Can someone explain "Car Detailing" to me

[R1 Loon]

There's a few threads in the manufacturer forums on here where people post pictures of their cars and there's always one or two, where the car looks like it's been shrink-wrapped and kept in a climate controlled, sterile environment.

Do these people ever drive their cars? A clean & tidy car is always nice, but how long does it take to do this? I mean, fine if you've got a £5million exhibition piece, but when some of them are 10 year old mainstream cars what's the point?

Whenever I see a picture like that I can't help but think there's something seriously wrong with the owner.

[Waugh-terfall]

Stedman!

This guy spends 6hrs cleaning his car, think he said it has 60k on the clock, last year he took it to a show in Italy or something, the weather was godawful, spent 6hrs cleaning it, drove it to the show, got it filthy and cleaned it all over again...






http://www.flickr.com/photos/waugh-terfall/sets/72...

[randlemarcus]

R1 Loon said:

There's a few threads in the manufacturer forums on here where people post pictures of their cars and there's always one or two, where the car looks like it's been shrink-wrapped and kept in a climate controlled, sterile environment.

Do these people ever drive their cars? A clean & tidy car is always nice, but how long does it take to do this? I mean, fine if you've got a £5million exhibition piece, but when some of them are 10 year old mainstream cars what's the point?

Whenever I see a picture like that I can't help but think there's something seriously wrong with the owner.

As a dabbler, I can say that doing a stem to stern clean is quite soothing and relaxing, and very pleasing when you've finished and its all shiny and lovely.


Because then you can get it all nice and dirty again.

[OllieWinchester]

It used to be called cleaning and polishing.

[R1 Loon]

OllieWinchester said:

It used to be called cleaning and polishing.

I still do that, but some of these guys cars look like they spend an hour cleaning the wing mirror.

Weird IMO

[shakotan]

I'm a casual 'entusiast' of detailing. I like having a clean, shiny car with deep reflective paintwork, and will quite happily spend an entire weekend on my car.

I don't quite get the truly 'committed' detailers who go over the entire car with a micrometer and a polisher to ensure the paint depth on the panels in exactly the same, and then use a £8000 Zymol glaze - not an exaggeration, and they once did a £15,000 one that came in a pyramid - to finish the car off with.

[Biker's Nemesis]

I take the wheels off my car to clean and polish them on the inside.

[4988cc]

R1 Loon said:

OllieWinchester said:

It used to be called cleaning and polishing.

I still do that, but some of these guys cars look like they spend an hour cleaning the wing mirror.

..which is where the "detail" bit comes from. Do you remove things like your light clusters and door seals to get all the accumulated crud out for instance? Probably not, that's where valeting and detailing differ IMO. Valeting - cleaning what you can see; detailing - cleaning everything, visible or otherwise.

Like randlemarcus, I find it very therapeutic and enjoyable and go as in depth as time, inclination and fair weather permit (as well as profit margin, where relevant), but I still prefer driving to cleaning so don't go into obsessive detail as I'll be doing it again soon enough. About once a year I'll go to the level of half dissembling a car to do a thorough job, but I've not kept my cars that long for a while now

This sums it up about perfectly:

shakotan said:

I'm a casual 'entusiast' of detailing. I like having a clean, shiny car with deep reflective paintwork, and will quite happily spend an entire weekend on my car.

I don't quite get the truly 'committed' detailers who go over the entire car with a micrometer and a polisher to ensure the paint depth on the panels in exactly the same, and then use a £8000 Zymol glaze - not an exaggeration, and they once did a £15,000 one that came in a pyramid - to finish the car off with.

Edited by 4988cc on Saturday 2nd October 18:32

[RemaL]

Biker's Nemesis said:

I take the wheels off my car to clean and polish them on the inside.

and me, sad fker eh

[sneijder]

Paying someone to do it, argument with the missus, bit of exercise and thinking time all fair enough.

Spending a whole weekend doing it and spending £300 on a panda eyelash vent duster and £600 on white rhino spunk polish smacks of having no life. If you have a nice car, drive it.

[4988cc]

RemaL said:

Biker's Nemesis said:

I take the wheels off my car to clean and polish them on the inside.

and me, sad fker eh

How else do you clean calipers, hubs and behind the wheel arch liners?

[R1 Loon]

4988cc said:

..which is where the "detail" bit comes from. Do you remove things like your light clusters and door seals to get all the accumulated crud out for instance? Probably not, that's where valeting and detailing differ IMO. Valeting - cleaning what you can see; detailing - cleaning everything, visible or otherwise.

