Training Course: 5 Types Of Detail You Need To Know

Five Stages That Every Detailer Needs To Know

With a little knowledge you can elevate your detailing skills to a professional standard with the ultimate all-inclusive course— 5 Types Of Detail You Need To Know

Here our experienced professional detailers cover everything from basic single-stage enhancements and maintenance details to an advanced decon wash, a full multi-stage correction, and even adding long-lasting protection. We’ll guide you through five important detailing processes on a multitude of vehicles, covering each step involved and the essential detailing products you’ll need along the way.

Learn exactly how to handle every stage, from surface preparation and decontamination to mastering your machine polisher and protecting your work from the elements. These key fundamentals are the foundation of every accomplished detailer’s skillset.

We break down each stage into easy-to-follow chapters —Decontamination Wash, Enhancement Detail, Correction Detail, Protection Detail and Maintenance Detail—with step-by-step video and picture sessions. Don’t just read about the processes—watch them unfold as we tackle each job, offering professional tips and trade secrets. Helping you get the most from your products and equipment.

Whether you're an enthusiast aiming to master advanced detailing techniques or a professional looking to refine your skills, this course covers essential topics like defect identification, masking, visual inspection and measuring paint depth. You’ll also learn about polishing pads, compounds, polishes, and more.

We’ll address a host of common questions such as:

How often can paint be corrected?

What’s the most durable protection for paint, wheels, and glass?

How long will a detail take?

and What’s the purpose of a test spot?

Covering a range of products and accessories—including our professional Dual Action Machine Polishers, Caramics Ceramic Coatings, wax and sealant-friendly washes, and Signature Hard Wax Collection— our 5 Types Of Detail You Need To Know course will ensure you're prepared for any job, on any vehicle, at any time.

This Training Course Includes:

Decontamination Cleaning: Before you start you need to discover the fundamentals of a professional 3-stage paint ‘decon wash’. This cleans deeper than a normal car wash and strips away old protection layers to prepare for any safe enhancement or correction detail.

Enhancement Detail: Learn the key processes needed to remove light swirl marks and holograms to enhance the appearance of all types of paintwork and gloss plastics.

Correction Detail: We show you how to tackle a full, multi-stage paintwork correction detail. Here you can get the lowdown on the products, pads and polishers you'll need for cutting away defects and refining paintwork to a flawless finish.

Protection Detail: Learn about cleansing your paintwork how to add long-lasting wax protection after enhancement, and correction details, and during details when polishing isn’t required or desired. We also take a look at the application of ceramic wheel and glass coatings.

Maintenance Detail: See how a protection-layer-friendly maintenance detail can be achieved. Here we cover every process from wheel cleaning and safe washing, to drying and those all-important finishing touches.

The Decontamination Wash

Enhancement, Correction and Protection Details are three of the most comprehensive chapters in this training guide. But, before we can work on those, first there's an essential detailing stage you'll need to complete first. Let's take a look at a full, 3-stage decontamination (decon) wash.

A professional paintwork decontamination clean is a 3-stage process that's designed to eradicate the type of paintwork contamination that traditional washing alone will not be able to remove. We perform this process straight after our thorough pre-wash and contact wash.

A decontamination uses a series of specialist detailing products, and is essential prior to starting any polishing stages to get the best professional results and to eliminate the risk of causing surface damage as you polish.

The process has been specially developed to rid paintwork of ingrained particulates and contamination such as ferrous metal deposits, enviromental contaminants and sticky residues. At the same time it will help strip away any previously applied protection layers preparing surfaces for the use of abrasive compounds to enhance or correct the surface.

They may not always be visible to the eye but it's likely that your paintwork will have been exposed to various types of harsh contamination through day-to-day use. Corrosive contamination such as the protein and mineral deposits in bug splatter, bird droppings and water spots, to brake dust contamination, tar and glue resides and even overspray can all cause damage if not removed periodically.

The reason why we complete a decontamination wash after our contact wash is to eradicate the risk of these particles from being pulled out and swirled around on your machine polishing pad later. Polishing contaminated paintwork can often cause even more damage. In other words, it's all about preparation.

