Car Detailing Guides

Dark and light cars need the same products and a different emphasis. Neither is harder to keep clean in absolute terms — they simply show different failures.

Black and dark paint: everything shows

Dark paint reflects like a mirror, so every swirl, hologram and water spot is visible. It also shows dust within hours of washing. What that means in practice:

• Wash technique matters more than product choice. Two buckets, grit guards, a clean plush mitt, straight-line passes.
• Drying is the highest-risk step. Use a drying aid, pat rather than drag, and never let it air dry.
• Never wash in sun. Dark panels get hot enough to flash-dry product and cause spotting within a minute.
• Water spots are the main enemy. Minerals show against dark paint at a glance.
• A glossy protection layer pays off visually. Depth and reflection are what people buy black cars for.

Dark cars reward being fastidious. They punish shortcuts immediately and visibly.

White and light paint: contamination shows

Light paint hides swirls almost entirely — you can have a badly marred white car and never see it. What it shows instead is contamination:

• Iron fallout appears as orange-brown specks, most visible on white. An iron remover a few times a year is the single most useful thing you can do.
• Tar spots along the sills and behind the wheels stand out sharply.
• Traffic film turns white paint grey-yellow, especially on the lower panels.
• Brake dust on and around the wheels is far more obvious.

A white car needs decontamination more than correction. A black car often needs the reverse.

Silver and grey: the easy option

Silver and mid-grey hide both swirls and light contamination better than anything else. That is why they are so common on fleet and lease cars. If low maintenance is the priority, the colour choice is doing a lot of work for you.

Red and deep colours

Red is the colour most affected by UV over time, and older red paint that has not been protected can oxidise to a chalky pink. Regular protection with a UV-stable product matters more here than on other colours.

What does not change

The underlying rules are colour-blind: remove contamination before it bonds, wash in a way that does not add scratches, dry without dragging, and keep a layer of protection on the paint. Colour only changes which of those you notice first when you get it wrong.

A practical split

• Dark car: invest your effort in wash and dry technique, and in protection that adds gloss.
• Light car: invest your effort in decontamination, and check the paint by feel rather than by eye.

Before you start

Always read the label on the product you are using and follow the instructions on it for dilution, application and safety. Work in the shade on cool paint, and test anything new on a small, hidden area first — particularly on trim, wraps and finishes you are not familiar with.

Not sure which product fits the job? SWAG Fast Lane asks three quick questions and puts the right kit together for you.

Comparing car care products by the price on the bottle is the most common mistake in the category, and it consistently points people towards the more expensive option.

The number that matters

What you actually spend is cost per use, not cost per bottle. For a ready-to-use product those are close. For a concentrate they are not remotely close, and the gap is large enough to change which product is genuinely cheaper.

How to work it out

1. Take the bottle size in millilitres.
2. Take the dilution ratio from the label — for example 1:20 means one part product to twenty parts water.
3. Multiply the bottle size by the ratio to get the volume of working solution the bottle makes.
4. Divide the price by that volume to get cost per litre of solution.
5. Compare that figure between products.

A 500 ml bottle at 1:20 makes ten litres of working solution. At 1:400 it makes two hundred litres. The same bottle, the same shelf price, twenty times the output.

A worked example

Two shampoos, both 500 ml. One is ready to use at £4. One is a concentrate at £8 that dilutes 1:100.

• The ready-to-use bottle gives you 500 ml of solution. That is £8.00 per litre of solution.
• The concentrate gives you 50 litres of solution. That is £0.16 per litre of solution.

The concentrate costs twice as much on the shelf and roughly fifty times less per wash. Always check the actual ratio on the label of the product you are buying — ratios vary widely and the label is the only reliable source.

When ready-to-use is still the right answer

Concentrates are not automatically better. Ready-to-use makes sense when:

• You use the product rarely, and a large volume of concentrate would go out of date first.
• You want no measuring — for a quick job in a car park, a trigger bottle wins every time.
• Accuracy matters and you have no way to measure properly. Over-diluted product does not work; under-diluted can stain or damage.
• Storage space is genuinely limited.

Our BASIC range is deliberately ready to use for this reason, and the ADVANCED range is where the concentrates live.

Diluting properly

1. Water into the bottle first, then product. It stops the solution foaming up and overflowing.
2. Measure. Guessing wastes product when you go strong and wastes your time when you go weak.
3. Mix only what you will use reasonably soon — diluted product does not keep as well as concentrate.
4. Label the bottle with what it is and the ratio. You will not remember next month.

