Nobody wants to drive a car that’s covered in coffee stains, paint streaks, and years worth of sneaker-dirt. If you’re ready to drive a car that feels brand new, then it’s time to detail that thing.
Detailing is tough, rewarding work. An occasional detailing job can protect your car from permanent stains and streaks, increase windshield and headlight visibility, and maintain your car’s trade-in value.
You could pay a professional $100-$200 to detail your car (it’s worth the money), but technically speaking, this is work that you can do on your own for peanuts. So let’s get right into it. We’re going to go over the cleaning products and tools that you’ll need to detail each part of your car, and we’re going to give some suggestions on how to use these products effectively.
Cleaning Kits
Before we get into the dirty details, let’s start with a few car cleaning kits. Some people refuse to take these kits seriously, but they’re a great budget option for people who don’t own any car cleaning products (after all, this article is a bit of a grocery list).
Anyway, here are some of our favorite car cleaning kits. Some of these are all-purpose cleaning kits, while others are focused on tools or specialized cleaning products:
- Turtle Wax Ultimate Kit: A bargain cleaning kit for your car’s interior and exterior. The only thing that this kit is missing is a foaming cleaner for your carpet and upholstery.
- Armor All Premier Kit: Another affordable cleaning kit for your car’s interior and exterior. Like the Turtle Wax kit, this kit has everything but a foaming cleaner for your carpet and upholstery.
- Chemical Guys Car Wash Bucket Kit: A great kit full of cleaning products and wax for your car’s exterior. This kit doesn’t come with any products for the interior of your vehicle.
- Mofeez 9-Piece Cleaning Tool Kit: This kit doesn’t come with any cleaning products. Instead, it’s loaded with cleaning tools like microfiber cloths, brushes, handled sponges, and squeegees.
- Headlight Cleaning Kit: A cheap headlight cleaning kit can take the foggy film off of your headlights.
Now it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty. We’ll start with the hard interior surfaces of your car and then move on to upholstery, the car’s body, and the windows.
Start with Hard Interior Surfaces
Start by cleaning your car’s hard interior surfaces—the cup holders, the dashboard, etc. You want to do this before cleaning your car’s carpet or upholstery, as you’ll probably dislodge some unsavory crumbs and dust while wiping around the interior of the vehicle.
This part’s easy, it’s just like wiping down your kitchen or bathroom. Here are some of the cleaning products you’ll need to detail those hard surfaces:
- All-Purpose Cleaner: Don’t clean your car’s interior with bleach, specialty cleaner, or vinegar. Instead, use a gentle all-purpose cleaner from CarGuys or Chemical Guys. Household brands will work fine (so long as they don’t contain bleach).
- UV Protectant Spray: The plastic, rubber, and vinyl inside of your car can discolor due to UV exposure. It’s not necessary, but a UV protectant spray will keep your interior from discoloring over time (it’ll also give your interior a showroom finish). Some protectants double as all-purpose cleaners.
But you can’t just spray a bunch of all-purpose around your car and call it a day. You have to get into the cracks, wipe things down, and make sure that nothing is sticky. For that, you’ll need a few cleaning tools:
- Compressed Air: Use compressed air to push dirt out of crevasses and buttons. Canless air will work too.
- Toothbrushes or Detailing Brushes: Toothbrushes and detailing brushes are great for getting dirt and grime out of vents, buttons, and crevasses. You can even dab them with some all-purpose cleaner for tough stains.
- Cloths or Sponges: Use microfiber cloths or sponges to clean the surfaces inside of your car. If you plan on using a UV protectant spray, then you’ll want to work it in with a microfiber cloth.
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