"Detailing" is not a regulated word. One shop's full detail is a wash and a vacuum. Another's is a two-day paint correction. That is why two quotes for the same vehicle can be two hundred dollars apart and both be honest.
So here is exactly what happens on ours, in order.
Interior first, always
Interior comes first because exterior work is the part that has to dry, and because you do not want to wash a vehicle and then open all the doors and drag equipment in and out of it.
Everything comes out — mats, car seats, whatever is in the door pockets. Then a full vacuum: carpets, mats, seats, under the seats, the trunk or the back of the cab, the seat rails, and the gap between the console and the seat where everything actually ends up.
Then shampoo and hot water extraction on the carpets and cloth seats. Extraction is the part that matters. Shampooing alone moves dirt around; extraction pulls it back out of the fibre along with the water.
Then steam into the vents, the seams and the stitching, which is where fine dust from gravel roads lives and where no brush is reaching.
Surfaces get cleaned with the right product for the material. No single shiny dressing sprayed over the whole dash — a glossy dash is glare in your eyes at sunset.
Then the wash
Wheels and tires first, with their own bucket and their own brushes, because brake dust is the dirtiest thing on the vehicle and you do not want it anywhere near a wash mitt.
Then a two-bucket hand wash: one bucket of soap, one of rinse water, grit guards in both, washed top down. The mitt goes back into the rinse bucket every panel. That is the whole point of the method — the grit comes off the mitt into the rinse bucket instead of being dragged across the next panel.
Bugs and tar get worked off the front end and the mirrors by hand.
Then it gets dried with clean microfiber. Not air dried. Water left to evaporate leaves the minerals behind, and on a warm panel those bake into spots that are harder to remove than the dirt was.
Then decontamination
If the paint feels rough when you run your hand over it through a plastic bag, it is holding contamination — rail dust, industrial fallout, road grit — embedded in the clear coat.
That comes out before anything is applied. Waxing over contamination just seals it in and guarantees the wax does not bond properly.
Then protection
Hand-applied wax, worked in panel by panel, buffed off by hand. Trim and tires dressed. Glass done last, inside and out, so nothing gets re-fingerprinted while the rest is finished.
On a Full Detail + Protect, a paint sealant goes on over the wax and a ceramic spray over that, plus fabric protectant on the carpets and cloth.
How long it takes
Five to six hours for a full detail, six to seven with the protection package. On an SUV with a third row, longer.
That is why we book arrival windows rather than exact times. A job that runs long should not mean the next customer is waiting in the dark.
What it costs
It is on the services page, by vehicle size, before you have to ask anybody. That is deliberate.