The honest summary

Concentrates are usually far cheaper per use, take up less space and produce less packaging waste. They ask for one thing in return: measure properly and follow the label. That is the entire trade-off.

Before you start

Always read the label on the product you are using and follow the instructions on it for dilution, application and safety. Work in the shade on cool paint, and test anything new on a small, hidden area first — particularly on trim, wraps and finishes you are not familiar with.

Not sure which product fits the job? SWAG Fast Lane asks three quick questions and puts the right kit together for you.

A work van has different priorities from a weekend car. It is bigger, dirtier, earns money while it is on the road and cannot be off it for an afternoon. The aim is not perfection — it is a presentable vehicle in the shortest possible time.

Chemistry does the work, not effort

On a large vehicle, contact washing every panel by hand is where the time goes. The efficient approach leans much harder on the pre-wash stage:

1. Rinse, bottom up.
2. Apply a traffic film remover generously over the whole vehicle. This is where vans differ most from cars — they carry heavy oily film and a neutral foam will not shift it.
3. Dwell as the label says. Do not let it dry.
4. Rinse thoroughly, top down.
5. Contact wash only what is still dirty, rather than the whole vehicle out of habit.

Done properly, the pre-wash removes most of the dirt and the contact stage takes a fraction of the time.

Concentrates are the obvious choice here

A van uses several times the product a hatchback does. Buying ready-to-use at that volume is expensive and means constant reordering. A concentrate diluted as directed brings the cost per wash down substantially and takes up far less storage space in the van.

Reach

• A long-handled soft brush for roofs and high sides. Rinse it constantly — grit in a brush on a flat van side is very visible.
• A step is safer than stretching over a wet panel.
• Do the roof first. Everything you wash off it runs down over the sides.

Sign-written vehicles

Vinyl graphics and wraps need care. Avoid strong solvents around edges, do not pressure wash close to the edge of a decal, and keep aggressive alkaline products off matte wrap entirely. Lifted edges are almost always caused by a jet aimed straight at them.

Load area and interior

A quick, regular routine beats an occasional deep clean:

• Sweep or blow out the load area — grit and dust in there scratch everything you carry.
• An all purpose cleaner on the door cards, dashboard and steering wheel.
• Rubber mats out and hosed, rather than trying to clean carpet.
• Glass inside and out. Work vehicles film up quickly and visibility is a safety matter.

Protection pays for itself faster on a van

Large flat panels get dirty quickly and are tedious to wash. A durable sealant means the next wash is a rinse and a light contact pass rather than a full scrub. On a vehicle washed weekly, that saving compounds fast.

A realistic weekly routine

Rinse, TFR, rinse, quick contact wash on the lower half, dry the glass and mirrors, wipe the cab. Twenty-five minutes, and the van looks like a business that turns up on time.

Before you start

Always read the label on the product you are using and follow the instructions on it for dilution, application and safety. Work in the shade on cool paint, and test anything new on a small, hidden area first — particularly on trim, wraps and finishes you are not familiar with.

Not sure which product fits the job? SWAG Fast Lane asks three quick questions and puts the right kit together for you.

A fabric roof is a woven textile with a waterproof backing and a factory-applied water repellent finish. Cleaning it like paint — or worse, like an alloy wheel — strips that finish and leads directly to a roof that soaks through.

What not to use

• Car shampoo. It leaves residue in the weave that attracts dirt and holds moisture.
• All purpose cleaner at strength. Strips the water repellent finish.
• Wax, sealant or quick detailer. They block the weave and go blotchy.
• Pressure washers at close range. They drive water through the fabric and can damage seams.
• Stiff brushes. They fray the weave.

The right sequence

1. Vacuum or brush the roof dry first. Removing loose grit, leaves and moss before adding water is the step that matters most.
2. Rinse gently with a hose, never a close-range jet.
3. Apply a dedicated fabric hood cleaner and agitate with a soft brush, working across the roof in overlapping passes.
4. Rinse very thoroughly. Residue left in fabric is what causes staining later.
5. Let it dry completely. Fully dry, in the sun or a warm garage. Do not fold a damp roof.
6. Re-proof it with a fabric protector made for convertible roofs.

Re-proofing is not optional

Cleaning removes the repellent finish along with the dirt. If you clean and stop there, the roof is now more absorbent than before you started. Re-proofing is what restores beading and keeps water out.

