Taking delivery of a brand new car should be a magical experience. From the moment you settle on what make and model you want a sense of anticipation sets in, which then steadily grows as you work your way through the process of picking the options, negotiating the best possible deal and waiting patiently for it to be built. And when the delivery date finally comes around and you’re on your way to the dealership to collect it that sense of anticipation turns into child-like excitement; all you want to do is see it, touch it and smell it (which might sound odd, but if you’ve ever been fortunate enough to take delivery of a brand new car you’ll know exactly what I mean).

Unfortunately it’s at this point that the experience suddenly turns sour for some buyers. The sad reality is that vehicle presentation standards in the motor trade often fall well short of what we, as car care enthusiasts, typically expect. As a result it’s not unusual for many brand new cars to be handed over with a variety of bonded contaminants in situ, fresh swirl marks and fine scratches in the finish and product residue left on the trims and in the panel gaps. The second to last brand new car we took delivery of (a Fiat 500) was plagued by all three problems, along with an additional issue in that the off-white interior had obviously been wiped down with a dirty towel.

Surely this is an exception and not the rule? Unfortunately it isn’t. While the vast majority of new car handovers probably go smoothly and might well be magical experiences, the bottom line is that the vast majority of people aren’t car care enthusiasts and probably don’t notice such problems. However, we receive hundreds of enquiries each year from more discerning individuals (like you) who have noticed such issues and need our help to fix them, by way of us either offering remedial advice and product recommendations or booking the car in to be professionally detailed. Of course, prevention is better than cure, so the question is what can you do differently?

The answer is detail your brand new car yourself. There is nothing stopping you from doing so and most dealerships will oblige you if it means sealing the deal on a sale (our local Fiat dealer wouldn’t allow us to take delivery of our 500 without them valeting it fully first, but in hindsight we should have walked away and bought it elsewhere). All you need to do is ask the dealership to leave any plastic shipping wraps in place and not wash or valet the car in any way. This will not prevent them from doing their pre-delivery inspection (PDI) safety checks nor will it affect your warranty in any way. The dealership staff will think you are mad but don’t let this put you off!

Assuming you decide to follow the above advice some obvious questions arise, i.e. what exactly will I be facing and how should I go about tackling the work? The easiest way to guide you through the process is to present you with a real world example and as luck would have it I took delivery of a brand new Fiesta ST just a couple of weeks ago. Having done exactly as I advised above (i.e. I asked the dealership to leave the shipping wraps in place and not wash or valet the car in any way) I was able to record the detailing process I performed from start to finish. So, without further ado, here is an in-depth write up showing you how I detailed my brand new car…

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“I collected my new car from the dealership on a Friday afternoon and drove it back to our studio wearing trade plates (there was no point affixing my own registration plates at this point as I wanted to detail the car without any plates in place). My first tip concerns trade plates; dealers tend to hang the rear one on the rear wiper meaning it can flail around and potentially damage the tailgate and bumper. A far safer option is to sit the rear plate in full view on the parcel shelf before driving off; I did exactly this and I strongly advise you to do the same if you opt to drive your new car away wearing trade plates. Moving on, this is what the car looked like at this point…

As you can see it was in quite a state! However, this is not unusual for brand new cars and merely reflects the nature of the journey they take from the production line to the dealership. The last image above shows the master tracking label that was stuck to my car. From it I’ve been able to determine that it was manufactured in Hall N at the Ford assembly plant in Cologne, Germany, on the 09/10/13 and then transported down the river Rhine on a barge to Ford’s international distribution centre at Vlissingen (Flushing) in the Netherlands. It remained there until the 24/10/13 at which point it was shipped to Ford’s national distribution centre at Dagenham in the UK.

From Dagenham it was then transported by rail to a Ford depot at Mossend, Glasgow, before finally being driven up the road to my local dealership on a transporter. Although it actually turned up at the dealership ahead of schedule on the 02/11/13 it had still spent over three weeks travelling by water, rail and road without being washed once. And as you will see later on the obvious dirt and grime was the least difficult issue I had to contend with as a result of this journey, but it was still the first thing I needed to tackle. Accordingly, after peeling off the tracking stickers and shipping wraps, I started the detail proper by foaming the exterior with Auto Finesse Avalanche…

This was left to dwell for around five minutes, during which time the citrus-based cleaning agents gently loosened the accumulated dirt and grime…

I then rinsed the exterior thoroughly, paying particular attention to the panel gaps and shuts; a lot of pine needles emerged from some of them, indicating that the car must have sat under trees at some point during its journey to the dealership…

