Winter Protection Packages

Winter is coming, and with it comes rain, road grime, grit, salt and miserable motorists in mucky cars.

 

We can’t protect you from all of the misery but we can protect your car from the winter weather, and give you something to smile about. 

or call Offset Detailing today on 01245 377024

Why choose Offset Detailing this Winter?

Offset Detailing is an award-winning car detailing service in Essex run by Daryl Benfield. Since 2015, Daryl has detailed more than 1,500 cars ranging from a brand new Ford Transit to an ultra rare modified Lamborghini Huracan Performante. Making Daryl one of the most experienced detailers in Essex.

 

Offset Detailing is a Kamikaze Collection Certified detailer, Auto Finesse approved and winner of Pyramid Car Care’s UK’s Favourite Detailer competition 2018. 

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Winter Protection Packages

Our winter detailing protection packages have been designed to get your car looking it’s best, and keep it that way protected from 6 months (with a Ceramic Wax) up to 2 years (with a Ceramic Coating). Not sure which is the right option for you? Call Offset Detailing today on 01245 377024.

Option 1

Includes a safe wash and Ceramic Wax
£ 150 From
  • Safe wash
  • Decontamination
  • Ceramic Wax*

Option 2

Includes a safe wash and Ceramic Coating
£ 250 From
  • Safe wash
  • Decontamination
  • Ceramic Coating**
Popular

Option 3

Includes all of option 2 and a single stage polish
£ 450 From
  • Safe wash
  • Decontamination
  • Single stage machine polish
  • Ceramic Coating**

*Ceramic Wax included in Option 1 is a collaborative wax by Ceramic Coating manufacturers Pyramid Car Care and Wax specialists ODK. 

 

**Ceramic Coating included in Option 2 and 3 is Pyramid Car Care’s Premium Ceramic Coating. A popular choice among Offset Detailing customers. Alternative brands available at an additional cost include Kamikaze Collection, Gtechniq, Gyeon and Carpro.

 

Call us today on 01245 377024 to discuss your requirements and get a free quote.

Extras 

It’s all in the detail with these optional extras. Get your car looking it’s best and some, from top to bottom, inside and out. Call us today on 01245 377024 to discuss your requirements and get a free quote.

Wheels off

 

Cleaned and coated inside out, with a high temp’ coating on brake calipers and wheels.

Leather Coating

 

Leather cleaned and protective coating applied to all leather surfaces

Multi stage 

 

Multi stage paint correction – for heavily swirled and heavy defects

Our Customer Reviews

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Winter Detailing Guide

Looking after your vehicle through the winter months is as crucial as the mechanical side of winter car care. With the added dirt build up and poor weather conditions, the road salt has changed over time and in recent years I have personally experienced a thick road salt residue on my car compared to the original road salt which in itself is not good for your vehicle’s paintwork and the vehicle in general.

 

With a car that’s used everyday through these months, it doesn’t take long for the dirt and road salt to build up and start degrading the cars paintwork, bare metals and obviously the appearance. So how do we go about looking after your vehicle if it hasn’t had a protective ceramic coating applied previously? And if you have had a coating applied, what’s the best way of looking after it?

 

The Hardware

 

Your home setup should include the following hardware:

 

  • A hose
  • Jet wash for intricate rinse downs
  • Snow foam cannon that attaches to your jet wash
  • Pre wash products including citrus pre wash, iron out remover, safe wheel cleaner, and a snow foam 
  • Wheel brushes
  • Two buckets for the bodywork wash and a separate bucket or two for your wheel cleaning. 
  • DO NOT use conventional sponges. Instead invest in some deep pile microfibre wash mitts, one for your bodywork, one for your wheels, and
  • Deep pile drying towels or a bigboi touchless car dryer.

