Hoi Sammax
Ik ga in juni 2 weken naar curacou. Weet jij misschien nog waar je Meguiars gekocht heb. En is het daar echt een stuk goedkoper dan hier in Nederland.
Ik gebruik namelijk ook altijd Meguiars voor mijn mini, en ik moet weer het een en ander bestellen.
Gr. Yvonne
De hobby die 'detailen' heet...
- Door
- Volledig MINI minded!
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Ik ben zo langzamerhand van Mequiars over aan het stappen naar Poorboy's World omdat de polish en de wax beter uitwrijven. Persoonlijk vind ik het spul van PW veel fijner om mee te werken.
Voor het makkelijk reinigen van de velgen gebruik ik Poorboys World Wheel Sealant maar ik kan niet zeggen dat de velgen langer schoon blijven, het stoot geen vuil af ... helaas. M'n velgen trekken zo wie zo erg snel en veel vuil aan en heb daar nog geen oplossing voor.
Pas op met die agressieve velgenreinigers want het is echt troep voor je velgen.
Is er trouwens een alternatief voor kleien, want ik vind het echt een k-klus. Teer en andere vlekjes doe ik er wel mee maar een hele auto ... pfoeh
Voor het makkelijk reinigen van de velgen gebruik ik Poorboys World Wheel Sealant maar ik kan niet zeggen dat de velgen langer schoon blijven, het stoot geen vuil af ... helaas. M'n velgen trekken zo wie zo erg snel en veel vuil aan en heb daar nog geen oplossing voor.
Pas op met die agressieve velgenreinigers want het is echt troep voor je velgen.
Is er trouwens een alternatief voor kleien, want ik vind het echt een k-klus. Teer en andere vlekjes doe ik er wel mee maar een hele auto ... pfoeh
- sammax
- Mod virus alert!
- Locatie: Amsterdam
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Kuzeta Curacao
aardige mensen daar, kunnen je goed helpen met de producten die ze hebben. en ze hebben nogal wat producten.
ze hebben zo ongeveer de hele consumentenlijn en ook bijna de hele prof lijn.
ja hier bij Kuzetaijvert schreef:Hoi Sammax
Ik ga in juni 2 weken naar curacou. Weet jij misschien nog waar je Meguiars gekocht heb. En is het daar echt een stuk goedkoper dan hier in Nederland.
Ik gebruik namelijk ook altijd Meguiars voor mijn mini, en ik moet weer het een en ander bestellen.
Gr. Yvonne
Kuzeta Curacao
aardige mensen daar, kunnen je goed helpen met de producten die ze hebben. en ze hebben nogal wat producten.
ze hebben zo ongeveer de hele consumentenlijn en ook bijna de hele prof lijn.
vooral voor die hardnekkige teervlekjes die je bijna niet wegkrijgt met kleien heb je ook speciale producten waarmee je ze zo weg kunt poetsen. ik denk dat het kleien dan ook een stuk aangenamer word omdat je dan niet steeds blijft hangen bij zon teervlekjeDoor schreef: Is er trouwens een alternatief voor kleien, want ik vind het echt een k-klus. Teer en andere vlekjes doe ik er wel mee maar een hele auto ... pfoeh
- PimNoordhof
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- Locatie: Slochteren
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Aaahh Kuzeta Curacao daar was ik ook regelmatig te vinden , Het is daar idd een stuk goedkoper en ze hebben echt alles!!
Ook de grotere verpakkingen zijn daar aanwezig. Heel veel autoshops op Curacao verkopen Mequiars.
Autodetailing leeft op Curacao ook wel, ik heb daar 7maand gewoond.
, Het is daar idd een stuk goedkoper en ze hebben echt alles!! Ook de grotere verpakkingen zijn daar aanwezig. Heel veel autoshops op Curacao verkopen Mequiars.
Autodetailing leeft op Curacao ook wel, ik heb daar 7maand gewoond.
- PimNoordhof
- Mod virus alert!
- Locatie: Slochteren
- P5ycH0
- Volledig MINI minded!
- Locatie: Hillywood
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Hier liep ik net tegenaan:
1. Walk around your car write down your priorities on paper. If there are stains on the interior, write them down. If there are water spots on the windows, write that down. Later, you’ll check all of these things off when the detail is completed.
2. Put on a detailing apron. Place clean rags in the big pockets. Place one yellow handle detailing brush, one black handle detailing brush, and one toothbrush in the small pocket. If you have cargo pants or shorts, put a carpet brush in one of your cargo pockets.
3. Connect your water hose and pressure washer. Plug in two 50 foot extension cords.
4. Unpack your equipment and supplies and place them within 6 feet of the car.
5. Park the car in a spot where you have adequate room to work and on the flattest ground you can find.
6. Drop an ounce of car wash soap in your bucket and fill it with water.
7. Remove the trunk liner to avoid getting it excessively wet while cleaning trunk jambs.
8. Turn on your pressure washer and test for leaks and proper pressure.
9. If detailing the engine, do this first. With the engine running, open the hood and cover any exposed electrical components with rags. If you have an aftermarket air intake (K&N) be sure to cover it with multiple rags. Spray the engine and the underside of the hood with water. Spray the underside of the hood with degreaser. Spray all engine areas with degreaser. Dip your long handle brush in your bucket of soapy water and proceed to scrub clean the underside of the hood. Hose off the underside of the hood. Use the long handle brush to scrub the inner fenders, the intake, the top of the radiator...anything you have access to. Hose off the areas you just cleaned. If there are finer points in the engine that need to be cleaned (manifold, battery, brake booster, etc.) spray degreaser on them, then fine clean them with your yellow handle detail brush. Pressure wash clean. Note that there are three angles to the underhood: left, right, and center. Be sure that the engine is clean from all angles. Not everything will come clean. There are areas of caked on oil on the valve covers and intake that will not clean up. Get the engine bay as clean as possible—particularly black plastic items. Now, spray the entire engine, while wet, with any water-based plastic dressing form your local auto parts store (diluted 4 parts water to 1 part dressing). Remove the rags used to cover the electrical systems, then close the hood and let the engine run for about 20 minutes before checking it later.
10. Floormats. Let’s do these first, as they take a while to dry. Remove all floormats from the vehicle. This includes trunk liners in sedans (usually carpet glued to cardboard) and trunk mats in SUVs (usually carpet). If the trunk liner just needs to be vacuumed, set it aside. If it has stains, mud, food, etc. Spray it down with degreaser. If the trunk mat (carpet) is relatively clean, set it aside and “spot” clean it later. But if more than 1/3 or it is soiled and dirty, spray it down with degreaser. Take all floormats and soak them with degreaser. Now, pressure wash the floormats from the back to the front in overlapping passes. Resoak with degreaser from your local automotive store and scrub with a carpet brush, then pressure wash if necessary. If the floormat has rubber streaks from shoe soles, or embedded rubber or tar, spray paint thinner, then scrub with a carpet brush, then pressure wash. Repeat this process for all floor mats. As you pressure wash, note that the rinse off water is no longer brown and soapy...you should continue until you have clear water running off. The driver’s floormat will never look brand new. This mat has seen dirty shoes for every mile the car has been driven. It has layer after layer of dirt and rubber markings that won’t come out entirely. This is okay, and I’ve never had a customer object to this. However, the other mats should come out nearly new. The only items that cannot be removed are red, yellow, and orange food stains. Once you have satisfactorily rinsed the floormats clean, hang them from your floor mat clamps. You may need to bring a large board to mount your floor mat clamps to. Or you can experiment with ways to use your work vehicle as the mounting board. It’s very important to hang these mats and let them drip dry, though, as we cannot deliver wet mats to the customer. Just putting them out in the sun is not enough...they will not get dry this way. Once you hang the mats, you will not touch them for at least three hours, at which time just the very tips will be wet (vacuum the tips dry, put some stripes in the mats, and reinstall in the car at the end). Cardboard trunk liners can simply be leaned up against a wall. Large trunk mats (carpet) may need to be hung by two mat clamps or dangled out the back of your work car...they can get heavy.
