11 Must-Have Auto Detailing Supplies [Buying Guide]

Meguiar’s is one of the most trusted brands in car care and their Gold Class Car Wash Shampoo & Conditioner comes highly rated as one of the best car wash soaps for tackling tough contaminants.

This powerful and deep-cleaning product is engineered to clean and condition paint in one easy step. The specially designed formula includes a foaming agent that powers through dirt, dust, and stubborn road grime. The rich paint conditioners clear away debris for a deep, glossy shine.

This premium pH-balanced car wash soap can be applied with a foam cannon or with a wash mitt and bucket of water and is specially formulated to help give you a streak-free finish with no water spots. A thorough car wash is the necessary starting point for auto detailing, and with Meguir’s Gold Class car wash, you can rest assured you’re starting with a sparkling clean exterior.

If you’re getting more serious about your car cleaning routine, a high-quality clay bar is arguably one of the best car detailing supplies you can buy.

A clay bar is essential to keeping your car’s surface free of contaminants, but it can also be intimidating to anyone new to auto detailing. Low-quality clay bars are often abrasive, which can actually cause more harm than good to your car’s finish if you are not careful.

This medium clay bar from the Chemical Guys is exactly the high-quality, user-friendly clay bar that you want when starting out. Not only will it remove all the contaminants from the surface of your car but it will also make waxing a breeze. This clay bar can also remove overspray from your detergent and all traces of dirt, road grime, and contaminants in your finish that your soap or shampoo might have left behind.

Chemical Guys has engineered this bar with “Flex-Clay” technology making it easy to remove even the most stubborn brake dust or caked-on grime. This great all-purpose clay bar is non-abrasive and safe for use on all car surfaces including chrome, glass, fiberglass, and aluminum.

The Aero Cosmetics Wash Wax ALL was initially designed for airplanes. Designed to be used either as either a wet or waterless wax, the formula is designed to gently clean and protect the exterior of your car.

This spray-on wax cleans and protects without leaving a sticky, unsightly film. Instead, it creates a non-stick protective coating that shields your car’s finish from harmful UV rays.

Plus, Wash Wax ALL goes on easy; simply spray it on your car’s exterior and wipe dry using a clean microfiber towel. It is safe to use on all parts of your vehicle, both inside and out, including paint, gel coat, plastic, chrome, glass, leather, and vinyl.

When choosing your car detailing products, it is always important to consider the environment. This long-lasting wax is designed from an eco-friendly, alcohol and ammonia-free formula that is water-based and 100% biodegradable.

When choosing applicators for your various auto detailing supplies, the most trusted option is always a quality microfiber towel or dedicated microfiber wash mitt. You’ll find having a large stack of clean microfiber towels on hand makes your life a whole lot easier when it comes to cleaning your car.

This 12-pack of microfiber towels are ultra-soft and highly absorbent. Made of a polyester/nylon blend, they are designed to capture dust, dirt, and grime while being soft enough to protect delicate surfaces from scratches.

They are also entirely affordable and reusable—simply toss them in the washing machine with a microfiber wash and they’ll be good as new for your next car detailing session.

If you’re looking to up your car detailing game with an orbital polisher, the 7424XP Variable Speed Polisher is one of the better car buffers on the market. It is as popular with professionals as it is with car enthusiasts, thanks to being remarkably user-friendly and safe to use on any finish.

It is advertised as one of the safest car buffers available because it features a random orbit, heat overload protection, and variable speed options, all of which protect you and your car from damage.

These features make the 7424XP an ideal car buffer for beginners. The dual-action random orbital polisher moves the buffer pad around the spindle similar to how the Earth moves around the sun. This action makes it an immensely effective car buffer that is easy to use and powerful, yet not so powerful as to burn the factory finish on your vehicle.

This Chemical Guys detailing brush is one of the few detailing brushes that work as effectively on exterior surfaces as it does on interior surfaces.

