Rivali Car Care Foam Cannon and box on white

Foam Cannon Method: Swirl-Free Wash

We didn't learn this from a video, and we're not a brand that just sells chemicals. Plenty of brands sell car care products. Few have ever run a shop. We built Rivali Paint Protection® into a nationwide brand and have run top-rated shops for 13 years. These are the same products and steps our shops use every day, so trust us, this is how it's done.

Swirl marks aren't actually circles. They're thousands of tiny, shallow scratches in your clear coat, some straight, some curved, some long and some short. When light hits the paint, it makes a bright spot, and the light only catches the scratches facing it, so the lit ones look like they form circles around the light. As Atmospheric Optics explains, scratches run in all directions, but only the ones facing the light reflect it to your eye. That's why swirl marks are so easy to see on black and dark cars in the sun, but they can also be seen on white and light colored cars. The scratches come from dirt and grit dragged across the paint by a mitt or towel, no matter which direction you wipe. That's why we rinse, rinse, rinse to remove as much dirt and grit as possible before the soap, and let the soap sit to loosen the rest before anything touches the paint. The less you touch the paint, the fewer swirl marks you get, and that's why the foam cannon is our favorite way to wash. It puts the soap on without anything touching the car. This guide assumes a normally dirty car, about two to three weeks since its last wash.

Important: never wash your car in direct sunlight. Soap and cleaners dry fast in the sun and can leave stains that take extra work to remove.

What you'll need

Step 1: Rinse, rinse, rinse... thoroughly, top down to bottom

Before anything touches the paint, rinse off as much loose dirt and grit as you can. Start at the roof and work your way down, circling the car as you go, like the swirl on a soft-serve ice cream cone. Gravity carries the dirt down and off the car instead of back onto panels you've already rinsed. Give extra time to the lower door sections, the wheel wells, and the wheels and tires, where the heaviest dirt and grit collect.

Step 2: Spray the wheels

Fill the Rivali Car Care Pump Sprayer with Rivali Car Care Wheel Cleaner and spray every wheel: the faces, the brake calipers, and deep into the barrels behind the spokes. The Wheel Cleaner spray bottle works too. Let it dwell, but don't let it dry on the wheels, because it can stain.

Step 3: Foam the car

Fill the Rivali Car Care Foam Cannon with Rivali Car Care Ceramic Wash, mixed for the foam you like:

  • Thick, rich foam: straight Ceramic Wash, no water.
  • Good foam: half Ceramic Wash, half water.
  • Minimum: one quarter Ceramic Wash, three quarters water.

Attach it to your pressure washer and foam the car the same way you rinsed it, top down and circling the car. Lay on extra foam over the lower door panels, wheel wells, wheels and tires.

Step 4: Let it dwell and scrub the wheel wells

Let the foam sit for a few minutes. Ceramic Wash is made to lift the dirt, and gravity pulls the soap and dirt down and off the car without you touching the paint. While it dwells, scrub the wheel wells with the Rivali Car Care 51cm Tire Brush. Its long handle reaches deep into the wells.

Step 5: Rinse, rinse, rinse

Rinse the whole car top to bottom until every soap bubble is gone. Then give the wheel wells, tires and wheels another thorough rinse.

Step 6: Spray the wheels again

Spray Wheel Cleaner again on the faces, calipers and barrels, and let it sit while you start drying.

Step 7: First drying pass, top to bottom

The best way to dry any car is to blow the water off first with a blower or air dryer, top down. It removes about 99% of the water, so the towel barely has to touch the paint. Blow out the spots that trap water: mirrors, the gas cap, along the windows, door handles, the grille and the lights. Then dry with clean Rivali Car Care Plush Microfiber 600 GSM Towels. You can go in circles or back and forth, it doesn't matter. What matters is a clean towel, so never use one that's been dropped.

Step 8: Scrub the wheels and tires

Use the big brush in the Rivali Car Care Wheel Brush Kit for the barrels, the medium one for the spokes and the small one for the lug nuts, but use whichever is most convenient. Scrub the tires with the Rivali Car Care 23cm Tire Brush. Then rinse, rinse, rinse the wheels and tires.

Step 9: Finish drying

Still out of direct sun, finish drying the whole car top to bottom with clean Plush Microfiber 600 GSM towels.

Step 10: Clean the glass

Once the car is completely dry, do the glass. We like a mix of 25% isopropyl alcohol (99%) and 75% water, wiped on and buffed off with a Plush Microfiber 600 GSM towel.

Step 11: Finish the wheels and tires

Dry and wipe the wheels completely with a Plush Microfiber 600 GSM towel: faces, calipers and barrels. For the finishing touch, apply Rivali Car Care Tire Shine to the tires with a Rivali Car Care Microfiber Applicator Pad.

No pressure washer? Try our two-bucket method instead.