Swirl Avoidance 101

You hand wash your car. You baby it in every way you can. Now it’s time to learn to wash your car the right way, without swirling and scratching the finish. Touch-less car washes can only go so far, and when it comes time to polish out those swirls and prevent paint imperfections, washing a car without scratching the clear coat is an important skill.

Swirls caused by improper washing

A typical hand car wash requires a hose, soap or car shampoo, a bucket, and a wash mitt/sponge. The problem is that dirt that is removed from the car but not from the mitt is responsible for the swirls in many hand washed cars. The two bucket method aims to reduce the dirt that is left in the wash mitt. Using your regular soap solution, fill a 5 gallon bucket and wash the car using a clean microfiber mitt or wash sponge. Gently wash the car, avoiding “scrubbing” by letting the soap do its work.

Instead of returning that wash mitt to your soap bucket, dip it in the second bucket. This bucket is full of clean water, and is meant to collect dirt and debris from the car that is picked up by the mitt. Use your hand to loosen the debris underwater. After rinsing it off, dip the mitt in the soapy bucket and continue washing.

Scuderia getting a (swirl free) bath

Every time your mitt leaves the car, rinse it in the dirty bucket first, then continue.

After the wash, you will notice a much larger amount of dirt at the bottom of your second “dirty” bucket than the first bucket with soapy water. To maximize results, put a Grit Guard at the bottom of the dirty bucket. This grid system lets you scrub the dirt and debris out of the mitt and contains it at the bottom of the bucket, ensuring a clean, swirl free wash process.