What detailing is and isn’t
A detail is not a car wash with extra steps. A full exterior detail starts with a safe hand wash, then moves to clay bar decontamination, a step that removes the bonded surface contamination that sits on your paint after washing, the industrial fallout, rail dust, and tree sap residue that a wash doesn’t touch. After clay, the paint gets a polish or correction pass depending on its condition. Then a wax or sealant to protect what you’ve just restored. Every step matters, and cutting one means a worse result on the next.
On the interior, the same logic applies. Vacuuming pulls up surface debris. Steam cleaning gets into vent slats and door jambs and seat track channels, places bacteria accumulate but shampooing doesn’t reach. Shampoo extraction deals with the carpet and fabric properly. Leather and vinyl get conditioned, not just wiped down.
The products we use are professional-grade. That’s not a throwaway claim; it means we’re not diluting a consumer product to stretch it further, and we’re not using whatever was cheapest on the shelf. The difference shows in the finish.
Paint correction: realistic expectations
Paint correction is a genuine skill. It removes material from the top layer of the clear coat to cut below the level of swirl marks, oxidation, and minor surface scratches, leaving a flat, reflective surface behind. Done well, it can make paint that looked dull and scratched-up look like it left the factory two weeks ago.
Done poorly (wrong pad, wrong compound, wrong technique) it can leave holograms, burn through the clear coat, or create new marring worse than what it was trying to fix. This is why correction isn’t something to hand off to the cheapest available option.
We’ll assess your paint honestly before any correction work. If your damage is surface-level, we can address it. If you have chips, deep scratches, or clear coat that has already failed in places, we’ll tell you that before we start so you’re not expecting a result we can’t deliver. Those situations need a painter, not a detailer. We won’t pretend otherwise.
Interior work: what a proper clean involves
The interior of a daily-use vehicle accumulates a surprising amount of contamination that’s invisible until you look for it. Vent slats, seat track edges, floor mat clips, dashboard gaps: these collect dust, food particles, and moisture that don’t come out with a standard vacuum.
We start with a thorough vacuum of all surfaces and a high-velocity air blow into every crevice before anything wet touches the interior. Steam cleaning follows for hard surfaces: A and B pillar trim, door jambs, the centre console, the dash. Steam sanitises without saturating, which matters for preserving electronics and avoiding the mildew smell that comes from an interior that was cleaned wet and didn’t dry properly.
Fabric carpets and seats get extracted with a hot water extractor, not just sprayed and wiped. Leather gets a proper pH-balanced cleaner and a conditioner, not a silicone-based spray that looks good for a week and then dries out the leather faster. Small things, but they add up to an interior that actually feels clean rather than just smelling like product.
Detailing as prep for ceramic coating or PPF
If you’re planning to add ceramic coating or paint protection film, a proper detail first is not optional; it’s the foundation. Both products bond to your clear coat directly. If the surface has contamination, swirl marks, or oxidation beneath them, those defects become a permanent feature. The coating or film won’t fix them; it will preserve them.
Our approach is to combine the full exterior detail and paint correction into the first stage of any ceramic or PPF job. You book one appointment, the detail and prep happen first, and the coating or film goes on a clean, corrected surface. It’s more efficient, and it’s the only way to get the most out of either product.
We can also do a standalone detail if you’re not planning coating or PPF. Either way, the process is the same; we treat the vehicle the same way regardless of what’s happening to it after.