Updated at: 24-06-2022 - By: Lucas

Let’s be honest: unless you bought your car just to get from point A to point B, you care enough about it to make sure it stays and feels the same as the day you drove it home from the showroom. Everyone wants that, but not everyone can keep it that way, even with regular service and maintenance. Car Detailing is the main thing that sets well-kept cars apart from cars that look so good they could kill you.

We know what you’re thinking: you don’t want to go overboard with your car’s headlights and wings, but that’s not what we mean when we say “car detailing.” So let’s take a closer look at the word because someone who is new to cars might not know what it means.

Yes, car detailing does involve customising how the car looks and feels, such as with paint jobs, transmissions, and other parts. But car detailing also means keeping your car in perfect shape, whether you polish it or put a protective layer on it like ceramic. So, in this article by Motoring Junction, we’ll look at what car detailing really is, why it’s become so popular now, and whether or not you should get it for your car. Let’s get started after we’ve answered a couple of questions that come up often.

Car Washing Is Not Car Detailing

Types of Car Detailing-1

Before we talk more about car detailing, let’s get something out of the way. Washing your car, no matter how shiny it looks, does not count as detailing it. These two words do not mean the same thing. Even though the end goal of both is to keep your car in good shape, that’s about all they have in common.

On the one hand, there are car washes, where you use powerful sprays or shampoo and sponges to make the outside of your car as shiny as possible. On the other hand, a car detailing session requires you to pay close attention to every part of the car that you will see and touch. As the name suggests, it is a detailed service from beginning to end that is done with deadly accuracy and takes a lot more work than a normal car wash.

Don’t get us wrong, both are important, but it’s one thing to wash your car and an entirely different thing to make it shine forever. Detailing your car gives it a shine that lasts. You don’t even have to do it once a month. You only need to do it once or twice a year. A good detailer will also clean a car’s undercarriage. This keeps the undercarriage from rusting.

Does Detailing Get Rid of Scratches

In short, yes.

You can be sure that detailing will help you get rid of all the scratches on the outside of the car without hurting the car itself. If you haven’t noticed it yet, there are different levels to how deep a scratch can go into the outside of your car. For example, a simple scratch, like one made by a pen nib or a sharp knife, can be fixed by painting over the surface and applying a coating. Your car would definitely need a bigger paint job if the scratches were deeper. But in general, car detailing does the job for small scratches.

Types of Car Detailing

Types of Car Detailing-2

Now that you know a little bit about car detailing, you may be able to see why every car may need it. Car detailing is more than just making your car shine all the time. It keeps the outside looking nice and keeps it from losing its strength and durability. This makes it more appealing to second-hand buyers and keeps its resale value pretty stable over time.

But car detailing has its own problems, which we’ll talk about soon. Most of these problems come from not knowing what kind of detailing you’re doing. Know what kind of detailing you want for your car and why you want it. So, let’s talk about what kind of car detailing services most garages and professional detailers offer, and whether or not you should use one or all of them.

Basic Waterless Car Detailing

Most companies that clean cars use this method. It’s basically the first step in the process of getting your car detailed. The services offered may vary slightly depending on the car or the company, but only slightly. For example, a service provider might not clean the wheels or vacuum the inside of the car before giving it a light wipe down. To stay on budget and cut costs, tyre dressing might also be forgotten.

You can avoid this by giving your dealer a few extra bucks. If you go to a good mobile car detailing service, they will definitely vacuum and wipe down the inside, clean the windows, and wash the outside, including the tyres. You don’t have to do it, and if you just want to stick to the usual details, that’s fine too.

Complete Interior Car Detailing

As the name suggests, this type of detailing involves cleaning the inside of your car so that there are no spots left and it looks brand new. You can do this in a number of ways, such as by using a steam cleaner or a vacuum. If the inside is dirty, it will smell bad and spread allergies without need. This is just one of many reasons why you should care as much about the inside of the car as the outside.

We recommend getting the inside of your car detailed at least once every couple of years because, unless you’re a really bad driver, the inside gets damaged more quickly than the outside. The standard way to clean the inside of a car is to brush, vacuum, and steam clean. It also includes trimming leather and cleaning glass, vacuuming, wiping, and putting on perfume. A full interior detailing service will give you a clean, shiny, and well-functioning interior that looks as good as, or even better than, the rest of the car.

Exterior Car Detailing

Again, this part doesn’t need to be explained, but Exterior Car Detailing is the process of fixing and vacuuming a car so that it looks better when it leaves than when it came in. Most of the time, products like polish, wax, sealant, and degreasers are used for this type of detailing. These tools work well and save a lot of time on things like washing, special polishing, and many other things that don’t need to be done.

Note: Polishing is done to fix the paint finish on a car before waxing to finish the job. The wax is used as an extra safety net to keep the polish from wearing off. It will also make the car look more shiny. After that, a good synthetic sealant keeps the shine for months.

Disadvantages of Car Detailing

Like we said earlier, if you don’t know enough about car detailing, you’re sure to get your wallets drilled. Make sure to keep an eye out for the following things, and maybe use them as a check list to see if you’re getting a good deal:

Always look for a trained professional. No matter how cheap the services are, the more you’ll regret them the sketchier the place is. Even a brand-new car will look better after a professional detailer has worked on it.

Visit more than one detailer and ask for a range of prices. Then you can make a smart purchase.

Detailing a car isn’t always clear, so if you don’t tell the service you’re paying for exactly what you want, you might not be happy with the work.