Apply it to a completely dry, clean roof, in even coats, with the roof up and the car somewhere it can cure undisturbed. Mask the glass and paint around the edges — overspray on glass is a nuisance to remove.

Green mould and algae

Common in the UK, especially on cars parked under trees or left standing over winter. It needs a product formulated for it rather than scrubbing, which just drives the spores deeper into the weave. Treat it early — established growth stains the fabric permanently.

Ongoing care

• Never fold a wet roof away. That is how mould starts and how creases set permanently.
• Clear leaves out of the roof channels and drains. Blocked drains are the most common cause of a leak blamed on the fabric.
• Avoid automatic car washes entirely. The brushes fray the weave and the detergents strip the proofing.
• Check the beading. When water soaks in rather than sitting on top, it is time to re-proof.

Glass and plastic rear windows

Older plastic rear screens scratch extremely easily and yellow with age. Use a plush cloth and a product made for plastic windows — never a standard glass cleaner, and never an abrasive. Once scratched, they do not recover.

Before you start

Always read the label on the product you are using and follow the instructions on it for dilution, application and safety. Work in the shade on cool paint, and test anything new on a small, hidden area first — particularly on trim, wraps and finishes you are not familiar with.

Not sure which product fits the job? SWAG Fast Lane asks three quick questions and puts the right kit together for you.

Microfibre is the only thing in your kit that touches the paint on every single job. It is also the thing most people look after worst. A badly maintained cloth will scratch a car more reliably than any product in the cupboard.

Why they stop working

• Fabric softener. It coats the fibres, kills absorbency and leaves a film that smears glass. Never use it.
• Heat. Microfibre is plastic. High heat melts the fibre tips and turns a soft cloth into something with the texture of fine sandpaper.
• Contamination. Grit trapped deep in the pile stays there and gets dragged across your paint on the next job.
• Mixing with cotton. Cotton lint clogs microfibre permanently.

Sorting is the important part

Keep colour-coded, strictly separated sets and never cross them:

• Paint and drying. Plush, clean, treated carefully.
• Glass. Low pile, waffle or similar, never used with any product containing oils or wax.
• Interior. General purpose.
• Wheels, arches and exhausts. Never anywhere near paint. Ever.
• Dressings and heavy products. Applicators that will never come clean properly.

One wheel cloth that gets into the paint pile can undo an entire correction. Colour coding is not fussiness — it is how you stop that happening on a tired Sunday afternoon.

Washing them

1. Shake or rinse heavy debris out before washing.
2. Wash microfibre with microfibre only. Nothing else in the drum.
3. Wash wheel cloths as a completely separate load.
4. Use a dedicated microfibre detergent, or a simple liquid detergent with no softener, no bleach, no additives.
5. Warm rather than hot — around 40°C is plenty for most cloths, and check the care label.
6. Extra rinse cycle. Detergent residue causes streaking.
7. Air dry, or tumble on the lowest heat setting. Never high heat.

When to retire one

• It has been on the floor. That one is finished for paint use — demote it to wheels or bin it.
• It feels stiff or slick rather than grabby.
• It leaves streaks on glass no matter how you wash it.
• It has pulled threads or hardened edges.
• Edgeless cloths that have started to fray.

Cloths are cheap. Paint correction is not. Retiring a cloth early is always the cheaper decision.

How many you need

More than you think. A full detail on an average car easily uses fifteen to twenty cloths if you are changing them as often as you should. Running out mid-job is what makes people reuse a dirty one, and that is exactly when the damage happens.

Storage

Keep clean cloths in a sealed box or bag, not loose in a boot or on a garage shelf. Microfibre attracts dust electrostatically, and a cloth that has sat out for a fortnight is not clean any more.

Before you start

Always read the label on the product you are using and follow the instructions on it for dilution, application and safety. Work in the shade on cool paint, and test anything new on a small, hidden area first — particularly on trim, wraps and finishes you are not familiar with.

Not sure which product fits the job? SWAG Fast Lane asks three quick questions and puts the right kit together for you.

Waterless and rinseless washing are frequently recommended and frequently misunderstood. Used appropriately they are excellent. Used on a car that is too dirty for them, they are a fast route to a swirled bonnet.

What each one is

Waterless is a spray-on, wipe-off product. The liquid encapsulates light dirt in lubricant so it lifts into the cloth rather than sliding across the paint. No buckets, no rinsing.

