Get the right stuff

Before you start washing, it's worth getting the right gear together. You don't need a huge collection of products and tools to safely wash your car, but having a few essentials will make the job easier and, most importantly, help reduce the chance of adding unwanted swirls and wash marks to your paint.

For a good basic wash setup, you'll want a good quality car wash, separate Wash and Rinse buckets, Great Barrier Thingys, a good quality wash tool, dedicated wheel and tyre cleaning gear, and some quality microfibre drying towels. A pressure washer is great if you have one, but a regular garden hose will still get the job done.

For the buckets, we recommend using separate Wash and Rinse buckets, each fitted with one of our Great Barrier Thingys. Our BOB (Bowden's Own Bucket) holds around 15 litres and comes in dedicated Wash, Rinse and Wheels versions, making it easy to keep everything separate. There's even a separate Microfibre bucket if you're a hardcore fanatic, and a bunch of different coloured lids to choose from too.

The Great Barrier Thingy sits securely in the bottom of the bucket and helps keep the dirt and grit you remove from the car away from your wash tools. Heavier contamination settles underneath the barrier, reducing the chance of picking it back up and rubbing it over your paint, potentially scratching your pride and joy.

A separate Wheels bucket is also something we strongly recommend. Wheels and tyres can be some of the dirtiest parts of the car, collecting brake dust, road grime and all sorts of nasty contamination that you don't want anywhere near the tools you're using on your paint.

Don't stress if you're new to all of this. We'll go through each product and tool, and exactly how to use them, as we work our way through the wash.