What is Automotive Detailing?

isn't it just a car wash?

5 min read

"Huh?! $80 for a car wash?! That's daylight robbery!". Yes, sometimes you may come across an ad on social media on a $80-$100 detailing service. But there is a huge difference in the services you're getting from an automotive detailer, and a $20 car wash. Read on to know why professionals are charging this much and be the judge if it's worth the price.

What is Automotive Detailing?
Automotive detailing is all about getting the absolute best look for your vehicle and its paintwork. It is a thorough cleaning process that goes beyond what a regular car wash can achieve to clean, correct, and preserve your vehicle’s appearance and value. Automotive detailing focuses on deep cleaning, light cosmetic paint restoration and high-tech protective coatings. While getting your vehicle washed regularly is important, getting your car regularly detailed keeps your car shining bright, and, importantly, boosts the lifespan of your vehicle.
But in what ways does automotive detailing go beyond a regular car wash and how do they differ?

Cleaning
The first of any detailing work is always the cleaning process. Automotive detailing involves a thorough wash of your overall surface.






Your vehicle’s exterior surfaces will be carefully cleaned, including the engine bay, doors, trunk jambs, wheel wells, car badges & emblems, trims, seals and undercarriage. Every surface, nook, and cranny on your car is addressed, even that sticky brake dust on your rims.

Many mistakes car owners make is to use sponges and wash cloths to clean their car, not realising this can cause damage to the paintwork. The flat surfaces on sponges and wash cloths can trap dirt and grit that builds up on the paint of your vehicle which can act as an abrasive when wiped along the paint during a car wash, which can cause micro-scratches on the top layer of your vehicle’s paint, also known as the clear coat.

Under direct sunlight, these clear coat scratches, often looking like spiderwebs or swirls, become very obvious. This can cause your vehicle to look duller as it can affect the way that light reflects off the paintwork.












At Wrap Atelier, your vehicle is given the utmost care and the highest quality treatment to minimise the risk of scratches and swirl marks during this process to help preserve the clear coat, here is how it is generally performed:

  • Your vehicle will be thoroughly pre-washed with snow foam to remove as much dirt and road grime as possible without touching the paintwork. Snow foam has the benefit of breaking down dirt on your vehicle, providing a safer contact wash kinder to your paintwork. A pressure washer is used to spray down the entire vehicle, maintaining contactless washing.

  • Next, decontamination is designed to remove any contaminants that were left behind, such as water spots, tree sap, road tar, sharp metal particles and many more. Chemical and/or physical decontamination will be used by removing tar or iron fallout using chemical sprays, and clay bars to remove any remaining bound contaminants. This will result in a smooth, contaminant-free surface that is ready for waxing and polishing. Clay bars will only be used when preparing your vehicle for polishing and coating. 

  • In the meantime, wheels will be sprayed down with rim cleaner to remove stubborn road deposits such as brake dust, oil and grease. This step helps wheels prevent buildups of these harmful substances which can lead to corrosion if left unchecked. 

  • After decontamination, your vehicle will go through one last wash, with a PH neutral shampoo. This is a contact wash, and microfibre mitts will be used, which does not inflict clear coat damage. If your vehicle is going through our comprehensive detailing, detailing brushes will be used to clean intricate parts unreachable by the microfibre mitts. Your vehicle will be sprayed down to get rid of any soapy residue.

  • Now that your car is clean, a blower will be used to dry your vehicle to minimise contact. A microfibre towel will only be used to wipe door jambs or any surface unreachable by the blower.

  • For our comprehensive detailing, the next step is to polish and buff to address the minor scratches, swirl marks, and paint imperfections on your vehicle. This helps restore the beautiful shine to your vehicle, removing any surface defects, revealing a flawless finish. Additionally, a protective layer such as wax, sealant, or ceramic coating will be applied, depending on your needs, to better protect your vehicle’s paintwork.

Enhancement
This is the restorative process of detailing, predominantly applied to paintworks but also include exhaust pipes, badges, exterior plastics and trim. The overall aim of this process is to refine, rather than completely repair, in order to improve your vehicle’s appearance as detailing does not always eliminate defects which prevent your vehicle from looking new or major deep scratches or dents.

This step is crucial in achieving that ultimate shine. It is able to address minor scratches, swirl marks, and paint imperfections through techniques like wet-sanding, compounding and polishing. Here’s what these techniques mean:

  • Wet-sanding: The most aggressive form of paint correction and removes severe clear coat damage. It will cause some hazing which will need to be removed by compounding and polishing afterwards. Only used in Stage 4 Paint Correction.

  • Compounding: The next most aggressive solution used to remove moderate clear coat scratches. The compound liquid is applied to a microfibre or foam pad on a dual action polisher to flatten the clear coat surface. It can cause light hazing which will need to be removed by polishing afterwards.

  • Polishing: The least aggressive method of paint correction used to refine the finish after compounding or to remove very light swirl marks. No hazing will be left behind. Instead, the clear coat will be completely flat, giving the car a mirror-like finish.


These techniques will be used to undergo what is knows as a paint correction on your vehicle depending on the severity of its clear coat to help achieve the shine that you desire.

Stage 1 Paint Correction
~50% correctable defects
Polishing only

Stage 2 Paint Correction
~85% correctable defects
Stage 1 Correction
Stage 2 Polishing

Stage 3 Paint Correction
~95% correctable defects
Stage 1 Multi Stage Correction
Stage 2 Polishing

Protection
After a full cleaning and enhancement, we have essentially removed any pre-applied protective layers and now it needs to be properly protected. Waxes, sealants and ceramic coating are the three main choices when it comes to paint protection.

We hope this article is able to help you understand what automotive detailing is and the difference between a car wash and getting your vehicle professionally detailed. Reach out to our team at Wrap Atelier should you still have certain doubts and queries not answered in this article, or if you to better understand our processes. We're always here, happy to help.

Photo credits to it's rightful owners. Wrap Atelier does not own any of photos/media in this article.
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko: https://www.pexels.com/@tima-miroshnichenko/
Source: https://motorheadz.in/what-causes-swirl-marks-on-your-car-and-how-to-remove-it/