How to Detail You Car the Right Way
Everyone loves a clean car! You get your bucket of soapy water and a sponge, turn on the garden hose and go to work. Your neighbor in the adjoining driveway does the same. But he's has a whole collection of car care supplies, including brushes, cotton swabs, a toothbrush and a excess of cleaning, conditioning and dressing products. By the time you have dried off the body of your car, slapped a coat of wax on the finish and buffed it out, your neighbor is only up to step two. Therefore, you move on to the backyard to prepare a barbecue for your family, leaving your neighbor and his bucket of soapsuds.
Later, after eating hot dogs and hamburgers you go over to your neighbor to ask him if he wants hot dog. However, you really want to see the kind of job he is doing. His vehicle is about the same year and in the same condition as yours, but his car shines like a class a diamond. Yours just looks clean.
What is your neighbor's secret? He went the detailing route–a process that goes beyond the ordinary wash-and-wax job. Detailing is just that–paying close attention to small details. Sure, it takes a lot more time and effort, but the results can be nothing short of eye popping.
Professional detailers have developed their own tricks of the trade for everything from vehicle washing to cleaning windows to getting ventilation grilles looking super crisp. To get their results, use products designed for specific areas–wheels, trim, windows, etc. Name-brand products are a safe bet. Be sure to read labels to get the best finish.
Where to Start
The interior is a good starting point, so the dust and dirt you brush out will not settle on a pristine exterior. Remove any floor mats and give the carpeting and upholstery a good vacuuming. In addition, vacuum the dash and rear parcel shelf. Move the front seats full fore and aft to get to all the accumulated dirt and loose change. If the carpets are clean except for a minor stain or two, use a foaming cleaner to get the stain out. Saturate the stain with cleaner, working it in with a damp sponge. Let it sit awhile and then blot it out with paper towels or a dry cotton cloth. Repeat if needed, and then go over the area with a damp sponge before final blotting. Do not over saturate the carpet and risk getting mildew.
You can repair burns and holes in your carpet by cutting out the offending area with a razor blade or scissors. Then cut a similar-size piece from a hidden spot, such as underneath the seat, and cement it in place using a water-resistant adhesive. Blend in the repair by brushing the nap.
Wash the floor mats, if they are rubber, and apply a dressing that does not leave a slippery finish, for obvious reasons.
Clean interior hard surfaces with a damp cloth and a mild all-purpose cleaner such as Simple Green, diluted about 10:1. If you have vinyl-covered seats, use a conditioner made for that material. Avoid products that give a high-gloss, slippery surface, so passengers will not feel like they are on a roller coaster. If you have leather upholstery, dress the surfaces with a leather conditioner. Never use a vinyl product on leather.
Worn or torn areas of vinyl can be repaired using kits made for this purpose that are available at auto supply stores. Repairs are made with a patch that lets you match the color and grain of your upholstery. Worn areas of leather can be touched up with dyes or a high-grade shoe polish. Just make sure you match the color as closely as possible.
The dash presents a special challenge, with buttons, crevices and bezels that you cannot get to with a cleaning rag. You can blast dust and dirt from these areas by using small cans of compressed air made for cleaning camera and computer equipment. Cotton swabs also work well here. Pay attention to the cleaning products you use on your dash. If your dash has a flat finish, do not use a product on it that will leave you facing a shiny gloss.
Clean air vent grilles with cotton swabs and brighten them up by misting on some spray-on vinyl/rubber dressing or accent spray–just a touch. You can also use these products to cover up light scuffmarks on wood trim. Spray the stuff on a soft towel and then apply it to the wood.
Clean glass or plastic gauge lenses with a glass or plastic cleaner, not wax. Pull off any removable knobs to clean the bezels underneath. Ever wonder where the haze on the inside of your windshield comes from since you are a non-smoker? It consists of plastisols given off as the plastics used in many new cars slowly cure. Not to worry–a good glass cleaner should remove it. If your windows are cruddy, you may have to resort to stronger measures, such as scrubbing with four-ought steel wool.
A Word of Caution
If you have aftermarket window tint film, cleaners that contain ammonia or vinegar may degrade it. Factory tinting is in the glass and is not affected by these cleaners. One trick used by some detailers for the final touch on window glass is to rinse it down with seltzer and do a final wipe with a ball of crumpled newspaper.
When it comes to first impressions, nothing makes a hit like a jewel finish. Nevertheless, this is possible only after any paint problems are fixed. Just about all finishes today are a 2-step (color) basecoat and a protective clear coat. The top clear coat is only about 2-3 mils thick, and when it is scratched or abraded it refracts light and the color coat underneath does not shine through clearly. It is like looking through a scratched or foggy lens.
To evaluate your paint, first wash your vehicle. Work in the shade and make sure the surface is cool. Use carwash soap, not a household detergent, and work in sections, from the top down. The lower panels tend to accumulate more dirt that is abrasive. To do a final rinse, remove the spray head from the hose and flood the finish. The water will tend to run off in sheets, minimizing spotting. Dry with a good-quality chamois or a soft thick-nap terry cloth towel.
Do not forget the wheel wells. Get the crud out with an all-purpose cleaner and a good high-pressure dousing. After you have finished washing your car, apply a vinyl dressing to add some snap to the wells.
Wash the wheels (make sure they are cool) with a brush made for this purpose, but do not use acid-based cleaners on polished alloy wheels or wheels that are clear coated. You can use these cleaners on rough-textured alloy wheels. Chrome wheels can be shined with metal polish or glass cleaner.
After washing the car, inspect the paint. Stains and scratches can fix with a good clear coat-safe cleaner. The worse the problem, the more aggressive the cleaner needed. Start with the least abrasive product and gradually move to coarser cleaners as required. Then machine buff.
Polishing and/or waxing are next. Be sure to include doorjambs, and the areas beneath door hinges and behind bumpers. Minor blemishes may be neutralized by wrapping a cotton cloth around your index finger and burnishing the polish into the finish.
Polish not only gives the finish its gloss, but it feeds the paint with oils to prevent it from drying out. Polymers in the polish fill in minute scratches in the clear coat layer, restoring its clarity. If you machine-buff the polish/wax to a high luster, go with an orbital rather than a rotary model, which would be more likely to burn the paint. Treat the plastic chrome on today's cars as if it were a painted surface and protect it with a light coat of wax.
Avoid getting wax or polish on rubber and flat black plastic areas (clean them with a no gloss product), door handles and emblems. If you do get a wax stain on rubber trim, spray it with a mist-and-wipe product and wipe it down with a terry cloth towel. If that does not do the trick, this usually works: Microwave some peanut butter and apply it to the stain with a soft toothbrush. Peanut butter's oils dissolve the wax and its abrasive enough to lift the stain (but it can stick to the roof of your car).
If you get a polish/wax residue around emblems or in crevices, break out the cotton swabs and toothbrushes. It is important that you first wet the area with a mist-and-wipe product such as Meguiar's Quick Detailer. Never brush on a dry surface.
Moving under hood, protect electronic components by wrapping them in plastic. Then spray on a diluted all-purpose cleaner, hosing it off with light water pressure. Vinyl/rubber protectant will dress up nonmetal areas. Let it soak in if you like the glossy look, or wipe it on and off for a more matte finish.
All that is left now are the tires. Clean them first–whitewall tire cleaner works even on black walls–and then apply tire dressing. Here again, to get a gloss finish let the product soak in, or for a matte look wipe it on and off with a cotton cloth. Be sure the tires are dry before driving off, or you will spatter your nice shiny finish. Maybe even your neighbor.
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