By Baxter Overman | March 27, 2026 in 
Ever wonder why some vehicles look shiny and beautiful on the outside, and others look, well…clean but just not head-turning? If you want to have the best-looking car on the block, you need to know the basics and best practices.
While these can take time to learn, here are 10 exterior cleaning tips I’ve cherrypicked for any beginner hoping to improve and see better results.
1. Use a detailing cart for speed and efficiency
Products and techniques are absolutely essential to seeing noticeable results after washing, but organization matters too. A detailing cart is a great idea because you can easily grab what you need and keep supplies off the ground.
I love my cart because I can easily grab brushes or bottles I need as I go; it also eliminates trips back and forth to the garage. Just load your cart with products you need for the job at hand. You never know when you might need to touch up a spot you missed—so it’s helpful to have the basics nearby.
Adam’s Standard Detailing Cart with Bottle Holders
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2. Apply pre-soak to remove heavy dirt
To prevent scratching your paint, always rinse off heavy mud and pre-treat dirty panels before touching the paint with a wash mitt.
It helps to use a pressure washer and foam gun whenever you have heavy dirt. Simply add snow foam to your foam gun, spray it on, and rinse off before handwashing.
If your car is relatively clean, you can skip straight to handwashing vs. breaking out the pressure washer.
3. Handwash the paint with microfiber, not a sponge
We don’t recommend washing a car with a sponge, because sponges tend to slide dirt particles around which can scratch paint.
Microfiber mitts and towels are a much better choice here because fibers are design to lift particles, not slide them around. Chenille, natural wool, and other fibrous mitts are fine to use so long as they are clean.
Chemical Guys Chenille/Microfiber Wash Mitt
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4. Always keep a protective layer on your paint
Each wax, ceramic coating, or protective coating has its pros and cons, but the important thing is to keep a protective coating on your paint to preserve it over time. The type of coating largely depends on your preference.
Find a dirty car that hasn’t been washed in years, and you’ll see exactly what the sun does to unprotected paint. Adding a paint protectant is especially important to protect areas like hoods, roofs, and trunks.
5. Use a separate bucket just for tires
I like to keep tire brushes and wheel cleaning brushes in their own bucket, but not just for convenience. Tire brushes can easily contaminate your main wash bucket and mitts used for paint. Brake dust can mix with your clean suds and both scratch the paint and leave behind a dirty film. Not good.
If you need to re-assess how you view buckets, check out our post on buckets 101 and the two-bucket method. You don’t necessarily have to use a bucket if you prefer to spray soap on your vehicle, but if you do, use one the right way.
6. Remove scratches and swirl marks
To truly see stunning results and create a mirror-like finish when gazing at your paint, you’ll need to remove scratches.
But in reality many people never remove scratches at all. Swirl marks from improper washing or tiny white marks from a shopping cart are technically types of scratches (even if you can’t see them right away). By removing these blemishes, your car will instantly stand out from many others in the parking lot on (especially on sunny days when scratches are more visible).
If you’re a beginner, have a professional detailer remove scratches a couple times per year. Or just learn how to do it yourself 🙂
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7. Wash from the top down, bumpers last
Since the road is where all that nasty oil and grime live, your car’s bottom bumpers and body panels will almost always be dirtier than the top.
The next time you wash, start at the top and work down; this way, you’re less likely to slide dirty suds full of brake dust and grime to your clear windows or the roof area.
I like to wash my car in a certain order as I recently covered, starting at the top. It doesn’t matter what part of the car you begin with, but wash the same way every time (so your brain doesn’t have to think about it). Routines are good!
8. Don’t do too much
Okay, very basic advice here, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to quit when washing my car. If the job takes 2 hours and you have Saturday and Sunday, you don’t have to do it all in one day.
Maintenance washing (taking the dirt off) doesn’t take as long as a full detail, so you can sometimes clean the interior and exterior in an hour. It all depends on your situation.
Maintenance washing is much easier and faster than detailing. Detailing is more thorough and involves stain removal, scratch removal, and other time-consuming car care techniques. In other words, It’s easier to take your car from an 8 to a 10 by washing it normally vs. taking it from a 3 to a 10 (which will require detailing).
Detailing is 100% a good idea, but it shouldn’t be the only time you clean your vehicle to keep it consistently clean.
9. Wash in the morning (or in shade)
Soap can easily dry on a hot car, so find shade and wash early if need be. We recommend washing before 11:00 am in the summer months if you live in an area that gets hot. It’s nearly impossible to apply wax or sealants if your car is blazing hot (and heat can impact how coatings bond too).
Even in the winter, sunlight and wind can dry soap suds before you have a chance to remove them. That said, if you wash mid-day in the winter, it’s typically not a big deal under normal conditions.
10. Apply last-step products to tires and trim
To restore shine on your tires and paint, add a final touch product (like a tire dressing) once your exterior has been cleaned with soap and water. A tire dressing helps to restore shine, since it’s normal for tires to still look brown after washing as I cover in this post.
Whenever I finish washing and drying the exterior, I like to perform a quick walkaround inspection. This is when I’ll add a trim dressing if needed, a quick glass cleaning spray, or any other last-step product to make things really pop.
If you’re ready to dive deeper into the basics of cleaning your interior and exterior, check out our video course, Washing and Detailing for Beginners. It’s packed with foundational knowledge to boost your confidence and see great results from home.
Happy detailing!
