There are no hard and fast rules on how to wash your car, but there are a few handy hints that can save a little time and improve the overall finish.

It is always best to clean the inside first, so as not to trail dirt in from the outside where it will be wet, also dust first, that way when you vacuum or polish you are not disturbing more dust.

When cleaning the outside of your car, you must thoroughly rinse the paintwork first, either by hosing down or by simply throwing a couple of buckets of water all over the car, that way you dislodge a lot of the loose grit and dirt that may scratch the surface when you start to sponge down (acting a little bit like sand paper). Once you have removed the loose dirt and grit it is time to use a good quality car shampoo, we recommend AutoGlym Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner , work from the top down, as the car is generally cleaner the higher up you go so this way you are keeping the water cleaner for longer, use a decent sponge or cloth, this can be very imortant.

 

Take care to wash thoroughtly around the wing mirrors, under or behind door handles, if you are washing during good weather you will find all manner of bugs and flies stuck to your windsreen, mirror backs and bumper, it is a good idea to treat with a bug removal spray, The best by far in our tests was Auto Glym 500ml Active Insect Remover take care to read the instructions as you will find if you leave this kind of material on your paintwork for too long it can dull or damage the finish, so rinse off after required time usually no more than a couple of minutes.

When you get further down the body of the car be careful to wash the cills and around the mudguards on each wheel, if you have use of a pressure washer it is advisable to blast away the build up of mud and dirt under the wheel arches, if not you can usually find an attachment for the end of the hose pipe to direct the spray with a little more force.

If you have alloy wheels you can use the same cloth to clean these as you use on your bodywork although if possible it is advisable to keep a seperate cloth mainly because you will get a certain amount of brake dust which you dont really want to be spreading around the rest of your car. Once you have washed the wheels there are many alloy wheel cleaners on the market, the best in our test was Autoglym Clean Wheels 500ml Trigger Alloy Wheel Cleaner,  but with all of them again please follow the instructions bacause a) if you leave these things on for too long they can damage the alloy and    b) you dont want to rub too hard with and abrasive cloth. There is a balancing act to consider with the specialist alloy wheel cleaners because although they are effective they can result in the "dulling" of the alloy if over used, but this has to balanced with the fact that if you allow the brake dust to build up and attach itself to the alloy it can be very difficult to remove. So use sparingly but try to clean with the car shampoo regularly. In my opinion dirty or discoloured alloy wheels can be the undoing of a car. One last point when cleaning alloys, I have found that using a cloth is much better than using a brush, even though there are so called specialist brushes on the market, the cloth will remove and also add a little gloss to the alloy whilst cleaning, whereas a brush can sometimes leave a residue behind.

Please try to pay particular attention to the cills and wheel arch rims as most people dont, but they can sometmes take away from the overall look of the car, but they usually are particularly dirty as they catch all the gunk thrown up bt the wheels.