What Should Be Included In A Full Exterior Mobile Detail?
Car detailing is so much more comprehensive and impactful than basic car cleaning. It’s designed to get your vehicle back into that “brand new” state, or as close to it as feasibly possible, and it involves a lot of thorough cleaning of the car from top to bottom. It’s usually broken down into stages, from the initial pre-rinse through to window washing, tire cleaning, and waxing.
This guide breaks down the art of vehicle detailing, with a closer look at each aspect.
Pre-Rinse
Pre-rinsing, the initial step in most auto detailing processes, involves applying a pre-wash solution to the vehicle. This solution is allowed to dwell and loosen dirt before being rinsed away, preparing the vehicle for subsequent washing steps.
While it may seem like an unnecessary or superfluous step to those who aren’t familiar with the process, pre-rinsing is actually very important. It clears away surface dirt, grime, and contaminants that might otherwise get rubbed into the paintwork if you skipped this step and went straight to a hand wash.
Hand Wash
With the pre-rinse done, auto detailers should have a nice clean surface to start scrubbing with cloths and sponges. This is the hand wash phase, in which soapy water or carwash detergent is applied all around the vehicle’s exterior.
This step serves two key purposes. First, it helps wash away marks or stains that might not have faded with the initial pre-rinse. Second, it gets the car’s exterior looking nice and shiny, as though you just picked it up from the dealership.
Pressure Wash
Hand washing isn't always tough enough to deal with some of the caked-on mud and built-up dirt deposits on certain parts of your car, like its wheel wells. So, another common aspect of car deep cleaning is pressure washing, which uses high-pressure water to forcefully wash away stubborn accumulations.
Pressure washers deliver incredibly strong blasts of water – up to and over 3,000 PSI in some cases. That’s enough to cause serious injuries and even fracture human bones, which is why these devices are best left in the hands of the professionals.
Foam Soak and Shampoo
This stage of car detailing is usually part of the hand wash stage or immediately following it. It’s when the car is covered completely with foamy shampoo suds, which are then left to settle and soak for a while to remove not just dirt, but oils and residues.
All good detailing services should include at least some sort of shampooing. It’s crucial for achieving the brand-new look that owners want to see when the job is done. Many of the best shampoos also leave a water-resistant finish to guard against watermarks and keep your car looking new for longer.
Wheels and Tires
Tires go through a lot. They roll over a range of different surfaces and they get exposed to changing conditions and temperatures. Plus, since they’re down at the base of the car and in contact with the ground, they tend to pick up the most dirt and grime.
Wheels and tires area big focus area for car detailers. Car cleaning professionals usually use a mix of pressure and hand washing techniques with specialized wheel brushes and cleaning products to clear out mud and more. It’s common to apply tire dressing, too, which restores some shine to tires. Given that tires are pretty pricey to replace – the most expensive set costs over $40,000 – it makes sense to protect them.
Windows and Doors
Car detailers also like to pay particular attention to the windows and doors of the vehicles they work on. With a simple car clean, you might just rinse and rub these areas with some soapy water, but detailing goes way deeper than that.
It involves special glass cleaner sprayed onto each window and the mirrors to clear away marks and protect against future stains. Detailers will also clean up the door jambs to prevent any dirt or grime from those areas from dripping out onto the paintwork and ruining the final look.
Added On Services: Headlight Restoration
If you buy a new car and keep it for several years, one of the things you might notice with time is that the headlights don’t light the way as good as they once did. This is due many different factors, like pollution and UV light, which take a toll on headlight casings.
Over time, they get dirty, scratched, and worn down, and the light beams go from bright and bold to dimmer and foggier. Headlight restoration, as the name implies, brings your headlights back to their former glory. It’s often offered as an add-on or optional extra in car detailing packages and involves using a special headlight restorer compound.
Added on Services: Engine Cleaning
Even though it’s technically under the hood, the engine may be included in exterior car detailing or offered as an optional extra. And that’s one extra you should certainly consider, as engines are the beating hearts of cars and often go overlooked when it comes to cleaning and general upkeep.
Cleaning the engine is an in-depth process. It has to be cool and disconnected from the battery first, before degreasing to remove oily residues and scrubbing to clear off caked-on dirt. It’s usually rinsed to finish, and the visual difference between a dirty old engine and a freshly cleaned one can be staggering.
Added On Services: Waxing and Sealing
This is often one of, if not the last step of car detailing: applying wax or sealant all over the exterior bodywork. These products form protective layers, like shields of armor that lock in all that clean shimmer and shine, and provide temporary protection for your paintwork against the elements.
Different types of wax and sealant may be used, according to the detailers’ preferences and the desired look and effect. Some of them are pretty long-lasting, too, and can keep your car looking fabulous for six months or more.
Investing Regular Detailing to Protect Your Investment
Given the value and importance of vehicles, it makes a lot of sense to take care of them. As this guide has shown, detailing is one of the best ways to do that. It’s a real cut above a basic car wash, and it can leave your car looking new, fresh, and impressive. Consider making auto detailing an integral part of your car care regime by contacting leading detailing experts near you.
