Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Proje’ blog. This week, we’re going to look at a couple of mistakes people often make when they wash their cars. These are things you might not even think of, but they can lead to scratches which will then cost money to fix, or swirl marks that can be really annoying to get rid of. The good news? It’s easy to avoid these problems if you follow our advice and use the correct products. So, have a read at your leisure, and then go out there and enjoy the process!

Typical Mistakes

There are mistakes that we see time and time again. Let’s break them down into the most common:

1) Washing Your Car in the Wrong Environment

Weather and surroundings have a bigger effect than you might think. An area with lots of air pollution or dust isn’t a particularly good environment for washing your car, as pollutants will inevitably mix with the water and the cleaning solution, leading to a less-than-effective result. Also, if you wash your car in conditions that are too humid, then moisture will cling to your paintwork, making swirl marks unavoidable.

Solution: Ideally, you’d wash your car in a garage on a mild day. Now, obviously we don’t all have garages, which means you’ve got to pick the right weather. Always avoid working out of direct sunlight, so if you’re in a hot part of the world then sunset is a great time. Otherwise, just pick a regular day when it isn’t raining and it isn’t too humid. This might  mean putting off a wash that you’ve scheduled, but it really isn’t worth doing it in the wrong conditions – you’ll just need to do it again straight away!

2) Using the Same Bucket for Washing and Rinsing

This is a classic error, and one that we have covered in our product description for our Vital Car Wash Soap.

Vital Car Wash Soap: This product is specially formulated to separate dirt from paintwork so that you can wash it away easily, without any risk of scratching. The suds and bubbles are formed as a result of a special pH neutral chemical reaction with water, which is tough on dirt and grease but will not damage any wax or sealant. Vital Car Wash Soap is a professional product designed not to leave any spots, swirls or streaks that a basic water solution can easily do. Its multi-purpose formula means that you can use it on all parts of your vehicle – not just the paintwork. 

So, what’s the point of using such a great product if you wipe away dirt and then put your wash pad straight back in your soap bucket? You’ll just be contaminating the soapy water with dirt, which will hugely reduce the effect of the cleaning solution. And even worse, when you wipe your dirty wash pad back on the vehicle, you’re scratching the dirt particles back across your paintwork, which can damage your car. The two-bucket wash method ensures that you avoid this and get the cleanest possible finish. Ensure that you have separate buckets for water and the Vital Car Wash Soap solution, so that you can rinse your wash pad in the water before you put it back in the solution

3) Not Using a Good Grit Guard

This brings us on to a really important piece of kit – a grit guard. Now, there are hundreds of different grit guards our there, and none of them are particularly expensive – they’re all plastic and they’re pretty simple-looking, so it really doesn’t matter which one you go for… right? Not quite…

Bucket Grit Guard – This is our own version of the very useful grit guard. Now, you’ll notice with our design, there are a few circles amongst the cross-hatch design of the rest of the guard. They’re not just there to look pretty! As you wipe your Green Microfiber Wash Pad against the guard to get rid of all the dirt that might be caught on it, the water is being forced through the rings in a circular motion, creating what we call centripetal force. This acts to drive the contaminated water down towards the bottom of the bucket and make sure it stays there. With lots of other grit guards that just use a singular square design, you aren’t creating that force, so the contaminated water is free to mix with the clean stuff above the grit guard again. This isn’t exactly ideal, so we recommend our grit guard – well of course we would!

Remember, the main purpose of the grit guard is to get rid of the dirt that you’ve wiped away from your mitt. When you dunk your mitt in the water bucket, give it a good wipe against the guard to release all the particles or dirt. When you do that, you’ll also be creating that all-important centripetal force!

4) Not Using a Fit-for-purpose Cloth

Picking up a random dish cloth for your car can be a bad technique. If you don’t pick a soft cloth, then you could cause micro-abrasions on your paintwork, which will turn into bigger scratches over time. Remember, if you leave a scratch untreated on your bodywork, eventually oxidisation will build up, leading to widespread rust, and more tricky problems to fix. Let’s avoid that by making sure you use a microfiber wash pad. Ours is a mitt – so you put it over your hand, which means you can cover all the contours of your vehicle more easily through the flexibility of your own hand, and it’s easier to control pressure. The soft fibers on our green wash mitt are plaited together to make them extra thick and absorbent, so you can expect your mitt to hold an enormous amount of water. One wipe should be enough to cover large surfaces, making this perfect for the bodywork washing process while also ensuring that no scratches or swirls are left on your vehicle. The green color also highlights dirt and grime, allowing you to really target tough areas and get your car looking beautiful all over. It’s one of our favourite products because it’s super-soft and looks great too!

So, there you have it. Those are our top four errors that people make when washing their cars. But getting a good grit guard, good soap and the correct type of wash cloth is not difficult – we stock them all right here on the Proje’ mitt, and at great prices. So why not take a look at our store and see how we can help you achieve top quality auto detailing with minimal effort, from your garage or street!

If you have any questions about any of the techniques or products that I’ve mentioned in this post, just contact us on info@projeproducts.com and one of the Proje’ team will be in touch with you! Remember that we stock only the best auto detailing supplies, so why not click some of the links in this blog post, or visit our products page to find out more? From all of us at Proje’, Enjoy the Process!