Before your paintwork decontamination wash it's important to follow a full safe wash routine including an effective pre-wash and snow foam. The wash stages start with cleaning your wheels and finishes with rinsing away the residue from your contact wash. The reason why we always use safe wash techniques in preparation for our decon wash is simply to limit the chances of inflicting even more damage and creating more work later.

Metal Fallout Removal

After our contact wash, and while the car is still wet, we can begin our 3-stage decontamination. The decon wash is essentially an extension to the regular wash stages and the first part is using Iron Out Contaminant Remover to target and eliminate any metal contamination.

Ferrous metal contamination is essentially sharp pieces of metal shrapnel that embeds itself in your paintwork. It's not always visible but will often appear as tiny rusty spots on the surface of your paint. This type of ingrained contamination can only be removed safely with an intensive chemical reaction. Here we chemically dissolve the metal into the Iron Out solution to create a solute that's safe to rinse away with our pressure washer.

The process is simple. We apply Iron Out liberally on each panel. It's crucial to target every area of paintwork that's going to be polished. Typically you'll find the largest concentration on the lower areas, but it's still likely that the whole vehicle will have been exposed with this type of contamination.

As the Iron Out reacts with any metal present the solution turns blood red. This is often referred to as "bleeding".

Before we rinse the car down, our Iron Out can benefit from a little light agitation. This process helps to give the product more bite by refreshing the solution and helps make sure it makes contact with every part of each panel. Here we can use a clean, wet Microfibre Work Cloth, or a dedicated wash mitt. We also agitate in straight lines to help to cut down on the risk of creating any swirl marks.

When we've finished agitating we can rinse the whole vehicle down from top to bottom. Here we need to be extremely thorough as we're rinsing away all the metal trapped in the solution.

Tar And Glue Removal

Removing tar and sticky glue residues is the next decontamination phase. These require another specialist detailing product - ObliTARate Tar & Glue Remover. This product is a blend of powerful solvents used to safely dissolve sticky contamination, breaking the bond with the surface and allowing it to be wiped away with a clean microfibre cloth.

Sticky residue removal can be seen as more of a targeted process. In most cases you'll see any contamination present, and most will be on the lower areas of the car.

ObliTARate can be used in two ways. Here we have a high level of contamination here so we're choosing to spray our solvent on directly. For smaller areas we can apply ObliTARate directly to our cloth and wipe away the contamination. As soon as the solvent makes contact you'll see the residues start to melt away.

Once treated with ObliTARate we use a clean microfibre cloth to lightly agitate the solution. We can then fold the cloth to a clean portion and quickly wipe away the contamination.

After using ObliTARate it's crucial to neutralise any left over solvent by washing the area using your Lather Car Shampoo solution. This prevents any solvents interfering with the next decontamination stage.

Using A Clay Bar

The last stage of our decon wash is 'claybarring'. This process is where we use a detailers Clay Bar to physically pull any remaining small particle contamination out of the surface of all painted surfaces. Here we're targeting embedded contamination including protein and mineral deposits. The idea is to leave behind a super-smooth, glass-like top layer that's free of all contamination.

First we prepare our Clay Bar by taking around a third of the clay and kneading in our hands to warm the clay and make a flat pad.

To get the best professional results it's best to keep our clay well lubricated as we work across each panel. Here we're using Glide Clay Lube liberally on the panels and the clay itself.

Working on one panel at a time, we run our clay pad across the paintwork in straight line motions.

Our clay should slip freely over the surface. As it picks up any contamination present you'll feel the resistance getting less and less. This deep-cleaning process essentially makes the paintwork smoother as you work. Remember we're looking for a glass-like finish that's smooth to the touch.

It's important that we we regularly fold our clay when it gets dirty, we always check periodically and after each panel. Folding our clay reveals a fresh portion and helps to prevent dragging any sharp particles around the paintwork unnecessarily.

Note: If you drop your clay pad on the floor it should be always discarded and replaced with new clay to prevent causing potentially irreversible surface damage.

After covering every inch of paintwork, we can give the vehicle one final wash down. This will ensure that no leftover clay lube (which may be trapping and encapsulating contaminants) is removed before polishing.

