What is car detailing?

Car detailing or auto detailing is a term that is used a lot today and can have different meanings for different people. For example, in the United States, the term detailed generally refers to most types of car cleaning, while in the United Kingdom the term 'car dumping' is mainly used to describe most of the cleaning activities of automobiles, and the detailed term was recently adopted to describe Deeper Cleaning.

In general, the correct definition for the detailed automotive term is meticulously cleaning, polishing, and protecting all parts of a vehicle from top to bottom, inside and out, using specialized tools and products that your typical car cleaner would not normally use. . However, it does not include paint and body repairs, although light cosmetic restoration work will sometimes be performed, for example, stone chip finishing and clearcoat wet sanding, depending on the condition of the vehicle and the retailer concerned.

The main area and goal of car detailing is to completely enhance and restore the vehicle paint by removing light scratches and swirl marks that have been inflicted over time and reflect light in such a way as to give an unsightly effect of spider web on paint surface or clear coat. However, before doing this, the exterior must be thoroughly washed and cleaned to remove as much dirt and as much contaminants as possible.

The first step in the exterior detailing process is generally to completely foam the vehicle and soak it in, this helps to soften the dirt and remove it from the surface before pre-rinsing. While soaking, a soft bristle detail brush can be used to agitate areas such as window rubbers, plastic grills, trim details, and insignia. The foam, along with loose dirt and grime, is rinsed thoroughly.

Before washing paint, wheels and wheel wells / arches are generally cleaned as they tend to be the dirtiest and most contaminated parts of a vehicle. Specialty brushes and wheel cleaning products are used to remove dirt and bake in brake dust from all wheel areas and wheel wells / arches, including suspension components, brake calipers , the nuts and even the rear wheels.

After the wheels and bows have been thoroughly cleaned, the paint can be washed from top to bottom with plush wash gloves instead of sponges and soft microfiber towels instead of suede leathers along with the two technique buckets and sand protectors, which help everyone to avoid any damage (in the form of slight scratches and swirl marks) from being inflicted. The entire washing process, including wheels and arches, can take up to two hours to complete, depending on the size and condition of the vehicle.

After washing, the paint is coated with a clay stick and specialized automotive lubricant that gently removes any contaminants from the adhered surface that the wash alone cannot remove. This is an important step in the car Auto Detailing process, as these contaminants can hinder the polishing process and prevent a high quality finish from being achieved.

After the paint has been properly cleaned and prepared, it is polished to remove any slight scratches, swirl marks, turbidity, rust and other surface imperfections. This is usually done with a rotary or double action polishing machine, as they allow the polishing products to thoroughly work on the surface and decompose, thus generally creating better results. However, the paint can be effectively polished by hand using the correct products and excellent results can also be achieved with sufficient time and effort.

The polishing process is usually a multi-step task as different degrees of abrasive polishing are used to correct and refine the finish and can take several hours or even days to complete, again depending on the size and condition of the vehicle. This is usually the most complicated, laborious and time consuming part of the car detailing process.

After being polished and corrected for any imperfections, the paint is protected and sealed. Some retailers choose to use a pre-wax cleaning product that prepares the paint for the wax and ensures that it adheres to the surface properly.