Secrets of the Detailers

by Charles Plueddeman

 If a trip through the carwash is the automotive equivalent of brushing your teeth, detailing your vehicle is like a visit to the dental hygienist. Instead of flossing and scraping, a detailer nourishes the microscopic pores of the paint, dusts the nooks and crannies of the dash, and leaves everything in better shape and looking great.

A car that is regularly dusted, vacuumed, and washed and waxed by hand will look better longer than a car that's subjected to the abrasive and chemical horrors of the carwash. When you're ready to sell or trade up, you'll reap the benefits of this pampering. If you lease, detailing can help to ensure that you get your security deposit back.

Should detailing sound a little anal retentive, consider that next to purchasing a house, buying a car is the biggest investment most of us ever make. "My customers used to bring in Mercedes, Porsches, and Rolls, because those cars were worth it," says detailing guru Steve Marchese, for 27 years the owner of Steve's Detailing in Costa Mesa, California. "Now even a Honda is a significant investment, and you're going to hang on to it for a long time."

You'd pay a pro like Marchese $150 or more for a detailing session. But we've talked him and other detailing experts out of their secrets, so you can do the job yourself.

WASHING THE BODY

"The paint on your car is only about as thick as a business card," says Jeff Jeppesen, owner of the Classy Cars detailing shop in Huntington Beach, California. "The goal when you wash the body is to clean and preserve the finish without destroying it."

Never wash or wax in direct sun. Hot sheetmetal will cause water spots and make wax dry too quickly. Work instead in open shade. If your car has been parked in the sun, let it cool before you begin.

Don't use dish detergents to wash your car: some of them can strip wax and dry the paint. Instead, mix a solution of water and car-washing liquid like Mother's California Gold Car Wash. Start scrubbing on the roof and work your way down. Pros usually use a mitt made of natural sheepskin that lifts grit into its nap so it can't scratch the finish. A thick cotton terrycloth towel also will do the job, but be sure to rinse it frequently. To remove stubborn bugs and tar spots, try a small amount of undiluted carwash liquid on a rag, or use a commercial bug-and-tar solvent. Remember to open the doors and wipe out the jambs.

Starting with the roof, dry the car immediately with soft towels or a chamois before water spots can form. If you have an air compressor, use a low-pressure nozzle to blow wash water out of the mirrors and body seams. "Water will run out of the mirrors when you drive and streak your clean paint," says Jeppesen. "Hold the nozzle at a 45-degree angle to the crack, so you blow over it and draw water out of seams rather than force it further in."

Use only 100 percent cotton rags or towels when washing and waxing painted surfaces. "Polyester-blend fabrics, even the polyester threads in diapers, are abrasive and can leave microscopic scratches in paint," says Richard Griot, owner of Griot's Garage, a mail-order source for car-detailing products. Check the label for fabric content, but still beware: even all-cotton towels may have polyester binding the edge. To test a suspect cloth, Griot says, hold a corner briefly over a lighter flame (carefully, please!). If the result is soft ash, it's cotton. Black smoke and a hard, plastic like residue along the edge indicate some polyester content.

Jeppesen suggests that you wash your various towels and rags separately. For example, don't contaminate drying towels with wax by throwing them in the washing machine with your buffing towels. "Do that a few times and you'll wonder why your drying towels leave streaks," says Jeppesen. "And never wash or dry detailing rags with a fabric softener, which has oil that will streak and make the rags water repellent."

THE WHEELS

First hose any mud out of the wheel wells. To detail the insides of the wheel wells, Jeppesen suggests, squirt them with tire-dressing solution while they are still wet and before you wash the tires and wheels. They'll look black and clean when they dry, and road dirt will be easier to remove in the future.

Wash the wheels with carwash solution and a mitt or rag that you don't use on the body: there is abrasive debris around the wheels that would scratch painted surfaces. Griot's sells a cone-shaped wheel brush and a foam finger mitt that are great for cleaning between spokes or in small holes on wheels.

Use a spray-on wheel cleaner to remove stubborn brake-pad dust from wheels. There are specific wheel-cleaning products for uncoated alloy wheels, chrome wheels, and the clear-coated or painted rims found on most new cars. Read the label carefully. And don't spray wheel cleaner on chrome rims still hot from driving: it can stain them.