11. Wet the entire car, including wheels.
12. Grab your Meguiars Wheel Brightener (or even Meguiars Hot Wheels form your local auto parts store) and Degreaser bottles. Walking around the car counter clockwise, spray degreaser in the wheel wells, door jambs, and trunk jambs. Spray Wheel Brightener on the wet wheels. Do this all on the same trip—do not make separate trips for Brightener and Degreaser. A quick note about Wheel Brightener and wheels. It’s fantastic on 95% of wheels, but it will stain uncoated aluminum wheels. Here’s how to know if you’re working with uncoated aluminum. Are the wheels factory? You are 100% safe to use WB. Are the wheels chrome? You are 100% safe to use WB. Are the wheels aftermarket with a perfect, reflective finish? You are 100% safe to use WB. However, if the wheels have a dull, unpolished finish, you may have an uncoated aluminum wheel. These wheels are cheap, often made by Prime and American Racing. Avoid using WB on these wheels and just scrub with soap and water. If you do, however, accidentally use WB on aluminum wheels, you can remove the stains with Mother’s Wheel Polish. It won’t take long until you can spot aluminum wheels, don’t worry. I strongly suggest you use WB, as it is a huge time saver and profit maker.
13. Get your pressure washer and make one more clockwise trip around the car, pressure washing the wheel wells, wheels, door jambs, and trunk jambs. Get low when pressure washing the wheels and pressure wash them from all angles. Do this all in one trip and do not make separate trips for Brightener and Degreaser. Be careful not to get the interior of the car excessively wet (some overspray is unavoidable) when washing jambs. After a few cars, you’ll find this is not difficult.
14. Back up the car 2 feet. You’ll see that the wheels are dirty from an angle you couldn’t clean from previously. Walk around the car and spray Brightener on all the wheels again, then make a trip again with the pressure washer and spray off the Brightener. Check that all dirt is gone from the wheels from every angle. If there is any remaining dirt, dip your yellow detailing brush in soapy water and scrub the dirt free, then pressure wash. If you find, yet again, that you have stubborn dirt and brake dust, spray more Brightener on the wheels, allow it to dwell for at least 15 seconds, then scrub with the tighter bristle black detailing brush. If there is still remaining dirt, you will have to manually clean this dirt with a rag and paint thinner later in the detail.
15. Wet the car again. Wash the entire car from top to bottom with your long handle brush. This should only take about 60 seconds. Do not pause to wash off soap! You need to move fast. Spray off the soap bubbles with the pressure washer when the entire car has been scrubbed. If the car has dead bugs on the grill, bumper, mirrors, windshield, etc., dip your yellow bug brick in soapy water and scrub the bug matter clean; don’t worry, the brick seems like it might scratch the car, but it won’t.
16. Take your wash mitt and dip it in the soapy water. Hold the mitt in your left hand and your clean claybar in the right. Soap down an entire panel...start with the hood. Then, in a tight circular motion with medium pressure, rub the claybar over the car’s paint. You will initially feel some resistance from the rough surface, but as the claybar removes embedded contaminants (brake dust, rail dust, tree sap, overspray), the paint will feel slick. Repeat the process until the panel you are working on feels smooth...relubricate with the soapy wash mitt when needed. Once you have clayed an entire panel, wash it clean with the pressure washer. Do every panel of the vehicle AND all windows (claybaring windows makes them easier to clean later in the detailing process). Not every car needs to be claybarred. About 1⁄4 have smooth paint surfaces that will not benefit from it. If the paint feels smooth, don’t claybar at all and save 7 minutes. However, all white cars must be claybarred. Tar, sap, brake dust...all of these stand out on white cars and must be removed with the claybar process.
17. One more time, walk around the car with your pressure washer and rinse thoroughly. Now, we will be looking at seams and rubber seals where dirt and even moss accumulate. Use your pressure washer to blast these areas clean...we don’t want to clean them by hand later. Look in wheel wells, double check the wheels, check around trim. Get these “nooks and crannies” clean with your pressure washer. Don’t be afraid to get within 4 inches...1500 psi is a very safe setting and you will not damage anything or cause any leaks.
18. After rinsing the car, turn off your pressure washer. Get your “Absorber” chamois towel or other car drying towel and proceed to dry the car. Start from the top to the bottom. Drag the chamois across the roof of the surface, then wring it out as it gets full and won’t absorb more water. For smaller, tighter areas, wad up the chamois into a smaller ball and use your fingers and hands to wipe dry. Do not spend more than 60 seconds drying the car and do not try to wipe up every drop of water on the car. It will be at least one hour until you will polish/wax the car. The car will naturally air dry as you detail its interior.
19. Let’s check under the hood. You should see a dramatic difference: the engine bay is clean and the black plastic is stark black again. You may notice some white pooling of the dressing. Wipe this up with a rag. You may also noticed diry areas under the hood, on the inner fender wells, on top of the battery, etc. Wipe these clean with a rag and All Purpose Cleaner (SIMPLE GREEN) or Simple Green diluted 10:1. Close the hood when you’re satisfied. Remember, the car is running this entire time.
20. On to the interior. Open all doors, trunk, windows, and sunroofs. Roll the front seats all the way forward.
21. Walk around the car and place personal items in bags and boxes. Place small items (cell phone accessories, loose change, fingernail clippers) in plastic bags and place large items (CDs, tissue paper box, paper towels) in boxes. Remove child seats. Set aside all personal items. Check in all consoles, compartments, map holders, door pockets...everywhere. Remove everything but what’s in the glove box. Leave the glove box alone for now.
22. Walk around the car again and throw away trash into your small wastebasket. This includes food wrappers, paper cups, receipts...anything of no value.
23. Air purge the car. Take a blow gun connected to an air compressor or even a
vacuum cleaner set to "output" air instead of vacuum air and blow down every surface in the car. Map pockets, compartments, between seats, under seats, across seats, dashboards, consoles, footwells...everywhere. We’re trying to dislodge as much dirt as possible without vacuuming it up. Keep blowing compressed air everywhere. You’ll see dirt flying out the doors and hatch. If you’re making a mess of the driveway, don’t worry about it...you’ll sweep it up later. We air purge the car repeatedly to avoid filling up our vacuum cleaners with dirt and junk. It’s faster and preserves our vacuum cleaners.
24. Start at the trunk. The trunk liner has been removed, right? Wipe the jambs clean. Spray Simple Green on the underside of the trunk and wipe it clean. Vacuum everything clean. Remove the cover to the spare tire. Vacuum in the spare tire area. Spray SIMPLE GREEN into all areas, wipe clean with a rag, agitate tight spots with your detailing brush (yellow handle) then spray compressed air into all tight spots to “blast clean” the dirt. Wipe clean again. Repeat with this process until everything is clean. Vacuum one last time. If you didn’t pressure wash your trunk liner, vacuum it clean, then place in the trunk. Avoid using a carpet brush on trunk liners, as this causes the carpet to ball up irreversibly. If there is debris on the liner that won’t vacuum clean, use compressed air to purge it free.
Reassemble the trunk liner and tire cover. Place any personal items back in the
trunk and close. You’re done.
