How Long Does It Take To Detail A Car?
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A detailed car looks sharp, free of dirt, debris, and shining like a new penny. Every little detail is taken care of, cleaning out every nook and cranny from the inside out. Though detailing your car might sound like something you want to try, you may be wondering, “how long does it take to detail a car?
While it sounds like a great idea to be able to drive around in a beautifully clean car, the truth is, it might not be worth it, especially if you’re rushed for time. Detailing could last long but, that depends on how the weather is, which is something we can’t always predict.
Why Detail a Car: The Inside (and Outside) Scoop
Besides the obvious benefit of a well-oiled and shined-up car, there are other reasons to keep your car clean and detailed. As far as the exterior, keeping dirt, droppings, and other things off of the exterior will help to keep the paint in tip-top shape. If left too long, these things can turn to acids and start stripping the paint off of your car.
For the interior, it’s important to give your car a good cleaning every once in a while. For leather seats, detailing will help prevent cracks and for cloth seats, odors and stains. On top of that, you want to enter into a car that’s free of dust and dirt, breathing smoothly as you ride along. Change the air filters and clean all the nooks and crannies as often as you can.
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How Long Does It Take to Detail a Car?
When searching for how long does it take to detail a car, there is not just one common answer. The amount of time that it takes depends on the type of detail you want and whether it includes both the interior and exterior of your car.
The Quickie Detail
There is such a thing as a quick detail, which can take as little as 30 minutes. During a quick detailing, either yourself or a car washing company will wash off dirt and debris and follow up with a few sprays of a detailing spray. Using a microfiber cloth, they will then wax on and wax off until your car looks like new.
They’ll also pay attention to all your windows, mirrors, and both the front and back windshield, making it spic and span to sparkle as you drive it off.
The Power Wash Detail
If you have more dirt or caked-up mud to deal with, then you might need a power wash instead. In this kind of wash, you or your car wash technician will use a power washer to get rid of all the stuck-on stuff. Then, some kind of cleaner is applied that creates suds, which are then quickly rinsed off once again.
The car is then dried, polished, and all of the glass is cleaned off for a complete more in-depth detail than the quickie. Altogether, this wash takes about 45 minutes to an hour.
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The Works
With the works, it’s not just about the outside but the inside too. If detailing with a certified detailer, you can expect them to have tools that get into the tightest creases in your car, something that you probably couldn’t do yourself.
Following the same process as the power wash, your car is pretty much treated the same. The only difference on the outside may be an extra powerful gloss or a stain and scratch-resistant polish to protect the coat and make it shine.
The major difference comes when detailing the inside, which consists of a few things like:
- Vacuuming
- Brushing off the mats
- Removal of debris in between seats
- Use of a leather protectant *if applicable
- Cleaning of all interior mirrors
Because of all the small stuff, you can expect this type of car detailing to take anywhere from an hour to two hours.
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Prep and Polish Style Detailing
There is a type of detailing that’s super deep, which polishes the entire outside of the car and puts a protective barrier over the paint. For this type of detailing, you’ll need about 4 to 5 hours, so it’s something that you should put on your schedule.
In this type of detailing, detailers use a stripping product, followed by iron and bug removers. Then, they wipe it over with a clay bar to get it up and ready to go.
Then the polishing starts, taking place in about 1 to 3 steps. The end result will be a perfectly polished car with zero paint scratches or nicks. Though this is a more extreme and very intense form of detailing, it’s something that you won’t have to do often.
The Cost of Detailing a Car
As you might have guessed, the cost of detailing a car increases with the amount of time it takes. Quickie detailing lasts only about 30 minutes and might run you anywhere from $15 to $30.
If you want the works, it’s going to cost you, increasing for the time it takes and the size of your vehicle.
For the prep and polish, this is a specialty sort of detailing those costs quite a bit, though it’s not something that you do every day. With this kind of detailing, you may only need to do it once a year or once every two years depending on the wear and tear.
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Schedule your Detailing
Now that you know how long does it take to detail a car, you can make better plans when it comes to detailing. Think about the amount of time and the cost, which will give you a better idea of which detail to choose.
From the outside in, there are so many small details that you can scrub and rinse, turning your car to polished perfection.
Do it yourself or take it to a certified detailer, watching as your dirt-filled car gets a good solid scrub.
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