Like randlemarcus, I find it very therapeutic and enjoyable and go as in depth as time, inclination and fair weather permit (as well as profit margin, where relevant), but I still prefer driving to cleaning so don't go into obsessive detail as I'll be doing it again soon enough. About once a year I'll go to the level of half dissembling a car to do a thorough job, but I've not kept my cars that long for a while now

This is exactly what I mean, it just seems totally obsessive to me. I really do wonder about who do stuff like this, as it seems like you're venting other pent up frustrations.

It can't be good for the car constantly removing and refitting parts, as you're breaking the seal in quite a few cases.

[Mermaid]

OllieWinchester said:

It used to be called cleaning and polishing.

Detailing is I suppose the modern equivalent, in that more time is spent on cleaning out the tiniest particle of foreign matter from the car using chemicals, brushes but mainly elbow grease.

I always think paint correction is more important i.e. removing scratches and then polishing/compounding the paint surface so that it's an even surface and reflects light evenly & well. Any wax/seal will then do the job.

However I do think there's a lot of snake oil sold in this cosmetic/detailing business

[thinfourth2]

4988cc said:

RemaL said:

Biker's Nemesis said:

I take the wheels off my car to clean and polish them on the inside.

and me, sad fker eh

How else do you clean calipers, hubs and behind the wheel arch liners?

I normally park in a river

[Stu R]

Get a really good detailer out and get the whole thing done, just once. You'll go on noticing the difference for quite some time, especially if it's involved much in the way of paint correction.

I quite like 'detailing', it's a nice way to while away a few hours in the garage if there's nothing better to do. That being said, someone will always take it way further than I can be bothered with.

I value my time enough to pay someone to do it these days, but I don't drive anything I'm bothered about keeping clean at the minute

[OllieWinchester]

shakotan said:

I'm a casual 'entusiast' of detailing, and will quite happily spend an entire weekend on my car.

See, this I cannot get my head around.

I can barely be fked to clean my car at all, let alone devote a whole weekend to doing it, and you think that is casual? My car is lucky if it sees a jetwash every few months, and thats only so I can see out of it.

[Balmoral Green]

It's therapeutic, I've just spent 9 hours on Mrs BG's Panda.

Wash & leather.
Clay.
Paint Cleanse.
Cut & Polish.
Wax.

And that's just the outside, I've not done the inside or glass/trim/vacuum/upholstery etc yet.

I like to have a detailed list too, and put a line through each item when it's been done. Very satisfying.

I didn't take the wheels off or anything though, it's only the wife's Panda after all

BG usually takes me six days to clean properly, over three successive weekends. But TBF, I only do that once a year. It just gets washed & leathered the rest of the year.

Edited by Balmoral Green on Saturday 2nd October 18:46

[4988cc]

R1 Loon said:

This is exactly what I mean, it just seems totally obsessive to me. I really do wonder about who do stuff like this, as it seems like you're venting other pent up frustrations.

Some people watch football, some go to the pub, some read Tolstoy epics, some play sports, some create art, some get blootered out of their mind, some watch reality TV to while away the non-working hours etc. Some enjoy cleaning their car/bike more thoroughly than most. I find people who can recite team line-ups and score records for football seasons before they were born odd, but if it pleases them to do so, so be it. None of which has anything to do with "venting pent up frustrations". That's what wking and shagging the wife are for

R1 Loon said:

It can't be good for the car constantly removing and refitting parts, as you're breaking the seal in quite a few cases.

"Breaking the seal"? Cars do start all in separate components and you're not taking apart the car down to its fundamental components, just removing and refitting trim and consumable parts (designed to be replaced rather than to remain in situ for life), none of which takes industrial tools to do and can't be done by anyone handy with basic car maintenance tools.

The obsessives that go beyond detailing (amateur or professional) are the strange and wonderful people we know as restorers. There's a point at which the boundaries blur.

Edited by 4988cc on Saturday 2nd October 18:51

[Steve in Stoke]

As few people above, I do like to spend a 3-4 hours every couple of months doing a deep clean - wheels off, wash, clay, polish, wax etc, and it is quite therapeutic. To be fair though, once it is done, subsequent weekly washes only take half an hour or so to bring up the shine again. I suppose there is a also sense of pride in driving a 15 year old car that looks like it has just come off the production line.

However, sometimes it can go a bit too far for some people... http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

Edited by Steve in Stoke on Saturday 2nd October 18:58

[legins]

Dirty clean does it really matter thought it was all about how loud the stereo goes playing Abba