More than a wash
An exterior detail is what a car wash pretends to be
Foam bath, hand wash, decontamination, wheels and tires, glass, and a ceramic spray sealant, without your car ever touching a brush that has scrubbed a thousand others.
- From
- $99
- Takes
- 1 to 2 hours
- Wash
- Two-bucket, by hand
- Sealant holds
- 3 to 4 months
What it covers
Everything in this service, itemized
Exterior Car Detailing from $99 includes the following 9 steps, every one of them carried out at your home or office.
- Thick foam pre-wash
- Two-bucket contact wash with grit guards
- Wheels, barrels, and arches
- Tires cleaned and dressed
- Exterior glass
- Door jambs and shuts
- Ceramic spray sealant
- Hand dried, no water spots
- Trim dressed to satin
01
What does an exterior detail include?
A thick foam pre-wash to lift grit off the paint, a two-bucket hand wash, wheels and tires cleaned and dressed, exterior glass, and a ceramic spray sealant to protect the finish. It is the wash your paint actually wants.
The foam step matters more than it looks like it does. Dirt that is lifted and rinsed before anything touches the panel cannot be dragged across it, and dragged grit is where swirl marks come from.
02
Why not just use the drive-through wash?
Because the brushes and the recycled grit in them are what put the fine scratches in your clear coat, and enough passes through them is what makes a newer car look tired. A hand wash costs more than $8 because it is doing the opposite of that.
03
How long does it take?
About one to two hours for most vehicles. Add time for a truck that has seen real mud or a vehicle that has not been washed in a season.
04
Does the sealant actually do anything?
Yes. The ceramic spray sealant bonds to the paint and beads water for around three to four months. It is not a coating, that is its own service with years of life, but it keeps the car easier to wash and better protected between details.
A brush that has scrubbed a thousand cars is not touching yours.
Questions, answered
Exterior Car Detailing: common questions
Exterior Car Detailing from Bluebird Detailing starts at $99 for a coupe or sedan and is carried out at your home or office anywhere in the Denver metro. The questions below are the ones customers ask most before booking it.
How much does an exterior detail cost?
Exterior details start at $99 for a coupe or sedan: the most affordable way to have the car properly cleaned rather than run through a tunnel. It covers a foam pre-soak, contact wash, wheels and wheel wells, tires dressed, glass, and a hand dry with a protective spray sealant.
How is this different from a car wash?
A tunnel drags the same brushes across a thousand cars a week, and every one of those cars leaves grit behind. We foam the car first so the dirt lifts before anything touches the paint, then wash by hand with fresh media. The swirl marks people bring to us for correction were mostly installed by automatic washes.
Do you wash the wheel wells and door jambs?
Wheel wells yes, on every exterior detail. Door and trunk jambs are included in the full detail rather than the exterior, because opening the car up is where an exterior job turns into an interior one.
How often should I have an exterior detail?
Every four to six weeks keeps Front Range road film, dust, and winter magnesium chloride from bonding into the clear coat. Mag chloride is the real argument for it: the de-icer used on Colorado highways is far more aggressive to paint and undercarriage than rock salt.