How to Detail Your Vehicle
Saturday, December 15th, 2007 by adminSo you?ve decided you?d like you car to have a clean and polished look. Consider detailing your vehicle. You can do it yourself. It doesn?t take much to do an excellent job detailing a vehicle if you have the patience to develop the skill.
There are many the steps involved in detailing a vehicle: polishing the paint, cleaning the interior, trunk, engine compartment and undercarriage of the vehicle. As you can see this is an intensive job that involves a lot of labor. If you?re new to vehicle detailing, it?ll take you about half a day to complete the task. Enlist a trusted friend to help to save on time.
When you?re ready to get started you?ll need to gather your supplies. Here are the items you need: safety goggles, clean rags, soap, vacuum cleaner, toothbrush, carpet cleaner, wheel brush, plastic bags, paper towels, degreaser, masking tape and semi-gloss black spray paint
Clean your vehicle?s exterior with soap and water. Then dry off the vehicle. Open the hood of the vehicle, start the engine and spray degreaser on various components under the hood. Wear your safety goggles while doing this. After you?ve sprayed the degreaser, turn off the engine. Take your brush and scrub the built up grease. Turn the engine on and hose it off with water. Avoid the air intake. Place a plastic bag over the open air filter to avoid getting water in the engine. You must be very careful not to get water in the engine. You can avoid this step if you are too uncomfortable.
After you?ve worked under the hood apply degreaser on the wheels using a wheel brush. Then quickly wash it off as to not cause damage to the wheels.
Now it?s time to work on the interior. Make sure you?ve removed all items from the inside of the vehicle. Take your vacuum and clean all carpeted areas. You can use carpet cleaner to remove tough stains. One excellent product for this is a multi purpose cleaner, Awesome. To clean the inside of the windshield and windows use Windex or another reliable window cleaner. Wipe the windows dry with paper towels. Newspaper also works well to avoid streaks.
Your next focus will be the dashboard. Armor All works well to work out grime in well used areas. Use a toothbrush to work through the smaller detailed areas. You?ll be surprised at how much of a difference cleaning the dashboard will make. Purchase some Armor All wipes for quick touch up cleaning jobs.
When you?re done cleaning the interior of the vehicle, use a semi-gloss black spray paint on the rear axle, suspension components and other visible areas. This will give your vehicle a more a polished look.
The last step in your detailing job is to polish and wax the vehicle to give the vehicle a smooth and shiny appearance. Finally, clean the exterior glass.
If you put in the time and effort to detail you vehicle, you not only increase its value but have a vehicle you?ll enjoy driving.