Drying

It's important to dry your car throughly after every wash, whether that's a full decon wash or routine maintenance.

What makes this process crucial is that tap water (the water we used to clean the car) will contain all sorts of contaminants that will be deposited on surfaces should it be allow to dry naturally. Essentially the water will evaporate off and leave behind mineral deposits as water spots. In some cases these will extra polishing to remove.

The best way to remove mineral impurities is while they're still dissolved in the water. And the best way to do that is to absorb all of it together with a suitable drying towel. Here we're using our ultra-absorbent Aqua Deluxe Drying Towel to dry the vehicle from top to bottom.

And that's our 3-stage paintwork decontamination complete. We can now move on to the rest of our detail.

The Enhancement Detail

An enhancement detail is where we get the best from all vehicle surfaces when a full multi-stage paint correction isn't necessary or desired.

An enhancement detail is a type of entry-level machine polish where we'll be looking to eradicate light swirls, marring, holograms and oxidation. In other words, a step up from a simple hand polish, striving for more consistent professional results.

Check out our training video which takes you through the process step-by-step...

The Correction Detail

A multi-stage paintwork correction detail is possibly the most in-depth detailing process. It's also the stage most associated with professional detailing.

Full correction is where we aim to remove all defects and bring the paintwork to as close to flawless as possible. Here we'll use car polishing machines and polishing compounds to cut through defects, before refining paintwork to as close 100% flawless as can be achieved through detailing alone.

Follow along as we look at paintwork correction details on 2 different cars. Here we also include the step-by-step process for correcting gloss plastic trim...

The Protection Detail

It goes without saying that paintwork protection should be added after any enhancement or correction detail. This process safeguards the work you've already put in and levels the optical finish of your paintwork even more - adding more gloss and the appearance of a deeper finish.

Paintwork protection products shield surfaces from the elements, essentially stopping water and contamination from sticking and damaging the paintwork underneath.

There are various types of protection product and the type you choose will always depend on how you use the car, the finish and durability required and, perhaps most importantly, personal preference on what you like to apply and how you want it to look. Our range includes a whole host of car waxes, paintwork sealants and ceramic coatings.

A protection detail involves adding a protective layer over the top of surfaces that will create a barrier to the elements. This not only protects but, because the grime can't stick, it will also make cleaning easier during routine maintenance and keep your car looking better for longer.

In this case we're applying one of our Signature Hard Waxes on paintwork, a ceramic coating on the glass and a specialist high temperature Wheel Wax on the wheels.

Lets take a look at our step-by-step guide on a great protection detail...

The Maintenance Detail

We've covered Paintwork Decontamination, Enhancement, Correction and Protection, but safe routine maintenance is also important because it's here where we strive to keep the finish for a prolonged period. In other words, this is where where you clean your car to keep it looking its best, without damaging surfaces or protection layers.

A Maintenance Wash has no requirement for decontamination, enhancement or correction, it's designed specifically to remove any contamination on the vehicle since the last detail. That said, during maintenance we'll often top up our protection layers prolonging their life and performance, too.
Using protection-safe cleaning products and the correct professional methods is the key to avoid inflicting scratches and swirl marks. We'll only complete an exterior maintenance detail as and when it's required, which will always depend on how often (and in what weather conditions, the vehicle is driven). There is no specific timescale in which you have to clean your car but bear in mind that the longer you leave it, the bigger the risk of the most harmful types contamination degrading your protection, or worse.

Corrosive contamination such as bird droppings, road salt and bug can eat through protection layers and into your paintwork if they're left on surfaces for long enough. But, using the right techniques and surface-safe detailing products, you can clean your car as much as you'd like.

Let's take a look at a safe maintenance wash from start to finish...

Wheels & Tyres

During every car wash start with the dirtiest part of the car first. This helps to prevent spreading the most harmful contamination to other cleaner areas of the vehicle. Typically during routine maintenance we won't be deep-cleaning engine bays or the chassis so we'll always start by cleaning the wheels and tyres.

