hi guys in today's video I'm going to be taking you through the complete step-by-step guide for
carrying out a successful pre-wash on your car now if you are a beginner and you've never done
anything like this before please fear not because we're going to be keeping things nice and simple
so as long as you follow along to everything in this video you should get magnificent results so
when I clean cars I break everything down into simple stages I always start off with the wheels
followed by the engine bay then the door shuts and the petrol cap only once that's all taken
care of do I start with the exterior pre-wash on the Bodywork so the biggest mistake you can
make is by getting too far ahead of yourself so if you really want to get the best out of your
car then you cannot afford to skip these steps so your pre-wash strategy will always vary depending
on many factors such as the type of vehicle the condition of the vehicle and not forgetting the
weather for example sometimes you may have very cold weather meaning you get longer dwell times
for the chemicals and in the summer months you can get hotter days mean meaning you may need
to cool the surface of the car first which can ever so slightly reduce the effectiveness of the
chemicals so there's an argument for either way you choose but in my opinion you have to
make that call on the day so what I'm going to do today is show you the standard practice that I use
on cars on a typical cool cloudy day and once the weather warms up I will revisit this topic
to show you how to clean your car at its best in those extreme temperatures so look before you even
start with any cleaning whatsoever it's essential that you're organized and you have the right tools
and equipment around you ideally you're going to need to get yourself a pressure washer you also
need a quality snow foam Cannon and to be honest when it comes to chemicals you're only going to
need two all you need is a citrus pre-wash and a snow foam and of course there are many other tools
but what I am going to do is list everything you need in the description below but I'm also going
to pop up a list right here where if you want to you can pause the video and just take notes
and the aim of today's exercise is to soften and break down the dirt not completely remove it so
all we're going for here is a realistic 95 removal of the dirt making the physical part of the wash
to last five percent so this greatly improves the chances of getting a scratch-free wash the first
thing we're going to do is spray a citrus pre-wash on the lower third of the Bodywork because this is
where the majority of the road film is on some Vehicles like this one you may need to go over
the entire car but be careful with dilutions too much chemical will greatly break down any
protection you may have on cooler days like we have in the winter you will find that the car is
a lot quicker to clean and that's because you can get around the entire vehicle without the fear of
anything drying too quickly so longer dwell times make more efficient cleaning after the Citrus has
had long enough to dwell you can then layer it up with some snow foam and I start from the bottom
and work my way up because I want to make sure that I haven't missed any panels so what will
happen is the foam will reactivate any pre-wash that had started to dry out well and I'm using
an alkaline snow foam here over a pH neutral one and to sum it up in a nutshell pH neutral snow
foam is safer to paint work and it gently cleans but it doesn't really make much of a difference in
terms of removing much dirt so this can be one of the reasons why people say snow foam doesn't work
because they expect to see instant results and alkaline snow Foams like this one have Superior
Cleaning power but long term they are considered by some to be more harmful to the paint but here
is my argument to this Theory because the whole point of a pre-wash is to remove as much dirt as
possible and if the pH neutral snow foam doesn't do enough then it defeats the purpose of using
one in the first place because you're not really reducing the risk of scratching the paint during
the contact wash and yes alkaline snow Foams may be a cause for concern long term but you would
have to constantly use it over and over again day in day out to actually see any of those side
effects occur over a longer period of time and if your car is protected with a wax or a coating then
seriously you need to relax and don't overthink it I've been using alkaline snow Foams for many
years and at no point Have I Ever Had Any cause for concern so when it comes to snow Foams you
need to make a compromise either way you look at it there is no right or wrong foam as everybody's
needs are completely different when it comes to rinsing off the foam I've seen so many grown
men on Facebook argue whether you should rinse top down or bottom up and again I've seen the
arguments for both but for me I rinse from top down and I'll be 100 honest with you it really
doesn't matter as long as you make sure that that rinse has been carried out thoroughly you'll be
fine I don't see the problem with either because you won't be starting the contact wash until the
car is clear from all the foam now if you had a car that was extra dirty then I would recommend
going over with a second hit of foam and then taking out a soft brush and going around all
the crevices but for most people you'll be using the brushes during the contact wash stage and the
whole contact wash two bucket method is something we're going to carry out in another video and one
of the most ignored factors that I see so many times is simple it's just not being organized
now I know that sounds completely silly but if you don't have everything all set up around the
vehicle you haven't sorted your buckets out and got everything in the right order that you should
be working in trust me it becomes a mess very quickly and this is why I say break everything
down into stages start with the engine bay only then once you finish the engine bay should you
be going onto the wheels tires and arches and then roll the car backwards slightly then do
the underside of the wheels where you probably have missed I don't care how good you say you
are at cleaning the wheels trust me as soon as you go backwards with that car you're going to
see a few key areas that you probably couldn't quite reach with a brush after that make sure
you then go into the door shuts follow it up with the petrol cap then you can finally tick
that off your list only then should you start with a pre-wash and trust me just by doing this
keeping everything nice and simple where you get a successful clean now I could have spent
hours going on about all the decontamination process but I think that deserves a video on
its own so I'm hoping that this one's going to be helpful for you and I hope you learned some more
things and if you want to know a little bit more about how to clean your car properly or you want
to learn some of the business side of things don't forget to check out these two videos right here