Dry the wheels with a towel. When you wax the body you can also apply wax to chrome, painted, or clear-coated wheels or wheel covers so they'll be easier to clean next time. Use a metal polish like Semichrome or Mother's Mag Polish to make uncoated alloy wheels or old-fashioned steel hubcaps sparkle. Be careful when polishing chrome on newer cars, which often have plastic parts with a chrome finish that may rub right off under an abrasive polish.

THE TIRES

You want the tires to look like new rubber; you don't want that greasy-kid-stuff shine you see on some used-car lots. Scrub dirt off the tires with a stiff brush and then rejuvenate the rubber with a tire-dressing product. Wipe, rather than spray, it on so you don't get overspray on your clean rims. Wipe the tires with a towel to get an even, matte finish.

POLISHING

If your car's finish is dull, you'll want to revive the paint with a polish product, but use caution. "Always start with the least-invasive procedure," says John Pera, who details Jay Leno's collection of more than 100 cars and motorcycles. "If that doesn't work, try something more aggressive."

Pera is enthusiastic about clay bar, a new product that looks like a $10 spa soap. Meguiar's Smooth 'n' Clean, Griot's Paint Cleaning Clay, and AutoWax Clay Magic are examples. "The clay bar is a great product for the neophyte," says Pera. "It's not abrasive. Rather it's sticky and, when wiped over the surface, pulls off microscopic debris sticking to the paint-like sap, paint mist, and tar-that you can't remove by washing. It leaves the paint smooth as glass."

To rub out light scratches or oxidation, use a fine abrasive polish like Meguiar's Professional Show Car Glaze No. 7. "If No. 7 doesn't do the job, play it safe and take your car to a pro for a more aggressive buffing," advises Marchese. Never use a harsh abrasive like rubbing compound on clear-coat paint.

Several pros suggest that polishing be followed by a product like Meguiar's Hand Glaze or 3M Imperial Hand Glaze, both of which contain oils that rejuvenate dried-out paint.

WAXING

Now it's time to seal the paint with a high-quality wax. Even "never-wax" clear-coat paint should be waxed regularly, according to Jeppesen. "Clear-coat is just paint with no pigment," he says. "It should be washed and waxed more often than standard paint, because it's hard to rub scratches out of the clear-coat."

For the shine the pros prefer, you want a pure carnauba wax that contains no silicone, polymers, or Teflon, any of which can change the molecular structure of paint. Car wax can be up to 60 percent carnauba (a natural wax extracted from a bean), but products with such a high percentage are very hard to work with. Marchese likes Mother's California Gold (about 30 percent carnauba), while Pera recommends Meguiar's and Eagle One waxes.

Begin by using a foam-pad applicator or a cotton diaper to apply a very thin layer of wax in a swirling motion, one section at a time, starting with the roof. Avoid getting wax on black rubber trim around the doors and windows. It can leave a white residue that's very difficult to remove. To get old wax off rubber, dab the area carefully with lacquer thinner, followed by a rubber dressing to renew the trim. Wax chrome trim and wheels just like paint.

As the wax on each section begins to dry, go back with a soft cotton cloth and wipe off the residue. Don't wait too long, because wax that dries completely is much harder to rub off. Buff up the shine with a second, clean rag.

Use an air compressor or a detailing brush to clean wax dust and residue out of emblems and cracks in the body. Don't use an old toothbrush: the plastic or nylon bristles can leave scratches. Classy Cars and Griot's sell natural-bristle detailing brushes in various sizes.

At Steve's, the detailers use an inexpensive pastry brush; it works best when the bristles are wrapped with masking tape, leaving only a half-inch or so exposed at the end. As the bristles get dirty, simply trim them back.

Getting a good shine can be almost impossible when humidity is more than 70 percent. The solution is to wax in a garage-but not when it's raining. "The wax won't dry, and you'll get lots of streaks," says Pera, "especially on dark paint."

Depending on the condition of your car and its environment, a good wax job can last three months. "If water beads up on the hood in drops smaller than a nickel, the wax is in good shape," says Griot.

AMI Auto World Magazine
Copyright © 2000-2001 American Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved