14 BASIC STEPS TO GETTING IT RIGHT WITH DETAILING.

STEP 1

WHEELS are the dirtiest area of your car so make sure you start they’re first this will avoid the grime ending up on your clean paint once you’ve washed it. To clean your wheels grab one of our WHEEL CLEANERS that suits you will need a few DETAIL BRUSHES for the hard to reach areas and a WHEEL BRUSH. We also recommend a wash bucket for wheels and a spare wash mitt.

STEP 2

PRE WASH is an important stage our ORANGE WASH is perfect for this job, it will safely remove grime and dirt without damaging your protection layers. The lower areas badges trim and grills will benefit from this to remove grime bug splatters etc

STEP 3

SNOWFOAM helps to soften and breakdown stubborn dirt and remove loose debris from the paint before the hand washing stage. The idea is to remove as much dirt as possible before the hand washing stage as this is where most paint damage (swirl marks etc) happen.

Step 4

HAND WASHING is an important stage to get right again this is where you can damage your paint if you don’t take care, it’s important to have a good SHAMPOO which has a high slip which helps minimise the risk of marring. It is important to have a good quality WASH MITT to allows the particles to be taken into the fibres rather than the likes of a sponge that will hold them on the surface to cause damage. A further aid to keeping your paint tip top Is using the 2 bucket wash method and grit guards to allow you to rinse and keep the mitt clean, for a more in depth how to see the detailing walk through guide.

STEP 5

DECON is where you remove the bonded grime from your paint making your paint truly clean.

Stages 1 is IRON REMOVER this will react with industrial fallout and any ferrous material that has bonded to your paint the affected areas will turn purple.

Stage 2 is TAR REMOVER generally the worst areas are the lower third and rear you’ll see little spots, once sprayed they will begin to run once you’ve allowed the product a minute to work gentle wipe away the deposits with a soft micro fibre repeat if needed for bigger bits. Work a panel at a time and we suggest washing again after this stage, at a minimum a reapplication of Snowfoam and rinse. Leave the car wet for claying.

Stage 3 CLAY and CLAY LUBE is the next stage, pull of a small bit of clay around 4cm circle should be fine make sure you lubricate the surface well and the clay gentle rub back and forward to remove remaining contaminants, checking the clay bar and re working regularly. Once you’ve done the whole car wash and rinse the body work again.  

STEP 6

DRYING take your STEALTH DRYING TOWEL working top to bottom lay and pat the towel avoid rubbing where possible, you may also find it useful to have a quick detailer as a drying aid if needed.

STEP 7

POLISHING / GLAZING is where you really start to make your paint pop and bring depth back to your paint. There are 2 ways of approaching this to achieve the ultimate in paint perfection you will need to machine polish your car but this is not to be undertaken lightly you need to practice to get good at this and be confident in what you are doing as you could well damage your paint otherwise.

Stage 1 machine polish generally an enhancement style polish will achieve what you are after with a 2 step machining process, we will do a more detailed walk through of machine polishing soon.

Stage 2 GLAZE is perfect for hiding the worst of swirl marks and adding some serious depth and gloss the finish, using a BLACK APPLICTOR apply the GLAZE working it in and spreading sparingly working a panel at a time allowing 30secs to 2 minutes to cure and buffing off with a good quality MICROFIBRE. You can also layer this if needed to increase the depth and gloss.

STEP 8

SEALANT is the hard wearing layer that really helps your car stay clean and protected for longer, it protects all your previous hard work. We have four products for this see the SEALANT section of the website to see which suits your needs best.

STEP 9

WAX is all about making the paint pop even more and adding yet more protection to your already protected paint, we have two waxes please see the WAX section of the website to which best suits your needs.

STEP 10

TYRES & TRIMS our two of the details that really make a clean car stand out even more, we have a SATIN finish or a HIGH GLOSS finish product for this, all depends on your preference. A handy tip is to use an applicator pad to void getting to much on paint and glass.

STEP 11

POLISHING METAL this includes exhausts under bonnet etc, again this really helps to make a clean car stand out even more. A top tip for this is to use a WHITE POLISH APPLICATOR to give the metal polish a bit more bite if needed.

STEP 12

GLASS CLEANING can be a pain but with a good cleaner like our HIGH DEFINITION it really is simple and again clean glass really does make the car shine, top tip is to spray the cleaner on a cloth wipe over then buff with a second clean cloth making perfect glass simple.

STEP 13

FINAL WIPE OVER is important for remove any little bits of wax you’ve missed etc, a simple wipe over with a QUICK DETAILER will remove any bits you’ve missed as well as adding yet more gloss.

STEP 14

STAND BACK AND ADMIRE YOUR HARD WORK!