The four corners suffer from prolonged exposure to some of the most harmful contaminants out there. These include corrosive salt and brake dust, as well as the usual heavy grit and grime. Even on fully protected wheels powerful cleaning agents are needed to safely lift and encapsulate these heavy particulates, which allows them to be rinsed away without abrading surfaces.

The main wheel cleaning agent we'll use here is Imperial Wheel Cleaner, an acid-free formula that's safe to use on all powdercoated, painted and clear-coated wheels.

During the cleaning process we'll also Revolution Wheel Soap for a little extra cleaning power and to help lubricate any heavy particles, allowing them to slip safely over and off the surface. This specialist wheel shampoo can be used as a powerful-stand alone wheel cleaner for the most sensitive specialist finishes, such as chrome, bare metal and anodised wheels. But it's also ideal for making the most of your other spray-on cleaners when brushing them in.

First we add a couple of capfuls of Revolution to a Detailing Bucket containing clean water. We can then froth up the deep-cleaning suds with our pressure washer.

Before applying any cleaning agents we rinse down each wheel. This pre rinse stage removes any loose contamination to allows our cleaners to get to work where they're most needed - on the bonded grime. This makes the products more effective and cuts down on wastage.

Once the pre-rinse is complete we apply our Imperial liberally over the wheel face and the inside the barrels. Here we're using a Foaming Pressure Sprayer and a 1:10 dilution of Imperial Concentrate. Imperial is also supplied ready-to-use in 500ml trigger bottles.

After leaving our Imperial to dwell for a minute or two we can then use a Barrel Brush and our Revolution shampoo to agitate our cleaner into the wheel barrels.

Agitation of wheel cleaning agents isn't about physically scrubbing away the grime. The idea is to ensure that our solutions reaches every area. It also ensures that any spent solution is refreshed when needed.

The types of surface-safe aqueous cleaning agents we use on cars - which includes wheel cleaners like Imperial - utilise a bend of special surfactants, along with water, to pull grime from surfaces and surround the potentially harmful particles in the solution. This allows grime to be rinsed or wiped away safely. The cleaning process itself is on a molecular level, but any given volume of cleaner can only surround so much dirt. When agitating your cleaning products we're moving away the solution that's spent (or full up) and refreshing the area with fresh solution to work on any remaining contamination.This mans that safe agitation isn't about mechanical cleaning, it's about making the most of your cleaning products.

With our wheels the second stage is where we use a dedicated wash mitt (a mitt that we save just for wheel cleaning) to agitate our cleaners around and behind the spokes.

Any other awkward nooks and recesses we'll finish up using a scratch-free Detailing Brush. A brush is ideal for agitating our wheel cleaners into nut recesses and wheel lips. We can also clean the brake calipers here, too.

Before we rinse the wheel down, we can deep-clean the tyre. Cleaning tyres is important, both to keep them in the best possible condition and to help any tyre dressings bond properly at the end of our detail.

Again we use a heavy-duty, surfactant-based cleaner and degreaser here to shift the harshest contamination. Verso All Purpose Cleaner has many uses in different dilutions, cleaning mucky tyres is just one. In this case we're using a 1:5 dilution.

We also use a stiff Rubber Scrubber Tyre Brush for the agitation process to help draw the grime out from under the surface. Unlike most areas on the car, we are physically scrubbing here. But with tyres we won't damage the surface - just be sure to avoid the wheel lips.

While our cleaning soaks into the sidewalls to further break down any contamination we can also clean out the inner arches. Simply by spraying more Verso into the arch and agitating.

In most cases we'll use our Arch Blaster Arch Brush for agitation. This medium stiff brush is designed specifically for cleaning arch liners and suspension components.

In this case however the car has been lowered limiting our access. So, we switch to a Barrel Brush to get the best access instead.

Finally we can rinse down the whole wheel and tyre from top to bottom to safely remove the grime trapped in our cleaning solutions. Then we'll move onto the next wheel and repeat the process until all wheels are clean.

