Essential Car Detailing Products

If there’s one thing most people delay doing, it’s washing their cars. Even when it gets dirty enough to write on, many car owners still take the lazy road. This is most likely because they believe washing the car is for appearance purposes only.

But, in essence, cleaning a car is not just for appearance purposes. There are lots of hidden benefits associated with cleaning your car regularly. Plus, doing it at home is easy with a few essential car detailing products.

For one, regular cleaning of your vehicle will ensure to remove all sorts of debris and dirt that accumulate over time, and it also ensures that your car’s original paint remains intact and in tip-top shape.

How To Clean Your Car At Home - Steps For An At-Home Car Wash

You should aim to wash your car at least every two weeks, but the good news is that you don’t have to head out to an expensive car wash to do it. You can give your car a great wash right at home, but you have to have the right products and understand the procedure.

By the way, you will be surprised how much fun it can be, all you need is:

• Soap
• Some water buckets
• Cleaning mitts
• A drying method
• A few other things

Your aim should be to either clean your car early in the morning or in the evening and avoid cleaning it where there’s too much dust.

Using a hose that has a nozzle is also a fantastic idea, as this provides the right 

amount of pressure to spray on the car and eliminate the dirt much faster, plus a hose gives you so much power and it’s fun!

Ultimate Guide On How To Clean Your Car At Home

Basic Car Detailing Supplies

Learning the best products to use for washing cars is an important part of the journey, but we’re first going to focus on the general steps of a car wash.

Focus on the Wheels

First, ensure that your hose with a nozzle can produce enough water pressure to spray on the wheels of your car. The wheels usually have more debris and dirt than the rest of the vehicle, so cleaning them first is a great idea.

Spray them with the hose and don't forget the undercarriage as well, in order to get rid of the dirt and dust, and to clear out the road salt that may have been left behind during winter.

Prep and Lather The Car

The next step should be to spray the whole vehicle with water in order to rinse the dirt off the surface and give the car a water coating. Pay very close attention to the crevices and cracks.

Then:

• Prepare two buckets filled with water, one with Q²M Foam and the other one with clean water.
• Using cleaning mitts, clean the car with soapy water to lather the car with soap before rinsing it.

You’ll want to wash the car top to bottom, so you cover all the sections. Always start with the roof, and use the mitts to ensure you do a clean swipe, flip it over, and then swipe again, before rinsing with the other bucket.

Do not rub off or scrub the dirt as this will not work. Each completed section should be rinsed with clean water. 

Drying Your Car

There are many ways to dry your car after cleaning it, and in this area, most of us have been doing it wrong. The only thing worse than not drying your car at all is to dry it with bath towels.

Bath towels seem like a great idea, but they’re not. They are way too harsh for your vehicle’s clear paint coating and will actually damage it.

The best option for drying your car is to use a BLO Car Dryer. We discuss this in great detail below.

Extra Detailing 

For some extra detailing of your vehicle, you can include ceramic coatings, PPF & Vinyl coatings, wheel coatings, glass coatings, etc., to make your car shine!

Essential Car Cleaning Products

Here’s a look at a few essential car cleaning products you should have at home if you want the ultimate car cleaning experience that will leave your car smelling and looking great!

Washing Mitts

Washing mitts are some of the essential car detailing products as they are made of a soft synthetic microfiber material that is designed to draw the grime and dirt from the car’s paint without damaging it.

You may be asking yourself “but what is wrong with a sponge?” Well, there’s plenty wrong with a sponge. You shouldn’t use it at all.

For one, sponges are flat and since the car’s surface is also flat, this tends to create too much friction between the debris and dirt - causing the clear paint to get damaged.

Another negative point of using a sponge is that it is pretty easy to drop and get dirty, and when the dirt is trapped in the pores, it can lead to additional scratches that will cause swirl marks on your car.   

The best thing about using a mitt is that it's made of great material that doesn’t cause any damage to your vehicle.

Spray Coatings

Some of the best spray coatings for your car include industry-grade ceramic coating, which is a chemical polymer solution that’s applied on the exterior part of the vehicle in order to protect it from damage.

Typically, you apply this by hand so it blends well with the paint and creates a great layer of hydrophobic protection around the vehicle.

Detailing Clay

Detailing clay bars are made of a special resin that enables you to grasp and pull all contaminants from the clear coat layer of the car in order to do a deep clean and finish when washing your vehicle.

Car detailing professionals use clay bars when they need to perform a paint correction or when they want to add a new layer of the paint to the vehicle’s finish. This will not only ensure that all the pollutants and soil are removed from the exterior, but it also helps provide a deep shine.

BLO Car Dryer

The BLO car dryer is a must-have product for drying your car. It offers a no-contact drying process that gets rid of scratches and swirls that can easily happen through regular drying using a bath towel.

It is also safer and much easier to use, plus holding that dryer as you dry your vehicle is just so powerful and fun!

BLO Car Dryers are designed in the US and built to suit all your needs. If you are a car enthusiast looking to ensure every drop of water is dried from your vehicle, then using BLO Car dryers is the way to go.

The beauty of discovering good products is that when you realize you have been doing it wrong all along, you will never repeat the same mistake again, and your car will thank you later!

Best Products to Use for Washing Cars

So before trying to take shortcuts in your car washing habits, just remember a few basic car detailing supplies will preserve your paint, protect your ride from rust, and generally make your car look better.

Plus, if you keep a few of these essential car detailing products at home, you’ll save time from going to the car wash - and you’ll probably even do a more high-quality job!