People procrastinate cleaning their cars for a handful of reasons. Most of the time, these reasons don’t include laziness, but confusion and uncertainty with car detailing. In this article, you will learn a beginner-friendly process that anyone can implement, with steps, tools, and tricks.

First Step: Interior Car Detailing 

Start off the interior detailing process by removing items and trash that are larger than the opening of your vacuum, along with with the floor mats. 

Then, vacuum out the entire interior. Pay attention to the details, slide your seats back and forth, and go for crevices where you are aware that dirt accumulates. The seat’s underside is a common area for things such as food drops.

Next, use an extraction method for the carpets and seats/upholstery, if needed. We recommend this for stain removal and odors.

Now, wipe down and condition any plastic and leather surfaces. Pros use tools such as steamers, air compressors, and brushes to assist them with these steps, but they aren’t necessarily required.

Step 2: Exterior Car Wash

The car wash is a simple process but it’s probably not as simple as most people think. It’s also a great time to check if you need things like clay bar treatment, paint correction, and paint protectants such as car wax and ceramic coatings.

First, start by walking around the car and making sure there are no damages, you don’t want to spray a paint chip and accidentally make it larger.

Secondly, set up your bucket of water, and your soap bucket, insert dirt traps into both, prepare your pressure washer or hose, and your foam cannon, and put your clean car wash mitts and brushes into your soap bucket. Do these steps in an organized fashion so you know where everything is when you begin the process.

Next, spray a light all-purpose cleaner such as Chemical Guy’s “Invisible” onto your rims, tires, bumper, and any other areas of your car where grime tends to build up; this will loosen the debris. 

Then, take your time and pressure wash/hose off the entire car from top to bottom, and do your best to safely remove as much of the grime as possible to reduce the chances of rubbing dirt against your paint later.

Now, spray each wheel with a foam cannon filled with high-quality car shampoo, and take your dedicated wheel brushes and mitts and clean the wheels along with the wheel wells. Now, spray them off. 

Next, spray soap onto your entire car with the foam cannon and wash each panel from top to bottom. Dunk your wash mitt into the water-only bucket occasionally to rinse the dirt off. 

Take this time to note any issues or plan any additional things you’d like to do, such as clay bar treatment. If your paint feels rough, clay bar it, 

if it looks dull or has many micro swirls, correct the paint, 

if water isn’t beading off of your paint, wax it,

if your headlights look foggy, restore them via headlight restoration polishing.

Now, rinse the car well and immediately dry it off with a dedicated blower, microfiber towel, or both. If you don’t need any of the mentioned additional processes mentioned above, feel free to stop reading here!

Additional Step 1: Paint Correction & Polishing

Take your choice of DA polishing machine, cutting/polishing pads, and liquid polish or simply use a foam applicator pad if you prefer to do this process by hand. Our favorite machine is the Rupes BigFoot LHR15ES Random Orbital Polisher.

Starting with small areas and panels, work the polisher at a low speed and make tiny circles to “prim the pad” then you can spread the product slowly into a larger surface area. 

Try your best to control the machine and apply minimal pressure, keeping the pad flat on the surface. Many people go too fast, push down too hard, angle the pad onto the surface, and use too much product. A few small drops evenly spread across the pad are plenty for each focus area. 

Once you have polished the entire car, use plush microfiber towels with a surface preparation product to reveal the freshly polished paint.

Additional Step 2: Headlight Restoration

For mildly fogged headlights, you can actually use a 3-inch polishing pad and polish your headlights clear with your DA polishing machine. Many people will want to go further than this, especially if your headlights are more than mildly cloudy, so we will add a few steps.

For all of these steps, move the sandpaper across the lens in straight, horizontal lines and maintain a uniform, symmetrical pattern. Tape off the car paint surrounding the headlights before beginning to prevent accidental damage.

• Dry sand the lens with a 600-grit sandpaper
• Wet sand the lens by spraying them with your bottle of water before sanding them with your 1000-grit sandpaper
• Wet sand the lens with your 2000-grit sandpaper

After you’ve done these steps, the layers of the headlight with the oxidation and haze will be removed. Keep in mind higher grit sandpaper is finer, while lower is more coarse. Some people may need to start the first step with 400-grit sandpaper for heavily oxidated headlights.

Now, just polish the headlights by hand with your DA machine or by hand, and apply a protectant such as a wax or ceramic coating. Remember, you will need to reapply the protectant accordingly. 

Additional Step 3: Add A Paint Protectant

Most people will need to add a paint protectant after washing or any of the other steps mentioned above. 

Ceramic coatings can last for years, making them a good option for a lot of people. 

You can apply ceramic coatings after claying, correcting, and using surface prep on your paint. 

You apply it section by section in perfectly symmetrical hash patterns (move it across each designated surface once and go back over each line perpendicularly). Then, after about 45 seconds, or when you see the small “lines” dividing, you buff off well with a microfiber towel. Repeat these steps for the whole car.

Sealants and waxes are also great options, but reapplication will be needed more frequently with these. You will generally apply these by spaying them onto a small surface, spreading them evenly across the paint, and buffing them off. 

Some hand waxes and sealants are applied with an applicator and later buffed off with microfiber towels.

Finally, the trim restorer is great for bringing depth and restoring/preserving those faded plastics and rubbers that cover the exterior of your car and engine bay.

Typically, these instructions will be included on the product label of the paint protectant you select.

How To Detail Cars Like A Pro – The Verdict 

There’s a lot to be learned from car detailing pros, and hopefully, this article will send you out feeling confident next time you go to wash your car. 

The final pro tip is to make sure that all of your equipment and tools are clean. You always hear car enthusiasts preaching that automated car washes scratch people’s cars, and the reason for this is that high-speed brushes are contaminated with dirt that grinds against your car’s finish. Do your best NOT to mimic this when washing your own car. Have you ever wondered where to buy the best car-care tools and products?