25. If the trunk is a hatch (minivan, SUV, station wagon) the process is a bit different. You have a large black seal that surrounds the opening. Spray SIMPLE GREEN on this. Agitate all areas with a yellow handle detailing brush. Wipe clean with a rag. Follow up with compressed air to “blast clean” the remaining cleaner chemical and dirt. Wipe clean again. Check all areas of the seal and jambs to make sure they are clean...the pressure wash doesn’t get everything so follow up with a combination of SIMPLE GREEN, brushes and compressed air to clean up every hinge and bolt. Now look up and clean the under site of the hatch. This is often overlooked! Sometimes you will find dog hair and stains here. Clean from the back to the front. Look up again and you may find stains in the headliner. Spray SIMPLE GREEN on a clean rag, THEN wipe the stains clean. Do not spray chemical directly into the headliner, as you will water stain it. Crayon stains? Ink stains? Spray a small amount of thinner into a rag and wipe across the stains to transfer them into your rag. Now, working from top to bottom, look at the plastic liner pieces that form the walls of the cargo area. Spray them with SIMPLE GREEN and wipe them clean. Are there rubber scuffs and other marks that won’t wipe clean? Use very fine steel wool and SIMPLE GREEN to scrub them clean. There will be cubby holes and small doors. Open them, blast them with compressed air, spray SIMPLE GREEN, agitate the SIMPLE GREEN with a detailing brush, then blast them again with compressed air. Wipe dry. You may find speaker grills. If the grill is plastic, spray with SIMPLE GREEN, agitate in the little holes with a detailing brush, blast with air, then wipe clean. If the speaker grills are cloth, spray your rag with SIMPLE GREEN, then wipe across the face of the cloth speaker grill. The trunk mat (carpet) is out, right? Now clean the area beneath the carpet. If there are stains in the tight trunk liner, spray them with SIMPLE GREEN, scrub with a carpet brush, then dry with a clean rag. Repeat repeat repeat until the stains are gone. If the stains are particularly difficult (cola, coffee, tee), use “Lifter” or “Spot Shot” or “Folex” carpet cleaners from your local grocery store. Spray with cleaner, scrub with carpet brush, then push a clean rag across the area repeatedly until it’s dry. If you see rubber, tar, or any “black” staining, use a little paint thinner on a rag (don’t spray thinner onto the spot) and wipe back and forth over the stained area. The trunk liner may lift up. It may be removable. Lift up and remove everything that can be lifted or removed. Clean every door and every cubby with our basic spray/agitate/air blast/wipe clean method. If we pressure washed the trunk mat (carpet), leave it hanging for a few hours. If we didn’t, put the trunk mat back in the car. Vacuum it clean. If there are stains, scrub them first while dry with a stiff brush, then air purge. Spray with SIMPLE GREEN, then scrub into a foam, then push a clean dry rag across the face repeatedly. Check the rag for dirt transfer. These are the fundamentals of shampooing: vacuum, scrub with a brush while dry, air purge, spray SIMPLE GREEN, scrub into a foam, then push clean rags into the area until dry and clean. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Use as little chemical as possible! Use carpet spot cleaner when needed for coffee and cola. Use thinner when needed for tar or rubber.
26. Okay, so we cleaned the trunk area from top to bottom, back to front. Keep this principle when detailing interiors. Always work from the top to the bottom and the back to the front. Next will be the passenger rear door panels. Remember that the window is rolled down. Air purge the door again...the handles, the map pockets...everywhere. Now spray it down with SIMPLE GREEN. Wipe clean with a rag, then agitate tight spots and seams with a detailing brush. Then air blast all seams and tight areas, then wipe dry with a rag. Are there kick marks and rub marks that didn’t come clean? Clean with SIMPLE GREEN and very fine steel wool. Occasionally, door panels will have cloth inserts that are very dirty from pets or people’s arms resting on them. Spray these wet with lots of SIMPLE GREEN. Scrub until foamy. Vacuum out the foam, then push clean dry towels into the cloth until dry. Repeat until the dirt is out and your towels show no dirt transfer.
27. Now look up and clean the passenger’s headliner area.
28. Look back. If you’re cleaning a sedan, there is the speaker deck up against the rear window. If you can, recline the rear seat so you have better access. Air purge and vacuum the areas exposed when you fold forward the seat. Now air purge the speaker deck...there’s often debris and bugs there. Vacuum clean and wipe down and all panels until clean.
29. Now we look to the rear seats. Air purge them. If they are leather, spray them down with SIMPLE GREEN. Wipe them dry. Air purge the cracks and creases. If there is still dirt, spray them down again with SIMPLE GREEN and use a detailing brush in every crease and seam, then air purge and wipe dry. If they are still dirty, you will need to use a combination of SIMPLE GREEN and steel wool (gently) to get the surfaces clean. Even faster, spray with SIMPLE GREEN and use a carpet brush. Yes, a stiff bristle carpet brush from your local grocery store. Just air blast the bristles clean, and the carpet brush will work wonderfully. No, it won’t damage the leather. I’ve used them thousands of times and never damaged leather. Here’s how: spray down a 2 foot by 2 foot area with SIMPLE GREEN, then scrub in small circles with the carpet brush. Wipe dry, then air purge all creases clean and wipe dry again. Pull up headrests and clean around those; remove them if you have to and clean them and reinstall them. Drop the center arm rest. Spray SIMPLE GREEN in the cup holders and agitate with a brush and air purge. Air purge and vacuum all doors and compartments in the console. Check the lower cushions. Do they fold forward? Always check. If so, pull up the lower cushions and air purge, clean, and vacuum.
30. If the seats are cloth, we don’t spray them down entirely with SIMPLE GREEN as we do leather. We spot clean them. If there are isolated dirt spots and stains, mist SIMPLE GREEN onto the spot, scrub with your carpet brush, then dry with a clean rag. Don’t use too much SIMPLE GREEN or you will get water spotting. However, about 10% of the time you will find seats that are so dirty and soiled in so many places that they cannot be “spot cleaned.” Here, you will have to soak the seats in SIMPLE GREEN (yes, you will need to refill your SIMPLE GREEN...always bring your concentrates to the job site in case you need refills). Soak the entire seat from top to bottom...every visible surface so you don’t get water staining. Scrub aggressively with a carpet brush until foamy, then vacuum. Then push clean rags into the seats to dry them further. Once your done with the interior later, you will close the doors and place the heater on to dry out the seats entirely. You may have to repeat this process once the car is dried later on. But, for 90% of cloth seats, you can “spot clean” them using a minimal amount of chemical.
31. Next: the backs of the front seats. These often get kicked. Food and drinks are spilled on them. They have map pockets. Mist them down with SIMPLE GREEN and clean/air purge/dry as usual.
32. Look down. It’s time to shampoo the carpets. Do not bother shampooing where floormats go. This area is clean and we want it as dry as possible. First air purge the carpet. Then scrub when dry with a carpet brush, then air purge again. Now mist with SIMPLE GREEN, scrub, and dry with clean rags. Keep pushing clean rags across the carpets firmly until the dirt transfers into the rags. If the carpets are exceptionally dirty, spray enough SIMPLE GREEN that it “foams” when you scrub it. Then vacuum the foam, then dry with clean rags. As always, use lifter and thinner for isolated stains when appropriate.
33. Once you have cleaned the rear passenger area on both sides, move on to the driver’s area. The driver’s seat, door panel, steering wheel, visor, etc. is the most important part of the detail—your customer looks at these areas for hours a day while in his/her car. Make it spotless! Let’s first clean the door panel as we did previously. Now roll the seat back and sit in it. Look up. Clean the headliner and driver’s visor. Flip down the visor and clean the back side of the vanity mirror. Clean the sunroof controls. Clean the grab handle. Clean
everything. Look forward. There’s a lot to clean: vents, gauge panel (speedometer, tachometer, etc.), steering wheel, turning stalk, wiper controls, steering column, dashboard, etc. Now mist down the vents, dashboard, steering column, gauges, and steering wheel with SIMPLE GREEN. Use your detailing brush to brush back and forth deep in the vents. Wipe with a rag. Blast dry with air. Now wipe down the gauges but never spray compressed air around the speedometer/gauges area. You will get chemical behind the plastic lenses that you can never remove...very amateur mistake. Just wipe it clean with a rag. Now rotate the steering wheel to the left (remember the car is running; and by the way...there’s no harm in listening to the stereo at a normal volume—I’ve never had a customer complain about that) and clean the steering wheel front and back and in every crease and seam using SIMPLE GREEN, brushes, and compressed air. Rotate the steering wheel to the right and clean it again from every angle. Mist SIMPLE GREEN on the steering column, the turn selector, the controls for the windshield wipers, and clean them with SIMPLE GREEN, brushes, and air. Now clean the right visor. Mist down the dashboard and wipe it dry with a rag.
