What Car Cleaning Products Should I Use?

If you head into your local automotive store and find yourself in front of the car care aisles, you’ll be nothing short of overwhelmed. Waxes, sealants, washes, tyre shine, brushes, ceramic sprays, cleaners… the list is never-ending. Below we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of O’Keefe Prestige Detailing’s top product picks for enthusiasts, weekend warriors and beginners alike.

Washing the Car:

Bowden’s Own Superlicious. This ceramic coating-friendly shampoo is gentle, PH-neutral and extremely sudsy. It promotes water sheeting, which allows the car to be rinse-dried easier, and it leaves a fantastic shine. Plus, it smells great! Superlicious also has ceramic coating maintenance abilities that can repair nanoparticle-based SiO2 ceramic coatings after being neglected.

AutoGlym Polar Blast. This snow foam is a must-use before a contact wash on your vehicle. After setting up your pressure washer and snow foam lance bottle, 100mL of Polar Blast is enough to adequately cover most cars. While letting it dwell, its thick foam will encapsulate loose dirt and grime and safely remove it from the vehicle when being rinsed off. This will highly reduce the chances of inflicting swirl marks and scratches on the paint.

Bowden’s Own Bugger Off. Bugger Off is a paint-safe bug splatter remover that is applied to wet paint. It only requires a short dwelling time which is excellent if the car is not able to be in a shaded area. Leave for 30 seconds, rub it off and watch it make light work of even the worst bug splatters.

AutoGlym Acid-Free Specialist Wheel Cleaner. This chemical spray is powerful and effective at making light work of brake dust, dirt and grime, all whilst being safe on all different kinds of wheel and caliper paint. It also has great foaming abilities which allows for more effective cleaning. We prefer this to acid-based cleaners as it is far safer and does not leave any staining. We also use it to clean tyres! Simply spray on, let it dwell and scrub with a wheel brush and watch the grime fall off.

NV Lustre. This spray sealant is magic in a bottle. We’ve tried many different forms of sealants, and few have come close to NV Lustre. It’s pricey for the size of the bottle it comes in, but given that it can last as long as 6 months if applied and protected correctly, it’s well worth it. Lustre produces an incredibly glossy shine that is highly hydrophobic and will help keep your car looking cleaner for longer.

AutoGlym Instant Ceramic. A pure ceramic spray alternative, this sealant comes in at a much more affordable price point, but provides up to 3 months’ worth of protection and adds ceramic properties to the car like hydrophobicity and excellent water beads. It’s very simple to apply as well and buffs off easily.

Autoglym Super Sheen. Super Sheen is a two-in-one combo for us; we use it as tyre shine and plastic trim restorer. It can be a little finicky to apply, but once it’s on, it looks incredible and lasts for a long time with no flick-off while driving.

Bowden’s Own All Sorts. It looks a lot like a liquorice Allsort, but doesn’t taste like one. We use this to apply tyre shine to tyres, and it does an excellent job of evenly distributing the Super Sheen across the whole tyre sidewall.

Bowden’s Own Love Glove. This yellow wash mitt is gentle and highly effective at cleaning. We’ve been using the Love Glove for years and we love it! We tend to use older, retired Love Gloves to clean wheels as they’re excellent at getting into tighter, more intricate spaces than a bulkier mitt. We also recommend the AutoGlym Microfibre Wash Mitt as another alternative, with plush microfibre noodles.

Bowden’s Own Twisted Pro Sucker. This twist pile loop microfibre cloth boasts incredible drying abilities and can mop up the water on your car in no time flat. We recommend using a couple sprays of AutoGlym Shine & Lube to help with drying efficiency. The Twisted Pro Sucker is definitely not the cheapest, but when it comes to contacting the paint, you want to making sure that the material you’re touching it with is gentle and of the highest quality.

And now, moving on to interior detailing:

EconoMax Detailing Brush Set. This essential brush set includes a variety of different brushes, including makeup-like soft brushes and stiffer brushes for more intensive cleaning. These can also be used for cleaning more intricate areas of wheels and calipers. BMW wheels are a perfect example of a use case.

AutoGlym Interior Cleaner. This medium-duty interior cleaner is our go-to for all things car interior cleaning. It is powerful, leather-safe, smells clean and foams really well, perfect for use with an auto detailing brush and for cleaning out intricate areas. It’s also inexpensive! It can be used as a substitute for shampoo extraction, and where needed, its stronger cousin, Super Interior Cleaner, can be used. We also use Interior Cleaner as a safe alternative to removing stubborn tar and tree sap form car paint.

AutoGlym Shine & Lube. A personal favourite of O’Keefe’s Prestige Detailing, this spray lubricant is an all-in-one. It’s used for light cleaning duties, adding shine and as a lubricant for a clay bar treatment. It’s incredibly easy to apply and buff off, and produces incredible gloss for its affordability and ease of use. We love using this for all glossy areas of vehicle interiors, including door jambs and dash instrument cluster plastics.

AutoGlym Fast Glass. We have found this to be the most effective and streak-free window cleaner that we have used. It’s affordable and super easy to use. Simply apply into a cloth and clean glass, then use another clean cloth to buff off.

So there you have it; O’Keefe’s Prestige Detailing’s comprehensive list of recommended and personally tested detailing products, guaranteed to perform and leave long-lasting results when properly applied. We are always testing new products on the market and are constantly striving to provide top-quality results for our mobile car detailing clients!