Next, I cleaned the exterior trims using Swissvax Plastic Wash. This is an expensive product, but it’s incredibly good at removing product residues and other stains from plastic surfaces, and leaves them perfectly prepared for adding protective coatings…

After rinsing off the trims I turned my attention to the shuts, using Auto Finesse Citrus Power and agitating it with a Meguiar’s Microfibre Wash Mitt and a suitably-sized brush from the Raceglaze Detailing Brush Set. Because we use so much Citrus Power (it’s the best bug and grime remover on the market by some margin) we tend to apply it using a MESTO 1.5 L CLEANER Pressure Sprayer, but it works equally well using a standard spray bottle…

I adopted a similar approach when tackling the honeycomb-style front grill, but switched to using a PB Boar Hair Wash Brush for all of the agitation work, as its soft, long bristles proved to be perfect for accessing the depths of the somewhat fiddly design…

With all of the exterior details cleaned, it was finally time to break out two PB Clear Wash Buckets and hand wash the bodywork, lights and glass. I chose GYEON Q2M BATHE as my shampoo, as it feels well lubricated on bare unprotected finishes and rinses freely, and I used it in conjunction with a Microfiber Madness Incredisponge, which has fast become my favourite wash implement. Unlike lambswool wash mitts, it generates a huge amount of suds (because the high-quality sponge it contains naturally aerates the shampoo solution in your suds bucket) and it releases the dirt and grime it picks up very easily indeed, meaning it says cleaner for longer…

With the car now washed, and having rinsed it off again, I proceeded to check it for bonded surface contaminants. You should do this in two ways. The first is to visually inspect each and every panel for obvious spots and speckles; this is very easy to do on lighter coloured finishes but becomes trickier on darker colours. The second is to run your fingertips over the (still wet) panels and trust what they tell you; if there is any contamination present you will feel it (uncontaminated paint feels perfectly smooth, so if you detect any grittiness whatsoever, however slight, then contaminants are present). Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have to look (or feel) very far…

The first image above shows one of a number of stains that survived the wash process. All were located on the uppermost panels of the car and most of them felt slightly tacky. My best guess is that they were organic in nature and most likely deposited from the aforementioned trees that the car sat under at some point during its journey to the dealership. The second image above shows speckles of iron contamination; at first glance you may only see a handful of darker coloured spots, but if you look more closely you’ll see many more, some of which have turned orange, indicating that the iron filings in question had already begun rusting in situ.

Is this level of contamination normal for a brand new car? Unfortunately it is. If you consider the journey my car took from the factory to the dealership it’s actually not that surprising. My car spent three weeks out in the open, travelling through the industrial heartland of Europe, and covered several hundred miles of its journey by rail. The passage of iron wheels over iron tracks generates a huge amount of iron-rich dust on railway lines and this has a tendency to stick to train carriages and whatever goods they happen to be carrying. Indeed, railway dust is by far the commonest form of contaminant found on brand new cars in Europe.

Moving on with the detail the first thing I did to tackle these issues was to treat the bodywork and glass with Autosmart Tardis. This is a spirit-based solvent that cuts through organic contaminants with ease. It’s particularly good at dissolving tar spots, but also works a treat on organic residues deposited by trees and insects, and has the added benefit of being an excellent glue remover too (some of the stickers I peeled off left sticky residues behind). Furthermore, as I was working my way around the car I also removed the foam pads for the registration plates; these are only needed if you intend to screw your plates on, which I never do (I stick them on instead)…

After rinsing off the Tardis, which fully removed all of the organic stains shown above, I set about removing the iron contamination using Auto Finesse Iron Out, which is an intensive iron-dissolving gel. As you will see from the following images, this revealed the true extent of the railway dust present on the car, most of which was too fine to initially see. The trick to removing this amount of iron by chemical means is to allow plenty of time for the iron remover to work. Therefore, I moved the car inside, soaked it with the Iron Out and then left it to do its thing for around half an hour. And this is what was revealed during this period…

In fact, so severe was the level of contamination that a second treatment was ultimately required to ensure that every last trace of the railway dust was fully removed. However, this did the trick and afterwards the bodywork and glass felt perfectly smooth, indicating that no other inorganic contamination was present. This was heartening as it meant that there was no need for me to perform a claying step (a task I find tedious at the best of times). As such, I moved the car back outside and gave it a final rinse before moving it inside again and drying it with our Metro Vac Air Force Blaster…