34. On to the center instrument panel, which contains the heater controls, radio, NAV screen, etc. We have to be careful again here not to use compressed air to spray chemical behind digital displays. Air purge the whole panel with air. Then mist SIMPLE GREEN on the entire panel. Working from the top down, we agitate with a detail brush then blast dry with compressed air. Don’t worry about radio and heater controls—I’ve never damaged one using compressed air and SIMPLE GREEN. But when you encounter the digital displays (stereo display, NAV
display), do not air blast when wet. You will get chemical staining behind the display that is permanent. Simply wipe these areas clean with a rag. Open the ash tray, open any doors or compartments and clean in them.
35. Now to the console, which contains the gear selector and emergency brake. Put the car in drive. This will expose the shifter gate, which must be cleaned. Mist SIMPLE GREEN onto the shifter and shifter gate and clean. Place in 1st. Clean. Place in Reverse. Clean. The shifter gate is often overlooked...don’t miss it. Mist SIMPLE GREEN on the entire console and clean, being sure to blast every bit of dirt and food out of every crease. Open and clean in all doors. Clean deep in the emergency brake recess. Now you may notice dirt and staining between the seat and console. Air blast it. If there’s still staining in areas where you can’t get your carpet brush, mist them with SIMPLE GREEN, then scrub with your skinny tooth brush, then air blast. Clean the seat belt receptacle then step out of the car.
36. Time to clean the driver’s seat. We’ll use the same techniques we used in the back, Clean it from top to bottom. Clean it from the sides. Clean it from low angles. If you see kick marks or scuffs clean them with fine steel wool. Clean the electric control buttons and heater buttons. Fold it forward and back to clean in the hinges.
37. On to the foot well. Air purge then vacuum. Now mist the plastic panels with SIMPLE GREEN and clean. Now mist the carpeted areas, then scrub with a carpet brush, then scrub with clean dry towels. Repeat until the carpets are clean. Now spray SIMPLE GREEN on all pedals and scrub with a carpet brush then air purge. Clean all buttons and levers that release the trunk or gas cap. Wipe dry repeatedly.
38. Repeat this process for the passenger side, but when you get to the glove box remove everything in the box, blast dry, then place everything back in the glove box.
39. Now the interior has been scrubbed clean from back to front, top to bottom. Once last and final time, we will vacuum EVERYWHERE, top to bottom. If the carpets are damp, set the heater to high and point it through the vents and at the floor. Set it to “fresh air” not “recirculated.” Close the doors. We’ll now move to the outside of the car.
40. First, we need to remove road tar and tree sap from the exterior. Walk around the car with a can of Goof Off and a rag. Wet the rag, then wipe off the sap and tar. You’ll find a lot of tar around the tires, particularly on the lips of fenders and quarter panels.
41. Walk around the car and dress the exterior black plastic using your Meguiars Hyper Dresing or any plastic dressing like Armor All. Spray it up in the wheel wells. Spray it on fender trim. Spray it on all black or dark gray exterior plastic items. You can be sloppy with it. It will run like milk, but don’t worry because you’ll be wiping it down in about 20 – 30 minutes.
42. Now dress the tires. Mist tire dressing on the tires in a uniform pattern. Use as little dressing as possible. Don’t touch the dressing for now. If it runs or looks uneven, we’ll touch it up at the end, but we just want to quickly walk around the car and mist dressing on the tires. Get in the car and roll it back 18 inches. This will expose the lower area of the tire that we missed the first time around. Walk around the car again and mist dressing on this “dry spot.”
43. Identify areas of the paint that need compounding and polishing. This includes small scratches and cuts. Not all scratches can be removed with our machinery...some have gone all the way through to the basecoat paint (the colored paint beneath the clear paint) and will need to be repainted or touched up. To verify, spray wax and grease remover (bought from an auto parts store) on the damage. If it disappears, we have clearcoat damage that we can remove with machine polishing. If it remains, the damage has reached the basecoat and cannot be corrected with a detail.
44. Place a small bead of Meguiars #105 compound or any compound you prefer on the scratches you intend to polish out. Spray some detailer spray (from auto parts store) on firm foam pads attached to your Polisher, Flex, Porter Cable, or other electric polisher. Place the pads on the compound and smear the compound around on the panel. Turn on the Polisher and slowly work the compound from left to right and up to down on top of the scratch for about 10 seconds. The compound will turn to dust and the scratch will disappear or improve significantly because its edges have been polished down. You may need to repeat this process to get the best results. Continue with the polishing process all the way around the car on each defect that needs machine polishing.
45. Now get your wax of choice and walk around the car, placing a 7 inch bead of wax on every panel (two on the hood, two on the roof). Place soft foam pads on your Polisher and spray detail spray on the pads to soften them. Place the pads on the wax and spread them around on the panel. Turn on the polisher and with medium pressure spread the wax on the panel in overlapping passes. Spend extra time on doors, fender, hood, and trunk, as these panels reflect direct light and will be scrutinized by the customer. As you slowly go back and forth over these panels, the firmness of the pad is polishing the paint (removing fine scratches) and the wax is sealing it. This is a major time saver, as it saves us from having to polish every square inch of the car, wipe off the polish, then wax every square inch. 46. Move fast. Go from panel to panel, working the wax into each panel. Pass quickly over non cricitcal areas low on the car and bumpers. Do not get obsessed with getting wax on every square inch of the car. All this does is get wax on trim, wax in seams, and wax in emblems...it looks horrible. Stay 2 inches away from all panel gaps, emblems, and trim. You may feel like the car will look strange...like it was partially waxed. But once you have removed the wax you cannot see where the wax begins and the wax ends.
47. Wax the entire car and do not stop to wipe anything down. You should be able to do the job in 5 minutes or less. Once done, get a clean microfiber towel and your detail spray. Mist detail spray on each panel, then wipe off the wax. You will need to wipe several times to remove the wax entirely. On dark cars, you may notice some blurriness and hazing. Keep misting spray and wiping off the wax until there is not blur or haze...just a clean reflective glossy panel. Go around the car from panel to panel removing the wax with this method. Move fast. Don’t obsess over every detail, as we’ll make small corrections at the end.
48. Now that the wax is removed, let’s return to the black and grey plastic trim. Get a rag and wipe down that trim if the plastic dressing has puddled up a bit on it. Wipe the entire panel and it will come up deep black. Check mudflaps too...these must be dressed evenly.
49. Check the tires. If there are any runs in the dressing, dab them with a rag. And be sure that the entire tire has been dressed. Touch up any missed spots. You will have tire dressing on the wheels. Wipe them dry at this time.
50. Now onto the windows. This is a critical part of the detail. Start with the driver’s door. Lower the window about an inch, then mist cleaner on the window’s inside surface. Wipe down the outer area of the window in a “box” then wipe the inside. This is now your “wet” window towel. Using another, clean window microfiber, wipe down the entire window, being sure to remove the finest streaks and imperfections. Crouch and look at the window from all angles. Keep wiping with the “dry” towel until the window is perfect. This is the two towel window cleaning method: wet with cleaner, clean with “wet towel”, dry with “dry towel.” You may encounter stains on the inside from your SIMPLE GREEN that don’t clean up with window cleaner. Use steel wool and window cleaner to clean these. On the outside, you will encounter water spots. Remove them with a combination of very fine steel wool and Chemical Guys’ water spot remover. Be sure to finish up with glass cleaner and clean glass towels.
