Auto Detailing As A Professional Business

Automotive Care

We all love our cars. The question becomes, how to do we best take care of our automobiles in order to retain the polish and shine on them. This is where this website will help you. You can do it all yourself with the right auto detailing supplies and equipment available in today's market. If you have ever purchased a brand new vehicle ( or not ), the best moment is seeing it the first time. It is all clean and shiny from the dealership doing it's prep and clean on it. What if I told you that they don't always do a great job. This is mostly true, I know people who work at car dealerships and the guys ( or girls ) what wash and polish the cars are usually the summer help, students , etc. Most of the time they do not know too much about proper automotive care. Do you know for sure that they are using micro fiber cloths? I bet you it is a chamois or even worse, paper towels.

Ok, I know, you are probably thinking... I use a chamois on my car all the time, what's the problem? Really, not too much, a chamois to dry your car is ok, only if there are no contaminants or dirt particles on the surface. The chamois does not really lift the surface dirt at you wipe it dry, a micro fiber cloth does. The best thing you can use on your car's finish is a micro fiber cloth. The only cloth I use for all my detailing work is micro fiber, on everything. I detail a car's engine, interior, exterior and all I use is micro fiber for everything. That is what the professionals use and what you should use.

Now lets look at what is on the surface or your car's finish. After you wash your car, can you clearly see your reflection? You should be able to. A properly detailed and polished car should have a clear reflection to it. It is easier to see on a darker colored car. Take your hand and rub it along the paint, does it feel rough? That is called rail dust and contaminant build up. The best thing to use on that is a clay bar. A clay bar is just that, a piece of clay, specially designed to lift and remove the bonded contaminants on the surface of your vehicles paint, you need to use a type of lubricant with it, and a clay bar kit at your local automotive supply store will carry it. Simple spray and rub off the grit from your paint with the peice of clay. When you are done, the surface of your exterior should feel smooth and silky.

The next step to detailing your car is to remove the scratches. Do you have some ? probably. Here is how to see them, if you are outside, or inside, use the sun or a bright light source. Look at the paint directly into the light source, you will probably see fine lines, scratchs, halo effect, you name it. If you see a perfect reflection, great, I will bet that it's not. So, how do you fix that? If you take your car to a local shop, like the quick wash and polish places, they will simply apply a thick coat of wax and it will look great, for about 3 days. Those place simple cover all the scratches with wax and that wears off very quickly, but they got your money, so they don't care. What you need to do is remove the scratches and the best way to detail your vehicle is to use a powered buffer. You will need a large selection of polishing compounds ( products ), a decent rotary polisher ( or random orbital ), several types of polishing pads for it and then you can go to town. Removing scratches is the hardest part. You will need patience, a little power, speed, proper polish products and pressure. What you are doing is really sanding the surface with a super fine grain sand paper ( which is the cream and polish ) and you are actually grinding down the top surface of your paint until it is smooth. Once that is complete, the reflection should be clear and without scratches. There are several steps to this process and you are doing to go from most aggressive cut. The final pass ( or coat ) with your polisher will be with a very fine pad and a very fine polish... this is what brings the gloss and shine to your car.

Now you can wax it. Now that the scratches are gone, go ahead and wax it, or even better, put a sealant on it. This will protect the finish and you know you are not covering anything up. You have just detailed your own vehicle like a pro.

Did you forget about your interior ? or engine bay? Detailing and improving the look of your car includes both. You will need to clean all the surfaces ( with a micro fiber of course ) and then usually apply a type of detailer or product that brings out the shine of the interior and engine bay

Detailing Supplies and Products

There are a lot of suppliers out there that want to sell you products. So where do you start? I am sure you have heard of Meguiar's and 3m. They both make great product, but their best products are usually not available in a retail store. You will need to find a wholesaler to get the "good stuff". What I mean by the good stuff, is the full line of products. Check out the online store for Meguiar's click here. They have a huge product list, what you find in the retail markets is only a small fraction.

There are a lot of smaller supplies out there, some are really great too, some.... well, I just don't know. Some have a particular product that is good at one thing, some have a full line of product, but I trust the long established companies. I do have and use other products from Klasse, Poorboy's, Menzerna, Wolfgang, Pinacle, Zymol, 3m and Chemical Guys. There is a lot out there and you really have to experiment to find something you really like. Polishing and detailing your own vehicle usually comes down to personal preference, so I leave it to you to find the product you like to work with and produces the professional results you are looking for.

Detailing Tips and Techniques

So, what tips can I offer you? Detailing your car is time consuming, but if you enjoy cruising down the street knowing that you have the cleanest and sharpest looking vehicle and that makes you feel good... then the only thing I can say is: welcome to the club.

Number 1 Tip: always use micro fiber cloths to what and dry your car, everything else usually scratches the finish.

Number 2 Tip: never take your car to a automatic car wash. Even if it is the touch less ones, the spinning brush ones will ruin your paint finish and will take a lot of work to correct the damage. The touch less car washes are not great either, they usually use very corrosize solvents to clean your car, add the very , very high pressure , this eventually eats away at your finish... just don't do it.

Number 3 tip: always wash your car by hand with a micro fiber sponge or mit and dry it with at micro fiber towel. Use wand wash car washes only and do it by hand. You will extend the life of your paint and keep your car looking great until the day you sell it.

So, in the end the best professional detail you can have done to your car is your own.