Now for the moment of truth; the paint inspection. With the car not having been washed since it rolled out of the factory in Cologne I was hoping that the paint was going to be in perfect condition, i.e. swirl- and scratch-free. Of course this is never guaranteed because sometimes such damage is inflicted on the production line and missed during the final quality control checks, but in most cases if dealership valeting has been eliminated from the equation then brand new bodywork should look spot on. And luckily for me this turned out to be the case; after carefully wiping down all of the panels with GYEON Q2M PREP our 3M Sun Gun revealed zero defects…

Unfortunately, though, I did discover one issue; the rear spoiler was missing a little bit of paint, right on the corner where it meets the main roof panel. The only logical explanation for this is that it was caught by the edge of a machine polishing pad on the production line. I felt pretty gutted when I first noticed the damage but quickly realised that it wasn’t the end of the world; with the spoiler being made of plastic there was no risk of any corrosion setting in. So, I simply made a quick trip to the dealership to pick up a Frozen White stone-chip kit (which they kindly handed over free of charge) and then touched-in the damage using an artist’s paint brush…

At this point I decided to call it a day. I’d been at it for over eight hours (washing and decontaminating a new car properly takes time!) and I wanted to leave the touch-up to dry fully before doing any more work. After a good night’s sleep I made an early start the next day and set about protecting the brand new winter wheels I’d previously bought for the car (due to the more extreme weather we get up here in Aberdeenshire I run smaller winter rims and snow tyres from Nov-Apr and larger OEM rims and summer tyres from May-Oct). With the wheels being brand new all they required in terms of preparatory work was a thorough wipe down with GYEON Q2M PREP…

I then treated the gloss black rims (and bolts) to two coats of GYEON Q2 RIM. This quartz coating is by the far the most durable wheel sealant we stock and is ideal for winter protection purposes as it seals treated surfaces against the corrosive effects of road salt. Even if you don’t plan on changing your wheels for any reason I do recommend taking them off and protecting them properly from the outset. The following images show the quartz coating being applied and buffed off, and then force cured for ten minutes using an infra-red heat lamp. The latter device simply shortens the curing time of the coating, meaning you can apply multiple coats in quick succession…

With the new winter wheels protected I removed the OEM wheels and spent several hours cleaning and protecting all of the exposed surfaces in the wheel arches (e.g. the arch liners, suspension components and brake calipers). Although our scissor lift makes it easier such work can still be done a corner at a time using a trolley jack; this is how we always did it prior to investing in the lift. It may seem over the top to spend time protecting such areas, but it’s easy to do and will help to keep everything looking fresh for years to come. I used GYEON Q2 RIM on all of the painted and bare metal surfaces, and GYEON Q2 TRIM on all of the bare plastics…

While the car was up on the lift I took the opportunity to treat the underbody with an anti-corrosion wax. I’ve never tried this approach to underbody care before, but having observed the toll three successive winters took on my previous car from new, and in line with the mantra of prevention being better than cure, I figure it’s a method worth trying out. If the wax I used performs well we will likely add it to our store sometime next year…

Getting back to the detail proper I fitted the winter wheels and then sealed the tyres with GYEON Q2 TIRE. This product is incredibly good and has well and truly raised the bar in terms of the durability it offers, which can be extended further if it is force cured. You can do this in a variety of ways (a hair dryer set to hot will do) but I simply used our heat lamp…

Next, while the car was still up in the air I polished and sealed the exhaust tips. Again, doing this properly from the outset pays dividends later on, because it’s sometimes hard to fully restore the appearance of exhaust tips if salt corrosion has set in. I used Swissvax Metal Polish Fluid to give them a light polish followed by GYEON Q2M PREP to remove the residual oils. I then applied two coats of GYEON Q2 RIM, allowing an hour between them to cure…

At this point I headed home for a few hours to see the kids, have something to eat and take a shower, as I still had a lot to do and I knew that a very late night was going to be needed to get it all done. When I returned to the studio I decided to tackle the trims first, using GYEON Q2 TRIM. This flexible quartz coating works brilliantly on all plastic surfaces, making it suitable for use on light clusters, high gloss mouldings and textured trims (but not rubber seals)…

I ummed and ahhed for a while before treating the honeycomb-style front grill, as I knew the fiddly design would make the buffing off difficult. However, knowing that I’d probably get well over six months of solid protection from a single coat, I bit the bullet and went ahead and applied a coat of the Q2 TRIM. And, as I predicted, I then had a nightmare buffing it off, the main problem being that my fingers were too big to get into the corners of the honeycombs. Having no choice but to cram my fingers in (until they bled!) and just get on with it, I spent the best part of an hour carefully checking each honeycomb for residue with our Brinkmann Maxfire Dual Xenon Spotlight. I may think twice about treating the grill in this way in future…

Next in line was the part of the detail I had been looking forward to most; adding protection to the bodywork. Deciding on what last step product to use is arguably the toughest decision you have to make when detailing a brand new car, because there are numerous technologies and dozens of products to choose from these days. I suggest narrowing down your options in two ways. Firstly, consider where you will be performing the detail and rule out any products that have stringent application criteria that you cannot meet. For example, most silica-based coatings must be applied (and left to cure for an extended period) in warm, dry conditions; therefore, they should only be chosen if you have access to an indoor workspace.