 

If you’re really dedicated to the cause a pure water final rinse system is worth looking at and takes out 90% of the drying time. By using a resin filter after washing off the shampoo you can do a final pure water rinse that takes out all the impurities that normal taps have. By using a pure water final rinse, there is no need to dry, no water spots or streaks form on the paintwork so once the water naturally evaporates there’s no water marks, in conclusion the less contact with the paint on the drying stage the less chance of swirl marks, marring and scratches. 

 

The Wheel Wash

 

Me personally, I start with the wheels. An iron fallout remover like Pyramid Car Care’s Fallout Remover is an excellent product to remove heavy brake dust, iron fallout and road grime.

 

Spray onto the surface and leave it to do it’s thing. If the dirt build up is heavy some dedicated wheel brushes like Wheel Woolies to agitate the surface and rinse thoroughly.

 

You can also use a safe wheel cleaner but read the instructions ensuring it’s suitable for your wheel’s finish. I follow this up with a layer of snow foam and use a dedicated wash mitt to hand wash the wheels and rinse.

 

Do this one at a time on each wheel and that’s those ticked off the list. While your down there, a citrus pre wash and snow foam in the wheel arches and some suitable brushes takes care of that job loosening up trapped dirt.

 

The Body Wash

 

If your vehicle’s bodywork is covered in road grime, the best approach is to firstly use a citrus degreaser that is safe for paintwork and protective coatings. Pyramid Car Care’s Citrus Pre Wash is an ideal choice.

 

Pre wash is one of the most important parts of winter maintenance. The last thing you want to do is rub the dirt around your paintwork with your wash mitt or (heaven forbid) a sponge and inflict dirt and swirl marks into your paint’s finish.

 

Swirl marks, marring and scratches exist because of poor wash techniques!

 

Not using any sort of pre wash is a big no no! and you WILL damage the surface. It sounds odd, but the LESS CONTACT you have with your car’s surface the better for the paintwork, hence good pre wash products.

 

If the dirt build up is heavy, use the citrus pre wash neat by spraying it around the lower level of the car and it’s arches, door shuts, grills and intricate areas allowing it to break down the road film and enable you to safely jet wash the road grime off without moving it by hand like a cheap hand car wash would. This drastically helps against swirl marks and scratches being inflicted into the paintwork.

 

After the citrus pre wash has been left to dwell for around 5/10 minutes rinse thoroughly.

 

Next up, use fallout remover again but this time on the vehicle’s paintwork.This is a great product, and although not needed for every wash, applying this the same way as the citrus prewash will remove iron deposits that have bonded to the vehicle from brake dust build up, iron filings from industrial areas and train lines. The Fallout Remover will bleed red as the chemical reacts with the iron deposits. If these are left on the vehicle and not treated, over time this can result in rust spots on the paintwork, pitted lacquer and pitted, corroded wheels. Once the area becomes red, rinse thoroughly.

 

Next up is Snow Foam, some people get this wrong and moan about the consistency not being thick enough or not clinging. You don’t want dribbly, runny foam, you want Father Christmas North Pole red weather warning Christmas is cancelled because he’s snowed in thick foam.

With your foam lance, you ideally want an inch to two inches of product in there with some water to top it up to the brim. You can even dilute some citrus per wash in there too for a bit more ‘cut’ into the dirt. 

 

Apply this generously to the entire vehicle, inner arches, intricate areas. You may also want to think about a small soft exterior brush with hogs hair to agitate areas like grills, badges, inner parts of the bumper grills, seams, windscreen scuttle panels and shuts where dirt builds up. Leave this for 10 minutes or so and rinse thoroughly. 

 

Why snow foam though? It’s not a miracle cure for a dirty vehicle. The idea is to further loosen dirt and like I said before, the less contact the better, this is also great in the warmer months if you have a dusty car – this is great for a pre wash if that’s the case. 

 

THE HAND WASH

 

Delicacy is key. You may still have the odd bit of film dirt, it’s not unusual. Don’t worry, this is when the two bucket method pays off.

 

One of the most common mistakes when detailing is using a single bucket, because you can’t get away from the dirt, it’s all whirling around in your bucket with the shampoo, and then being swirled around your paintwork scratching your paintwork.

