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Detailing is the performance of an extremely thorough cleaning, cleansing, polishing, and sealing of a vehicle, both inside and out, to produce a show quality level of finish.
Besides giving an often ‘Better than new’ appearance, having your vehicle professionally detailed will help preserve the resale value of your car, and in most cases make your vehicle more ‘saleable’
The difference between a Valeter and a Detailer is the amount of time spent on the vehicle, in fact most of our treatments take in excess of a day to complete.
Here we will take you through our Silver Correction Detail process to show you what’s involved.
The wash process.
Hours: 0.00, vehicle arrives.
First the exterior bodywork, wheels and wheel arches are pressure washed to remove any loose dirt and debris.
We then apply a PH neutral snow foam to the exterior bodywork, wheels and wheel
arches; this is left to ‘dwell’ for anything up to 20mins.
During this time the cleaning agents in the foam are slowly breaking down the dirt on the surfaces, and as the foam slowly runs off the vehicle, it takes the broken down dirt particles safely away from the paint surface, eliminating scratches.
The remaining foam is then pressure washed off the vehicle.
This is to remove as much dirt and debris as possible from the surfaces without physically touching them and possibly causing scratches to the paintwork.
Next in the process is to clean the panel gaps, plastic trim, window rubbers, door shuts, and any other hard-to- reach places, with a selection of soft brushes and a gentle all-purpose cleaner.
This is followed by carefully pressure washing the surfaces.
After this gentle ‘Touch’ wash is complete, the vehicle is pressure washed again to remove any remaining dirt and shampoo.
We now start the ‘Touch’ wash process using a soft wool mitt and the two bucket- method.
Next up in the process are the wheels and tyres, using a selection of soft brushes, an all- purpose cleaner on the tyres, and a PH-neutral acid free wheel cleaner on the wheels.
The wheels and tyres are then thoroughly rinsed using a pressure washer.
The decontamination process.
We now use a PH-neutral iron remover on the paintwork and wheels.
This removes all iron filings on the paintwork and wheel surfaces; these are airborn contaminants that bond to the paintwork and lessen the way the paintwork reflects the light.
Most of the iron particles on the wheel surfaces come from the brake pads which have a percentage of metal content.
After the vehicle has been thoroughly pressure washed, we then move on to the tar-removal process.
The tar-removal process will, in a lot of cases, make the most noticeable difference in the decontamination process.
Our removal process gently dissolves tar, which can then be removed from the surfaces with a soft microfibre cloth.
The vehicle is then thoroughly pressure-washed, then pulled inside for the claying process to take place.
The claying process is the final step in decontaminating the vehicle, but it is an essential step, too.
Using a small block of dedicated clay, along with a water based-lubricant, the block of clay is gently rubbed along the surface of the paint.
This removes any other contaminants on the paint surface, including tree sap, bodyshop overspray, and other airborn particles that bond to your vehicle with everyday use.
This process alone can transform a vehicle’s paintwork, and allow much deeper reflections from the treated surfaces.
After the claying process is complete the vehicle is dried using plush microfibre towels and a hot air blower; this also helps release any trapped water around the wheels, trim, door mirrors and grilles.
Once this is complete, the paint surfaces are thoroughly wiped down with IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol). This dissolves any polish residues, wax or sealants that have been applied to the paint surface.
Polish and wax have the ability to ‘fill’ light scratches and swirl marks for a period of time, so they appear less visible to the naked eye.
These fillers need to be removed to give a true assessment of the paint surface condition.
Hours: 4.00-5.00
Paintwork correction.
Unlike applying a wax to a vehicle’s paintwork, that will ‘mask’ swirling and light scratches, and eventually degrade, leaving the marks on show again, Paintwork correction is a permanent solution, and providing the car is carefully washed and dried, the was- related marks and swirls should not reappear.
This process begins with a thorough examination of the paintwork, using various light sources to determine how badly the paint surface is damaged.
These are the most common types of damage to paintwork.
After this has been completed, the vehicle’s paintwork is re-examined with a paint depth gauge; this device uses ultrasonic technology to not just measure total paint depth on the panel, but individual layers, such as, Basecoat, Colourcoat, and Clearcoat.
It also can give very accurate readings on Grp (the material most modern bumpers are made from) and Carbon Fibre (found on most high-end sports/supercars), unlike all other gauges used in the paintwork correction process.
Once this has been done the machine correcting process can begin.
A machine polisher is used to re-level the lacquer, step-by-step correcting the surface layer by a thousandth of a millimetre at a time, removing scratches & swirl marks, machine marring & holograms, so the paintwork reflects the light perfectly.
This process can also correct poor vehicle bodyshop work, such as paint overspray and D/A sanding marks.
This process can be repeated up to six times, using finer grades of compound and machine pad.
Hours; 14.00-70.00
At this point the vehicle’s paintwork is wiped down 2-3 times with IPA to remove any polish residue and fillers present, to give a true finish.
The vehicle is then thoroughly inspected using various light sources that replicate sunlight to check the paintwork meets our high standards.
Vehicle finishing.
At this stage we apply a wax or sealant to the treated paintwork; this is a layer of protection which ‘locks in’ the polished paintwork and protects it against dirt, dust, road grime, water and other contaminants that can degrade the paint finish.
This is commonly put in the same bracket as a polish, but is actually completely different.
A polish is designed to brighten paintwork, and remove scratches, and not protect paintwork. After polishing, a car will appear to be protected as it will ‘bead’ water, but this is short-lived and usually lasts only a few days.
A wax or sealant is a product dedicated to protecting a vehicle’s paint surface; once this product is applied it will give months, sometimes years of protection, and because the polished paint surface is locked in, it retains its gloss and shine for as long as the protection lasts.
We now have sealants we can apply in house after one of our treatments that we guarantee for 5+years!
So all that is needed to keep your vehicle looking good is to carefully wash and dry- no polishing needed!
Having a protective wax or sealant applied also makes the vehicle’s paintwork easier to clean, as the dirt cannot bond properly to a surface treated with this type of product. You will also notice how the paint resists water by ‘beading’.
See the different protection options we offer in our Specialist Coatings section.
Next we dress the plastic trim on the vehicle, and the window rubbers with a long-life trim dressing.
After the window rubbers have been treated, the windows are then wiped down with a high-quality glass cleaner.
The wheels then have a high-temperature wheel wax applied to protect from brake dust, and to ease cleaning. At this point the tyres are dressed with a long life tyre gel.
The vehicle’s door shuts are then hand-polished with an all-in-one polish.
Next we polish any brightwork and exhausts.
Once this has been completed, we do a final wipedown of the paintwork with a detailing spray that adds more gloss and protection to the paintwork.
Finally the vehicle is inspected to make sure it meets our consistently high standards.
