Car Care & Auto Detailing Blog

Although having the glossiest, shiniest car is the traditional way to stand out from the crowd, it’s no longer the only way. Recently, auto enthusiasts have gone in the opposite direction with matte-finish automotive paint that turns heads because of its non-reflective properties. Because matte finishes are the opposite of the standard, glossy type of automotive paint, it stands to reason that taking care of them is a bit different than washing and waxing a car with a standard finish.

If you’re considering getting a matte finish on your car, here are some important details to note.

Having the Right Tools

Half the battle when it comes to properly washing your car under any circumstances is having the right tools for the job. Because they aren’t smooth like traditional paint jobs, matte finishes will snag regular terrycloth towels, resulting in lint being left behind and looking ugly. You’ll need a high-quality towel such as CleanTools’ DipRagz™, which are made especially for dipped or other matte finishes. The sponge-like consistency of DipRagz™ means they won’t leave any lint on your matte finish.

When it comes to the detergent you use, any automotive-safe soap should work just fine on your matte surface. Be sure to soak any dead bugs, tree sap or bird droppings with detergent before gently wiping them away. Because scrubbing can damage the finish. This is also why you should wash your matte-finish car using two buckets — one with soapy water and another with clean water. That way, you can rinse your towel after each pass with soapy water to prevent any grit from being rubbed into the surface of your finish.

It’s also a good idea for this reason to use a separate towel for cleaning your wheels. Because you don’t want to use a towel that might be contaminated with brake dust and road grit on your car’s matte finish.

What Not to Do

Although you can buff out little scratches and swirl marks in a traditional glossy paint finish, matte surfaces are much less forgiving. Any scratches are likely permanent. What’s more, any attempts to remove them probably will result in a patch where the surface quality of the finish is significantly different. For that reason, it’s not a good idea to take your matte-finish car through an automatic car wash, where the brushes can damage the surface. Using waxes and polishes on your matte finish also isn’t recommended, because they will just get caked into the tiny imperfections on the surface and change the look of your finish.

A matte finish can give your car a unique appearance that will make it stand out from the rest of the pack. Yet without proper care, it won’t look good for long.

Keep Your Car Looking Its Best With Help From CleanTools

Knowing the right way to clean and care for a matte finish will help ensure that it looks good for a long time. Having the right tools is the best place to start, so take a look at everything CleanTools has to offer and make sure you have everything you need to properly care for your matte finish.

Even if you’re not the type of person who spends hours under the hood fine-tuning your car, you probably still take a lot of pride in it. You want to be sure that your car looks and performs its best for as long as possible. While there are many details about keeping your car running smoothly that should be left to the professionals, keeping your car looking great is something you’re more than capable of handling yourself.

Detailing your car at home is a simple matter of knowing what to do and having the right tools to get it done. What follows is a quick guide to car detailing at home.

Exterior Detailing

Your car’s exterior is exposed to a lot of elements that can damage and dull its finish. Exterior detailing removes as much of this as possible — leaving a clean, shiny, showroom look. Here’s what you need to do to detail your car’s exterior:

1. Give it a good wash with a high-quality cleanser. The Wash Mitt from CleanTools gives you complete control and ensures you won’t miss a spot. Clean your wheels with a brush to remove caked-on dirt and brake dust. For cars with a dipped or matte finish, DipRagz™ is the perfect tool to clean this surface without leaving lint behind.
2. After rinsing your car, make sure you dry it thoroughly to prevent water spots. The Absorber’s unique polyvinyl alcohol construction makes it extra-absorbent and easy to clean.
3. A clay bar pressed onto your car’s surface will remove any particles that remain stuck to the clear coat.
4. Next, it’s time to wax and polish your car to give it a protective coating. The Glosser is one of the best car-detailing products, thanks to its tri-layer construction that includes a layer of wax between its microfiber cloths. Its 2-in-1 technology is designed to give your vehicle that final showroom shine. For chrome and aluminum details, Buffing Balls deliver superior buffing action without overheating or caking.

