We’ll get one thing straight, New Jersey has no shortage of car washes. If you drive 20 minutes in any direction in this state, you’ll probably drive by at least 10 detailing shops. Most of them will get your car clean in the basic sense of the word. None of them is doing what Detailed Auto Pros does.
The difference between a car wash and a professional detail is not a matter of time or price. It’s a matter of what actually happens to the vehicle. The best car detailing shop in New Jersey isn’t the one with the flashiest advertising or the most Google reviews. It’s the one where the work speaks clearly enough that neither of those things needs to carry the weight.
What Is Professional Detailing?
Automotive detailing is the restoration and protection of every surface of a vehicle. This includes the paint, glass, wheels, tires, trim, carpet, and every material in between. Every surface has a specific technique applied to it, which essentially leaves the vehicle in better condition than a standard cleaning service can achieve.
The Process, Products and Expertise Involved
What separates Detailed Auto Pros from the rest is that we understand what we’re doing, use products appropriate for the vehicle and specific conditions, and deliver results that are visible and measurable.
1. Paint Decontamination
Before any polishing or coating work can be done, the paint surface needs to be decontaminated.
The process starts with a chemical decontamination step using an iron remover. Iron fallout reacts with the iron remover, which encapsulates the particles, allowing them to be safely rinsed away. You can see the iron remover turning from clear to a deep purple-red as it reacts with the ferrous particles. On a car that’s never been decontaminated, the amount of contamination that rinses away is striking.
2. Paint Correction
Paint correction removes clear coat defects, such as swirl marks and light scratches, using machine polishing.
The process uses a rotary polishing machine with a microfiber pad to apply a finishing compound to the paint surface. The abrasive particles microscopically level the clear coat surface, removing the swirl marks and scratches.
The skill required for this process is extremely high. Too much machine speed, pressure or the wrong compound-pad combination could possibly burn through the clear coat, causing irreversible damage that requires repainting. Detailed Auto Pros technicians perform paint thickness measurements with a paint depth gauge before correction work begins. This assesses the existing clear coat thickness at multiple points across the vehicle and establishes safe working parameters.
3. Ceramic Coating
Wax and sealant have been traditional paint-protection options for decades. Their only limitation, however, is that they’re not durable.
Ceramic coatings are liquid polymer solutions that bond chemically to the clear coat, forming a semi-permanent protective layer of silicon dioxide that becomes part of the paint surface rather than sitting on top of it. This offers incredible durability to the paint.
Ceramic coating offers:
- Hardness, which makes the paint resistant to scratches
- Hydrophobicity, which means water particles roll off the surface
- Chemical resistance to acids, alkaline cleaners, road salt, and bird droppings
- UV protection that leads to slow oxidation and fading of the automotive paint
Detailed Auto Pros is certified in professional-grade ceramic coating systems and has an incredibly talented and hardworking team to handle it for you.
Also Read: The Complete Guide to Car Detailing in New Jersey
Detailed Auto Pros Offers a Range of Services
While we do offer paint correction and ceramic coating, an important aspect of professional detailing, that’s not all we handle. We also offer:
1. Wheel and Brake Dust Treatment
You’d be surprised to know just how much iron fallout wheels are exposed to every single day! Iron removal involves using a pH-appropriate wheel cleaner to remove iron, simplify ongoing wheel maintenance, and slow recontamination.
2. Glass Treatment
Windshield glass treated with a hydrophobic coating sheds water at highway speeds without wipers, which improves visibility in rain. The treatment also resists the water spots and haze that untreated glass has.
3. Headlight Restoration
Oxidized headlight lenses scatter rather than transmit light, reducing both illumination and the appearance of your vehicle. Wet sanding and polishing of oxidized lenses, followed by UV-protective sealing, restores clarity and function. A vehicle with crystal-clear headlights looks newer and is demonstrably safer to drive at night.
What the Detail Experience at Detailed Auto Pros Looks Like
From the moment a vehicle arrives, the process is systematic and specific to that vehicle.
We conduct an initial assessment that includes inspecting the vehicle’s paint condition. This assessment determines which correction steps are needed and what product and pad combinations are appropriate for the specific paint hardness and defect profile.
The timeline for a full decontamination, paint correction, and ceramic coating application is not a one-hour job. A proper correction and coating on a full-size vehicle is a 1- to 3-day project, depending on the paint condition and the coating system applied. Shops that offer this service in a single afternoon are either performing a simplified version of it or cutting corners in ways that affect the result.
If you want your vehicle treated the way the best car detailing shop in New Jersey actually treats a car, Detailed Auto Pros is the answer. Reach out to see our work and schedule your appointment.