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If your car is ever christened in sand or dog hair, you will never truly ever get it all out. A good detailer will know tricks to remove the majority, but these 2 things will always be a permanent fixture somewhere in your vehicle. Smoking is the same. It will permeate every nook, cranny, and fiber of your car. As well as leave tell tale burn marks. I know the big thing now is the new E-vape contraption. In the experience I have had with these vehicles I have noticed some heavy oil residue on the glass and hard plastics. I did come off with some effort but it may be something to keep in the back of your mind.
Ok you are in your car, what are some do’s and don’ts. Of course I would love to say don’t eat or drink in your vehicle but in today’s go, go world I know that’s not always an option. So let’s talk about things you can consume safely. As a detailer I can tell you there are 3 color stains that will never come out. Those are RED, ORANGE, and YELLOW. Do not ever consume food or drinks of these colors in your cars. Stick to clear liquids to be safe, but I have had fairly good success removing most coffee and some soda spills depending on how soon I get them. Also a good fabric protector like 303 fabric guard will go a long way to help you avoid those permanent accidents. They will cause liquids to bead up, stay on the surface and not absorb into the fibers. This will give you time to wipe them up.
Floor mats are a must. I’m always surprised at the amount of people I see with no mats in their cars. It is so much easier to remove a mat, shake it off, vacuum, or pressure wash it then to try to clean the dirty floor in your car. As for the mats themselves, rubber/ plastic are hands down your best option. I do think cloth looks better. This is why on my own car I have the rubber all weather mat on my driver side that sees every single mile and the cloth ones everywhere else. I will also like to say that Weather Tech mats are absolutely worth their price. If you invest in these your carpets will remain the way they were the day it rolled off the assembly.
Headlights are next. We have all seen the yellow and foggy headlights. The front of your car is always getting sand blasted. This wears off the factory UV coating on your lenses allowing them to be damaged by the sun. There are additional factors such as your average sun exposure and miles driven that add to this. In the long term all you can really do is protect and prevent. The easiest way to do this is to give them a sacrificial barrier. There are lots of products out there that will accomplish this. Coatings, sealants, and films to name a few, but the easiest way is to wax them. When you wax your car (which should be regularly) wax your headlights.
Next let’s look at the interior. Straight and simple a dark color interior will be easier to maintain then light. It will not show stains or soiling nearly as bad a light. The only drawback is that without protection it will show UV fading over time. The next consideration is leather or cloth. This may also seem like a no brainer as leather will be much easier in the day to day issues incurred in a car. If you have kids I would say go leather, for pet go cloth. If you want to go deeper into the issues cloth will allow staining from spills and body oils much easier. But with leather you have other issues such a dye transfer from jeans and irreversible wear and tear. What I mean by wear is that if the leather is left dirty and you have grime in the seams, this will act as a sand paper every time you get in and out. To combat this you must first keep the leather as clean as possible and be cognizant of how you get in and out. You should not sit on the edge of the seat and slide your rear across it. Try to place yourself into your seating position as much as possible. While we are on the subject of getting in and out, another issue I see a lot is damage from peoples shoes. As they get in/out their shoes will make contact with the lower panels and leave behind all sorts of things. Dirt, scrapes, shoe polish are some of the things I see. I will go on record now and say it is typically the passenger side I see the most damage on. Which leads me to believe that the owners are more aware of trying to keep their cars looking nice as opposed to someone going for a ride.
I noticed i have not written a blog in awhile. So sat down to talk about some general vehicle things and it turned into a babbling multi page mini saga. So over the next few months I'm going to attempt to break it up into smaller bits of info that I hope some may find useful. Here is the first release.
There are many things that go into keeping a new car looking its best, and surprisingly most of them have very little to do with cleaning it. Let’s start with your choice of vehicle. When buying a car you may want to consider more factors then this one looks good. The kind of car you own will determine how much effort you will need to put into keeping it looking its best. I know we have all heard the phrase “this color doesn’t show dirt”. This is true, some colors will be much easier to maintain and this should be part of your decision process. If you are the type of person who is not into washing, claying, polishing and waxing your car then you should absolutely not buy a dark color car. Black, blue, even dark green can be an absolute nightmare to maintain. Not only does the dirt show but if you’re a tunnel wash jockey the paint will show every swirl and scratch those brushes inflict. There are also different levels of these colors; such as metallic flake will be easier then jet black. So what’s the easiest color you ask? You may think its white, but having been a detailer for 7 years I can say that’s untrue. With a white car you have 2 very distinct problems. The first is metal deposits that get stuck in the paint and begin to rust. These deposits come from a few places, brake dust, industrial fall out, and rail dust to name a few. Yes all cars have these same deposits if not removed; the issue with white is that when they start to rust you get very noticeable brown spots in your paint. If you own this color take a look behind the wheels. Second white oxidizes in a way that other colors don’t. They get very chalky and over time you will have a very hard to remove problem. The easiest color is gray and silver. Light enough to not show dirt and every blemish. But dark enough to not show the same issues of white. Our details start at $200 and go up to $300. That’s about the industry norm for a quality job–inside and out–every button, every switch, every seal, every map pocket, every nook, and every cranny cleaned to as clean as possible.
