Exterior Car Detailing Guide

Exterior Car Detailing Supplies:

1. Garden hose

2. Hose head

3. Car wash soap

4. Wheel and tire cleaner

5. Tire shine

6. Tire shine applicator pad

7. Trim shine

8. Microfiber applicator pad

9. Dry microfiber cloth

10. Bucket #1:

• 4 oz of car wash soap

• Microfiber towel

• Wire spoke brush

• Lug nut brush

• Hard bristle nylon sidewall brush

11. Bucket #2:

• Grit guard

• 4 oz of car wash soap

• Two microfiber wash mitts

12. Bucket #3:

• Grit guard 

13. Bucket #4:

• Grit guard

• Chamois towel

Exterior Car Detailing Guide:

Preparation:

1. Fill all 4 of your buckets about 80% of the way with water

2. Thoroughly mix the soap into buckets #1 and #2

Washing The Wheels With Bucket #1:

1. Set your garden hose head to “JET” and rinse off the wheels aggressively.

2. Spray down the entire wheel and tire with your wheel and tire cleaner.

3. Use the wire spoke brush to scrub aggressively in between the rims of your wheel, frequently dipping the brush back into the bucket to remove accumulated dust and dirt.

4. Use the lug nut brush to clean the lug nuts as well as any small crevices on the face of the wheel.

5. Wipe down the entire face of the wheel with your microfiber cloth and behind each of the spokes of the wheel rim.

6. Use the hard bristle nylon sidewall brush to aggressively scrub the tire rubber.

7. Wipe down the inside of the wheel well with your microfiber cloth.

8. Rinse the entire wheel and wheel well.

Washing The Car Body With Buckets #2 & #3:

1. Rinse off the exterior body of the car, attempting to remove any obvious dirt from the surface before making contact with the body.

2. Gently scrub the car panel by panel going from top to bottom using the wash mitts in Bucket #2 and stopping between each panel to rinse your wash mitts off in Bucket #3. This “double bucket method” will help prevent building up dirt in your wash mitts that can lightly scratch your car as you move from panel to panel. The lower panels will tend to have significantly more dirt and dust, so make sure to start from the top and rinse your wash mitts off even more frequently as your progress to the lower and dirtier panels. Best practice is to use one of your wash mitts for most of the car and save the other one for only the dirties and lowest parts of the car.

3. Walk around the entire car and gently scrub any missed spots with your wash mitts.

4. Rinse off the entire car thoroughly.

Drying And Shining Your Car With Bucket #4:

1. Dry off the entire car, except the wheels and tires, from top to bottom with your chamois towel, making sure to rinse your chamois off every couple of panels in Bucket #4 to remove any dirt.

2. Add trim shine to the microfiber applicator pad and apply it to all of the black trim. Use a clean microfiber cloth to wipe up any excess trim shine that gets onto the paint, plastic, or glass.

3. Dry off the wheels and tires with the dry microfiber cloth or a leaf blower or wet/dry vacuum.

4. Add tire shine to the tire shine applicator pad and apply it to the tire rubber. Use a microfiber cloth to clean up any tire shine that drips onto the metal.