 

This is the main reason you car gets damaged at local £5 car washes. Each sponge, mitt, and cloth is used on every other car that comes in. It’s dunked in the same dirt filled wash troth and that dirt from the guy infront of you is generously passed along the line to you and the rest of the queue. That’s like sharing a shower mitt with everyone in your street who’s been taking part in Tough Mudder or Cross Country, simply not acceptable.  

 

Two buckets – one with your shampoo, try Pyramid Car Care’s Ultra Shampoo, and the second will be our rinse bucket for your mitt(s). Rinsing the mitt in the second bucket (preferably with grit guards) keeps the dirt separate from the shampoo, so unlike above you won’t be putting that dirt back onto the paintwork and creating defects.

 

 

Your wash mitt is going to pick up dirt naturally as you make your way around washing the vehicle. The trick here is simple. Work from the top half first. Less dirt is on the upper part of the vehicle, so lets start with the bonnet. With the shampoo solution loaded in the mitt, start closest to the windscreen gently and slowly in a straight line towards the front of the car wash the panel. Check that the mitt is clean, if dirty then that’s time to rinse the mitt clean and reload it with shampoo. You should be able to get away with half a bonnet/panel. If the mitt is clogged thoroughly rinse it. With panels like doors, wings and rear quarters, work from top to bottom checking the mitts condition as you go. Straight lines mean no swirl marks – if not caused by poor polishing techniques, you’ll find swirl marks come from the wash and buffing process. That circular motion Mr Miyagi taught the lad in Karate Kid – I’m sorry to tell you he’s wrong.

 

The circular motion will create swirls as the dirt moves in a circular movement that gives you the swirl. A soft straight line approach won’t give you a swirl. “But it might leave a line”, well check the mitt for dirt.

 

Once the car is washed and you’ve checked the wheels, shuts and obviously the bodwork off the list. It’s time to thoroughly rinse and dry the car.

 

The Drying

 

Now there’s a few different techniques that some people like and some don’t. If your car isn’t coated and water just sits on the surface then a product like Pyramid Car Care’s Quick Detailer Pro will help a lot.

 

Misting this onto the surface and then gently drying (in straight lines) with a deep pile drying towel helps drying the car much quicker and leaves a nice gloss. If the vehicle is waxed, has a sealant or ceramic coating then this product is also suitable.

 

If your car has a good wax, sealant or ceramic coating, then an open hose is a good way of drying the car. Sounds mad, but a gentle open hose used in the right way will use water to remove surface water and that means less time drying the car. Using a pure water final rinse is a good approach to this and the previous method and also the air blower method. Less contact, less swirls.

 

Also if a car is coated an air blower like the Big Boi is great. This is exceptional as it removes water droplets from all gaps and body panels resulting in no touching of the vehicles paint work – so again less contact, less swirls.

 

This above approach is what I carry out to any vehicle that’s booked in with Offset Detailing. Be it a maintenance wash or paint correction detail.

 

If your car has had a paint correction and ceramic coating applied, you don’t want to go back to square one with poor washing techniques. Following these steps will give your car a better finish.

 

The Paint Correction

 

Correcting a car’s paintwork gives your car that as new appearance and beyond. Swirl marks, scratches and other defects can be safely machine polished (bearing in mind the depth of damage and the amount of clear coat available to work with). This is measured before any machine polishing is carried out to give a good idea of how heavy we can go with polish and pad combinations, and if it is safe to do so.

 

A single to multi-stage process depending on the severity of defects is carried out resulting in an as new finish. Many people use the term ‘glossy’ and as that is an easy word to use on a vehicle’s paintwork, the finish will have a true clarity to the finish. The more clarity the paints surface has the ‘glossier’ the finish and the depth of reflection with any metallics or pearls will truly pop in the colour.

 

The Protection

 

Not protecting your vehicle isn’t a great idea. You want the car to repel dirt, water, bird stains and the like. Plus, a well protected finish makes the whole wash process easier as less grime doesn’t stick to the surface.

