What is Car Detailing?
Let’s be honest, unless you’re someone who got their car just for getting from place A to B, you care about your car enough to make sure it stays and feels the same way as the day you first brought it home from the showroom. Everyone wants that, but not everyone is able to keep it that way, despite proper maintenance and periodic services. The key thing that separates cars that are well maintained and cars that are drop-dead gorgeous is what we call Car Detailing.
Now, we know what you’re thinking – you don’t want to overdo your car with fancy headlights and over the top wings – but that’s not what we mean by car detailing. So let’s take a closer look at the term, because it can be confusing to someone who’s just gotten into automobiles.
Yes, car detailing does involve customization of how the car looks and feels – including your transmission, paint jobs, and whatnot. But car detailing also refers to keeping your vehicle in mint condition, be it using polishing methods, or coating with a protective layer like ceramic. So in this article by Motoring Junction, we’re going to take a look at what car detailing really entails, why it’s become so popular today, and whether or not you should get it for your car. Let’s get started, after clearing a couple common questions out of the way.
Contents
Car Washing Is Not Car Detailing
Let’s get something out of the way first before we dive deeper into car detailing – washing your car, no matter how sparkly you get it done, does not mean you’re detailing your car. Those two terms are not the same. Although the end goal for both of them is to keep your car in great shape, the similarities stop there.
On one hand, you have car washes, where you shine the exterior of your car to the best of your abilities with the help of powerful sprays or washing it with shampoo and sponges. On the other hand a car detailing session requires thorough attention to every piece of visual part in the vehicle that you are bound to interact with. Exactly as the name suggests, it is a detailed end to end service with deadly precision and requires a lot of effort compared to your normal car wash.
Don’t get us wrong, both are equally important, but it’s one thing to wash your car, and it’s a whole other ballgame to give it an everlasting shine. Car Detailing gives you that everlasting shine. And you don’t have to do it every month either. Just once or twice a year and you’re good to go. A good detailer will also clean the underbody of a vehicle. this prevents underbody rusting.
Does Detailing Get Rid of Scratches
Short answer: Yes
You can rest assured that detailing will certainly help you remove all the scratches from each and every corner of the exterior of the vehicle without doing any harm to the vehicle itself. In case you haven’t noticed it in your car yet, there are levels to how deep a scratch can penetrate your vehicle’s exterior. For instance, a simple scratch like those from that of a pen’s nib or a sharp knife, all you need to do is paint over the surface and apply a coating to get rid of it forever. For deeper scratches, you would definitely need a bigger paint job done on your vehicle. But essentially, for minor scratches, car detailing gets the job done.
Types of Car Detailing
Now that you know a little bit about car detailing, you may understand why every car may need it. Car detailing goes beyond just giving your car an everlasting shine. It makes sure the exterior doesn’t lose its sturdiness and durability, on top of keeping it visually appealing, thereby more attractive to second-hand buyers, hence keeping its resale value quite steady over time.
But car detailing has its own set of downfalls, much of which we’ll cover in a bit, but most of this comes from not knowing what kind of detailing you’re getting yourself into. It always pays to know what kind of detailing you want to get for your car, and why. So we’re going to get into what kind of car detailing services are offered by most garages and professional detailers out there, and whether or not you should go for either or all of them.
Basic Waterless Car Detailing
Most car detailing companies offer this method. It’s basically the entry level package into your car detailing journey, and service details offered might vary according to the vehicle or or according to the provider, but only to a slight degree. For instance, a provider might not detail the rims or vacuum the interior without first getting ahead with a light wipe down. To cut costs to meet the budget, tire dressing might also get overlooked.
This can be avoided by spending a few extra bucks on your dealer. If you visit high quality mobile car detailing services, then they will surely do the interior vacuum wipe downs and window cleaning as well as exterior wash, including tire dressing. It is entirely optional, and if you want to just stick to the regular detailing, that works fine too.
Complete Interior Car Detailing
The name clearly gives it away, but this kind of detailing involves cleaning the interior of your car, leaving no spots behind, and only a gleaming interior to gaze at. There are various ways in which you can do this – such as steam cleaning or vacuuming. What a dirty interior will result in is a bad odor and unnecessary spread of allergies. This is just one of the many reasons why you should care about the interior of the car as much as you do about the exterior.
We recommend getting interior detailing at least once every couple years, because interiors get damaged pretty quickly compared to the exteriors, unless you’re a really bad driver. Standard interior detailing procedure involves brushing, vacuuming, and steam cleaning. It also involves leather trimming and glass cleaning, vacuuming, wiping, and perfuming. A complete interior detailing service will get you a polished, properly functioning, hygienic interior, just as good, or even better than the outer portion of the vehicle.
Exterior Car Detailing
Again, this section doesn’t need an explanation, but Exterior Car Detailing is a process of restoring and vacuuming, as well as making sure the vehicle leaves looking better than it did when it entered. In most cases, this type of detailing will involve the use of products such as polish, waxes, sealant and degreasers. These tools are quite efficient and save a lot of time on washes, special polishing, and many other unnecessary processes.
Note: Polishing is done to restore the car paint finish before completing the whole process by waxing. The wax is used as a backup net for protecting the polish from wearing off. It will also add up for a glossier look to the car. Adding a good synthetic sealant afterward locks in the shine for months to come.
Disadvantages of Car Detailing
Like we mentioned a little while ago, if you’re not properly informed about car detailing, you’re sure to get your wallets drilled out. Make sure to watch out for the following points, and maybe use them as a checklist to determine whether or not you’re getting a good deal for yourself:
Always look for a professional detailer. The shadier the place, the more you’re going to regret the service, regardless of how cheap they come. Services of a professional detailer will show a difference even on a brand new car.
Check out more than one detailer and ask for price ranges. Then make an informed purchase.
Car detailing can be vague at times, so unless you specify exactly what you want out of the service you’re paying for, you might not find satisfaction in the job done.
Checkout: How to prevent fogging up of car windshield
- Cost of Changing Transmission Fluid - August 23, 2021
- 5 Symptoms of Blown Head Gasket - August 16, 2021
- 7 Symptoms of Bad Fuel Pump - August 11, 2021
