A wash cleans what's sitting on your car. Detailing fixes what's stuck in it. Here's every treatment Jacob does, how to tell if your car needs it, and why it's worth paying someone who knows what they're doing.
Pulls out the grit that is stuck in the paint, which a wash mitt slides right over.
Does your car need it?
Put your hand in a sandwich bag and run it across the hood. If it feels like fine sandpaper, you need it.
Tiny orange or brown dots on white or silver paint are rail dust and brake dust rusting on the surface.
Any car that is about to be polished, sealed or coated. Protection will not bond to dirty paint.
What it involves
An iron remover goes on first and dissolves the metal particles. You can watch it turn purple as it works. Then a clay bar glides over every panel on a layer of lubricant and lifts out what is left: tree sap mist, industrial fallout, overspray.
Why it takes a pro
Clay picks up whatever it touches. Press too hard, skip the lubricant or keep using a piece that has grit in it, and you drag that grit across the paint and leave scratches. It gets folded to a clean face constantly, and a piece that hits the ground goes in the trash.
Comes with The Refresh, The Knockout and The Revival.
Takes a microscopically thin layer off the clear coat so it is flat again and reflects light cleanly.
Does your car need it?
Shine a phone flashlight on the paint at night. If you see circles of fine scratches around the light, those are swirls.
Paint that looks dull or hazy even when it is clean.
Dark cars, and any car that has been through brush car washes.
What it involves
A machine polisher with a pad and a compound is worked across each panel in slow, overlapping passes. The Revival is a one-step polish that removes up to half the defects. Paint headed for a ceramic coating usually gets two steps: a cut, then a finishing polish.
Why it takes a pro
The clear coat is thinner than a sheet of paper, and once it is gone it is gone. Every car is different: some paint is soft and marks easily, some is hard and barely moves. Edges and body lines have the least paint on them and burn through first. Jacob tests a small spot first and takes only as much as the paint needs.
03 Water sits flat on the paint instead of beading
Paint sealant
A layer of protection that sits on top of the paint, so bugs, sap and road film hit it instead of your clear coat.
Does your car need it?
Spray the hood with a hose. If the water sits in flat sheets and runs off slowly, there is no protection left.
Cars parked outside, under trees, or driven through winter.
Anyone who wants washing to be easier. Dirt lets go of sealed paint.
What it involves
Wax looks great and lasts weeks. A sealant is synthetic and lasts months. A ceramic coating lasts years. The sealant goes on panel by panel after the paint has been decontaminated, then it is left to cure.
Why it takes a pro
It only lasts as long as the surface underneath is clean. Sealant over gritty paint seals the grit in and peels off early. That is why it comes after the clay bar, never instead of it.
Comes with The Knockout, The Revival and Paint Correction & Ceramic Coating. Or add it to any other package for from $135.
A hard, glassy layer bonded to the paint that keeps its gloss and water beading for years, not months.
Does your car need it?
New cars. It is the best time to coat, before the swirls start.
Anyone keeping a car for three years or more. It usually pays for itself in washes and polishing you skip.
Garage-kept cars, collectors and lease returns you want spotless.
What it involves
A decontamination wash, iron remover and clay. Then machine correction, because a coating locks in whatever is underneath it. Then the coating goes on one panel at a time, gets levelled, and cures.
Why it takes a pro
Most of the job is the prep, and that prep is paint correction. The coating itself has a short window: wipe it too soon and it smears, too late and it leaves a hard, rainbow-looking high spot that has to be polished off. A coating over swirls makes the swirls permanent.
Paint Correction & Ceramic Coating. Quoted after Jacob sees the paint.
Sands off the burned, yellowed top layer of the lens, polishes it clear and seals it so it stays that way.
Does your car need it?
Any lens that looks foggy or yellow from the outside.
If your low beams barely light the road, cloudy lenses can cut the light a lot. This is a safety fix, not just a looks one.
Cars about to be sold. Clear headlights make a car look years younger.
What it involves
The lens is masked off and wet sanded through several grits, each finer than the last, then machine polished until it is clear. A UV-blocking sealant goes on at the end.