Interior Detailing

Having a clean and shiny exterior is important, but it won’t make as much of an impact on your passengers if your car’s interior is left dull and dingy. Here are the basic steps you should take to make sure the inside of your car is just as pleasing to look at as the exterior:

1. Vacuum the carpets and upholstery to remove all crumbs, dirt and anything else you may have tracked into your car’s interior from the outside.
2. Give your dashboard, console and all other surfaces inside your car a good once-over to remove lint, hair, and dust. The Dash Gear microfiber interior cleaning cloth works great at trapping and picking up all of those without needing moisture or chemicals that could damage your dash.
3. Clean the inside of your windows and windshield with a specially formulated cleanser to protect its coating.
4. Shampoo your floor mats and upholstery to give them a deep clean and remove any unwanted odors they may have collected over time.

You’re proud of your car, and you want to do everything you can to keep it looking its best. With the proper tools and the right knowledge at your disposal, you can maintain your car’s showroom-quality look by yourself at home. Take a look at everything CleanTools can provide you with to keep your car in pristine condition.

Even if you’ve spent all afternoon carefully washing your car with the best tools and the most effective cleansers, your car still isn’t going to be completely clean until it’s dried properly. Although you could just leave your car out in the sun to drip-dry and call it a day, that can be almost as bad as not washing it. Because, water droplets left on your car’s finish may still contain dirt, impurities, and grit that won’t evaporate with the water. Once the water evaporates, those bits of dirt and grit wind up sticking to your car’s finish in the form of ugly water spots. Grabbing an old towel and rubbing the surface of your car is no good, either. Reason being, you could just end up grinding tiny specks of grit into your car’s finish, which could leave awful-looking scratches.

Knowing how to dry your car after a wash is just as important as washing it in the first place.

Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your next car wash and keep your paint job safe when you dry:

Use The Right Tools

Be Gentle

Get Everywhere

Follow Up With Protection

Knowing how to dry your car the right way is just as important as cleaning it the right way. Make sure your next car wash is topped off with the right drying tools and techniques. CleanTools has everything you need to keep your car looking its best, so take a look at our collection of automotive products and find what you need.

A luxury car is a substantial investment. It only makes sense that if you’re a luxury car owner, you want to do everything you can to protect that investment. Although you could treat your luxury car like any other average car, sending it through the car wash at the gas station almost feels like sacrilege. Luxury car care requires a certain level of dedication and attention to detail that will treat the vehicle with the respect it needs and deserves. If you’re the proud owner of a luxury car and want to keep it in showroom condition all the time, here are some of the most important luxury car cleaning tips you should follow at home to ensure the best results.

Use a Clay Bar

Getting your luxury car out on the open road is one of life’s biggest pleasures, but that pleasure comes with a price. No matter how well-protected your car’s finish is, microscopic dust particles and other abrasives kicked up from the road will attach themselves to your car. What’s more, those abrasives will eventually cause tiny scratches that can dull your paint job. After giving your car a good wash to remove the dirt you can see, a clay bar is helpful for removing all the tiny contaminants that still linger on the surface.

Polish and Wax the Exterior

Proper polishing removes scratches and buffs any imperfections that might be inflicted on your car’s finish. This is especially important for luxury cars, where appearance is everything. When taking care of the exterior of your luxury car, the luxury car cleaning products you use are crucial. For example, the Italian viscose fibers that make up the Buffing Balls from CleanTools make them superior for polishing a luxury car. The unique nature of Buffing Balls means they won’t overheat or get caked up like foam buffers can. When it comes to waxing your car and protecting the finish, The Glosser makes the work easier. With its three-layer microfiber cloth containing an inner layer of wax, a quick stroke is all that’s needed to remove tough road grime and wax your car’s exterior.

Cleaning the Interior

Luxury car detailing is just as important as taking care of your car’s exterior. After all, when you spend a little extra for leather seats and/or accents, you want to make sure they last and look good for as long as possible. Using special cleaning products to clean and protect your leather upholstery is essential; so is cleaning up all the dust and lint that can settle on your car’s interior surfaces. With the use of the Dash Gear from CleanTools, cleaning every surface in your car’s interior couldn’t be easier. Dash Gear’s microfiber construction captures and lifts dust and lint away from surfaces more effectively than any other type of cleaning cloth. The Dash Gear is perfect for cleaning dashboards, navigation screens, air vents and upholstery. With dust and lint trapped within the Dash Gear’s microfibers, you’ll have a perfectly clean surface to apply the leather cleaner and conditioner of your choice.

