Clean your wheels first

Always do any car washing 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!

We like to start by cleaning our wheels and tyres 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. Also, it's more time efficient to wash the car afterwards, so you don't have the rinse water sitting on your cars panels for a longer period after washing, which could potentially lead to water spotting.

First step is to put some Hose Sliders under your front tyres to stop the hose and pressure washer getting stuck!

We've always liked using pressure washers to help detail our cars, and they help a lot with wheel cleaning. If you don’t have a pressure washer, and you’re using a hose, or your wheels needed some extra cleaning after the pressure washer, grab the dedicated Wheels bucket (place a Great Barrier Thingy in it if you like). Add a capful of our Dirty Times Wash and then fill it to the desired level and suds it up using the hose or pressure washer. Get the bucket situated next to the first wheel you are going to clean.

If your wheels have a lot of brake dust, then use Wheely Clean here. If they're more grime affected, use the Down & Dirty on the wheels and tyres. Often when you bring a new car home, the tyres will be covered in silicone tyre dressing, which we can remove with Down & Dirty. Spray Down & Dirty onto the tyres, then spray Wheely Clean onto the wheels. Scrub the tyres with The Little Stiffy brush using the wash suds we made before. If the inner wheel guards need a clean, do them at this stage with the Big Black One brush. Once the tyre has been scrubbed, rinse the whole thing off, wheel and all, with the pressure washer or hose. We rinse off here so we're removing as much brake dust and road grime from the wheels as possible before using any brushes on them, to greatly reduce the chance of scratching or marking the wheels. Wheely Clean only needs 30 seconds to 1 minute of dwell time, so don't let anything dry in this step, and always do 1 wheel at a time.

After rinsing the wheel and tyre, go back to your Wheels bucket now and use a system of brushes that's going to best suit your wheels. The Flat Head Brush for the barrels, Nuts & Guts brush from The Foursome brush set for the wheel nuts, air valve stem and any other hard to reach areas like the brake caliper. For most wheels, the Chubby Brush is going to be the most suitable brush for wheel faces. If you have a high gloss black finish, or your wheels are super delicate, consider the Palmy Brush or Octobrush with their super soft bristles.

If you're cleaning really dirty or mud caked wheels, it can be beneficial to pressure wash or hose the wheels first to remove any larger chunks of mud and dirt.

Once you've finished cleaning and rinsing the wheels, hit them with some Wet Dreams - our spray on, rinse off sealant, to help protect the wheels, so they're easier to wash and clean next time around. While the wheel is still wet, spray some Wet Dreams straight onto the wheel, then immediately pressure wash or hose it off to reveal some epic bead porn.

Once you're done, rinse the brushes out in fresh water and hang them by the hooks on the handle ends with the bristles facing outwards, or place them in the Wheels Bucket with the brushes facing outwards or upwards, to not disfigure them. If they do ever get a bit mashed down or up by mistake, just run hot water over the bristles with them facing downwards to help regain their shape.