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I made the mistake of getting my car detailed once and I had no idea it could ever look so clean again so now I feel like a piece of shit if my cars don't always look sparkling factory new.
Been going down a rabbit hole of building a kit to do it myself which is fairly inexpensive and I'm getting decent results but I'm wondering if I'm becoming puritan housewife crazy and I should instead get a mobile detailer on a subscription basis or something.
Full disclosure: I'm a Youtube/15 years of pizza delivery certified parking lot mechanic, but I suck at detailing (too cheap to buy the right tools, too lazy to really follow through and push for better than 7/10 results). The best I can do is "not dirty", which works for my purposes but isn't "detailed".
My first impulse is to say "just get a quarterly detail" but if you're happy with the results that you're getting for the time/money you're putting in I would say to keep going. There's nothing wrong with valuing cleanliness and while I'm cool with "not dirty" a freshly detailed car feels good in a way that's hard to put into words.
I guess the real question I'd ask is "Do you enjoy doing the work?". I kind of dislike working on cars these days but I still get that rush of accomplishment when a job goes well and I either saved myself a bunch of money or I was able to do a solid for a friend for basically free.
I'm getting pretty okay results for a noob.
I bought one of these cleaning goo/gel ball things and it's been great for pulling cruft out of crevices.
Today I wondered why I don't try Windex with some microfiber cloths for the windows (inside and outside) and that went reasonably well. It streaks a bit but I think I can figure it out.
I have vacuum attachments in the mail that should help me clean the last 1% of little bits of schmutz from the interior I couldn't get out otherwise.
I haven't tried doing the wheels or wheel wells yet but I'm close.
I think I enjoy it. Might freak out the next time the kids track sand or leaves in the car. But maybe not because I'll have the kit standing by at home to clean it out in 15 seconds? We'll see!
What is a pizza delivery certified parking lot mechanic?
In my experience paper towels work best for windows. If you want to be fancy or have window tint that doesn't mix with ammonia get the glass cleaner that comes in a can. It smells nice!
Wheels are tedious but not that hard.
I used too many words to just say "YouTube certified mechanic" instead of "ASE certified mechanic" (aka a real mechanic). I'm not a real mechanic, but I was a delivery driver for a long time and between keeping my own car on the road and working on cars for coworkers or friends (At the delivery company I used to work at I was the unofficial company mechanic.) I've learned a few things along the way. You can find a video showing how to do most jobs (and lots on auto detailing) on common cars on YouTube, and it's a quick way to preview a job and decide whether I want to do it or farm it out to a shop.
For example, changing a CV axle on an 8th generation Honda Civic (2006-2011) is fairly easy so long as you have an impact wrench (A battery powered impact wrench is the best tool I've ever bought.), a pry bar, and a big enough hammer. Changing the starter on those same cars if it's the Si model with the bigger engine is NOT a fun job (ditto for an AC compressor; an alternator swap isn't hard though), so I would pay a shop to do that unless I absolutely had to save the money on labor.
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