Detailingand coatings.

A car wash here is done by hand, the way our aftercare page describes, and the car is dried with clean towels. A foam wash adds a step before that: thick snow foam goes on from a lance and is left to sit, so grit loosens and rinses off before anyone puts a mitt on the paint.

A regular interior clean is a vacuum and a wipe-down. A deep clean goes further: seats, carpets and mats are shampooed, leather is cleaned, and a brush gets out the dust packed into air vents and seat seams. Stains that have sat in light upholstery for a long time sometimes only fade, and we'll show you those at the start. Every step is listed further down.

After the wash, this deals with whatever is still stuck to the bodywork. Tar spots come off with a tar remover, the bonded grit you can feel as roughness on clean paint is lifted with a clay bar, and the windows are cleaned inside and out before the tyres and black plastic trim get a dressing. Scratches are left for correction, the next job on the list.

This is machine polishing that takes a very thin layer off the clear coat, so swirl marks, light scratches and water spot etching are levelled out. We find them under the studio's white LED grid, where they make the reflection of each tube look fuzzy at the edges. A scratch deep enough to catch a fingernail has usually gone too far to polish out safely.

A ceramic coating is a liquid that bonds chemically with the paint and hardens into a thin, clear layer. We use Asian Paints PPG ceramic coating. It makes the clear coat harder, so the paint is slower to pick up scratches, and it adds gloss and depth and leaves a surface that water beads on and dirt rinses off. A graphene coating is usually a ceramic-type coating with graphene added. Neither type will stop a stone chip, and neither goes over paint protection film.

PPF is a clear polyurethane film, matte or gloss, laid over painted panels by hand, so stone chips and light scratches land on the film and the paint under it stays as it was. Any mark already underneath shows straight through it, which is why correction comes first. We fit Avery Dennison film, and the paint protection page goes through how much of the car to cover.

Windshield film is fitted to the outside of the glass, where it takes the sand and small stones that would otherwise pit the windshield. A big enough stone can still crack it, and the film won't hide a chip that's already there. Once the wipers have worn it, the old piece peels off and a new one goes on.

Most modern headlight lenses are plastic, and they go yellow and cloudy once the coating on the outside breaks down in the sun. Restoring one means sanding and polishing that damaged layer away, then sealing the bare plastic with a fresh protective coat, since without one the lens yellows again much sooner. Condensation inside the lamp or a cracked lens can't be fixed from outside.

A car that's just been driven in waits for the engine to cool, because rinsing a hot engine can damage it. Then we cover the exposed electrics and the air intake, loosen the grease and road grime with a degreaser and soft brushes, rinse the bay gently, dry it and dress the plastic covers.

Brake dust bakes onto alloy wheels, and car shampoo on its own rarely shifts it. We work a wheel cleaner over the faces, between the spokes and as far into the inner barrel as a brush will reach, and clean the tyre sidewalls while we're there.

We wipe a glass coating onto the windshield and windows, so rain runs off while you drive and dried insects come away more easily. The wipers wear it off fastest, which means the area they sweep needs redoing before the side windows do.