, dab around crevices and around the side markers to coax water out now instead of when you start to drive it. On firebirds the taillights tend to leak. This is just an annoyance we have to deal with, be sure to wipe it down good, you will need to watch this area for leaks, usually turning on the car, backing up and hitting the brakes hard will get some of that water to come out. Do this and then get out and wipe it up. If you don’t, the water will drip out later when you are driving and dust will collect in it, leaving a horrible little trail of dirt on your clean car.



Step Four: Protect

Now that you have finished washing and drying, you need to protect! Get out your favorite wax and start just like drying and washing, at the top, back and forth straight lines. Do the whole car and let it haze for a while depending on your weather conditions. To check if its done, take a finger and wipe across the wax, If it comes off nicely, its done, if it smears, leave it for a few minutes and try again. Use a polishing towel or buffing pad if you have a PC and remove all of the wax residue. Follow up with a few sprays of detailing spray and wipe it down to remove any waxing lines and to even out the coat. Your car should look amazing! Take some pictures now because if you have a black car, it will be dusty in about 2 hours.



Maintenance:

Washing your car like this takes a lot of effort. I suggest using a car cover to preserve its shine and to keep the dust off of it while you are at work and when it is at home. Don’t think that if u have a garage you don’t need a cover… That’s right the garage is probably one of the dustiest environments for the car. I used to think that I didn’t need to cover my car when it was in a garage, but for some reason, the garage seems to like to deposit all kinds of crap on your car overnight, you come out in the morning and are like “what the hell!?”. Use a car cover always. It is really not that big of a pain. I put mine on and off several times a day depending on where I am and how long I’m going to be there. At work it goes on, when I leave it comes off. If I go to the market I do not put it on… it usually goes on when the car is going to be sitting for at least 3 hours. Invest in a 30-dollar cover at kragens and it will protect your paint from sun, dust, dirt, bird crap, cats, bullets, tornadoes, and volcanic magma, not even joking. Anyways, I do not recommend dusting the car unless it is very light dust, if you do get it really dusty, it is best to wait until you wash the car again, because without lubrication such as water and soap, the dust is going to scratch the paint no matter what kind of duster you use.



Keeping a good coat of wax on the car is important. It protects it from impurities that embed themselves into the paint. It also allows dirt and dust to come off very fast during the next wash AND it helps sheet water off every time you wash. Waxing is probably one of the best things you can do to your cars paint other than keeping it regularly, and properly, washed.



Hope this helps some of you, make sure that you arent one of those people with major swirl marks on your car, if you do, you will need to polish the paint to level the clearcoat with the bottom of the scratches and start fresh. using this method or somthing close to it will keep you from getting any more, or getting any after you polish out the paint. GOOD LUCK!!