Car Detailing: Dressing & Molding

Video Transcript

"Hi it's Dow here at the Firehouse Car Wash and Detail Shop. We're moving around the shop here today to show you and highlight some different features of exterior detailing. Teaching you how to do it like a pro. What we're going to do right now is talk about the importance of dressing the car after it's cleaned and it's ready to go. We want to put that final touch on molding, on mud flaps, bumpers. Caution on safety here, we don't want to use dressing on any kind of step up, the moldings, or the steps where you get into the car. It's silicone based, it is slippery, last thing we want is our customers to hit a side step molding and take a slip and fall. I've got two different kind of dressings here. There's the solvent based, we've explained it earlier, and the water based. The solvent based has a tendency to last a little bit longer, maybe several trips through the car wash and its still working, it's a little bit more difficult to work with, and it is flammable so we have to be careful. You'll want to make sure you wear the right safety precautions again your glasses your gloves. I'm going to use this water based solvent here, just to kind of show you and highlight what happens when we take a care like this that the sun has come in and it's oxidized this a little bit. The silicone in here is going to bring this panel and this molding back to a deep dark rich color. As you can see the different between pre-dressing and post-dressing. So I'm able to control cautiously getting this conditioner on there. Now I like to go right down onto things like mud flaps. They look great and better when you've got a layer of protectant on it, and these are the tricks to bring a car that maybe has got some aging right back to that like new thing. I'd move right around while I've got the brush out and I'd probably put a coat here on the bumper, then cautious to go back and clean up mold. Again, don't put it on places where someone's going to step because they're probably going to fall. Now I've got an applicator pad here in my hand that I use, also works very well for area like we've just done. I could come here and I could use the applicator brush, might even be a little easier to move around with on that. I can also use that for a few harder to get spots like this trim here around a window. This silicone based product, rubber loves silicone. It's what keeps it soft. If you live in a cold area or where there's a lot of sun, this product has UV protectant, so it keep this from getting hard, it just nourishes, pops the rubber back and makes it looks great. It just gives the car again, like that like new look that you and your customers are looking for."