Exterior Washing with the Two Bucket Method Estimated reading: 3 minutes 4997 views Summary: The two-bucket wash method involves separate soap and rinse buckets to keep dirt from being reapplied while washing. Special thanks to our contributors Discord: Lt Phil The idea of the 2 bucket method is simple. You have one wash mitt, a bucket for soapy water, and a bucket to rinse out the wash mitt in. Each bucket has a dirt lock in the bottom to keep dirt from floating back up and getting on your wash mitt. This is one of the most common “driveway standard” car wash methods because it requires access to a water hose. What's a dirt lock? Is that like a grit guard? They’re similar. Both are raised plastic discs that sit in the bottom of a bucket to trap dirt at the bottom and keep it from swirling back up onto your mitt. The Dirt Lock from Detail Guardz performs much better than a grit guard, which has larger openings and tends to let fine dirt swirl back up. A blue dirt lock by Detail Guardz with holes for dirt to fall through. Supplies for a 2 Bucket Wash 2 buckets, each with a dirt lock inside Your favorite car wash soap A water hose attached to a house spigot A wash mitt Steps for a 2 Bucket Wash Before you start, make sure you have pre washed your car (see our Pre Wash Guide) to knock most of the dirt and grime off the surface. Optional: Wash the wheels before doing the body panels since wheels and wheel wells tend to be much dirtier. Slinging crud onto freshly washed paint by accident is annoying! Check out the Wheel Cleaning Guide. Fill both buckets with 5 gallons of water. Insert a dirt lock into both if you haven't already. Add your soap to one bucket. Measure and follow the directions on the bottle. Dip the mitt into the soap bucket and start washing the vehicle panel-by-panel, starting with the roof to prevent spreading grime from the bottom to the upper areas. After every wipe, check your mitt for dirt. Dunk it into the rinse bucket and rub it against the dirt lock at the bottom to deposit all the crud off the mitt. After rinsing the mitt, wring it out and dunk it into the soap bucket. Repeat steps 2-5 until the vehicle is done, then rinse with the hose to remove all the soap. What Comes Next? After a you’ve washed using the 2 bucket method to remove all the dirt, you can move on to the next stage of your detail whether it’s decontamination, cleaning glass, or just drying the vehicle. Check out the Wash Order Guide. Alternative Wash Methods You can detail in a lot of different ways! Some detailers use a method that involves multiple mitts or towels instead of a rinse bucket (see Multi mitt wash method). Others use a rinseless wash soap to avoid the requirement for running water (see Rinseless Washing and Your First Detail). From Lt. Phil on Discord: “I prefer the multi mitt method simply because it does a slightly better job at making sure 100% of the contaminants are removed from the process by discarding dirty mitts. Of course, that method requires owning several mitts or a lot more microfibers, so it is perfectly reasonable to use either method.”