Three years ago I brought home a brand-new black Jeep only to have tree sap drip on it the first time I took it out of the garage. When choosing paint care products for my new vehicle, I realized that today’s clear-coat paint jobs require special attention compared to the older model vehicles I was used to.

While providing a durable shine, clear coats can be quite delicate and easy to ruin.

Bradley Coyle, owner of The Final Detail in La Grange, Ky., has been professionally detailing cars for 15 years. Coyle shared some of his best driveway tips.

Bradley Coyle, owner of The Final Detail in La Grange, Ky., has been professionally detailing cars for 15 years. Coyle shared some of his best driveway tips.

Obviously, we wash our cars to remove the accumulated dirt and grime, but there’s one problem: "It's important to note that the majority of scratches, swirls and micro-marring are introduced during the washing or drying stages of a vehicle wash; thus, this step is critically important to do correctly," Coyle said.

What it boils down to is that you need to remove the dirt from the paint without dragging it across or reintroducing it once it’s removed.

Coyle said you should wash a car in the shade and use two five-gallon buckets, one filled with clear water and the other with a soap solution. With the two-bucket system, after you wash one section of the car, you rinse out your wash mitt in the clear water before dipping it back into the soapy water. This is a tip I picked up a while back, and I’ve been amazed at how dirty the rinse bucket gets compared to the soap bucket.

"The point (of two buckets) is to keep the dirty water from going back on your vehicle, which can induce swirls and scratches," Coyle said. Also, he stresses using a dedicated car-washing soap in the right concentration.

Use a separate mitt for areas like wheels, fender lips, wheel wells and doorjambs, which pick up a lot of dirt. Coyle said the majority of wheels are coated and should be treated like paint. He won’t use high-acid tire cleaners because they may cause metal etching; a good all-purpose cleaner does the job better.

Coyle believes most people don’t wash their cars well enough to use a chamois for drying without the risk of picking up dirt and scratching the paint. He said the nap of common micro fiber drying towels allows a small bit of grit to be picked up and kept off the paint – as long as you blot and don’t press too hard.

Coyle uses what he calls the "flow-over method" before drying. "Turn the water down to about half-power and, utilizing the hose without a spray nozzle, allow the water to flow across the surface,” he said. “This will cause a ‘sheeting action’ that will remove much of the water that is sitting on the finish."

(This was new to me, but I tried it recently and it really works.)

This is a good time to do the tires with a water-based dressing, to give them time to dry. Don’t forget to "black out" the wheel wells, too, a sign of a thorough detail job. While on rubber parts of the car, the door seals and weather stripping should also be treated.

You may notice that your clean-looking paint actually feels rough to the touch; it's time for claying. You apply a lubricating spray to a section of paint and rub it with a special clay bar.

"Claying is a very unique step that is designed to remove bonded contamination that cannot be removed by simple washing," Coyle said. “Bonded contaminants typically include things like industrial fallout, paint overspray, light tar specs from road paving and rail dust [which is] embedded metal particulates.”

Coyle said clay kits for consumers have easy-to-follow instructions. And don’t forget the wheels.

If the paint is swirled already, it may be time to call a pro. Coyle said some do-it-yourselfers will get satisfactory results from a cleaner wax that will fill in some imperfections, but a three-step cleaner/polish/wax works even better.

"We could go bonkers talking about polishing," Coyle said. He’ll typically hit a customer’s car in “average” shape with three different polishes. All of the polishes accomplish a specific task.

As far as protection, Coyle recommends synthetic wax over carnauba wax for its durability, especially on wheels. He said to make sure to apply it thin, otherwise you are wasting the product.

Bradley Coyle co-owns thedetailerscafe.com, a non-product-affiliated discussion board about all aspects of detailing.