It is one thing to wash a car, and quite another to complete detailing for a luxury car. The difference between one concept and another is simply abysmal and today we are going to see a series of examples of how some of the most expensive cars in the world are cleaned.
Under a quality production, those in charge of giving us the opportunity to show us how the most exclusive cars on the planet are cleaned are the guys from Topaz Detailing, a company with a delegation in London and Bristol that is responsible for making the cars of the wealthiest people perfect, like JayKay, Richard Hammond, Jenson Button, Bruno Senna or Horacio Pagani.
Detailed luxury as a way of life for supercars
Each cleaning process begins with the tires, the dirtiest point of a car, however clean, cared and in perfect condition. The waste caused by the wear effect of the brakes accumulates on the rims, the suspension elements and the interior of the wheel arches, so they are washed twice: once and then another, repeating the whole process after turning the wheels. Finally, a rinse with hot water is applied.
For those customers who want an even more in-depth treatment, each of the wheels is removed to be cleaned and polished inside. While one worker takes care of the interior of the tires, another steam-cleans the suspension and brake equipment. A ceramic anti-dirt treatment is applied to both parts.
Subsequently, pressurized filtered water is sprayed all over the body and, using a special soap and natural horse brushes, the entire engine compartment is cleaned, as well as each joint, emblem and the body to remove the embedded dirt. Then it is rinsed again with water.
For the next phase, a special soap is used for paint, a product specially designed to preserve the finish of each job (matte, gloss, satin …) and which is rubbed using a sheep wool brush. With the whole body well lathered, a new rinse is carried out. Always with the right pressure and without approaching the water jet more than necessary to avoid damaging cars as subpar as the McLaren F1 with chassis number 73, the last one manufactured.
Once all the foam has been removed, the body is dried, which is not done by simply letting the water drain, but to avoid drying marks, special absorbent towels are used that are applied without rubbing over the entire vehicle. In less accessible places such as tires, a pressurized air gun is used to evacuate the water.
After drying, the entire body is inspected for possible imperfections and, if necessary, apply the smooth correction, such as a good polish by measuring the depth of the paint first, before proceeding to the protection process. The entire process carried out on this Ferrari 812 Superfast took about 100 hours of work.
The interior does not remain apart from the detail. Each element is cleaned with the corresponding products, preventing dust from scratching any element and hydrating all those leather upholsteries to restore their original shine and touch. As with the exterior, the smooth, shiny areas are also polished to remove all marks.
With the whole car clean and after having given it one last look to remove all the dust and check the final work, treatment with a ceramic waterproofing product is applied to repel water and prevent dirt deposits.
If extra body protection is required, some customers request an additional coat. Using a thin transparent film pre-cut to size, each part and each body panel can be covered with a kind of transparent film to safeguard the integrity of the body. A kind of transparent vinyl to have a perfect car for even longer.
What we do not know is what price this whole process will have, but surely and judging by the number of hours of specialized labour that are invested in each car, it is surely more than what a second-hand utility car costs.
Finally, these specialists, if a car needs to be returned to its absolutely original (or better) condition, are also capable of replicating factory paint jobs as special as the Liquid Metal paint used on this Porsche 918 Spyder. A job with a cost of $ 65,000.