 

All this work polishing, we need to lay some decent protection down so that clarity and depth to finish stays locked in the paintwork. Once upon a time, waxes and sealants were all the range. Time and science has left that all behind. Don’t get me wrong a wax is still there with regards to a warm finish to the paint, but a proper coating is just leagues infront in my eyes for finish and durability. These chemically bond to the surface and harden. 

 

There are many coatings now available, as everyone is now on the band wagon. What’s a decent coating? The ingredients. A high water contact angle, high Si02 amount for repellency and also 9H/10H for hardness. Also flexible carbon coatings are extremely glossy and durable, there’s lots to wrap your head around. Also if you prefer waxes you may be interested in a ‘ceramic wax’. This doesn’t have the durability of a ceramic coating, but with an added Si02 element in the wax, you will have similar water/dirt hating properties like a coating, and ideal if you don’t want to dip your toe into the world of coatings.

 

High end brands like Kamikaze Collection offer some of the best on the market and the better quality ingredients the coating has the more transparency the hardened chemical will have resulting in a decent thickness layer for that candy gloss and also that thick surface that helps against wash swirls, and marring, dirt, water and road grime bonding to the surface. Your car will still become dirty but it will stay cleaner for longer and washing will be far, far easier. Plus that extreme gloss on top of your paint correction will give your pride and joy some serious presence. If you wish to try a ceramic coating at home, an extremely easy coating is Pyramid Car Care’s Premium Ceramic Coating.

 

Be sure to use the code “OFFSETDETAILING” on Pyramid Car Care’s website to receive 10% off all orders.

Book your winter detailing package

Offset Detailing

Unit 3, Gables Properties, Beke Hall Chase, London Rd, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 9EZ

07843 201313 or 01245 377024

hello@offsetdetailing.com

Travelling from London?

Offset Detailing is conveniently positioned to make travelling from London easy, from central London to Offset Detailing takes approximately 1 hour. 

From further afield?

Offset Detailing provides car detailing services to people who care about their cars, regardless of whether you’re travelling from Essex, the Midlands or Scotland. Please call in advance to guarantee availability before making a long journey to Offset Detailing. 

Winter Detailing Competition

Throughout November we’re running a prize giveaway for one lucky winner to win a free single stage machine polishing, ceramic coating application and a pot of Pyramid Car Care’s new Ceramic Wax. Sponsored by Pyramid Car Care. 

How to enter

  1. Complete the entry form
  2. Tag @offsetdetailing on Facebook or Instagram in a post with a picture of your car

Prize

One winner will be chosen at random on 30th November 2019 to receive a single stage machine polish and Ceramic Coating application. Along with a free Ceramic Wax courtesy of Pyramid Car Care.

 

The winner must be able to deliver their vehicle to Offset Detailing’s unit in Essex, in December. 

Entry Form

Terms and Conditions

By taking part in this free prize giveaway you agree to Offset Detailing processing and storing your personal information. You agree to Offset Detailing contacting you about the “Winter Detailing Competition” and you consent to Offset Detailing contacting you from time to time with promotions and offers.  

 

By taking part in this free prize giveaway you give express permission to your car to being featured in photos and video, promotional or otherwise, in the run up to the winner being announced and afterwards. 

 

The winner of the free prize giveaway will receive a single stage machine polish and ceramic coating application only. This prize is not refundable. Cannot be exchanged for any other service or cash. The prize winner cannot pass the prize on to somebody else. The Winter Detail will be completed in December 2019 only. The Winter Detail will be completed at Offset Detailing, Unit 3, Gables Properties, Beke Hall Chase, London Rd, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 9EZ. If for any reason you are unable to deliver your car to Offset Detailing for the Winter Detail throughout December, or if you do not respond within 14 days of contacting you to arrange the Winter Detail, a new winner will be chosen at random. Offset Detailing reserves the right to withdraw this free prize giveaway and the prize at any time.