51. If the seats are leather, we’ll next condition them. This is relatively easy. Wet a clean towel with leather conditioner and work one panel at a time. Start with the driver’s backrest. Wipe it down with conditioner. You will see streaks...this is normal. Now follow up with a clean towel and wipe in a circular motion until the streaks are gone. Do not bother wiping the backs of seats, door panels, consoles, or any other non-seating surfaces with leather conditioner. Only condition the parts of the seats that touch the body—these are real leather. Now proceed to the lower cushion. Wipe down with a towel wettened with conditioner. Now follow up with a clean towel in a circular motion to remove streaks. Do not obsess about getting conditioner on every square inch of every leather panel. Once the excess conditioner has been wiped away, you can’t tell which small areas were missed. You want to do this as quickly as possible. Usually it only takes 2 minutes for a sedan and 3 minutes for an SUV. In the end, the seats will be slightly softer and more pliable, but NOT GREASY.
52. Now check your floor mats. They should be 95% dry with a wet edge. Vacuum that wet edge dry. You may have lines caused by your pressure washer which you will want to mist with SIMPLE GREEN then scrub with a carpet brush in an ‘X’ pattern to remove the deep lines. Now, brush your floormats upward and with a carpet brush to simulate carpet extraction. Now air blast the bottoms of your floormats clean, then lay them back in their correct spots in the car.
53. Take a look at your original evaluation sheet. Remember the notes you took in the beginning? Be sure that everything you noted was fixed (or at least was attempted to be fixed) during your service: scratches, stains, water spots. Check them off one by one.
54. Thus begins the most important part of every detail you will ever perform: error checking. Spend at least 10 minutes double checking everything. You will be amazed by what you find: wax in gaps, bugs in the grille, tar that was overlooked, smeary windows, scuffs that didn’t get cleaned, compartments you missed, angles from which the wheels are still dirty. The best way to go about this is systematically. Start at the front of the car and go around clockwise looking up and down for errors, correcting them as you find them. Go around the car twice. Then systematically check the interior of the car starting at the back working your way forward. Open this, open that. Look up. Look down. Look under seats. Look at everything and correct it until it looks right. Finally, sit in the driver’s seat. Adjust the mirrors like they were when you found them. Turn off the radio. Turn off the heater. Look at the instrument panel. Look at the steering wheel. Look up. Do you see any dirt, lint...anything that got overlooked. Look out the windows...do you notice any smears?
1. Walk around your car write down your priorities on paper. If there are stains on the interior, write them down. If there are water spots on the windows, write that down. Later, you’ll check all of these things off when the detail is completed.
2. Put on a detailing apron. Place clean rags in the big pockets. Place one yellow handle detailing brush, one black handle detailing brush, and one toothbrush in the small pocket. If you have cargo pants or shorts, put a carpet brush in one of your cargo pockets.
3. Connect your water hose and pressure washer. Plug in two 50 foot extension cords.
4. Unpack your equipment and supplies and place them within 6 feet of the car.
5. Park the car in a spot where you have adequate room to work and on the flattest ground you can find.
6. Drop an ounce of car wash soap in your bucket and fill it with water.
7. Remove the trunk liner to avoid getting it excessively wet while cleaning trunk jambs.
8. Turn on your pressure washer and test for leaks and proper pressure.
9. If detailing the engine, do this first. With the engine running, open the hood and cover any exposed electrical components with rags. If you have an aftermarket air intake (K&N) be sure to cover it with multiple rags. Spray the engine and the underside of the hood with water. Spray the underside of the hood with degreaser. Spray all engine areas with degreaser. Dip your long handle brush in your bucket of soapy water and proceed to scrub clean the underside of the hood. Hose off the underside of the hood. Use the long handle brush to scrub the inner fenders, the intake, the top of the radiator...anything you have access to. Hose off the areas you just cleaned. If there are finer points in the engine that need to be cleaned (manifold, battery, brake booster, etc.) spray degreaser on them, then fine clean them with your yellow handle detail brush. Pressure wash clean. Note that there are three angles to the underhood: left, right, and center. Be sure that the engine is clean from all angles. Not everything will come clean. There are areas of caked on oil on the valve covers and intake that will not clean up. Get the engine bay as clean as possible—particularly black plastic items. Now, spray the entire engine, while wet, with any water-based plastic dressing form your local auto parts store (diluted 4 parts water to 1 part dressing). Remove the rags used to cover the electrical systems, then close the hood and let the engine run for about 20 minutes before checking it later.
10. Floormats. Let’s do these first, as they take a while to dry. Remove all floormats from the vehicle. This includes trunk liners in sedans (usually carpet glued to cardboard) and trunk mats in SUVs (usually carpet). If the trunk liner just needs to be vacuumed, set it aside. If it has stains, mud, food, etc. Spray it down with degreaser. If the trunk mat (carpet) is relatively clean, set it aside and “spot” clean it later. But if more than 1/3 or it is soiled and dirty, spray it down with degreaser. Take all floormats and soak them with degreaser. Now, pressure wash the floormats from the back to the front in overlapping passes. Resoak with degreaser from your local automotive store and scrub with a carpet brush, then pressure wash if necessary. If the floormat has rubber streaks from shoe soles, or embedded rubber or tar, spray paint thinner, then scrub with a carpet brush, then pressure wash. Repeat this process for all floor mats. As you pressure wash, note that the rinse off water is no longer brown and soapy...you should continue until you have clear water running off. The driver’s floormat will never look brand new. This mat has seen dirty shoes for every mile the car has been driven. It has layer after layer of dirt and rubber markings that won’t come out entirely. This is okay, and I’ve never had a customer object to this. However, the other mats should come out nearly new. The only items that cannot be removed are red, yellow, and orange food stains. Once you have satisfactorily rinsed the floormats clean, hang them from your floor mat clamps. You may need to bring a large board to mount your floor mat clamps to. Or you can experiment with ways to use your work vehicle as the mounting board. It’s very important to hang these mats and let them drip dry, though, as we cannot deliver wet mats to the customer. Just putting them out in the sun is not enough...they will not get dry this way. Once you hang the mats, you will not touch them for at least three hours, at which time just the very tips will be wet (vacuum the tips dry, put some stripes in the mats, and reinstall in the car at the end). Cardboard trunk liners can simply be leaned up against a wall. Large trunk mats (carpet) may need to be hung by two mat clamps or dangled out the back of your work car...they can get heavy.
11. Wet the entire car, including wheels.
12. Grab your Meguiars Wheel Brightener (or even Meguiars Hot Wheels form your local auto parts store) and Degreaser bottles. Walking around the car counter clockwise, spray degreaser in the wheel wells, door jambs, and trunk jambs. Spray Wheel Brightener on the wet wheels. Do this all on the same trip—do not make separate trips for Brightener and Degreaser. A quick note about Wheel Brightener and wheels. It’s fantastic on 95% of wheels, but it will stain uncoated aluminum wheels. Here’s how to know if you’re working with uncoated aluminum. Are the wheels factory? You are 100% safe to use WB. Are the wheels chrome? You are 100% safe to use WB. Are the wheels aftermarket with a perfect, reflective finish? You are 100% safe to use WB. However, if the wheels have a dull, unpolished finish, you may have an uncoated aluminum wheel. These wheels are cheap, often made by Prime and American Racing. Avoid using WB on these wheels and just scrub with soap and water. If you do, however, accidentally use WB on aluminum wheels, you can remove the stains with Mother’s Wheel Polish. It won’t take long until you can spot aluminum wheels, don’t worry. I strongly suggest you use WB, as it is a huge time saver and profit maker.
13. Get your pressure washer and make one more clockwise trip around the car, pressure washing the wheel wells, wheels, door jambs, and trunk jambs. Get low when pressure washing the wheels and pressure wash them from all angles. Do this all in one trip and do not make separate trips for Brightener and Degreaser. Be careful not to get the interior of the car excessively wet (some overspray is unavoidable) when washing jambs. After a few cars, you’ll find this is not difficult.
14. Back up the car 2 feet. You’ll see that the wheels are dirty from an angle you couldn’t clean from previously. Walk around the car and spray Brightener on all the wheels again, then make a trip again with the pressure washer and spray off the Brightener. Check that all dirt is gone from the wheels from every angle. If there is any remaining dirt, dip your yellow detailing brush in soapy water and scrub the dirt free, then pressure wash. If you find, yet again, that you have stubborn dirt and brake dust, spray more Brightener on the wheels, allow it to dwell for at least 15 seconds, then scrub with the tighter bristle black detailing brush. If there is still remaining dirt, you will have to manually clean this dirt with a rag and paint thinner later in the detail.
