You want to use either clear water or a special car wash conditioning shampoo that is specifically formulated for automotive finishes and then you will not have that deteriorating process taking place. You actually enhance the appearance of your paint finish while you are washing your car.
If you have a canvas convertible top, you can wash it with the very same car wash solutions - car wash conditioning shampoos. One thing that people generally don't know is that in convertible tops you have these clear plastic rear windows that scratch very easily and there are expensive to replace. We have an amazing product to take out all those scratches out and restore clarity to the clear plastics.
The types of tools that you use to clean your car are as important as the chemicals that you use. Over the years, we have sometimes received complaints about our products and when we started asking questions we found out that they were using incorrect toweling or incorrect brushes.
First of, it's important to understand that the newer finishes, while they are very durable, they actually scratch quite easily and they magnify scratches. So a very fine scratch today is about seven times more noticeable than it was back on the conventional paint finish where the pigment was the top coat of paint. You have to be careful to stay away from causing scratches and using anything that's abrasives, so the toweling is very important.
There are a lot of brushes on the market that are rather cheaply made and very hard on your finish. We have created a whole line of brushes that have bristles so soft you could use them on your face if you wanted to. They are also ergonomically designed so you don't have to work as hard to scrub the different types of surfaces like the bottom sections of the car. You can even reverse the angle of the handle so it bends the opposite direction and really saves some strain on the back and that makes it a lot easier and safer to use.
The best type of towel is micro-fiber. Micro fibers are wonderful for wiping off product and leave a much brighter clear finish.
