Wash your car at home all season for cheaper than 1 wash at a commercial gas station
Washing your car at home is extremely simple, quick and guarantees better results than you will ever get from a 1 size fits all, generic car wash. It may take a little more of your effort and time but you will be saving money not only for the service but also by minimizing the wear and tear on your paint over the years. You can be more gentle, more thorough and more regular using this cost-effective method, leading to your car looking factory fresh more often.
Today we are going to focus on the 5 tools you will want to add to your arsenal to kick start your weekly car washing routine. These are all one-time purchases which will give you a better return on investment than paying for any commercial car wash.
Why Wash Your Car by Hand?
At this point you may be wondering why you would want to regularly wash your car by hand. I think I have already cleared up the financial aspect, but there is another very important aspect which I think is even more important. This is the damage that commercial car washes can do to your paint, and I would briefly like to discuss it, but feel free to skip ahead if you are eager to get going.
Automatic car washes are a detailers nightmare, especially the full-contact car washes. Every time you pass through one you are dragging the previous cars filth all over your shiny paint, introducing scratches and swirls, not to mention stripping off protective layers with unknown chemicals. This happens when tiny particles of dirt, gravel or salt are wiped off the car in front of yours and embedded in the long cloth brushes typically seen in deluxe car washes. Those particulates impart micro scratches all over your vehicle slowly fading the paint, counter-intuitively diminishing results with every wash.
When you wash by hand you are able to treat the paint with care. Paint is extremely expensive to repair and you are going to want to avoid damage at all costs. Every contaminant you can stop from touching the surface of your car is just elongating its life and saving you money!
We have a very thorough article outlining every step of the Two Bucket washing method here, if you are ready to get the best results out of your effort we recommend you take a read.
The Tools
These are the 5 tools that you are going to need to get washing your car each week. This is not to say that there aren’t other tool which would make the job more enjoyable, but in this scenario we are looking at the cheapest and most cost effective way to get the results you are seeking. In our follow-up Intermediate and Advance Tool Guides we introduce several items such as Power Washers, which increase your efficiency and effectiveness.
For any aspiring detailers out there who have come across this post. I just wanted to say that when I started I was looking into all the bells and whistles, but was unable to afford them. Discouraged I believed I wasn’t going to be able to get the results I wanted. Believe me when I say this is really all you need.
1) 5 Gallon Buckets (x2)
Two 5 gallon buckets are the basis of the two bucket wash process. You definitely need two; one for the fresh soapy water, and one for the clean rinse water. You can find these at any hardware or car parts store locally to you for $5 – $10 apiece and that’s where I would recommend you try to buy these before purchasing online. Sometimes you will find this as a package with the Grit Gaurds included, which we will talk about next, and those will work just as great. Any bucket would really do, but if you want to ensure you are getting the right thing at a high quality with some fancy detail branding, the item below will indefinitely cover your needs.
2) Grit Guards (x2)
You will also need two Grit Gaurds, one for the bottom of each bucket. Remember when I spoke about avoiding dragging contaminates over your paint and imparting scratches. These are your number 1 defense against those particulates. Every time you rinse your wash mitt in the buckets and rub them against the guard the dirt is extracted and allowed to settle at the bottom of the bucket. The design of the guard ensures that those particulates are not disturbed and stay at the bottom. Simple, less dirt on your mitt and in the wash water the less damage to your paint over time.
3) Wash Mitt
The wash mitt is an essential item as it is going to be the tool you use to agitate the dirt on the surface or your car. A wash mitt or pad is the ideal tool as they are designed to be as soft as possible and the microfiber or high pile cloth they are lined with, further minimize damage by absorbing or pulling dirty away from the surface deep into the fibers until rinsed out. If you want an even cheaper solution a few microfiber towels can be used, although I will warn you may not get the best results due to their lack of absorption leaving most of the soap left in the bucket instead of on your car.
4) Garden hose
This one may seem obvious; you need a water source to be able to wash your car. Now if you really wanted to you could make do filling up the buckets at a tap, but this purchase is going to really make your life easier. If you already have a hose at home, awesome! If not, I suggest first taking a look at how long the distance between you tap and the drive way is and measuring it before making a purchase. My number one tip here would always be: Buy longer than you think. Last thing you want is to set up your hose only to realize the length you purchased won’t make it around to the far side of your car.
5) Drying Towel
Often forgotten is now that you have washed your car you are going to need to dry it. The worst thing you could do is let it air dry. I know it may be even more tempting to take it for a quick spin around the block to blow all the water off but trust me this is just going to leave you with water spots and a streaky finish. One large extra absorbent towel should be all you need for a regular size vehicle, a second may be useful if you are working with a truck. I tend to keep an assortment of microfibers on hand as they are infinitely useful to clean up residual dirt or dry of the hard to reach areas of your car. The rag company makes great towels for maximum absorption and would be my first recommendation.
There you have it, with these 5 things that could easily be bought at your local hardware store for less than $50 you can be prepared to wash your car all season long. Equivalently a carwash a week could cost you hundreds over one driving season. Get hands on, put in the effort and enjoy the lasting results!
