Start here
The shampoo
Armour Shampoo+
$49.99 NZD
pH neutral, so it cleans without stripping the wax, sealant or ceramic coating already on the paint. Highly concentrated, rinses away without residue, and works in a foam cannon or a bucket.
The shop
Everything you need to wash your car properly
We do not stock a wall of products. One shampoo, one wash pad, one sponge, two sizes of drying blanket and two sprays — because after several hundred cars we have settled on what works and stopped buying the rest.
Everything here is what we use in the workshop, laid out in the order you would use it.
Step one
Wash it
Wheels and tyres first, then the body from the top down.
The wash pad
THOR Wash Boss
$59.99 NZD
A 1000 GSM microfibre pad, 10 x 10 inches. It holds far more suds than a sponge and pulls grit up into the pile and away from the paint, which is what keeps swirl marks out of it.
Two buckets — one for the suds, one to rinse the pad — is the single biggest thing you can do to keep swirl marks out of your paint.
Step two
Dry it
Letting a car air dry is what leaves water spots. Dry it straight after the rinse, panel by panel, with as little contact as you can manage.
The drying blanket
DIY Detail Drying Blanket
$64.99 NZD
1200 GSM Korean microfibre at 28 x 35 inches. Large enough to dry a car, SUV or ute with barely any wringing out, and edgeless, so there is no stitched hem to catch a panel.
The small one
DIY Detail Mini Drying Blanket
$39.99 NZD
The same 1200 GSM cloth at 8 x 16 inches, for glass, mirrors, door jambs and panel edges where the full blanket is too big to control. Two in a pack.
The all-rounder towels
THOR Mister Twister Towels
$49.99 NZD
600 GSM at 16 x 16 inches. The towel you reach for after the blanket — buffing off detail spray, cleaning glass, wiping down the interior. Three in a pack.
Step three
Keep it that way
Between full washes, to keep the gloss and the beading up. Safe over an existing wax, sealant or ceramic coating, and it will not build up over time.
The top-up spray
Armour AMPLIFY Detail Spray
$49.99 NZD
An SiO2 spray for gloss and slickness. Use it as a drying aid on the way out of a wash, or on its own to lift dust and fingerprints. Adds up to two months of beading on top of what is already there.
No hose needed
Rinseless washing
Rinseless washing is exactly what it sounds like: the car is cleaned with one bucket and a rinseless wash sponge, with no hose and no rinse afterwards. It is one of the safest ways there is to wash a vehicle — the solution encapsulates and emulsifies the dirt so it lifts off the surface, and the sponge then carries it away rather than dragging it across the paint.
It suits a car that is lightly dusty rather than properly dirty, and it is the answer if you have nowhere to run water. We have filmed the method start to finish — watch The Ultimate Guide to Rinseless Car Washing on our YouTube channel.
The rinseless sponge
DIY Detail Legacy Sponge
$49.99 NZD
Thick, soft foam that carries around twice the solution of an ordinary sponge. That matters here, because in a rinseless wash the lubrication held in the sponge is all that sits between the grit and your paint. Works in a normal bucket wash as well.
The rinseless wash
Armour HERO Rinseless Wash
$49.99 NZD
Dilute it in a bucket, work top to bottom and dry each section as you go. Its silica backbone gives the slickness that makes washing without a rinse safe, and it leaves nothing behind that will affect an existing wax, sealant or coating. Also works as a clay lubricant.