Lots of people ask about the difference between cleaning and detailing a car. One answer we like to give is that there’s a clue in the name. Detailing is about the details.
So sure, you can give your car as thorough a clean as you like. You can use snow foam pre wash, you can use a high-grade shampoo and lovingly wash and rinse every inch. You can wax your paintwork until it shines and apply a sealant so it stays looking fine for as long as possible.
Hey, if you really want to do a professional job, you can even have a go at polishing in between the wash and wax to buff out marks from the paintwork. Because it’s those sort of little details that matter when you do vehicle detailing properly.
But even then, we would put money on your vehicle still not looking as good as if you took it to a pro detailer. Why? Because they see things the untrained eye doesn’t see. To the expert detailer, the image of a vehicle fresh out of the showroom is always in their mind’s eye.
When a car arrives straight off the road, they can see the difference. Not just the dirt that needs washing off, not just the fact that the paintwork needs a polish and a shine to bring it back to its best. They see the way that time and the effects of the road have left their mark on your vehicle in all respects. They see the details.
Here are three things that a pro detailer would do to your car that you might not even think of. But if you try them out, you will see why they matter.
Cleaning and protecting plastic trim
The plastic trim on your vehicle is even more vulnerable to wear and tear than your paintwork. Plastic and rubber are prone to fading under UV light from the sun. They are relatively soft so scratch easily. And they are not as robust as metal so they chip and crack readily.
Once damage to your trim reaches a certain level, there is not much you can do except put up with it or replace it. But if the trim is still in reasonably good condition, a pro detailer will take steps to keep it that way. General car shampoo might not be enough to get all the grime embedded into the softer plastic off. But a specially formulated plastic or rubber cleaner will dissolve stubborn dirt just enough to wipe away without damaging the material itself.
After that, prevention is the best cure if you want your trim to look factory fresh. Trim dressings are formulated not only to rejuvenate tired and faded plastic and rubber, but also to protect them from further deterioration.
Dressing wheels and tyres
When all your attention is on getting your paintwork looking its very best, it’s easy to forget there’s another part of your vehicle that often draws attention – the wheels.
Let’s not forget that lots of car enthusiasts spend considerable amounts of money upgrading their alloy wheels. In fact, you could go as far as say that the first thing people think about when they want to accessorise their car is a change of ‘rims’.
If you’re going to spend money on expensive new alloys, you want to make sure you look after them. This is just one more detail that the pro detailer automatically looks to.
Detailing the wheels of your car means more than just giving them a good wash. Friction between the tyres and road throws up hot, charged particles of dirt that readily stick to the lacquer finishes that keep alloys shiny. Soap and a brush is unlikely to get all of this stubborn grime off, so professionals use specially formulated cleaners to loosen it.
And it isn’t just your alloys that benefit from a little TLC. Tyre dressings serve a dual purpose of restoring the rubber to its original deep black finish, but also providing a protective layer that guards against fading and damage from contaminants from the roads.
Window cleaning
Finally, windows are probably the most overlooked part of your entire car. It’s because people assume they don’t need any special attention. They don’t scratch and marr like your paintwork, they don’t fade like plastic trim, they don’t get encrusted with grime like the wheels. A general shampoo and rinse and the job’s a good one, surely?
It’s actually a lot harder than you think to clean glass, as anyone who washes their windows at home will know. That’s because glass streaks very easily. Most general cleaners will leave ugly looking smears all over your windows.
It can be incredibly frustrating after you have painstakingly washed your entire car and are giving it a final rub down to dry to suddenly find there are marks all over your windows. And the more you rub at them, the worse they seem to get.
This is because any oily substance is hard to wipe off glass – it just slips around rather than sticking to your cloth. The best option is to break it down. Most car window cleaning products contain Isopropyl Alcohol to do this job.
