Detail Junkie is a mobile detail. There is no shop to drop the car off at and no shuttle ride home. We load the water, the power and the tools into the rig, drive to where the car already sits, and work in your driveway or your office lot while you get on with the day.
Detailing is not one service, it is a stack of them. Here is what the stack looks like, written the way it gets written on the sheet before the first bucket comes off the truck.
The whole vehicle in one visit. Outside gets a proper wash, a decontamination pass and a protective layer. Inside gets vacuumed to the seat rails, the plastics and vinyl cleaned and dressed, the glass done last so nothing streaks back onto it. This is the one most people mean when they say they want the car detailed.
Two-bucket hand wash, wheels and wheel wells first so the grit does not travel, then an iron and tar pass and a clay bar to pull the embedded grit that washing alone will not lift.
Machine polishing to cut swirl marks, wash marks and light oxidation out of the clear coat instead of filling them in. Done in stages depending on how deep the defects run.
The layer that has to survive an Iowa winter and a August of road film. Carnauba, a synthetic sealant or a ceramic coating, depending on how long you want it to hold and how you park.
Carpets and upholstery shampooed and extracted, leather cleaned and conditioned, vents, seams and cupholders worked with brushes. Pet hair removal and odor treatment when the car needs them.
Degrease and dress the engine bay so it looks like it is maintained, and wet-sand and reseal cloudy headlight lenses so the light gets back out onto the road at night.
Every vehicle is priced after somebody actually looks at it. Call or email and describe the car and the condition and you will get a real number rather than a menu price that changes when the truck pulls up.
This is the part that decides whether a mobile detail is actually convenient or just a smaller version of your problem. If the detailer needs your spigot and your outdoor outlet, you are hosting a job. If the truck is self contained, you are handing over a key.
Tank, pump and hose ride with the truck. Nothing to unspool from the side of your house, no argument about a frozen or capped outdoor spigot in February.
Polishers, extractors and vacuums run off the rig. No extension cord through a window and no tripped breaker in the garage.
Home, apartment building, office park. If the vehicle can sit still for a few hours and there is room to walk a full circle around it, the job can happen there.
You are not driving anywhere, waiting in a lobby, or arranging a ride. The car is being detailed where it was already parked.
Direct sun, hard wind and freezing temperatures all change what can be done well outdoors. Covered parking helps. It is worth mentioning when you book.
Each line on the order expands into what actually happens to the car. Click a heading to read it.
A wash is not the detail, it is the part that makes the detail possible. Wheels and wheel wells come first because they hold the heaviest grit and nobody wants that grit dragged across the paint later. The body is washed by hand with two buckets so dirt goes into the rinse water instead of back onto the panel.
Most of what people read as a dull or tired car is not the color, it is thousands of fine scratches in the clear coat scattering light in every direction. Machine polishing removes a controlled amount of that clear coat so the surface is flat again and light reflects instead of scattering. It is measured work. Cutting too hard is worse than not cutting at all.
Interiors are won in the places you cannot reach with a gas station vacuum. Under the seat rails, down the side of the console, in the seat seams, in the vent slats. Fabric and carpet get shampooed and extracted rather than just wetted. Leather gets cleaned and conditioned so it stays flexible instead of drying and cracking.
Whatever goes on last is what has to live outside. A carnauba wax looks warm and deep and does not last long. A synthetic sealant lasts longer. A ceramic coating lasts longest and asks the most of the prep underneath it. Which one makes sense depends on where the car parks and how often you want to do this again.
Most people know something is wrong with the car but not what it is called. Find the symptom on the left and you will know which line to ask for.
Those are swirl marks, usually put there by automatic car washes and dry towels. They are cut out with machine polishing, not covered with wax. Ask for line 03.
Washing removed the dirt on top and left the contamination embedded in the clear coat. That is what an iron and tar pass and a clay bar are for. Ask for line 02.
The protective layer has worn off. Bare clear coat holds water film and road grime instead of shedding it. A wax, sealant or ceramic coating puts the layer back. Ask for line 04.
Odor usually lives in the carpet padding and the fabric, not on the surface. Shampoo and extraction pull it out where a wipe down cannot. Ask for line 05.
The lens coating has oxidized. It gets wet-sanded back and resealed. This one is worth doing for the visibility alone. Ask for line 06.
If none of these match, describe it in your own words on the phone. Detailing has a lot of jargon and none of it is your job to know.
Detail Junkie is based in Council Bluffs and works the Omaha metro. The Missouri River is a state line here, not a boundary for a truck. Iowa side, Nebraska side, same rig.
If you have ever wondered why an Iowa business answers a 402 number, that is why. The metro does not stop at the bridge and neither does the route.
Not sure whether your address is on the route? Call and ask before you assume it is not. It is a short conversation.
A full interior and exterior detail is a half day of work on a normal car, longer if the paint needs correction or the interior has been through a few winters. A single service is shorter. You will be told what to expect for your vehicle before anyone starts.
A place the vehicle can sit still and room to walk all the way around it. The rig brings its own water and power, so you do not have to supply either.
No. Plenty of details happen while people are at work or inside the house. If you want to hand over a key and check back at the end, that works.
It depends on the vehicle and its condition, and anyone who quotes you a flat price sight unseen is guessing. Describe the car and what is bothering you about it and you will get a real number.
Cold and wind change what can be done well outdoors. Some services move indoors or wait for a better day. Covered parking opens up more of the calendar. Ask when you call.
All of it is normal work. Pet hair removal and odor treatment are standard parts of an interior job. Say so up front so enough time gets set aside for it.