ODD SAFE WASH

What is a safe wash?

A thorough wash of exterior surfaces to keep your vehicle looking its best.

The first and one of the most important steps to a solid safe wash, the pre rinse. A solid pre rinse will ensure the loose dirt & grime is removed from the vehicle before any contact. If this step is skipped you may cause damage to the paint work and inflict damage such as marring. Detailers have many different approaches, but Jesus lets not complicate this. Start by pressure washing from the top of the vehicle down, not forgetting to flush door jams, returns, arches and fuel caps, the more you remove the safer the rest of the wash will be.

Wheels before or after bodywork? Another touchy subject in the detailing world. We suggest treating the wheels first to avoid cross contaminating the wheels & body work with contamination and/or cleaners. As this is a safe wash guide we won't go into depth too much here and a simple safe approach is all that is needed. Apply your dedicated non acidic wheel cleaner, leave to dwell and rinse off, this will remove the majority of soiling and make it safer for contact with various brushes. Apply a second hit of wheel cleaner preferably through a foam sprayer, if you don't not have a foam sprayer you can apply it with the normal spray trigger and do a quick spray of snow foam ready for contact. Using a dedicated wheel bucket, wheel shampoo and dedicated wheel brushes you can now agitate the product removing any left over soiling.

Depending on level of pitting and contamination present, you may need to apply acid and/or decontaminating chemicals, but this is a safe wash and we won't jump into the just yet.

Now the bulk of crap has been removed, we suggest applying a citrus pre rinse to help break down and remove built up soiling as well as bug splatter on the front bumper & mirrors, this step will gently loosen dirt and grime away from the surface ready to pressure wash away, pro tip apply the cleaner bottom up to avoid nasty streaks.

Another pro tip, you can apply your dedicated citrus pre rinse leave to dwell for some time and then apply a blanket of snow foam to give your pre rinse combo some extra bite, this will not only allow the products to cling on for longer which will break down the grime but will also allow the dirt to be lifted up and glide off prior to pressure washing. We like to thoroughly rinse off the citrus and snow foam, you can repeat this process as many time as you like, but typically you'll just need to do it once. Depending on how clean the surface is you can carry out your brush work on badges and crevices with a second snow foam application.

Finally ready for contact! Using a dedicated PH neutral shampoo you can proceed with a contact wash. If you have done all the above steps properly in theory you shouldn't even need a two bucket wash system as the vehicle should be spankers, but it can't hurt to implement this can it. Fill up two dedicated body buckets with grit guards, preferably with warm water and the correct ratio of shampoo. We like to jet the solution with the tip of our pressure washer lance to mix up the shampoo create lots of suds. Rinse your wash mitt in the clean water, ring it out, then dunk it into the sudsy bucket, then gently onto the surface of the vehicle. Work panel by panel top to bottom regularly rinsing off your wash mitt(s). Pro tip have two wash mitts one for the lower half of the vehicle and one for the upper, this is another step you can add to minimise the amount out swirls and damage you may put into the finish. Another pro tip have a dedicated body brush ready to use getting into crevices your wash mitts can't. Once you are happy thoroughly rinse the vehicle down removing all cleaning solutions.

Next drying.

How you dry the vehicle will depend on the type of water your using, if you have access to and are using filtered water like OnDemand Detailing, then a dedicated blow dryer is your go to. If you are using tap water and its a sunnier day, may god help you.

Filtered water, take your time with the blow dryer, enjoy the process, have fun purging the water from all badges and crevices. Drying your vehicle without contact will always be the better option and will avoid putting any more marring and swirls into the finish. Once dry you can either call it a day or apply a quick detailer for a bit of added gloss and protection.

Unfiltered water with no blow dryer. Grab your dedicated plush clean drying towel, and a bottle of quick detailer to act as a nice bit of lubrication while drying, now depending on how fast you work you may be victim to water spotting and you may need a dedicated water spot remover to remove spotting.

Next would be the finishing touches, tyre dressing, glass cleaning arch dressing etc. If this all sounds like too much work you can just give us a shout we'll get you booked in and we can do it for you! But if you are itching to get stuck in grab some of our products available on our website & get stuck in!