15. Wet the car again. Wash the entire car from top to bottom with your long handle brush. This should only take about 60 seconds. Do not pause to wash off soap! You need to move fast. Spray off the soap bubbles with the pressure washer when the entire car has been scrubbed. If the car has dead bugs on the grill, bumper, mirrors, windshield, etc., dip your yellow bug brick in soapy water and scrub the bug matter clean; don’t worry, the brick seems like it might scratch the car, but it won’t.
16. Take your wash mitt and dip it in the soapy water. Hold the mitt in your left hand and your clean claybar in the right. Soap down an entire panel...start with the hood. Then, in a tight circular motion with medium pressure, rub the claybar over the car’s paint. You will initially feel some resistance from the rough surface, but as the claybar removes embedded contaminants (brake dust, rail dust, tree sap, overspray), the paint will feel slick. Repeat the process until the panel you are working on feels smooth...relubricate with the soapy wash mitt when needed. Once you have clayed an entire panel, wash it clean with the pressure washer. Do every panel of the vehicle AND all windows (claybaring windows makes them easier to clean later in the detailing process). Not every car needs to be claybarred. About 1⁄4 have smooth paint surfaces that will not benefit from it. If the paint feels smooth, don’t claybar at all and save 7 minutes. However, all white cars must be claybarred. Tar, sap, brake dust...all of these stand out on white cars and must be removed with the claybar process.
17. One more time, walk around the car with your pressure washer and rinse thoroughly. Now, we will be looking at seams and rubber seals where dirt and even moss accumulate. Use your pressure washer to blast these areas clean...we don’t want to clean them by hand later. Look in wheel wells, double check the wheels, check around trim. Get these “nooks and crannies” clean with your pressure washer. Don’t be afraid to get within 4 inches...1500 psi is a very safe setting and you will not damage anything or cause any leaks.
18. After rinsing the car, turn off your pressure washer. Get your “Absorber” chamois towel or other car drying towel and proceed to dry the car. Start from the top to the bottom. Drag the chamois across the roof of the surface, then wring it out as it gets full and won’t absorb more water. For smaller, tighter areas, wad up the chamois into a smaller ball and use your fingers and hands to wipe dry. Do not spend more than 60 seconds drying the car and do not try to wipe up every drop of water on the car. It will be at least one hour until you will polish/wax the car. The car will naturally air dry as you detail its interior.
19. Let’s check under the hood. You should see a dramatic difference: the engine bay is clean and the black plastic is stark black again. You may notice some white pooling of the dressing. Wipe this up with a rag. You may also noticed diry areas under the hood, on the inner fender wells, on top of the battery, etc. Wipe these clean with a rag and All Purpose Cleaner (SIMPLE GREEN) or Simple Green diluted 10:1. Close the hood when you’re satisfied. Remember, the car is running this entire time.
20. On to the interior. Open all doors, trunk, windows, and sunroofs. Roll the front seats all the way forward.
21. Walk around the car and place personal items in bags and boxes. Place small items (cell phone accessories, loose change, fingernail clippers) in plastic bags and place large items (CDs, tissue paper box, paper towels) in boxes. Remove child seats. Set aside all personal items. Check in all consoles, compartments, map holders, door pockets...everywhere. Remove everything but what’s in the glove box. Leave the glove box alone for now.
22. Walk around the car again and throw away trash into your small wastebasket. This includes food wrappers, paper cups, receipts...anything of no value.
23. Air purge the car. Take a blow gun connected to an air compressor or even a
vacuum cleaner set to "output" air instead of vacuum air and blow down every surface in the car. Map pockets, compartments, between seats, under seats, across seats, dashboards, consoles, footwells...everywhere. We’re trying to dislodge as much dirt as possible without vacuuming it up. Keep blowing compressed air everywhere. You’ll see dirt flying out the doors and hatch. If you’re making a mess of the driveway, don’t worry about it...you’ll sweep it up later. We air purge the car repeatedly to avoid filling up our vacuum cleaners with dirt and junk. It’s faster and preserves our vacuum cleaners.
24. Start at the trunk. The trunk liner has been removed, right? Wipe the jambs clean. Spray Simple Green on the underside of the trunk and wipe it clean. Vacuum everything clean. Remove the cover to the spare tire. Vacuum in the spare tire area. Spray SIMPLE GREEN into all areas, wipe clean with a rag, agitate tight spots with your detailing brush (yellow handle) then spray compressed air into all tight spots to “blast clean” the dirt. Wipe clean again. Repeat with this process until everything is clean. Vacuum one last time. If you didn’t pressure wash your trunk liner, vacuum it clean, then place in the trunk. Avoid using a carpet brush on trunk liners, as this causes the carpet to ball up irreversibly. If there is debris on the liner that won’t vacuum clean, use compressed air to purge it free.
Reassemble the trunk liner and tire cover. Place any personal items back in the
trunk and close. You’re done.
25. If the trunk is a hatch (minivan, SUV, station wagon) the process is a bit different. You have a large black seal that surrounds the opening. Spray SIMPLE GREEN on this. Agitate all areas with a yellow handle detailing brush. Wipe clean with a rag. Follow up with compressed air to “blast clean” the remaining cleaner chemical and dirt. Wipe clean again. Check all areas of the seal and jambs to make sure they are clean...the pressure wash doesn’t get everything so follow up with a combination of SIMPLE GREEN, brushes and compressed air to clean up every hinge and bolt. Now look up and clean the under site of the hatch. This is often overlooked! Sometimes you will find dog hair and stains here. Clean from the back to the front. Look up again and you may find stains in the headliner. Spray SIMPLE GREEN on a clean rag, THEN wipe the stains clean. Do not spray chemical directly into the headliner, as you will water stain it. Crayon stains? Ink stains? Spray a small amount of thinner into a rag and wipe across the stains to transfer them into your rag. Now, working from top to bottom, look at the plastic liner pieces that form the walls of the cargo area. Spray them with SIMPLE GREEN and wipe them clean. Are there rubber scuffs and other marks that won’t wipe clean? Use very fine steel wool and SIMPLE GREEN to scrub them clean. There will be cubby holes and small doors. Open them, blast them with compressed air, spray SIMPLE GREEN, agitate the SIMPLE GREEN with a detailing brush, then blast them again with compressed air. Wipe dry. You may find speaker grills. If the grill is plastic, spray with SIMPLE GREEN, agitate in the little holes with a detailing brush, blast with air, then wipe clean. If the speaker grills are cloth, spray your rag with SIMPLE GREEN, then wipe across the face of the cloth speaker grill. The trunk mat (carpet) is out, right? Now clean the area beneath the carpet. If there are stains in the tight trunk liner, spray them with SIMPLE GREEN, scrub with a carpet brush, then dry with a clean rag. Repeat repeat repeat until the stains are gone. If the stains are particularly difficult (cola, coffee, tee), use “Lifter” or “Spot Shot” or “Folex” carpet cleaners from your local grocery store. Spray with cleaner, scrub with carpet brush, then push a clean rag across the area repeatedly until it’s dry. If you see rubber, tar, or any “black” staining, use a little paint thinner on a rag (don’t spray thinner onto the spot) and wipe back and forth over the stained area. The trunk liner may lift up. It may be removable. Lift up and remove everything that can be lifted or removed. Clean every door and every cubby with our basic spray/agitate/air blast/wipe clean method. If we pressure washed the trunk mat (carpet), leave it hanging for a few hours. If we didn’t, put the trunk mat back in the car. Vacuum it clean. If there are stains, scrub them first while dry with a stiff brush, then air purge. Spray with SIMPLE GREEN, then scrub into a foam, then push a clean dry rag across the face repeatedly. Check the rag for dirt transfer. These are the fundamentals of shampooing: vacuum, scrub with a brush while dry, air purge, spray SIMPLE GREEN, scrub into a foam, then push clean rags into the area until dry and clean. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Use as little chemical as possible! Use carpet spot cleaner when needed for coffee and cola. Use thinner when needed for tar or rubber.
