car detailing protecting your car and why its worth it

In recent years, car detailing has become a pretty popular car care process. Some would say that it is just a fancy name for thorough car washing, but in reality, there is much more to car detailing than just cleaning. This is a complete care of your car, not just for the exterior but also for interior surfaces and materials. Car detailing processes uses modern chemicals, compounds and techniques to deliver better-than-new shine to your vehicle as well as protect its paint, body and interior. Today, we will tell you about the basics of car detailing and why it is worth it.

Difference between Car Cleaning and Detailing.

The basic difference between washing and detailing is that car washing does only a fraction of actual cleaning of a car‘s interior and exterior and offers no protection afterwards. Car detailing, on the other hand, takes much more time and goes in depth to remove even the smallest dust and dirt particles, rejuvenate the leather in the interior and protect the exterior with optional ceramic coating, making interior much more durable in everyday use. There is a significant difference in terms of price, and if standard washing is pretty affordable, some detailing jobs are quite expensive. The reason for this is the amount of time needed for a full detailing job as well as advanced and expensive chemicals and compounds used in proper detailing jobs. The most extreme car detailing treatments can cost up to 1000 pounds, believe it or not!

Basic Steps in Car Detailing

The exterior detailing job starts with thorough cleaning of the car. Washing with warm water and high quality car shampoo with dense foam is needed to pick up every tiny bit of dirt or dust from the surface of the car. Special attention is given to the wheels, lug nuts, tires and brakes which are the dirtiest parts of the car, being covered in dirt and brake pads residue. Next, the car is dried using special soft microfiber towels which are needed for collecting all the water, perfectly drying the surface. When the car‘s body is perfectly dry, the paintwork is cleaned using special automotive clay compound designed to collect the tightly bonded, microscopic dirt particles and reveal true shine of your car‘s lacquer. If the clay treatment reveals some scratches, oxidation or paint imperfections and usually it does, especially at cars which lived on the streets and weren’t kept in garages, the car is polished. The polishing process is pretty time consuming, and in order to get the best results and to perfectly enhance the color and shine, car detailers use special chemicals and polishing machine. After the polishing process, the car looks brand new, but this is not the end of the whole process. Depending on customer‘s wishes, the car is waxed for protection against elements or fully ceramic coated for ultimate paint protection. Ceramic coating is an innovative technique which consists of precisely covering the car‘s bodywork with multi-layer, liquid nano-ceramic coating which is totally clear. When the car is done, it will be more shiny than new and up to 3 times better protected from scratches or stone chips. It will even be much easier to wash since ceramic coating will create extra smooth surface making dust and mud just slide off.

Basic Steps in Interior Detailing

Interior detailing follows the same concept as exterior detailing, but with different techniques. It also starts with meticulous cleaning which includes all the carpets, seats, door panels, dashboard and even the roof. Some detailing specialists take all the seats out of the car to fully clean the carpets and upholstery. After cleaning and drying, leather is treated with a special formula which bonds dust and dirt gathered in the pores. Then the foam is collected using special towels which not only wipe all the dirt away but also clean all the pores with microfibers. The next step is covering the leather with special crème which softens the leather, removes all the seating marks and rejuvenates the seats, making the leather soft, flexible and more comfortable. This process also helps in preserving leather seats and making them look better than new. Car detailers pay much attention to the dashboard and steering wheel cleaning it with special brushes and removing all the dust, dirt, stains and finger marks. During car interior detailing, practically all panel gaps are cleaned using precision tools or air compressors.

Conclusion:

So, is car detailing worth extra time and money over regular washing and waxing? Well, definitely yes, because it offers supreme levels of cleaning which standard washing jobs just cannot reach, both for a car’s interior as well for a car’s exterior. Also, the protection aspect is very important since ceramic coating has proven to be the perfect way of protecting your precious paint and still look better than new. If you’re still suspicious of car detailing’s worth, just think of it this way: you get a perfect paint job, immaculate interior and seats that look like nobody has ever sat on them, and that will rise value of your car and get you much better price on the used car market. If you put it like this, quality detailing job done by professionals is in fact a great investment.