Exterior Pre-Wash

The pre-wash stage is crucial to remove as much dirt and grit as possible before we make contact with the bodywork. This process, often said to be the most important in all of detailing, helps to minimise the risk of dragging harmful particles around sensitive surfaces with our wash mitt. This helps keep the most sensitive parts like paintwork and gloss plastic trim swirl mark free. It also helps to prevent abrading protection layers.

Once again, before we use any cleaners, we give the whole car a thorough rinse from top to bottom to remove the loose grime. During this pre-rinse we'll also flush out any panel gaps, mirrors grilles and fuel flaps.

Now we can use a spray-on pre-cleaner to break down and lift the bonded, large particle contamination. During maintenance it's important to use a wax, sealant and coating safe pre-cleaner to avoid stripping or degrading your protection layers. In this case we've opted for our ready-to-use Citrus Power Bug & Grime Remover, but you can also use a suitable 1:5-1:10 dilution of Dynamite Traffic Film Remover, depending on the level of contamination.

What's most crucial here is that this part of the pre-wash stage is entirely contact-less. We don't agitate our pre-cleaners. Instead we apply liberally over the whole vehicle and allow it to dwell while it breaks down the grime, without letting it dry out. After a little dwell time we rinse the car down from top to bottom.

Snow Foam

After our pre-cleaner we'll use Avalanche Snow Foam to break down the bonded small particle contamination.

Snow foam is a type of pre-cleaner that's designed to linger on surfaces for as long as possible. This is how it breaks down the bonded contaminants. We apply Avalanche with a Snow Foam Lance that's specifically designed to activate the cleaning agents and whip the solution up into a thick, lingering foam. Our flagship snow foam also works its way into grilles, shuts and and panel gaps, cleaning those out, too.

To prepare our Avalanche we add around 200ml of the concentrated solution to our Foam Lance bottle and top up with clean water. Pro Tip: dipping your bottle in a bucket of clean water helps to keep the concentrated solution from foaming prematurely.

Now we can apply our Avalanche to the whole car from the top down. Some say that applying snow foam from the bottom up is preferable. But, as cars typically tend to be dirtier at the bottom, this simply risks spreading the grime upwards - the opposite of what we want for the safest pre-wash. For this reason we always apply from the top down.

Once the whole car is covered, we allow our snow foam to dwell.

Once applied we're looking to let our snow foam dwell or as long as possible, but without letting it dry out. A great tip is to keep an eye on the windows because it tends to dry out there first.

For the most part the snow foam stage is designed to be contact-less, but it is safe to gently agitate around awkward recesses and dirt traps such as window rubbers, headlights, grilles and badges. Here we'll using a soft Detailing Brush to ensure that our foam gets full contact and is refreshed when needed.

When your snow foam starts to dry out rinse the whole car thoroughly from top to bottom.

Contact Wash

Even though our pre-wash stage will have cut most of the risk, we still follow a few safety precautions when performing our contact wash. This is simply to ensure swirl-free results without degrading any protection layers.

The first is using two buckets - one bucket for our shampoo solution, and one for rinsing our our wash mitt after every pass on the vehicle. This measure significantly cuts down on the risk of grime being recirculated back onto the paintwork.

We also use our professional Detailing Buckets because these contain a grit guard to stop your wash mitt picking up any heavy particles that may have sunken to the bottom. They also have a large capacity to further cut down on the chance of grime recirculation.

Another important precaution is selecting the correct car shampoo. All good car shampoos - like our Lather Car Shampoo (and the Caramics Enhancing Shampoo we're using here) should not only clean, but lubricate any grit to allow it to slip freely over the surface. Our car shampoos are also protection-layer safe, meaning that instead of harsh chemicals, they're pH neutral. They on;y use powerful surfactants to break down and encapsulate bonded grime.

Lather Car Shampoo is suitable for all types of car wash. This powerful formula contains no waxes or shining agents, so its classed as a pure cleaner. Here - because this car has a previously-applied ceramic coating - we can choose our Caramics Enhancing Shampoo. This product is a powerful cleaner but it also contains a ceramic coating to help top up protection, strengthening and prolonging the life of the ceramic layer that's already there. Both products are used in exactly the same way.

To prepare we add two or three capfuls of shampoo to our bucket and froth up the suds with our pressure washer.

