Many stages of professional detailing require a spacious and clean room with good ventilation, stable temperatures, and quality lighting. However, a novice detailer may truly desire to try all those tricks in the courtyard of a private house or in an ordinary spacious garage. For this purpose, you will need access to water and a small set of car cosmetics.
1. Washing the Car Body
First, you need to knock down large dirt with a high-pressure washer, then carry out a non-contact washing with active foam, and manually wash off static dirt with shampoo and a sponge. Alternatively, you can use the car steam cleaner. After washing the body, do not forget to wash the rims as well. It is best to do this last, using a special disc brush. This way you will not carry dirt from the wheels, where there is always much more of it, all over the car.
2. Clean the Body from Deep Dirt
Organic dirt is softened with solvents that only act on dirt, but do not spoil the paint. Then this softened dirt is carefully removed from the surface of the paintwork with a special sponge.
3. Clean Up and Protect Discs
You can simply clean the discs during a standard wash, but there is a problem —brake dust and scale, which cannot be removed with simple car shampoo. For this, special agents are used that are applied for 2–3 minutes, spread over the entire surface of the discs, and washed off.
4. Clean the Interior
If the upholstery is fabric, small surface contamination can be easily removed with special non-aggressive agents that quickly fade away. Separate areas with deep dirt are cleaned with stain removers. When the fabric is too dirty, only dry cleaning will help. In order not to bring it up, it is enough to vacuum the upholstery more often, especially in summer, when it is dusty and the windows are open.
5. Eliminate Unpleasant Odor in the Cabin
The easiest and fastest way to do this is with special car deodorants. They will help get rid of the smell of tobacco, sweat, and mustiness in the cabin. But if a bag of fish leaks in the car on a hot day, only dry cleaning will save you.
6. Apply a Protective Agent or Wax
This is done to give the cleaned car a shine and to protect it from new dirt sticking to it. At home, the easiest way to do this is to use liquid protective agents. These products are simply sprayed onto the surface of the car and evenly rubbed over the paintwork with microfiber. As an alternative, special polymer waxes can be used, but they are a little more difficult to apply.
7. Apply Anti-Rain
In order for the hydrophobic composition to properly lay on the windows and stay on them for as long as possible, the glass must be properly cleaned before using it. Regular washing is not enough: Even visually clean glass remains covered with a fatty film and mineral deposits.
