WRPD offers professional vehicle detailing services at our Leeds premises. Whether your car is old or new, vinyl-wrapped or original paintwork, our expert team will get it looking its best.

We offer a range of detailing services designed to protect new vehicles from paint damage, restore older cars to their original conditions, and polish paintwork for resale, maximising your vehicle’s value.

In this guide, we’ll examine car detailing, explain how to get your car detailed, and answer the most important question: What does it mean to get your car detailed?

What is car detailing?

Car detailing is the meticulous process of cleaning, restoring, and protecting a vehicle to maintain its appearance and extend its lifespan. Unlike a regular car wash, detailing involves thoroughly cleaning and reconditioning the car’s interior and exterior, employing specialised tools and products.

Exterior detailing

Exterior detailing is a comprehensive process that involves washing, polishing, and waxing the car’s body, wheels, and windows. It removes dirt, grime, scratches, and contaminants that accumulate over time.

The steps include washing and drying the car, clay bar treatment to remove embedded contaminants, polishing to remove swirl marks and minor scratches, and applying a protective wax or sealant.

The wheels and tyres are also cleaned and dressed, and the windows are thoroughly cleaned for maximum clarity, ensuring a complete transformation of your vehicle’s exterior.

Interior detailing

Interior detailing involves a deep cleaning of the car’s interior cabin. This process includes vacuuming and shampooing the upholstery, carpets, and floor mats to remove dirt, stains, and odours.

Leather seats are cleaned and conditioned, and all plastic, vinyl, and glass surfaces are wiped down and polished. The dashboard, vents, and other hard-to-reach areas are cleaned to ensure a dust-free environment.

Interior detailing enhances the car’s aesthetics and improves air quality and overall comfort.

Benefits of car detailing

Expert car detailing services offer several benefits. There’s the immediate benefit of driving a great-looking vehicle and the extra resale value you’ll gain as a result.

Maintain vehicle value

Your car’s value depends on many factors, but its visual appeal is one of them. Dull, damaged paintwork makes the vehicle look old and less cared for. Even an old car can be worth much more if it looks well-preserved.

Car detailing helps to keep vehicles looking like they just rolled off the production line. This can prevent some loss of value during the first few years of a new car’s life, and restore a significant amount of the resale price of older vehicles.

Enjoy original car detailing features

They say the devil’s in the detail, especially in professional car detailing, where the specific services and cleaning products depend on your car’s characteristics.

If your car has existing coatings, they can be removed, restored, or polished to a high-quality shine. Vinyl-wrapped vehicles can be detailed using suitable waxes and polishes that will not degrade the vinyl or reduce its life span.

Gain an extra level of protection

If your car is not already coated, vehicle detailing products can give it a suit of armour. Invisible ceramic coatings bond to the vinyl wrap or original paint job, creating permanent protection against chemical damage.

Ceramic coatings can only be removed by abrasion. Therefore, they should be seen as a permanent addition to your car —and may also increase its value.

Rest assured with improved safety

Car detailing improves driving conditions and brings peace of mind. It ensures clear visibility and a clean environment, providing unobstructed views through clean windows and mirrors.

Polished headlights enhance nighttime visibility, giving you confidence in your safety. Detailing removes dust and debris from vents, improving air quality and reducing allergens, further enhancing your peace of mind.

A clean, organised interior also prevents distractions, allowing you to focus better on the road.

Car detailing steps

Our vehicle detailing process follows a sequence of steps to ensure that everything is restored to its best, not only on the exterior surfaces of your car but also on the inside.

Multi-stage wash

First, we clean your car’s exterior completely. We use the 3-bucket grit guard safe wash system, which reduces the risk of fine grit or sand coming into contact with your paintwork.

We use professional, non-harmful chemicals to remove dirt and stains, which takes around two hours. This is the first step in a comprehensive car detailing procedure designed to deliver the best possible results.

Paint correction

Paint correction is the second stage, and in many cases, it’s the most important. This is a very customised part of the process, based on your car’s existing paintwork, any damage visible after cleaning, and any vinyl wraps or other surface finishes.