Why it takes a pro
The plastic is soft and the paint around it is close. Skip a grit and the sanding marks show forever. Skip the UV seal and the yellow comes back in a few months, which is what happens with the kits from the auto parts store.
Brings faded black plastic trim, bumpers and mirror caps back to a deep black.
Does your car need it?
SUVs and trucks with lots of unpainted plastic.
Trim that leaves a white or gray mark when you rub it.
Cars that look clean but still old. Faded trim is usually why.
What it involves
The trim is deep cleaned to get the old dressings and oxidation out of the pores, the paint around it is protected, and a restorer goes on that soaks in rather than sitting on top.
Why it takes a pro
The shiny spray from the gas station sits on the surface, looks wet for a week and runs down the paint in the first rain. A real restoration starts with getting the plastic truly clean, and keeping it off the paint.
A careful degrease and clean of everything under the hood, then a dressing so plastics and rubber look new.
Does your car need it?
Selling or trading in. A clean engine bay tells a buyer the car was looked after.
Leaves, nests or salt built up around the cowl and battery.
Older cars where leaks are hard to spot under the grime.
What it involves
Sensitive electrics are covered, the bay is degreased and agitated by hand, rinsed gently with low pressure, dried and dressed.
Why it takes a pro
Water in the wrong connector can cause a warning light or worse. Knowing what to cover, how much water to use and how to dry it is the whole job. A pressure washer is the wrong tool.
Comes with The Knockout. Or add it to any other package for $75.
Flushes carpets and cloth seats with hot water and pulls the dirty water back out, along with what soaked down into the padding.
Does your car need it?
White salt rings on the floor from winter boots.
Kids, car seats, spilled coffee, anything that soaked in.
Seats that look clean but feel sticky or smell when the car warms up.
What it involves
Seats and carpet are pre-treated, agitated with brushes, then flushed and extracted. Steam handles the spots that should not get soaked, like seams, vents and cup holders. Then everything is dried.
Why it takes a pro
A vacuum only gets the surface. What you smell lives in the foam under it. Too much water and the seat stays damp for days and grows mildew. Too little and the stain wicks back up when it dries. Getting it right is about knowing how much each material can take.
Gets out the hair that is woven into the carpet, which a vacuum alone will not pull up.
Does your car need it?
Any car a dog rides in regularly.
Hair you can see stuck in the carpet weave or seat fabric after vacuuming.
Before selling a car. Buyers with allergies notice.
What it involves
Rubber brushes and stones loosen the hair from the fibers so it can be vacuumed up, section by section.
Why it takes a pro
There is no shortcut. Pet hair weaves itself into carpet and has to be worked out by hand, a few square inches at a time. Heavy hair can add an hour or more, which is why the quote asks how much there is.
The quote asks about it, and the price depends on how bad it is.
Finds what is causing the smell and gets rid of it, rather than covering it with a fragrance.
Does your car need it?
Smokers, or a car bought from one.
Spilled milk, food or anything left in a hot car.
A musty smell when the A/C comes on.
What it involves
Every source gets cleaned out: carpet, seats, headliner, vents and the places under the seats nobody looks. Then the cabin is treated to neutralize what is left in the air.
Why it takes a pro
An air freshener lasts a week and then you get both smells. Smoke gets into the headliner and the vents, and spilled milk soaks down to the floor pan. The smell stays until the source is cleaned out.
Comes with The Refresh and The Knockout. The quote asks about it, and the price depends on how bad it is.
11 The hull is chalky and leaves white on your hand
Gelcoat oxidation (boats)
Polishes the oxidized, chalky top layer off the gelcoat so the color and shine come back, then protects it.
Does your car need it?
Wipe the hull with your hand. If it comes away white, the gelcoat is oxidized.
Boats that sit in the sun all summer at the lake.
Colors that have faded, like red going pink or navy going gray.
What it involves
The hull is washed, then machine polished with a compound matched to how bad the oxidation is, then sealed so the sun has something to burn through first.
Why it takes a pro
Waxing over oxidation just traps the chalk. Light oxidation polishes off quickly, heavy oxidation takes several passes, and how bad it is changes the price. That is why the quote asks.
Marine Maintenance, from $175. The quote asks about it, and the price depends on how bad it is.