The second way to narrow down your options is to consider whether looks or durability is more important to you. If obtaining the best looking finish is your priority then choosing the appropriate product group for the colour of your car is the best way to proceed. For example, if you have a red car then choosing a natural carnauba wax will always give you a better looking finish than a synthetic sealant. However, if obtaining the longest lasting protection is your priority then you may have to forgo a little aesthetic quality in order to obtain it. For example, if you have a red car then a natural carnauba wax may well look better but going for a quartz coating will give you two to three times as much durability. Sometimes a compromise is necessary!

In my case I chose to use GYEON Q2 PRIME as my last step product. I came to this decision because I value durability over looks (Q2 PRIME is a quartz coating that offers twelve months of protection per application) and I have access to an indoor workspace. However, this decision didn’t end up sacrificing any aesthetic quality, as Q2 PRIME just happens to deliver a really awesome finish on solid white paint too! For a silica-based coating, Q2 PRIME is really easy to apply and buff off. Working on small sections at a time, you simply load up the supplied applicator with product, wipe it on evenly in an overlapping pattern, buff it off immediately with a microfibre towel and then finally check the section for smears (with a torch and a second towel) before moving on…

After applying the Q2 PRIME I force cured it by baking each panel at 60°C for ten minutes using our infra-red heat lamp. As per the wheel treatment, this was by no means an essential step in the process (I could have simply left the freshly applied coating to cure naturally for twenty four hours) but given that the equipment was on hand I opted to use it…

By now it was 2 am on Monday morning so I called it a night and went home to grab a few hours’ sleep in readiness for the working day ahead. Unfortunately the Monday turned out to be a really busy day at work and I didn’t manage to get back to the detail. However, I managed to squeeze a few hours in on the Tuesday morning, and this was sufficient to finish the exterior work off. This involved cleaning and sealing the exterior glass with GYEON Q2 VIEW…

…and adding a final layer of protection to the bodywork, in the form of GYEON Q2M CURE, which is an anti-static spray sealant that adds further gloss and reduces the mineral affinity of the quartz coating (meaning it helps to prevent water spotting)…

After covering our office in the afternoon I attended to the last few details on the Tuesday evening. Although the interior looked pretty messy all it really needed was a systematic clean. I tackled all of the hard plastic and vinyl surfaces with Auto Finesse Total and sorted out the grubby looking glass with 3M Glass Cleaner. Although they didn’t really need it, I gave the seats a wipe down with some leather care wipes we’ve currently got on test. These clean and protect modern leather upholstery in a single step and will be making an appearance in our store soon. Finally, I vacuumed the carpets and fitted the mats (which I had already proofed with Nanolex Textile & Leather Sealant), and voilà, the interior was done…

I finished off the detail by affixing my registration plates with sticky fixer pads (using masking tape to create a positioning guide for the rear one and a heat gun to warm up the pads) and swapping the front and rear indicator bulbs for silver-effect ones; I don’t know why, but I have a strong dislike of the way that orange bulbs look in transparent light clusters!”

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I hope you enjoyed the above write-up and that the information provided proves to be useful to you in future. Although I used some items of equipment that you probably don’t have access to (e.g. heat lamp, scissor lift) and protective coatings that necessitate the use of an indoor workspace, there’s no reason why the detail itself could not have been performed in a domestic garage or even outside on a driveway. If I had been forced to work at home on my driveway all I would have done differently is to miss out the underbody protection step and to use alternative last step products that are tolerant of outdoor use (e.g. Auto Finesse Mint Rims instead of GYEON Q2 RIM and the Auto Finesse Tough Kit instead of GYEON Q2 PRIME). This would have yielded an equally good result from an aesthetic point of view and would have laid down enough protection to see the car safely through to the spring. Therefore, my closing point is this; if you are inclined to do so then there is no fundamental reason why you shouldn’t detail your brand new car yourself. If you fancy giving it a go but are unsure about which products to use, drop us a line telling us about the car (i.e. make, model, colour) and your workspace (e.g. driveway, garage) and we’ll happily make a few recommendations for you to consider.

Rich @ PB