Mother Bucket

Congratulations

Congratulations on your purchase! This Mother Bucket was created for the person who wants the mother of all buckets. 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 to your paint, to looking after your microfibre.

Time to wash

The Wash & Rinse buckets and Great Barrier Thingy is a match made in heaven. Place your Great Barrier Thingy into the bottom of your Wash & Rinse buckets 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 buckets. We would strongly recommend purchasing our Wheels bucket to go with this kit, to use as a dedicated wheels only bucket.

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 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 afterwards, so you don’t have the rinse water sitting on your cars panels for a longer period after washing. 

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, we recommend our dedicated Wheels bucket (place a Great Barrier Thingy in it if you like – if you don’t have our dedicated Wheels bucket, you can use the Rinse bucket, just rinse it out very well after doing the wheels, then fill it with fresh, clean water before washing your vehicle) Add half a capful of Wax 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.

Grab the bottle of Wheely Clean and spray 6-8 sprays all around the surface of the wheel. Using your desired Wheel Woolie or wheel brush, dip it into the Wheels (or Rinse) bucket mixture and wash the wheel face and dish thoroughly. Rinse the dirty brushes out to clean off the grime and dirt and then go back to the Wheels (or Rinse) bucket and continue cleaning. This will keep your wash water clean and effective. Once you're happy the wheel is clean, rinse it clean 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 & Rinse buckets, fill the Rinse bucket with approximately 10-12L of water. Add 1 capful of Wax Wash to the Wash bucket 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 Rinse 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.

 

Decontamination

We've found for the most effective decontamination, use Three Way as the lube for our new Claying Rubber. This is a very specialised rubber compound that we’ve found to be super fine and won’t ever micro scratch or marr even the softest paints. It has replaced our older Clay Towels as it lasts longer, is more effective, as well as being just as fast and easy to use on larger panel areas.

 

Step 1: 

Wash and dry the vehicle safely. We'd recommend to wash with one of our lubricating washes; Nanolicious Wash, Wax Wash or Auto Body Gel using a Shagtastic Wash Pad, Love Glove or Muffy Sponge. We recommend to use a double solution of your favourite wash to make sure you're getting rid of as much dirt, oils and grease as possible. After you've washed the vehicle, dry it safely with the Big Green Sucker. Don't use any Boss Gloss or other detailing sprays on your Big Green Sucker during this drying process, as it can affect the next steps, and it'll also be a waste of product!

 

Step 2:

Make sure the vehicle you're decontaminating is in the shade and the paint is cool to touch. A well ventilated area outside in the shade is ideal.

Put on some gloves. Although the product doesn't smell of death, the gloves will make sure that your hands don't smell afterwards. Spray Three Way directly onto a panel, or half a panel depending on how big the area is. Do this one section at a time and allow 1 minute for the purple reaction to begin. This reaction is the ingredients in Three Way reacting with the iron particles on your paint, and safely breaking them down into a water soluble solution. With these particles now broken down, they will not scratch or mark your paint under the Claying Rubber.

 

Step 3:

Spray a few sprays of Three Way into the Claying Rubber and GENTLY apply to the paint in straight lines over the lubricated area (DO NOT USE ON AN UNLUBRICATED AREA). You will feel the surface go from rough to smooth as the rubber polymer removes the bonded contamination from your paint. Once the paint is smooth, you know you're done and you can move onto the next section.

Apply more product as needed to keep each section well lubricated. You will notice as you work the product more, it will start to lather up. This is really deep cleaning the paint surface and removing the waxes and sealants. If the Claying Rubberbecomes full of contamination (you will hear it sounding rough and not clearing up), then it's time to give it a rinse. Rinse it out in fresh, clean water, and then go right back to claying.

 

Step 4:

Wait another 1 minute for any further iron reaction (the product will keep reacting with any iron particles present during this whole process), then rinse the area thoroughly with water.

Repeat this same method on all the remaining panels, making sure to rinse the Claying Rubber as you go to remove the contamination from the surface. Do this until the entire vehicle is done.

 

Step 5:

Wash and dry the vehicle again safely to remove any remaining residue left over from the claying process. 

