Detailing: Some Assembly Required
Greetings everyone! It’s been a great summer for the detailing team here at SweetCars, and I’m really excited about the new SweetCars Minute on our YouTube channel. Each week, I offer a new detailing tip or technique to help the detail enthusiast. In addition, our blog is constantly growing and is now being viewed by a worldwide audience from over 70 countries. It’s great to correspond with detailers from around the globe about the cars we’re working on here at SweetCars. So, whether we’re giving a tip about paint correction to a detailer in the UK or sharing Ferrari interior cleaning secrets with a detailer in Italy, SweetCars is making its presence felt in the detailing world.
I’ve had a few vehicles come into the shop recently that required extreme detailing, which means that these vehicles had not received a thorough cleaning in some time. Dirt and debris had found a way into every nook, cranny, crack, and crevice on these vehicles. So, what should you do when the normal detail simply won’t do?
In instances like these, I recommend taking apart the trim and certain components to access and clean the stubborn hidden dirt. This is the type of detailing in which “some assembly is required.” In some cases, even the seats may need to be removed so that you can thoroughly clean all of the debris. Components such as shift boots, shift gates, and cup holders are also common parts that may sometimes need to be removed. Though detailers may choose to simply “work around” these area, the components can often be removed with very little effort, for greatly improved detailing results. If a part seems hard to clean, look for ways to remove it to gain better access. In our shop, we have to do this on occasion, and in one instance, we had to completely remove the seats from a Smart to clean it properly. Another time, we had to remove the bonnet from a Ford GT to gain better access to the engine for detailing. Most trim can be removed rather easily, and the Internet is a great resource for learning about this type of work. I would suggest removing only those parts that you feel confident in being able to assemble again. Intricate and complicated parts are best left to a professional. Use your best judgement in deciding whether removing a part is a good option for detailing that part of the vehicle.
Knowing when to remove parts is key to achieving better detailing results. Detailing is simply in the details of the work itself, and it’s this aspect that sets detailing apart from a simple general cleaning. Until next time, take pride in your freshly detailed ride.