26. Okay, so we cleaned the trunk area from top to bottom, back to front. Keep this principle when detailing interiors. Always work from the top to the bottom and the back to the front. Next will be the passenger rear door panels. Remember that the window is rolled down. Air purge the door again...the handles, the map pockets...everywhere. Now spray it down with SIMPLE GREEN. Wipe clean with a rag, then agitate tight spots and seams with a detailing brush. Then air blast all seams and tight areas, then wipe dry with a rag. Are there kick marks and rub marks that didn’t come clean? Clean with SIMPLE GREEN and very fine steel wool. Occasionally, door panels will have cloth inserts that are very dirty from pets or people’s arms resting on them. Spray these wet with lots of SIMPLE GREEN. Scrub until foamy. Vacuum out the foam, then push clean dry towels into the cloth until dry. Repeat until the dirt is out and your towels show no dirt transfer.
27. Now look up and clean the passenger’s headliner area.
28. Look back. If you’re cleaning a sedan, there is the speaker deck up against the rear window. If you can, recline the rear seat so you have better access. Air purge and vacuum the areas exposed when you fold forward the seat. Now air purge the speaker deck...there’s often debris and bugs there. Vacuum clean and wipe down and all panels until clean.
29. Now we look to the rear seats. Air purge them. If they are leather, spray them down with SIMPLE GREEN. Wipe them dry. Air purge the cracks and creases. If there is still dirt, spray them down again with SIMPLE GREEN and use a detailing brush in every crease and seam, then air purge and wipe dry. If they are still dirty, you will need to use a combination of SIMPLE GREEN and steel wool (gently) to get the surfaces clean. Even faster, spray with SIMPLE GREEN and use a carpet brush. Yes, a stiff bristle carpet brush from your local grocery store. Just air blast the bristles clean, and the carpet brush will work wonderfully. No, it won’t damage the leather. I’ve used them thousands of times and never damaged leather. Here’s how: spray down a 2 foot by 2 foot area with SIMPLE GREEN, then scrub in small circles with the carpet brush. Wipe dry, then air purge all creases clean and wipe dry again. Pull up headrests and clean around those; remove them if you have to and clean them and reinstall them. Drop the center arm rest. Spray SIMPLE GREEN in the cup holders and agitate with a brush and air purge. Air purge and vacuum all doors and compartments in the console. Check the lower cushions. Do they fold forward? Always check. If so, pull up the lower cushions and air purge, clean, and vacuum.
30. If the seats are cloth, we don’t spray them down entirely with SIMPLE GREEN as we do leather. We spot clean them. If there are isolated dirt spots and stains, mist SIMPLE GREEN onto the spot, scrub with your carpet brush, then dry with a clean rag. Don’t use too much SIMPLE GREEN or you will get water spotting. However, about 10% of the time you will find seats that are so dirty and soiled in so many places that they cannot be “spot cleaned.” Here, you will have to soak the seats in SIMPLE GREEN (yes, you will need to refill your SIMPLE GREEN...always bring your concentrates to the job site in case you need refills). Soak the entire seat from top to bottom...every visible surface so you don’t get water staining. Scrub aggressively with a carpet brush until foamy, then vacuum. Then push clean rags into the seats to dry them further. Once your done with the interior later, you will close the doors and place the heater on to dry out the seats entirely. You may have to repeat this process once the car is dried later on. But, for 90% of cloth seats, you can “spot clean” them using a minimal amount of chemical.
31. Next: the backs of the front seats. These often get kicked. Food and drinks are spilled on them. They have map pockets. Mist them down with SIMPLE GREEN and clean/air purge/dry as usual.
32. Look down. It’s time to shampoo the carpets. Do not bother shampooing where floormats go. This area is clean and we want it as dry as possible. First air purge the carpet. Then scrub when dry with a carpet brush, then air purge again. Now mist with SIMPLE GREEN, scrub, and dry with clean rags. Keep pushing clean rags across the carpets firmly until the dirt transfers into the rags. If the carpets are exceptionally dirty, spray enough SIMPLE GREEN that it “foams” when you scrub it. Then vacuum the foam, then dry with clean rags. As always, use lifter and thinner for isolated stains when appropriate.
33. Once you have cleaned the rear passenger area on both sides, move on to the driver’s area. The driver’s seat, door panel, steering wheel, visor, etc. is the most important part of the detail—your customer looks at these areas for hours a day while in his/her car. Make it spotless! Let’s first clean the door panel as we did previously. Now roll the seat back and sit in it. Look up. Clean the headliner and driver’s visor. Flip down the visor and clean the back side of the vanity mirror. Clean the sunroof controls. Clean the grab handle. Clean
everything. Look forward. There’s a lot to clean: vents, gauge panel (speedometer, tachometer, etc.), steering wheel, turning stalk, wiper controls, steering column, dashboard, etc. Now mist down the vents, dashboard, steering column, gauges, and steering wheel with SIMPLE GREEN. Use your detailing brush to brush back and forth deep in the vents. Wipe with a rag. Blast dry with air. Now wipe down the gauges but never spray compressed air around the speedometer/gauges area. You will get chemical behind the plastic lenses that you can never remove...very amateur mistake. Just wipe it clean with a rag. Now rotate the steering wheel to the left (remember the car is running; and by the way...there’s no harm in listening to the stereo at a normal volume—I’ve never had a customer complain about that) and clean the steering wheel front and back and in every crease and seam using SIMPLE GREEN, brushes, and compressed air. Rotate the steering wheel to the right and clean it again from every angle. Mist SIMPLE GREEN on the steering column, the turn selector, the controls for the windshield wipers, and clean them with SIMPLE GREEN, brushes, and air. Now clean the right visor. Mist down the dashboard and wipe it dry with a rag.
34. On to the center instrument panel, which contains the heater controls, radio, NAV screen, etc. We have to be careful again here not to use compressed air to spray chemical behind digital displays. Air purge the whole panel with air. Then mist SIMPLE GREEN on the entire panel. Working from the top down, we agitate with a detail brush then blast dry with compressed air. Don’t worry about radio and heater controls—I’ve never damaged one using compressed air and SIMPLE GREEN. But when you encounter the digital displays (stereo display, NAV
display), do not air blast when wet. You will get chemical staining behind the display that is permanent. Simply wipe these areas clean with a rag. Open the ash tray, open any doors or compartments and clean in them.
35. Now to the console, which contains the gear selector and emergency brake. Put the car in drive. This will expose the shifter gate, which must be cleaned. Mist SIMPLE GREEN onto the shifter and shifter gate and clean. Place in 1st. Clean. Place in Reverse. Clean. The shifter gate is often overlooked...don’t miss it. Mist SIMPLE GREEN on the entire console and clean, being sure to blast every bit of dirt and food out of every crease. Open and clean in all doors. Clean deep in the emergency brake recess. Now you may notice dirt and staining between the seat and console. Air blast it. If there’s still staining in areas where you can’t get your carpet brush, mist them with SIMPLE GREEN, then scrub with your skinny tooth brush, then air blast. Clean the seat belt receptacle then step out of the car.
36. Time to clean the driver’s seat. We’ll use the same techniques we used in the back, Clean it from top to bottom. Clean it from the sides. Clean it from low angles. If you see kick marks or scuffs clean them with fine steel wool. Clean the electric control buttons and heater buttons. Fold it forward and back to clean in the hinges.
37. On to the foot well. Air purge then vacuum. Now mist the plastic panels with SIMPLE GREEN and clean. Now mist the carpeted areas, then scrub with a carpet brush, then scrub with clean dry towels. Repeat until the carpets are clean. Now spray SIMPLE GREEN on all pedals and scrub with a carpet brush then air purge. Clean all buttons and levers that release the trunk or gas cap. Wipe dry repeatedly.