If you shop around, you can find services (usually mobile) that will do the job for as little as $135. Sounds like a great deal, right? Well, in most cases, you could do the same job yourself in a few hours. Here’s a few areas that separate professional service from average detail service: • Carpet and upholstery stains. Pro shops can remove just about every stain (food, food dye, oil, dirt, cola, tea, coffee, blood, etc.). Amateurs usually scrub them with carpet cleaner once–if it doesn’t come out, they move on. • Nooks and crannies. Pros shops use compressed air to clean deep in vents, cup holders, map pockets, under seats, inside door pulls, inside emergency brake sockets, between seats, etc. All those places you can’t clean with your vacuum cleaner. • Dry interiors. One common mistake amateurs make is leaving too much shampoo in carpets and seats! Pro shops use minimal amounts of shampoo or use a steamer to ensure that when you pick up your car, it is completely dry. There’s no excuse for asking a customer to “air their car out” after a detail. • Dirt and moss in exterior window seals, panel gaps, cowls…anywhere dirt tends to settle and can’t be removed with a car wash. Every pro shop uses a pressure washer and makes it part of their process to blast into these tight spots where dirt settles and lives on the outside of your car. • Swirl free compounding and polishing. If you own a dark car in particular, beware economy services that will put harsh swirls in your paint, then fill them with wax. The car may look brilliant when you pick it up, but when the wax washes away…you will get dizzy looking at your car in the sun. • “Problem” cars. Some cars have unique issues including: excessive pet hair, oxidized paint, water spots on windows, urine stains, food odor, dog odor, tobacco odor, heavily stained wheels, and mold. Small budget, cheap price simply don’t have the equipment to fix these problems that are expected of a professional. You may luck out and find that one budget service that does the job right. But more than likely, some significant work will be skipped or ignored and you’re likely to have problems with delivery times, customer service, etc. You don’t get your car detailed often, so why not pay $50 – $100 extra for a job that goes smoothly and correctly? Everyone who has ever sold their car has been asked to lift the hood for their prospective buyer. In truth, LOOKING at an engine you can learn almost nothing. Dirty, clean, dusty…whatever…it’s what you CAN’T see (pistons, rings, fluids) that matters…right? Not quite! People are strange, visual creatures. When they see a CLEAN engine they make the inference that it’s a HEALTHY engine. Some (actually a very sizable number) buyers won’t pay the extra money for a vehicle inspection if it looks and smells almost like new.
So, even if you have invested the time and money to keep your engine in fantastic shape, even a book full of receipts won't make the psychological impact that a completely clean and dressed engine will. It doesn’t take long (about 30 minutes), is completely safe (yes, modern car engines can be washed…they were designed for that), and can easily be included in most pre-sale detail jobs for about $30. Selling a car can be a challenge. Finding that just-right buyer who sees eye-to-eye on the value of your car can take some work. You need every edge you can get, and for $30, a showroom-new engine bay is a can’t-miss detail that you should add to your pre-sale preparations. While it’s true that a do-it-yourselfer can clean a car with items in a common garage, there are issues that require professional equipment and experience. I’ll list some:
1. Carpet and upholstery stains. A combination of a pressure washer, carpet shampooer, steamer, and stain treatment chemicals can remove protein, ink, food, coffee, soda…even urine stains. Crisp, clean looking seats and carpets are essential to good auto detailing. A wet/dry vacuum and over-the-counter carpet/upholstery shampoo simply don’t treat all these issues. 2. Paint overspray, scratches, oxidation, and swirling. The waxes and polishes available to do-it-yourselfers these days are excellent at preserving healthy paint. But if the previously listed problems develop, a combination of claybar removal, buffing, polishing, and waxing–applied with a high speed rotary buffer and orbital polisher–are the only means of restoring the health of your paint. 3. ”Nooks and crannies.” These are areas that are simply not accessible with common tools. They include: under seats, between seats, in vents, in seams, around buttons, in crevices, around weather seals, and even in screws and bolts. A combination of specialized chemicals, brushes and compressed air allow auto detail shops to clean items like dirty knobs, vents, seals, and screws as well as access areas between and under seats to ensure a thorough cleaning of a vehicle. Waxing your car is not purely for vanity. There are practical reasons for waxing, which we will discuss here. However, waxing your car is superfluous if you are not committed to washing it by hand. If you wax your car then have it washed at a local “tunnel wash”…your wax is GONE. So ignore the benefits of waxing if you have no plans to wash by hand. In most states, you simply can’t wash your car by hand for at least the three months of winter, if not more. No problem…just tunnel wash at the public wash but don’t bother waxing during these months. But for the months when you are able AND willing to wash by hand, you can enjoy these benefits: 1. Car gets dirtier…slower. Water and dirt tend to run down paint and not stick to the surface. If you drive a waxed car in the rain, back to back with a non-waxed car, you’ll notice the next time the cars are dry that the waxed car is noticeably cleaner. 2. UV protection. Maybe not relevant in sun-deficient states like Oregon and Washington, but in TX, CA, AZ, and sun-heavy states, you can greatly delay the peeling and discoloration of your paint (black cars have been known to peel after just 4 years in the Southwest…yes, that’s FACTORY original paint). 3. Minor scratch protection. Keeping a layer of wax on your paint ensures that your WAX, not the PAINT, receives minor scratches when you wash your car, or it brushes up against a bush, etc. 4. Waxed cars just look better. Particularly with darker colors, wax brings out a depth and brilliance that you don’t get from “naked” paint. The Key to a Good Wax Job (you won’t find it in the marketing). Waxing is not about the brand of wax you use. Nor is it about the softness of the microfiber towel you use. Nor is it about technique. It’s about consistency. No brand of wax will help if you don’t stick to a regular schedule. The average buyer of car wax may apply it 3 – 5 times in his car’s life…then give up the process. Choose a realistic waxing schedule (once every 6 weeks, for example), stick to it for the life of your car, and you will reap the rewards over time. |
Eric HuffFull time Coast Guardsman currently stationed in Jacksonville FL. Started my detailing business 5 years ago while in Detroit MI and it quickly became my passion. Archives
June 2016
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