This versatile brush is gentle enough to use for intricate interior detailing and durable enough to hold up to tough grease or oil in engine bays. This brush is so versatile that you can even use it to clean brake calipers, grilles, grates, and even wheels and engine components.

The brush is made from soft boar’s hair bristles to ensure no surface, including paint, will be scratched or marred. The bristles are chemical-resistant and work great with Chemical Guys cleaner and degreaser products.

It also includes a durable plastic handle with zero traces of metal, which prevents even the tiniest of scratches from forming on your car’s painted surfaces. We’d recommend ordering two brushes so you can have one dedicated to interior cleaning and one for exterior jobs.

If your auto detailing supplies list does not include a tire dressing, then your list is incomplete. The TriNova Tire Shine Spray is one great option, designed to give your tires a dark, shiny finish.

Not only does this spray make your tires look good, but it also helps protect them from excessive dust build-up and premature wear and tear. It is engineered with advanced coating protection which not only will protect your tires from deterioration but fight signs of aging too. It even repels dirt, dust, and grime.

The spray goes on easy and you’ll love its long-lasting effect. Unlike other tire dressings, it only requires one application to provide a high-gloss shine that lasts longer than many other auto detailing tire shine products on the market.

Sonax is the upholstery cleaning powerhouse of the automotive world and one of the best auto detailing supplies you can buy to help clean and protect the interior of your car. Sonax’s upholstery cleaner is specially formulated to power through grease and grime and is just as effective on caked-on mud and dirt as it is stains and residue.

Sonax is effective on dirt and grime because it foams on contact with the upholstery. The foam expands and fills in the porous surface of the upholstery, enabling the cleaning foam to cling to the dirt and grime. When you wipe it away, you are left with a spotless surface.

The foaming agent also eliminates the microscopic particles left behind by other cleaners to help effectively eliminate odors. If you have kids, dogs, or simply a dirty interior, this cleaner will help restore and deodorize your interior. Note that if you have a leather interior, you’ll want to shop for a separate leather cleaner for your interior.

If you’re looking for a high-quality glass cleaner, Meguiar’s Perfect Clarity Glass Cleaner delivers a spotless, streakless, showroom-shine for glass so clean you’ll forget you are looking through a window.

Specifically engineered to keep glass cleaner for longer, this great glass cleaner reduces the time and effort you’ll put into cleaning your windows. Simply spray on and wipe it away to leave glass crystal-clean and residue-free.

This cleaner also includes dust repellent technology which prevents dust from clinging to any glass surfaces. It also includes a unique lubricant that reduces friction between the glass surface and your microfiber towel ensuring zero residues are left behind.

The Dirt Devil Scorpion is a great handheld car vacuum for cleaning your car’s interior. It has a 7-amp motor, and this little vacuum is exceptionally powerful and compact.

It comes with a 16-foot power cord and 2.5-foot detachable hose so you can easily get to the most stubborn dirt and dust build-ups in all the tough-to-reach places in your car. The vacuum only weighs 3 pounds and can easily be stored in the trunk of your car.

The Scorpion comes with a quick-flip crevice tool and a reusable filter, making use and upkeep quick and easy. This is one auto detailing tool you will be happy to have in your kit.

A final step in any good car wash and/or detail is to get a spot-free dry on the vehicle. The boutique car detailing supply company Chemical Guys recently released its corded dryer/blower, which works really well and is a bargain price.

It has a built-in 10-foot cord for the 1,000-watt motor. Thanks to its compact design it weighs a feathery 3.3-pounds. The motor is rated at a powerful 8.5-amps. Since it is designed for car detailing, the end of the nozzle comes with a protective rubber tip.

Another way to accomplish a spot-free car after a wash is to use a leaf blower. Check out our guide for this time-tested method using a tool you might already have at home: Learn The Leaf Blower For Car Drying Method & Find The Best Car Detailing Blower.