Rinseless uses a bucket of dilute solution. The polymers in it encapsulate dirt and hold it away from the surface. You wash panel by panel and dry as you go, with no separate rinse stage.

The dividing line

The question is simple: how much grit is on the paint?

• Dust, pollen, light film, fingerprints: waterless is fine.
• Moderate dirt, a week or two of dry-weather driving: rinseless is fine.
• Winter grime, salt, mud, motorway film, visible grit: neither. That needs a pre-wash and running water.

If you can see or feel grit, no amount of lubricant makes wiping it safe. That is the whole rule.

Waterless, done properly

1. Have a lot of clean microfibres out — ten or more for a full car.
2. Work in small sections, roughly half a bonnet.
3. Spray generously. Under-spraying is the main cause of marring.
4. Wipe in one direction with essentially no pressure.
5. Fold to a clean face after every pass. Change cloths often.
6. Buff with a separate dry cloth.
7. Top down, and stop before the lowest, dirtiest quarter of the car.

Rinseless, done properly

1. Dilute exactly as the label states.
2. Use a plush wash media — microfibre noodle or a plush mitt, not a sponge.
3. One panel at a time: wet, wipe with light pressure, dry immediately.
4. Use several wash media and swap frequently rather than returning a dirty one to the bucket.
5. Some people use the grit guard and multiple buckets here too. It is not overkill.

Where they genuinely shine

• Flats and street parking with no outside tap.
• Winter, when a full wash is not practical but the car needs something.
• Maintenance between proper washes on an already protected car.
• Water restrictions, or simply not wanting to use eighty litres on a car that is barely dirty.
• Indoors, in a garage, where a hose is impossible.

Protection makes both much safer

On a well-protected car, dirt sits on top of the protection rather than keying into the clear coat. It releases far more readily, which means less pressure, less wiping and far less risk. If waterless washing is going to be your regular method, keeping a hydrophobic layer on the paint is not optional — it is what makes it work.

Before you start

Always read the label on the product you are using and follow the instructions on it for dilution, application and safety. Work in the shade on cool paint, and test anything new on a small, hidden area first — particularly on trim, wraps and finishes you are not familiar with.

Not sure which product fits the job? SWAG Fast Lane asks three quick questions and puts the right kit together for you.

A car is never in better condition than the day you get it. Everything after that is either maintaining that condition or recovering it. The first month is when maintaining is easy and cheap.

Check what you have actually been given

A new or nearly new car has usually been transported, stored outdoors and prepared in a hurry. It is common to find:

• Transport wax or protective film residue.
• Iron fallout from rail transport — the orange specks on light paint.
• Wash marring from a rushed dealer prep, often visible in direct sun as fine swirls.
• Adhesive residue where protective film was pulled off.

None of this is a fault. All of it is easier to remove now than after it has weathered on for a year.

The first proper clean

1. Wash it yourself, properly, with two buckets — and start your good habits with the first wash.
2. Decontaminate: an iron fallout remover, then a tar remover if needed, then clay if the paint still feels rough through a plastic bag.
3. Check the paint in sunlight or under a bright light for existing marring.
4. Protect it. Wax, sealant or coating — the choice matters less than the fact of doing it.
5. Do the glass, and consider a glass sealant while it is perfectly clean.
6. Dress the tyres and trim.

Do not wax straight over contamination

It is tempting to put protection on immediately. Do not, until it is decontaminated. Sealing iron particles and tar under a layer of wax locks them against the clear coat, and they carry on doing damage where you cannot get at them.

Set up habits, not just products

• Decide where you will wash and how. A routine you will actually follow beats an ideal one you will not.
• Keep a quick detailer and cloths in the car from day one, for droppings and bugs.
• Buy separate buckets, mitts and brushes for wheels.
• Get proper drying towels and look after them.

The interior is worth protecting too

Leather is at its best when new. Cleaning and conditioning it early, and repeating it a few times a year, is what keeps bolsters from cracking at seventy thousand miles. Fabric benefits from being protected before the first spill rather than cleaned after it.

Our leather conditioning range is designed for exactly this kind of maintenance rather than rescue.

What not to do

• Do not machine polish a new car. There is nothing to correct, and clear coat is finite.
• Do not use automatic rollover washes. They are the single most reliable way to fill new paint with swirl marks.
• Do not leave bird droppings, sap or bugs on it because it is new and you do not want to touch it. Those do the damage.