If your vehicle has extremely bad iron contamination, you may need to repeat this process.

 

 

Drying

Grab The Big Green Sucker and mist each side of the cloth with 3-4 sprays of our Boss Gloss detailing spray. We use Boss Gloss, as its formula is amazing for this job. It adds 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!

Cleansing

Once the car is washed and dried, it’s ready for cleansing. We do that with our Paint Cleanse & Restore. This will deep clean the paint and prepare it for the wax. Place a 50c sized dollop of Paint Cleanse & Restore onto the Circle Work pad, then rub it into the surface till there are no more dry spots in the pad. Do a section of the car at a time (maybe 1/4 of the bonnet). Work the product in an up and down, then side to motion till it begins to go opaque. Once this occurs, buff off the remaining residue with a Big Softie cloth and then move onto the next section of the car until it is all done.

Waxing

Ensure the cars' surface is out of direct sunlight and cool to touch. Remove any rings, belt buckles, chains or anything else from yourself as they can potentially scratch your paint. Shake the bottle really well and apply a 50-cent size amount of Carnauba Body Wax to our orange edged Circle Work applicator pad, then smother it over the pads surface, so there are no dry sections.

Work on one area of the car at a time using a slow and gentle circular motion. You can go circular with out fear of leaving swirl marks as our wax has no abrasives and the Circle Work pad is designed with materials that can never leave micro-scratches. Always ensure you're working indoors when using this technique. If you're working outdoors, or you're afraid of dirt or dust blowing onto the car, always work in straight lines instead of circular. Try and spread the wax as far as possible. The less you use, the better the results; it only needs to be lightly spread on. This way, it's easier to remove and your dollar stretches much further. Remember this simple rule; Less is Best!

Let the Carnauba Body Wax dry for around a minute, till it forms a light, dry haze. Remove it with a folded orange edged Big Softie microfibre cloth (to the low pile side). Do a final, close inspection of the car to ensure all the residue is buffed away, then tidy up any remaining residue with a final wipe of the Big Softie cloth, folded into quarters to the higher pile, plush side.

More protection

With our Carnauba Body Wax being more organic, it will take a few hours for its layer to fully harden and cure. So we recommend waiting 2 hours in the summer months and 3 to 4 months if it’s colder or wet before applying Fully Slick.

Fully Slick gets applied with 2 Drop Bear or Big Softie cloths. Spray the Fully Slick straight into 1 Drop Bear or Big Softie cloth, wipe over the surface of the paint one section at a time (half a bonnet or so), then with the second Drop Bear or Big Softie cloth, buff off any residue as you go.

You can add multiple layers of Fully Slick with approximately 1 hour cure time between each coat. We find that two coats gives the very best shine and protection possible. 

Glass cleaning

Grab your other Big Softie cloth and fold it into quarters with the short pile side facing the outside. Spray 2-3 sprays only of the Naked Glass into the cloth, then lightly apply it to the glass and gently work it side to side, up and down, till you see it start to flash off. Turn your Big Softie to the high pile side of the cloth and give the glass a final buff for a perfect, streak free finish.

Wheels and tyres

Wheels and tyres are lucky last. Dry the tyres first with a clean and dry Dirty Deeds cloth. Then, spray 3-4 sprays of Tyre Sheen into your All Sorts applicator then wipe over the tyre, covering all the rubber surface, getting it into the lettering on the tyres. If you like a shinier look on your tyres, you can apply a second layer of Tyre Sheen after the first layer has dried. We aim for a mid sheen on the tyre, just better than a new tyre; that's the finish we get with this applicator.

To add some protection to your wheels, you can apply Fully Slick with a Dirty Deeds cloth, or After Glow with a damp Dirty Deeds cloth. This will help protect the wheels, and help brake dust come off easier next time you clean them.

TIP: If you're working in the sun, you would dry your wheels earlier in the process to avoid water spots.

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 the Circle Work pad that you used with the Paint Cleanse & Restore, put a few MLS of the Microfibre Wash directly onto the 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. This same method applies for any heavier stained cloths or applicators. 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.

 

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 have any questions, please email us info@bowdensown.com.au or call our office on 1800 351 308.

Happy detailing!

Brett Hobbs