38. Repeat this process for the passenger side, but when you get to the glove box remove everything in the box, blast dry, then place everything back in the glove box.
39. Now the interior has been scrubbed clean from back to front, top to bottom. Once last and final time, we will vacuum EVERYWHERE, top to bottom. If the carpets are damp, set the heater to high and point it through the vents and at the floor. Set it to “fresh air” not “recirculated.” Close the doors. We’ll now move to the outside of the car.
40. First, we need to remove road tar and tree sap from the exterior. Walk around the car with a can of Goof Off and a rag. Wet the rag, then wipe off the sap and tar. You’ll find a lot of tar around the tires, particularly on the lips of fenders and quarter panels.
41. Walk around the car and dress the exterior black plastic using your Meguiars Hyper Dresing or any plastic dressing like Armor All. Spray it up in the wheel wells. Spray it on fender trim. Spray it on all black or dark gray exterior plastic items. You can be sloppy with it. It will run like milk, but don’t worry because you’ll be wiping it down in about 20 – 30 minutes.
42. Now dress the tires. Mist tire dressing on the tires in a uniform pattern. Use as little dressing as possible. Don’t touch the dressing for now. If it runs or looks uneven, we’ll touch it up at the end, but we just want to quickly walk around the car and mist dressing on the tires. Get in the car and roll it back 18 inches. This will expose the lower area of the tire that we missed the first time around. Walk around the car again and mist dressing on this “dry spot.”
43. Identify areas of the paint that need compounding and polishing. This includes small scratches and cuts. Not all scratches can be removed with our machinery...some have gone all the way through to the basecoat paint (the colored paint beneath the clear paint) and will need to be repainted or touched up. To verify, spray wax and grease remover (bought from an auto parts store) on the damage. If it disappears, we have clearcoat damage that we can remove with machine polishing. If it remains, the damage has reached the basecoat and cannot be corrected with a detail.
44. Place a small bead of Meguiars #105 compound or any compound you prefer on the scratches you intend to polish out. Spray some detailer spray (from auto parts store) on firm foam pads attached to your Polisher, Flex, Porter Cable, or other electric polisher. Place the pads on the compound and smear the compound around on the panel. Turn on the Polisher and slowly work the compound from left to right and up to down on top of the scratch for about 10 seconds. The compound will turn to dust and the scratch will disappear or improve significantly because its edges have been polished down. You may need to repeat this process to get the best results. Continue with the polishing process all the way around the car on each defect that needs machine polishing.
45. Now get your wax of choice and walk around the car, placing a 7 inch bead of wax on every panel (two on the hood, two on the roof). Place soft foam pads on your Polisher and spray detail spray on the pads to soften them. Place the pads on the wax and spread them around on the panel. Turn on the polisher and with medium pressure spread the wax on the panel in overlapping passes. Spend extra time on doors, fender, hood, and trunk, as these panels reflect direct light and will be scrutinized by the customer. As you slowly go back and forth over these panels, the firmness of the pad is polishing the paint (removing fine scratches) and the wax is sealing it. This is a major time saver, as it saves us from having to polish every square inch of the car, wipe off the polish, then wax every square inch. 46. Move fast. Go from panel to panel, working the wax into each panel. Pass quickly over non cricitcal areas low on the car and bumpers. Do not get obsessed with getting wax on every square inch of the car. All this does is get wax on trim, wax in seams, and wax in emblems...it looks horrible. Stay 2 inches away from all panel gaps, emblems, and trim. You may feel like the car will look strange...like it was partially waxed. But once you have removed the wax you cannot see where the wax begins and the wax ends.
47. Wax the entire car and do not stop to wipe anything down. You should be able to do the job in 5 minutes or less. Once done, get a clean microfiber towel and your detail spray. Mist detail spray on each panel, then wipe off the wax. You will need to wipe several times to remove the wax entirely. On dark cars, you may notice some blurriness and hazing. Keep misting spray and wiping off the wax until there is not blur or haze...just a clean reflective glossy panel. Go around the car from panel to panel removing the wax with this method. Move fast. Don’t obsess over every detail, as we’ll make small corrections at the end.
48. Now that the wax is removed, let’s return to the black and grey plastic trim. Get a rag and wipe down that trim if the plastic dressing has puddled up a bit on it. Wipe the entire panel and it will come up deep black. Check mudflaps too...these must be dressed evenly.
49. Check the tires. If there are any runs in the dressing, dab them with a rag. And be sure that the entire tire has been dressed. Touch up any missed spots. You will have tire dressing on the wheels. Wipe them dry at this time.
50. Now onto the windows. This is a critical part of the detail. Start with the driver’s door. Lower the window about an inch, then mist cleaner on the window’s inside surface. Wipe down the outer area of the window in a “box” then wipe the inside. This is now your “wet” window towel. Using another, clean window microfiber, wipe down the entire window, being sure to remove the finest streaks and imperfections. Crouch and look at the window from all angles. Keep wiping with the “dry” towel until the window is perfect. This is the two towel window cleaning method: wet with cleaner, clean with “wet towel”, dry with “dry towel.” You may encounter stains on the inside from your SIMPLE GREEN that don’t clean up with window cleaner. Use steel wool and window cleaner to clean these. On the outside, you will encounter water spots. Remove them with a combination of very fine steel wool and Chemical Guys’ water spot remover. Be sure to finish up with glass cleaner and clean glass towels.
51. If the seats are leather, we’ll next condition them. This is relatively easy. Wet a clean towel with leather conditioner and work one panel at a time. Start with the driver’s backrest. Wipe it down with conditioner. You will see streaks...this is normal. Now follow up with a clean towel and wipe in a circular motion until the streaks are gone. Do not bother wiping the backs of seats, door panels, consoles, or any other non-seating surfaces with leather conditioner. Only condition the parts of the seats that touch the body—these are real leather. Now proceed to the lower cushion. Wipe down with a towel wettened with conditioner. Now follow up with a clean towel in a circular motion to remove streaks. Do not obsess about getting conditioner on every square inch of every leather panel. Once the excess conditioner has been wiped away, you can’t tell which small areas were missed. You want to do this as quickly as possible. Usually it only takes 2 minutes for a sedan and 3 minutes for an SUV. In the end, the seats will be slightly softer and more pliable, but NOT GREASY.
52. Now check your floor mats. They should be 95% dry with a wet edge. Vacuum that wet edge dry. You may have lines caused by your pressure washer which you will want to mist with SIMPLE GREEN then scrub with a carpet brush in an ‘X’ pattern to remove the deep lines. Now, brush your floormats upward and with a carpet brush to simulate carpet extraction. Now air blast the bottoms of your floormats clean, then lay them back in their correct spots in the car.
53. Take a look at your original evaluation sheet. Remember the notes you took in the beginning? Be sure that everything you noted was fixed (or at least was attempted to be fixed) during your service: scratches, stains, water spots. Check them off one by one.
54. Thus begins the most important part of every detail you will ever perform: error checking. Spend at least 10 minutes double checking everything. You will be amazed by what you find: wax in gaps, bugs in the grille, tar that was overlooked, smeary windows, scuffs that didn’t get cleaned, compartments you missed, angles from which the wheels are still dirty. The best way to go about this is systematically. Start at the front of the car and go around clockwise looking up and down for errors, correcting them as you find them. Go around the car twice. Then systematically check the interior of the car starting at the back working your way forward. Open this, open that. Look up. Look down. Look under seats. Look at everything and correct it until it looks right. Finally, sit in the driver’s seat. Adjust the mirrors like they were when you found them. Turn off the radio. Turn off the heater. Look at the instrument panel. Look at the steering wheel. Look up. Do you see any dirt, lint...anything that got overlooked. Look out the windows...do you notice any smears?
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dat is inderdaad wel een beetje een korte en krachtige beschrijving van een basis poetsbeurtje voor je auto ja.........
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