The three-year view

The difference between a three-year-old car that looks nearly new and one that looks tired is almost never the mileage. It is whether contamination was removed before it bonded, whether the paint was kept protected, and whether it was washed in a way that added scratches or not.

Before you start

Always read the label on the product you are using and follow the instructions on it for dilution, application and safety. Work in the shade on cool paint, and test anything new on a small, hidden area first — particularly on trim, wraps and finishes you are not familiar with.

Not sure which product fits the job? SWAG Fast Lane asks three quick questions and puts the right kit together for you.

A clean car sells faster and for more, but not every hour spent cleaning returns the same amount. If you are preparing a car for sale, effort spent in the right places is worth several times the same effort spent elsewhere.

The highest return: the interior

Buyers spend far longer sitting in a car than looking at the paint. A spotless interior signals a cared-for car more strongly than anything else, and it is the cheapest part to transform.

• Deep clean the seats and carpets. See our upholstery range.
• Clean the steering wheel and gear lever properly — they are the first things a buyer touches, and worn, shiny hand contact points read as high mileage.
• Do the vents, screens and switchgear.
• Clean the inside of the glass. It changes how light and how open the cabin feels.
• Remove every trace of smell. Not mask — remove.

Second highest: wheels and tyres

Wheels are what people photograph and what they notice from ten feet away. Clean, iron-decontaminated wheels with dressed tyres make a car look looked-after in a way that is out of proportion to the effort.

Apply tyre dressing last, on dry tyres, and wipe off the excess so it does not sling onto clean paint.

Third: glass, lights and trim

• Clear glass inside and out.
• Headlights — yellowed or hazy lenses age a car more than almost anything.
• Faded black plastic trim. Restoring it is quick and the difference is dramatic.
• Door shuts and the boot lip. Buyers open doors and look.

Paint: worth doing, with limits

A proper wash, a decontamination and a coat of wax will make paint look far better and cost you an afternoon. That is worth doing.

A full multi-stage machine correction, for most cars being sold privately, is not. The buyer is not paying a premium for a perfect finish on a five-year-old hatchback, and you risk doing damage if you are learning on the car you are about to sell.

The exception is a genuinely enthusiast car being sold to an enthusiast, where finish is part of what is being bought.

What to photograph

Clean the car, then photograph it on an overcast day or in the hour before sunset. Harsh midday sun shows every swirl mark and blows out the highlights. Overcast light flatters paint and is far more forgiving.

Wet the tyres, shoot from a low angle, get the interior with the doors open, and include the boot, engine bay and service history.

The engine bay

A tidy engine bay reassures buyers, but do not go overboard. A dusted, wiped bay looks maintained; a dripping, freshly steam-cleaned one makes an experienced buyer wonder what leak you were hiding. Keep water away from electrics and the fuse box.

A realistic list, in order

1. Interior deep clean and odour removal.
2. Wheels, tyres and arches.
3. Glass, inside and out.
4. Wash, decontaminate, protect the paint.
5. Trim and headlights.
6. Door shuts, boot, engine bay tidy.
7. Photograph in soft light.

Before you start

Always read the label on the product you are using and follow the instructions on it for dilution, application and safety. Work in the shade on cool paint, and test anything new on a small, hidden area first — particularly on trim, wraps and finishes you are not familiar with.

Not sure which product fits the job? SWAG Fast Lane asks three quick questions and puts the right kit together for you.

Handing a leased or PCP car back is where cleaning stops being cosmetic and starts being financial. Inspectors work to the industry fair wear and tear standard, and a large share of the charges people are surprised by are for things that cleaning and minor attention would have removed.

What is being assessed

Fair wear and tear allows for reasonable use. It does not allow for damage or neglect. In practice the inspection looks at panels, glass, wheels, tyres, interior and equipment, usually with defined limits for the size of a scratch or dent that is acceptable.

The important consequence: a dirty car is inspected as a dirty car. Dirt hides nothing — it just makes an inspector look harder and mark things they would otherwise have passed.

Where cleaning genuinely changes the outcome

• Wheels. Kerbing is charged for. Baked-on brake dust is not damage, but it makes a wheel look worse than it is. Clean them properly with a dedicated wheel cleaner and an iron remover.
• Interior stains. Charged for as damage. A coffee ring on a seat costs real money and usually comes out with an upholstery cleaner.
• Odours. Smoke smell is a standard charge and one of the largest. See our guide on removing smoke smell.
• Scuffs on plastics and door cards. Most are transfer marks rather than damage and clean off.
• Glass. Chips are charged. Clean glass also lets you find a chip before the inspector does, when a repair is still cheap.
• Light scratches. Many marks that look like scratches are transfer from another car or a trolley, and come off with a polish or a tar remover.