By following the above luxury car cleaning tips, you’ll be well on your way to keeping your vehicle in top shape for a long time to come.

Tinted windows add a nice touch to the look of the right car, in addition to helping protect the driver from excessive UV light. For your tinted windows to stay in their best condition, it’s important for you to know the best way to clean tinted windows. Keeping them clean not only keeps your car looking good, but it can also help ensure that your windows will last a long time. Here are some basic tips on how to clean tinted car windows.

Having the Right Tools

The first step is making sure you have the right tools for the job. You’ll want to use an ammonia-free cleanser for your tinted windows, as ammonia will weaken your tint and damage it. You’ll also need a microfiber cloth to apply the cleanser. Don’t use paper towels, because the rough fibers can scratch the tint. Certain types of cotton towels or T-shirts can be just as abrasive as paper, too. Finally, you’ll want to have The Absorber on hand to dry your tinted windows once they’re clean. The Absorber’s unique Poly Vinyl Alcohol construction and sponge-like pore structure make it superior to terrycloth towels or leather chamois for drying your car quickly and effectively.

The Proper Conditions

Next, make sure the conditions are right for washing your car. Choose a day with mild temperature and no chance of rain in the forecast. If you can wash your car in a shaded spot, that will be best because it can prevent the water from drying too fast and leaving spots. If possible, cleaning the inside of your car’s windows about every two weeks is optimal to help prevent the worst buildup.

How to Clean Tinted Windows

Using a microfiber cloth to apply the cleanser, rub gently until the window is clean. Take care to avoid the edges of the windows, or else water and cleanser can get underneath the tint and create air bubbles. Then, using The Absorber, wipe the windows until they are completely dry. If there are any small bubbles in the tint, a heat gun can be used to flatten them, or a credit card wrapped in a soft cloth can be used to gently push the air out from underneath the tint.

Longer-Lasting Windows

Having clean window tint is one of the best ways to help make sure that it will last long enough for you to get your money’s worth from it. Although tinted car windows require a little extra care and attention, the results are well worth it. Having the right knowledge and the right tools — including The Absorber — will make all the difference when cleaning your tinted auto windows, so your tinted car windows can look good and last for a long time to come.

No matter how much you want to protect your car’s finish, some damage is inevitable. Your car is always under attack from dust, dirt, and other particles that can scratch your paint. One of the most common types of scratches is swirl marks, which are very fine scratches that appear as swirls on your hood, trunk, or other flat surfaces. These marks occur when dust or other particulates become trapped in a washcloth, buffer or chamois, and are rubbed against the surface of your paint. That dust scratches the paint, and light reflected by the sides of these scratches can make them easier to see. They can also be caused by car covers that are not clean, automated car wash brushes, or dust and dirt left when a car is not properly rinsed after washing.

Swirl marks on your car can give it a dull, unattractive appearance, but the good news is that you don’t have to live with them. Anyone wanting to know how to get swirl marks out of paint should know that they can be polished with the right tools. Although they can’t be avoided completely, the worst of them can be prevented with some basic care.

Taking Care of Swirl Marks

Removing swirl marks by hand requires the use of car polish, and there are some products that are specifically created for that purpose. Once the swirl marks have been buffed out of your car’s finish, you can use The Glosser from CleanTools to help keep its surface free of the dust and grit that can cause swirl marks and other types of scratches. The Glosser’s wax fabric sandwiched between two layers of cleaner-infused fabric removes dust and debris from the surface of your car while waxing. This makes it easier to keep up with the accumulation of dirt your car constantly picks up.

