What really is auto detailing?
If you find yourself asking this question, you've probably heard all kinds of different things about what detailing is. Truth is, detailing is a very broad topic. But we're going to sum it up for you in this post.
At Procam Detailing, we consider detailing to be the maintenance of a vehicle's appearance. not necessarily keeping it in its best possible condition, this is important and we'll get back to it in a minute. Now maintaining a vehicle's appearance is important for 2 reasons. The first, obviously, is to upkeep the resale value of the vehicle. The second reason, is to make the vehicle more enjoyable.
What do I mean by more enjoyable? Well, think about it. On average, we spend about 300 hours in our vehicles a year. That's a lot of miles, dirt, dogs, and bugs on your ride. Driving a clean vehicle is a lot more relaxing than a dirty one. If you're a business with a professional vehicle, a germaphobe, or just own a really expensive car, you probably know what I mean by more enjoyable.
There are 3 critically important principles for detailing
Now we have a broad idea and reasons for detailing your car, so what really is detailing? The 3 important principles that most detailers go by are:
- Cleaning the vehicles, includes basic cleaning, all the way to deep cleanings like shampooing and decon.
- Restoring the vehicle. not everything can be cleaned. Sometimes detailers will specialize in things like leather repair, scratch removal, or even dent removal.
- Protection of the vehicle. This used to mean simply waxing a car, but the meaning has evolved dramatically in recent years.
So there's the simple answer, Detailing is about cleaning, restoring, and protecting the appearance of your vehicle. With that being said, remember that there are a hundred different ways to perform these steps, so each detailer has a lot of room to choose what specific services they offer, and often what their end goal with your vehicle is. That's why you'll find detailers that cost $100 and others that cost $2000. It all depends on their services, and what sounds good to you.
"Wait, so why wouldn't you want your vehicle to look its best possible condition?"
This is something I want to highlight with you, especially concerning expensive, and classic cars. This topic is extensive and deserves its own post, so I'll keep it brief.
When wet sanding, compounding, or even polishing a vehicle's paint, we remove a tiny layer of the clear coat. An owner, or detailer, may want to remove all scratches and make the paint look glossy and immaculate, but removing too much clearcoat can completely ruin your vehicle's paint job. This isn't so risky on newer cars, but on older cars or ones with a thin clearcoat, aiming for its best appearance, may not always be possible. This is why many detailers will use paint gauges when polishing a car.
I hope now you have a better understanding of what auto detailing is.
We clean vehicles, restore them if their appearance is damaged somehow, and protect them from getting too dirty in the future.