A sensible plan, four weeks out

1. Full inside and out clean, in daylight, so you can actually see the car.
2. Walk round it in the light and list everything. Photograph it.
3. Separate the list into cleaning, cheap fix and accept the charge.
4. Get windscreen chips repaired — often free under insurance and much cheaper than a charged replacement.
5. Get the interior right. Stains and smells are heavily weighted and entirely fixable.
6. Check the boot, the spare wheel well, the parcel shelf and the service book are all present.

The week before

Clean again, properly, and photograph the car from every angle in good light with a timestamp. If a charge appears later for damage you know was not there, that photographic record is what you argue with. Take the mileage too.

What not to do

• Do not try to fill or touch in dents and deep scratches badly. A poor repair is treated worse than the original mark.
• Do not use a heavy cutting compound if you do not know what you are doing — burning through lacquer turns a small charge into a panel respray.
• Do not leave it until the day of collection. You will find something you needed a week for.

The honest summary

You cannot clean away a dent. You can clean away a large share of what actually gets charged: dirt mistaken for damage, stains, smells and neglected wheels. That is a couple of hours of work against a bill that can run into hundreds.

Before you start

Always read the label on the product you are using and follow the instructions on it for dilution, application and safety. Work in the shade on cool paint, and test anything new on a small, hidden area first — particularly on trim, wraps and finishes you are not familiar with.

Not sure which product fits the job? SWAG Fast Lane asks three quick questions and puts the right kit together for you.

A cup of coffee going over on a roundabout is a normal part of driving. Whether it leaves a mark for the life of the car depends almost entirely on what happens next.

The first rule: blot, never rub

Rubbing spreads the liquid outward and drives it deeper into the foam under the fabric. Blotting lifts it back out. Press a dry, absorbent cloth firmly onto the spill, hold, lift, move to a clean part of the cloth, repeat.

Keep going long after it looks done. Most of the liquid is in the foam, not on the surface, and it will wick back up as it dries — which is exactly what produces a ring.

Coffee and tea

1. Blot immediately with anything absorbent.
2. Mist lightly with an upholstery cleaner — light is the operative word. Soaking the seat creates a bigger problem than the coffee.
3. Agitate gently with a soft brush, working from the outside of the stain inwards so you do not spread it.
4. Blot again with a clean, dry cloth.
5. Dry the area fully. Open windows, or aim the heater at the seat.

Milk in the coffee matters — if it is not removed properly it will smell within a couple of days in warm weather.

Fizzy drinks

The sugar is the problem, not the colour. Sugar dries sticky and attracts dirt for years afterwards. Even if the stain looks gone, rinse the area with a damp cloth and blot repeatedly — otherwise you get a patch that is permanently tacky and always dirty.

Chocolate, grease and food

• Lift solids off first with a blunt edge. Do not press them in.
• Chocolate: let it harden, then crack it off before cleaning what is left.
• Greasy food needs an all purpose cleaner or a dedicated upholstery cleaner — water alone will not shift oil.
• Work from the edge inwards, always.

Leather is different

Do not use fabric cleaner on leather. Blot the spill, clean with a dedicated leather cleaner, then condition the area afterwards. Coffee and fizzy drinks left on leather can stain the finish permanently, and sugar will make it tacky. See our leather range.

Carpets and mats

Take the mat out and deal with it outside the car. It is easier, and you avoid soaking the carpet underneath, which is where damp smells come from. If the spill has gone through to the floor carpet, lift what you can and dry the area thoroughly — a wet floor pan under carpet stays wet for weeks.

What to keep in the car

Two folded microfibres and a small bottle of interior cleaner in the door pocket turns a permanent stain into a two-minute job. It is the same principle as keeping a quick detailer for bird droppings: the fix has to be available when the problem happens.

Before you start

Always read the label on the product you are using and follow the instructions on it for dilution, application and safety. Work in the shade on cool paint, and test anything new on a small, hidden area first — particularly on trim, wraps and finishes you are not familiar with.

Not sure which product fits the job? SWAG Fast Lane asks three quick questions and puts the right kit together for you.