A Little Intro To Bowden's Own Kit V3
Congratulations!
Congratulations on your purchase! This is our introductory kit to kick off your Bowden’s Own collection of products. This guide will give you a run through of the products in your new kit, how to use each product and what order to use them in to get the most out of them all. We have a good selection of products here to get you started and help look after your car - everything from washing and drying, to protecting your paint, to looking after your microfibre.
Time to Wash
For this article we'll concentrate on using the single bucket that came with your Little Intro Kit, but ideally we'd recommend washing with the 2 bucket method, utilising a second bucket as a rinse bucket.
Wherever possible you want to wash the car in the shade, with the paint cool to the touch for best results. Not doing this can cause the water and the wash suds to evaporate faster than you'd like, possibly leading to water spots on the glass and paint!
The Wash Bucket and Great Barrier Thingy are a match made in heaven. Place your Great Barrier Thingy into the bottom of your Wash Bucket before you start washing your car to make sure you’re going to be trapping as much dirt as possible in the bottom of your bucket. We strongly recommend purchasing a second bucket to go with this kit, to use as a separate rinse bucket. You would put the Great Barrier Thingy into the bottom of the rinse bucket when you use the 2 bucket method.
We like to start by cleaning our wheels first, as they are generally the dirtiest part of the car, and the grime off them is not what you want going onto your freshly washed car.
We've always liked using pressure washers to help detail our cars, and they help a lot with wheel cleaning. If your wheels are extra grimy, we recommend using our dedicated Wheels bucket, adding half a capful of Nanolicious Wash and then fill it to the desired level and agitate the soap using the hose or pressure washer nozzle. Get the bucket situated next to the first wheel you are going to clean.
Grab the bottle of Wheely Clean Mini Me and spray 6-8 sprays all around the surface of the wheel. Using your desired wheel brush (we're using and recommend the Little Chubby wheel brush), dip it into the Wheels bucket mixture and wash the wheel face thoroughly (for getting into the wheel barrels, we'd recommend our Flat Head brush). Rinse the dirty brushes out to clean off the grime and dirt and then go back to the Wheels bucket and continue cleaning. This will keep your wash water clean and effective. Once you're happy the wheel is clean, rinse it with your pressure washer or hose and move onto the next wheel. Continue this procedure on each wheel till the job is done.
With your Great Barrier Thingy in the Wash bucket, fill the bucket with approximately 7-8L of water. Add in 1 capful of Nanolicious Wash, and then froth it up nicely with either the jet function of your hose, or preferably with a pressure washer.
Start by pressure washing the car down, or giving it a good blast with the jet function on your hose. We do this to remove any heavier bits of dirt and other contamination. Put your Shagtastic Wash Pad into your suds solution, giving it a gentle squeeze while it’s in there to really suck up all the suds it can. Then, starting from the top of the car first, gently wash the whole car, being sure to wipe the Shagtastic Wash Pad over the Great Barrier Thingy when it goes back into your bucket, to ensure any dirt and grime picked up from the car goes to the bottom of the bucket and is trapped by The Great Barrier Thingy.
Once washed, rinse the whole car off with a nice gentle stream of water from the hose. At this point, we want to flood the panels with water to help remove as much water from the surface as possible, so there’s less to dry.
Wet Dreams
Wet Dreams is a spray on, rinse off sealant, that adds super hydrophobic protection to your paint work. This protection makes the paint easier to keep clean, adds UV protection, a real slickness and shine, and also gives self cleaning properties to the paint. It can be used as a spray on, rinse off product on wet panels, but it can also be used as a spray on and wipe on product when used on wet panels.
It's a super easy one to use, simply spray on one still wet section of the car, wipe over with your damp Big Softie cloth, and then immediately and thoroughly rinse off with a strong jet of water from your hose or pressure washer to see the instant bead porn and protection. Continue around the car till finished, making sure to work on wet panels that are cool to touch and in the shade.
Wet Dreams can also be used by spraying onto an already wet panel, then rinsing it off straight away, without the need to wipe the product in. It will work better in this fashion when using it on an existing sealant, or if you've already completed the wipe on method. We use it in this manner as a "top up" to existing protection.
Drying
The Big Green Sucker is one of the best drying towel we've ever come across. 1200 gsm, super soft and massively absorbent, it stands proud as a great and reliable drying buddy. The only way we've found to make it better, is to use it with some Boss Gloss to aid the drying process.
Grab The Big Green Sucker and mist each side of the cloth with 6-8 sprays of our Boss Gloss detailing spray. We use Boss Gloss as its formula is amazing for this job, providing more lubrication for the towel to make it glide over the surface. It also helps draw more water into the cloth as well as helping the light trailing water spots evaporate faster and cleaner too. It also leaves a pretty stunning finish!
See our full drying guide below.
Glass Cleaning
For the best glass cleaning experience, we recommend to use our Naked Glass and our specialised glass cleaning cloth; the Inta-Mitt.
Spray 1-2 sprays only of Naked Glass into the green side of the Inta-Mitt (if it's cold, use less, and if it's warmer, you may need to use a little more Naked Glass). Gently wipe up and down, then back and forth over the glass until you see any marks in the glass disappear and the Naked Glass start to flash off. Turn the Inta-Mitt to the purple side and gently buff over the entire glass surface to remove any remaining product and to remove any haze from the glass.
If the glass is very dirty, or you have stubborn marks on there, you can spray the Naked Glass directly onto the glass, leave it for 10-15 seconds before using the Inta-Mitt in the same way as described above.
For a more in-depth look at glass cleaning and the Inta-Mitt, see our article below:
Microfibre Cleaning
Probably the most important and overlooked part of detailing is keeping your cloths clean. We made our own microfibre wash to break down detailing chemicals from the fibres of the cloth and allow the fibres to rinse free, meaning your cloths will continue to work like new for years to come. For any heavier stained cloths or applicators, put a few mL of the Microfibre Wash directly onto the cloth or pad and massage it around with your fingers to help release the product, then give it a good rinse under some warm water before putting it into the wash. You can also put approximately 10-20mL of Microfibre Wash into a bucket with some warm water and let the applicators and cloths soak in there for 30 minutes prior to putting them through the wash.
Put all your cloths and pre soaked dirtier applicators into the washing machine on a normal cycle, on the warm water setting. Put 20mL of Microfibre Wash in the machine (DO NOT USE FABRIC SOFTENERS) and away you go. Once they’re washed, tumble dry the cloths on the cool setting and then store them in an air tight container if possible, ready for their next use.
For a more detailed explanation of this process, please see our dedicated caring for microfibre guide below.
Any questions?
This gives you a good overview of the products in your new kit, and a step by step guide on how to use them and in what order to use them in.
If you require some more information, we have a detailed Flow Chart that you may also find helpful here -
If you have any questions, please email us info@bowdensown.com.au or call our office on 1800 351 308.
Happy detailing!
Brett Hobbs