During this phase, we will take appropriate steps to remove fine surface scratches and swirl marks from previous abrasive cleaning. We will restore your paint to a full shine, repeating each stage as necessary to achieve the best results.

Ceramic coatings

A ceramic coating is a good addition to any vehicle detailing. It’s a protective clear coat that bonds to the paintwork or vinyl, similar to varnishing a piece of wood.

Once it’s fully bonded, a ceramic coating can only be removed by abrasion, so your paintwork is well protected against a variety of risks, including harmful chemicals.

Interior

We don’t neglect your car’s interior. In addition to cleaning, polishing, and protecting the exterior panels, we treat each interior surface individually.

This depends on the different materials used in your vehicle. Whether it’s fabric upholstery or leather seats, PVC dashboard or real wood inlay, we’ll choose the best products to clean and protect every surface, down to the smallest detail.

Our car detailing packages

We offer several vehicle detailing packages, giving you plenty of creative opportunities to enjoy a new look and style.

In general, Protection Detail is for newer cars, Correctional Detail is for older cars, and Enhancement Detail is the best way to prepare a vehicle for maximum resale value.

Protection detail

Protection detail is mainly for new cars. It takes your vehicle, removes any minor surface dirt, and adds protective coatings to keep the factory paintwork looking as new for as long as possible.

This process is cost-effective and preserves production line value. Different vehicle elements like wheel arches and alloys receive special attention. We can include premium ceramic coatings, alloy wheels, and glass coatings by request.

For those wanting extra protection, we also offer a specialist paint-protection film that works like an optically clear layer of armour to defend your car against everyday wear and tear.

Enhancement detail

Enhancement detail restores your vehicle’s exterior to the fullest shine possible. Any scratches and swirls in the clear coat are removed, and ceramic coatings are added to protect the paintwork for the future.

This is a popular option when planning to sell a car, as it can restore the existing paintwork to its best and achieve the maximum possible resale value.

Correctional detail

Correctional detail is aimed at older cars or those that have experienced damage to the paintwork due to cleaning with the wrong products, exposure to dirty or dusty road conditions, or any other light abrasion to the exterior.

The correctional detail process involves a painstaking deep clean of exterior dirt, followed by a forensic examination under UV light to identify any areas of damage to the paintwork.

We then carry out our multi-stage polishing, eliminating over 90% of noticeable damage after 20+ hours of work.

Why should I use a professional car detailing service?

It’s a good idea to use a professional car detailing service. You gain access to experience, expertise, and a wide variety of premium car cleaning products.

While you can buy some of these yourself – and we supply a range of car detailing products – it’s expensive to buy all the different products that will be used during car detailing.

Instead, it’s sensible to get your car detailed by the experts and then buy a few detailing products to maintain a high standard of finish for as long as possible.

How much does car detailing cost?

Our car and vehicle detailing services vary depending on the package customers choose. By filling out an enquiry form, we will provide a quote within 48 hours.

We proudly offer competitive rates and flexible pricing options for our vehicle detailing services. Learn more about our finance options.

How long does car detailing take?

Our team works with meticulous care and precision, meaning a full detailing service for your car can take up to a few days. We will inform you of the estimated duration during the booking process.

For those needing to work from home during the process, we also offer a vehicle drop-off service and the option of a courtesy vehicle.

Final thoughts

Vehicle detailing serves many different purposes. It can protect the paintwork of a brand-new car or a newly installed vinyl wrap.

Car detailing restores the original shine to damaged paintwork on older cars. Our car detailing service also gives vehicles a factory shine to increase their resale value if you’re considering selling.

Whatever the vehicle and whatever the reason you want it to receive our five-star treatment, you can rest assured that our expert team will give it their full attention, with no corners cut in the pursuit of the best possible finish for the exterior and interior.

If you have any questions or would like to book a vehicle detailing service for your car, please contact us at either our Leeds or Blackburn centres.