Here's my approach,
Wheels and tires first, then start at the top and work your way down.
Now lets put a little twist to the age-old traditional approach and instead of starting at the top and working your way down, lets start at the bottom and then move to the top.
Wash and rinse one wheel at a time. After washing and rinsing one wheel, move onto the next wheel and tire and occasionally re-rinse the previous wheel and tire because soap suds and wheel and tire cleaning chemicals have a way of re-appearing and pooling in voids due to gravity.
Continue washing, rinsing and re-rinsing until you've washed all four wheels and tires.
Now move to the top or highest point
Now that the wheels and tires are clean and rinsed, grab your wash mitt and gather some car wash suds and start at the roof and begin working your way down as you wash.
Divide the car you're washing up into sections or work panel by panel.
After washing a section or a panel, immediately rinse that section or panel to remove loosened dirt and other abrasive particles and to prevent any soap suds from drying on the car.
Continue this until you've worked your way from the top of the car to the bottom of the car washing the lowest body panels last as that's where the majority of the major dirt and road grime will accumulate.
By washing the lowest panels last, you prevent cross-contamination and by this I mean removing abrasive dirt particles off the lower portions of the car and moving them in your wash mitt to the higher portions of the car where you could possibly instill heavier swirls and scratches.
While you were washing and rinsing the car from top to bottom, you can occasionally give the wheels and tires a repeated blast of water to ensure any soapy water, wheel and tire cleaners, or even dirt particles that have flowed downward and pooled are continually rinsed clean.
At the very end of the process, give the car a final rinse and then you're ready to dry the car, wheels and tires and at no point will there ever have been the potential for water to dry on anything and thus no risk of water spotting on any portion of the car.
Plus, you won't have to repeat any steps.
That's how I wash a car.
But wait there's more...
If you're the type that REALLY wants to be careful so as to not induce any swirls and scratches into the paint, then here's a
tweaked version of the above just for you.
Wash wheels and tires, then lowest body panels and then move to the top
A twist on my approach outlined above for the most anal retentive people would be to,
- Wash wheels and tires first
- Wash lowest, dirtiest body panels
- Change out water and wash mitt and start at the top and work your way down
By doing step #2 after washing and rinsing the wheels and tires, you've removed and reduced the potential to instill swirls and scratches into the upper body panels with gritty particles from the lower body panels BECAUSE you've removed the gritty dirt particles first.
This is an
extra step that will take more time so use this technique if appeals to you and time is not an issue. It's also a good technique for washing a car with a flawless, show car finish to start with.
It is important however that after washing the lower panels that you do in fact change out the car wash solution in your bucket and switch to a clean, non-contaminated wash mitt.
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