How to properly wash your car without damaging the paintwork

The most common ways your paintwork gets scratched when washing your car

1. Using a dry rag

Dry rags that aren’t a microfibre cloth can be destructive and cause scratches to your car paintwork due to their abrasive texture. If you don’t have a microfibre cloth, a softer rag like a lint-free cloth will do. Just make sure it’s clean. 

2. Using a dirty sponge 

You may not realise it but some sponges can appear clean and free of dirt when they’re not. Sponges can hide the dirt and grit deep in the sponge material and can come to the surface again when you re-use it to wash your car. The best practice is therefore to use a new sponge every time you come to wash your car. 

3. Splashing from the hosepipe

A combination of being careless with the hosepipe along with having the tap on too strong can result in damaged paintwork. Especially if your car is parked on a loose gravel or dirt surface, the water jet can hit the ground and fling gravel and debris onto your car, scratching and chipping the paintwork. 

4. Self-serve carwashes

Self-service car washes are notorious for causing damage to your car paintwork. Although not likely to cause noticeable damage on a one-off, over time they can cause an accumulation of minor scratches, which eventually become noticeable. 

This is because self-service car washes use old brushes and equipment that haven’t been cleaned properly, and like the sponge, still have fine particles of dirt and debris within them. 

Proper technique for washing your car

Wash your car in increments 

You should wash your in parts, splitting it up into three. Here’s the order in which you wash your car in parts:

1. Wheels
2. Car body
3. Windows

By starting with the wheels, you avoid spraying and flicking dirty water and grime onto your already-cleaned paintwork.

Rinse your car first

Rinse your car or the area you’re washing first by using a hosepipe that is running a gentle stream of water. This removes any excess dirt and debris from the paintwork that could be picked up and rubbed against the body by your sponge or cloth. If the water is too strong, you risk blasting debris from the ground and onto your car. 

Use a lot of soap

Don’t be afraid to use a lot of soap when washing your car. Soap acts as a protective barrier between your sponge or cloth and the paintwork. Therefore, the more you use the better. A good rule of thumb is to use an amount that gets a good head of foam when you fill your bucket with warm water.

Also, choose a high-quality soap, ideally specially made for car washing. If you can, avoid using dish soap or washing up liquid. 

Use a Grit Guard

Grit Guards are a useful tool when washing your car. Sitting at the bottom of your washing bucket, the fine mesh of the guard allows any dirt that is picked up from your car paintwork to fall through the guard and into the bottom of the bucket. With the dirt and debris separated, your cloth or sponge cannot collect it when you come to dip it into the same water. And if you’re using the dual-bucket method (see below), then use one for each bucket. 

Use a dual-bucket method

Using two buckets instead of one is a good idea if you want to minimise grit and debris from scratching even further. Simply fill one bucket with warm, soapy water and the other with water only. Dip your cloth or sponge first in the soapy water and then rinse it and ring it out fully in the water-only bucket. 

Dip your sponge often

By dipping your sponge often you again minimise the risk of getting scratch-induding grit and debris rubbing against your paintwork. Of course, this is even more effective if you’re using two buckets. 

Blow or air-dry

You should avoid using a cloth or wipe to dry your car after washing it. The more times you come into contact with your car paintwork, the more chances of scratching it. As obscure as it sounds, leaf blowers are a great tool to use for blow-drying your car. If you do not have an appropriate tool to blow dry, leaving your car to air dry works just fine. 

What if I still scratch my paintwork?

Although you may have followed the above guidance to a T, you may still accidentally scratch your paintwork. Or maybe you just notice the scratches and scuffs yourself after you’ve washed it.

PaintNuts Scratch & Scuff Remover is ideal for this event. Specially developed for removing light paintwork scratches and scuffs, it’s easy to use and should be applied after you’ve washed your car. 

To use the PaintNuts Scratch & Scuff remover:

1. Clean the area and remove any dirt and debris that could cause further damage.
2. Apply a small amount of compound to an applicator pad - available in the PaintNuts Scratch & Scuff remover kit
3. Apply even pressure in a straight back-and-forth motion, side to side and then up and down, until the scratch or scuff has been removed or reduced
4. Buff the area with PaintNuts Micro Fibre Polishing Cloth to remove the compound residue

If you find the scratch or scuff is too deep, we still have a solution with our colour matched car touch up paint, available as either a touch up pen, bottle and brush or aerosol. To know which you’ll need, try our Damage Assessment. This straightforward tool will tell you the perfect repair solution for your vehicle's damage. 

Order your car touch up paint

We stock dozens of paint colours for touch up paint. No matter what paintwork you need fixing, we likely have the paint colour for your car. 

PaintNuts can mix all modern car and most classic car colours for colour match touch up car paint, available as a high precision pen, bottle and brush or car spray paint/aerosol. Just enter your car reg on our website, and off you go.