Most swirl marks are caused by dust and grit trapped inside cleaning tools and towels. By simply ensuring that the cleaning tools you’re using are clean and thoroughly rinsed between uses can help prevent most swirl marks and scratches. CleanTools offers a wide variety of products designed to keep your car clean and help reduce the appearance of swirl marks. Our Premium Wash Mitt from CleanTools holds an incredible amount of water and traps in the dust causing your paint swirls. Make sure to completely rinse it after each use and keep it clean when not in use. When drying with The Absorber, be careful not to drop it on the ground as it can pick up particles from the pavement. If that happens, simply rinse it off and it will be good to go! Preventative maintenance on your cleaning supplies will only help the next time you give your baby a bath.

You may not be able to prevent dust and grit from attacking your car’s finish, but you don’t have to live with the results, either.

A vehicle’s tires are constantly in contact with dirty, oily road surfaces. Wheels, meanwhile, are getting spattered with this combination, and are collecting brake dust as well. Yet, when it comes to cleaning a vehicle, wheels and tires rarely receive the same level of care and attention that most people give the bodies of their cars.

Over time, dirt, oil, and brake dust can take a toll on your vehicle’s wheels and tires. Tires become drab and cracked, and wheels get grimy and scratched. You could take your car to a car wash regularly to have the wheels and tires professionally cleaned, but to save time and money (and make sure the job gets done right), you easily can do it yourself in your own driveway and get the best tire shine.

Best Practices and Helpful Tools

Any time you wash your car, wash your wheels and tires first to prevent spraying dirt from them right back onto your doors and fenders. Gather some cleaning tools first, such as a tire brush, a Wash Mitt, and The Absorber for drying. These should be dedicated for cleaning tires; use another set for cleaning the car’s painted surfaces.

If you are cleaning aluminum wheels, a Buffing Ball will help you polish them. When you select a wheel and tire cleaner, you should know that some tire cleaners are specially formulated to clean and rejuvenate rubber. Make sure you follow the manufacturer’s instructions if you use a cleaner made specifically for tires. Use two buckets at all times; one with your cleaning solution and water, and the other with water just for rinsing your tools before dipping them back into the solution.

You can use a Wash Mitt to give your tires a preliminary cleaning. After spraying the tires and letting the cleaner break down the buildup for a few minutes, use a stiffer brush to scrub the tires — being careful not to scratch the wheel surfaces as you do so.

Moving on to the wheels, be sure to choose an appropriate cleaner for the type of wheels on your car, and follow the manufacturer’s instructions. After leaving the cleaner on for a few minutes, scrub away accumulated dirt and brake dust with a soft, feathered brush to prevent scratching. It’s important to remove accumulated brake dust because it includes tiny metal filings from the brake pads that can corrode and damage the surface of your wheels over time.

Once you’ve scrubbed the tire and the wheel, rinse the entire wheel with a strong jet from your hose. Clean only one wheel/tire set at a time. If the cleaner dries, all you’ve done is apply a thin coating that won’t simply rinse away. Use The Absorber specifically for drying your wheels and tires to prevent water spots. Its unique PVA material and sponge-like pore structure combine to ensure superior drying.

The Finishing Touches

Chrome and aluminum wheels can reflect an extra shine when polished with a Buffing Ball. Specifically designed for polishing chrome, aluminum, and painted surfaces, Buffing Balls’ Italian viscose fibers are safe at speeds up to 2,500 rpm, and they won’t tear the way foam buffers can. Applying wax to your wheels will make it easier to clean them the next time, and also help prevent dirt and brake dust from accumulating.

Knowing how to clean tires, using a little elbow grease, and having the right tools will enable you to give your wheels and tires a professional-grade look and protect them from road elements for a long time.

If worries about a water spot here, a streak there, and a scratch in yet another place have you ready to throw in the towel on washing your own car, don’t. In fact, you shouldn’t even have a towel to throw in. There’s a proper way to wash and dry your car — and come away with a smooth, even and shiny finish — and it starts with using the right car care products.

Henry Ford was on to something when he said, “Any color you like, so long as it's black.” No color looks as sharp on a vehicle, but keeping it that way is hard work. Black shows dirt and dust, and there's nothing as annoying as swirl marks on a black car. You can purchase auto scratch removers to lessen the appearance of swirls, but the best approach is prevention.