How To Know You Are Getting The Best Bang For Your Buck Detail (Interior and Exterior)
With every detail, you should feel satisfied with the final result of your vehicle. Some detailers will try and scam you out of what you think is a "good job done". Let me show you what to look for the next time you get your vehicle detailed.
Interior:
The interior, cabin, or some may say cockpit of you vehicle is where you spend most of your time. Think of it as your second home. Just like your own household, you are familiar with where everything is. All the nooks and crannies as well as secret or hidden compartments. Let me play out a scenario for you. When you are invited to someone else’s home for the first time, you may have a general idea of where bedrooms/bathrooms are but not certain. You try and compare this to your own home to figure out the layout in which to navigate around. Same goes for the interior of a vehicle. You may be wondering, how does this apply to detailing a car? Here’s why. You may be familiar with your own car but the detailer on the other-hand most likely is not. The detailer may not know that your back seats fold up for extra storage or that it even is capable of doing so, but you do. Let your detailer now that certain areas of your car might need to be cleaned along with the obvious sections of your vehicles interior. It doesn’t hurt to inform your detailer things they might not know so you can be satisfied with the job they performed on your vehicle.
Let’s talk carpets and cloth seats. Yes, as boring as it sounds, but one of the most important and skipped over process in an interior detail. Your vehicles carpets and cloth seats typically have the most wear and tear, especially on the driver’s side. They are what you sit and put your feet on every time you and passengers get in your vehicle. These areas are home to dirt, mud, gum, nasty water and anything you can imagine steeping or sitting on. Not to mention as gross as it is sweat or any bodily fluids. These surfaces are also exposed to stains from coffee, grease, markers/paint, food etc... To ensure that you're not getting scammed out of a package that offers to enhance your vehicles carpets, floor mats and seats, be sure to check these two things. As weird as this sounds, smell the areas that are supposedly treated. Most detailers will use chemicals to clean these areas that are often scented. Depending on the detailers arsonal, they may not have extractors that 99% of the time get stains or leftover grime out. Some use a drill and brush attachments to get what the OxyClean man says "Get The Tough Stains Out". Along with floor mats, most of them have rubber spikes on the bottom to keep them from sliding around along the interior carpet. After the job is done, be sure to lift up your floor mats and check to see if the spikes are indented into the carpet. If they are still heavily indented, chances are that your detailer did not clean the carpets properly or at all. Be sure to look out for these two things when an interior package is performed on your vehicle.
Exterior:
When washing the exterior of your vehicle, there are a few things to look out for. First being the paint. Before a proper wash is done, you may not see a whole lot of shine to your vehicles paint. After a foam bath, towel dry, wax or any other type of protectant such as a glaze or ceramic coating, you should see a noticeable difference to the paint. Depending on your vehicles paint, whether it is a metallic finish, natural single-tone color or matte finish, there will be a remarkable improvement. Following a wash, these waxes, glazes and ceramic coatings are to protect and enhance the paint of your vehicle. When you look closely you should see a deep wet shine to the body of your vehicle. Up close on black and darker colored vehicles it will look like you are gazing into a mirror and seeing what is behind you. If what is described above is not what the paint of your vehicle appears to be like, then odds are you got cheaped out of a exterior detail.
Now let's talk bumpers. Most importantly your front bumper. This is where a lot of the physical wear and tear is going to be on the exterior of your vehicle. The front bumper is prone to rock chips in the paint, road dust/dirt from vehicles in front of you, and bugs. All three except the rock chips are treatable in an exterior detail. Chemicals in soap used for exterior washes are designed to break down those environmental debris. This makes it easier to get all those particles and bugs off your front bumper. Ensure your vehicle's front bumper and headlights are free of any debris or bugs after your wash for optimum satisfaction.
Overview:
Before any detail, please ensure your vehicle is cleaned out with all personal items or trash taken out of the interior. No detailer wants to spend their time gathering lose items in plain sight on the floor and on the seats. Also, take care of your vehicle just like you would take personal care of yourself. Treat your vehicle with respect. The longer you wait on a interior or exterior detail, the harder it is for the detailer and the worse your vehicle's condition will be in even after a detail. Holding off on routine maintenance may cause permanent damage to your vehicle. Maintain your vehicle as often as you can for optimal cleanliness. I promise your detailer will thank and appreciate you.