Using the correct wash media is another way safety precaution we use to keep the process safe.

A professional wash mitt, regardless of whether it's made from lambswool or microfibre, will be specifically designed to pick up dirt, rather than spread it around.

A quality wash mitt should glide freely over the surface while lifting contamination and locking it away deep in the material, far away from the surface you're cleaning. The potentially harmful particles will then be released when you wash out your mitt in your rinse bucket.

The mitt you use will also be down to your own preference, here we're using a Plush Microfibre Mitt, which is ideal for safe washing and soaking up lots of cleaning solution for every pass.

The last safety measures are the route you take around the vehicle and how you apply your car shampoo. We always wash in straight lines to cut down on the risk of inflicting swirls. And we start with the cleaner areas to avoid spreading harsh contamination.

The best route is typically from the top to bottom, but targeting specific areas. We begin with the roof, bonnet and upper sides.

After the cleaner areas we can move on to the dirtier areas, starting with the grilles and front bumper, the lower sides and finally the rear of the car. At this stage many pro detailers like to swap to another mitt dedicated for these areas alone.

Once we've made contact with every surface, we can give the car a final rinse down from the top down.

Safe Drying

As we stated in our decontamination detail earlier, it's important to use a suitable Drying Towel after every wash to avoid the impurities in your tap water being left on the paintwork.

Here we're using our Silk Drying Towel, a twist-loop microfibre cloth designed to soak away water quickly and efficiently. A great accessory for speeding drying on any vehicle, this is simply down to detailer preference, an Aqua Deluxe Drying Towel will also be fast, effective and safe.

A great professional tip for drying your wheels and for mopping up any final drips is to switch to a super absorbent plush microfibre, such as our Primo Plush or Ultra Plush Microfibre Cloths. Full size drying towels have to be large enough to complete a whole vehicle, but using a smaller cloth here helps you avoid accidentally dragging your towel on the floor. This simply gives you more control.

Once the car is dry our routine maintenance is complete. But with that said there are a few finishing touches we recommend to elevate your detail.

The Finer Details - Finishing

Superior finishing is about elevating the finer details. That and not letting any imperfect areas detract form the rest of your detail.

The finishing touches you choose to implement will always depend on and what's required for the best results. This could be a little Revive Trim Dressing to give matte plastics a new lease of life, or using Mercury Metal Polish on exterior brightwork and exhaust tips. With that said there are two touches we recommend for most details...

The first is dressing your tyres using Satin Tyre Crème. This process isn't just about supreme looks, Satin is designed to nourish and condition your tyres from within. It also leaves a long lasting barrier to the elements.

This advanced tyre dressing allows you to choose the level of shine you require. One application gives a subtle satin-sheen, while multiple applications allow you to build up a wet-look gloss.

We apply Satin our contoured Tyre & Trim Applicator to allow controlled application to the sidewalls. A single line of Satin on your applicator is enough to cover a whole sidewall.

Cleaning windows inside and out is always our go-to final finishing touch. This is because it's almost inevitable that you'll get the odd drying mark or fingerprint on your glass while completing the rest of your detail. To finish up every detail we always aim for a smear and streak free glass.

Crystal Glass Cleaner, is a fast flashing solvent-based formula that quickly cuts through grease, grime and fingerprints to leave a streak free finish. This product is ideal for use at the end of any detail. In this case though, simply because the glass has been protected with the 12-month durable ceramic coating in our Caramics Glass Protection Kit, we can use Caramics Glass Cleaner here for a streak-free finish and to boost the life and performance of the coating.

Using our glass cleaners is quick and easy, just a light spritz directly on the glass, followed by a wipe and a buff with a clean microfibre cloth is all you need.

And that's our maintenance detail, plus a few bonus finishing touches, complete. A fast and effective process for interim cleaning between larger details.

What's Next?

Congratulations on completing our 5 Types Of Detail You Need To Know Training Course!

We hope you enjoyed the course, and that you adapt some of the processes and top tips you've learned to your own detailing journey.

In the meantime, don't forget to have look at a wealth of extra resources in the Guides Section Of Our Blog.