Unfortunately for many people, “car detailing” means simple car maintenance. But car detailing is so much more than ‘usual cleaning of your car’. 

Detailing is a process to restore the vehicle to “as new condition” after the car has gone through daily wear and tear. 

A professional car detailing process starts with various types of washing like:

• Simple Washing: Wet sponge vehicle and hose off
• Wash and dry: Washing with chamois dry-off
• Wash and Vacuum: Washing, plus an interior vacuum

If you’re confused about car detailing and want to know how it can prolong your car’s life for good, continue reading this article. 

Common Car Issues That may Require Detailing

• Overspray: This can be visually noticeable or felt by running your hand over the bodywork and observing a sandpaper effect. This is usually caused by airborne paint residue settling on your paintwork and glassed areas.
• Paint blotching: Usually an irreparable condition mainly caused by the breakdown of the pigment due to age and neglect. Normally rectification involves a repaint of the affected areas.
• Oxidization (faded paintwork): Vehicles oxidize within 60 days of being painted. The Ultraviolet rays from sunlight cause oxidation. This is particularly noticeable when vehicles have not had regular maintenance and upkeep to the painted surfaces – they are basically sunburnt. Regular polishing puts back moisture into the paintwork.

Various Types of Car Detailing Processes

Polishing

This step involves hand-applied polymer in addition to simple washing. If not performed correctly, the finish can suffer from “swirl marks,” which are particularly hard to remove and detracts from the appearance of your vehicle. 

It can be rectified but may involve a long process. A polish will only last 2 to 3 months, depending upon how the vehicle is stored/garaged.

Note: A Polish will not remove scratches. Retail polishes may contain fillers which temporarily give the illusion that the scratches have been removed. Still, after just a few washes, the filler is gone, and the scratches will reappear.

Machine Cut & Polishing

This is a 2 stage process with a multi-speed buffing machine (this takes years of experience). It is best recommended to be done by a car mechanic. 

Some amateurs consider that maximum results can be achieved by hand application as they simply do not have the expertise, knowledge, or equipment to achieve a professional result (uniform results cannot be achieved by hand application). 

This process removes dullness, oxidization, minor scratches, scuffs, and most forms of industrial fallout.

Using Protective Sealants

Protective Sealants are professionally applied glaze containing “Temperaflex,” a nonstick all-climate sealant with the ability to absorb ultraviolet rays eliminating oxidation. 

Sealants are not polishes. They form a rock hard shield to magnify luster and repel foreign matter. Do not confuse sealants with paint protection, as most protections simply do not work effectively. In harsh climatic conditions, sealants help protect your vehicle’s investment!

Shampooing

This is the process for washing, cleaning, and extraction, removing all embedded dirt, grease, body fat, and many other natural contaminants from the seats and carpet areas by using high-powered professional equipment. 

Do not confuse this with dry cleaning, which only removes surface spotting. 

Note: Dog hair removal is a separate process, requiring a special appliance. Also, removing human and pet accidents is a different process requiring the killing of any resultant bacteria.

Detailing of Leather Upholstery

Cleaning a car seat’s leather upholstery involves removing most embedded soil, food stains, and other stains from virtually all car fabric. Conditioning moisturizes the leather and helps to maintain its soft luxurious feel, reducing its aging and cracking.

Final Word

Detailing is an important process to ensure your car keeps working in top-notch condition. You may also come across a damaged car part that needs immediate replacement. 

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Recognizing the value of authentic handmade crafts sought after by tourists in particular, not to mention the job opportunities that accompany such a vibrant cottage industry, Morocco sought assistance from America’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to resettle an entire community of coppersmiths and tanners in a modernized complex that has less of an environmental impact on the Sebbou River. 

The new Ain Nokbi handicraft complex in Fez, one of the oldest Islamic centers in the world, was partially constructed as an antidote to the severely contaminated Sebbou River.

Previously, byproducts of the Lalla Yeddouna Square craft center, where men have been tanning hides and working copper for hundreds of years, ran directly into the city’s water supply – causing a tremendous hazard.

Suggestions to clean up the ancient medina were met with cries of protest, and understandably so. Despite their environmental impact, copper and leather crafts that have sustained thousands of families that have grown up alongside this UNESCO world heritage site.

Instead of dispossessing the craftsmen altogether, a more sophisticated urban intervention was necessary.

“The complex includes 235 copper ware production units, three areas with 272 workshops dedicated to sub-contractor craftsmen, including 78 workshops for craftsmen of the Lalla Yeddouna Square who area beneficiaries of the relocation,” according to Bernama – Malaysia’s national news agency.

A market for raw leather and a traditional tannery were also built, giving artisans a much-needed boost that will allow them to improve the quality of their crafts.

MCC and Morocco essentially split the cost of the Ain Nokbi handicraft complex in half.

Other historical sites in the city, such as Chemmayine, Sbitriyine, Staouniyine and El Barka fondouk, also received an upgrade as part of the restoration project, according to Bernama.

A synagogue has also been restored as part of a national plan to ensure all of Morocco’s synagogues are upgraded out of deference to country’s longstanding Jewish history.

This project generated 1,250 jobs.

Image of Fez tannery © Barbara Blanchard for UNESCO WHC 

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Traditional broom makers from Ghassaniyeh in the southern district of Zahrani told Lebanon’s Daily Star that they once made a decent living making straw brooms using materials sourced from the local region. But now straw itself has become prohibitively expensive and the community is turning to cheap nylon or plastic brooms that don’t work as well, putting yet another cottage industry at risk of obscurity.

Armenian-style broom-making was first introduced to southern Lebanon 75 years ago, according to the Daily Star.

Hajj Abbas Atweh taught men living in Ghassaniyeh how to source straw, soak it, and then bundle up to 500 pieces into a cohesive unit. Once assembled, the pieces are cut to give it a polished, finished look.

The craft soon became a tradition that the entire family could take part in, including children and grandparents.

Mohammad Hodroj, who was among Atweh’s original students, told the paper that at one time his family produced as many as 15,000 brooms annually. The soft straw was sourced from Egypt, Iraq and Syria while hard straw, which is harder to cut and manipulate and used for cleaning brooms, came from Bulgaria and Hungary.

But now it costs $2,000 a pound to purchase the straw for a product that sells for little more than $2 and artisans are struggling to cope – so much so that they have appealed to the Ministry of Industry and Tourism to help protect their craft.

And in order to generate awareness and interest in what they do, artisans have begun to invite children from various schools in Lebanon to come and visit them.

It’s hard to be competitive when a Chinese factory can process lesser quality plastic or nylon brooms for a fraction of the cost, but Abu Khater claims that these products are much inferior to the traditional straw brooms.

In addition to being less effective, “synthetic materials can also damage the carpets and other home textiles, whereas the straw broom cleans the carpet gently,” Hussein Abu Khater told the paper.

With approximately 80 brooms under his belt each day, Abu Khater is not completely out of business, but he fears that he and other villagers dependent on the trade might soon become completely swept out of business by the cheaper competition and less robust design model.

Somehow we have to ensure that doesn’t happen.

:: Daily Star

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