Exterior car detailing in Stevenage

What is on the paint

Four things a Stevenage car carries that a wash cannot shift

Honeydew. The Norway maples the Development Corporation planted along every avenue and in every court drip it from June to September. It dries clear and sticky, gathers dust, and after a hot fortnight it has etched a faint ring into the lacquer. The clay lifts the film; the polish in the detail valet softens the rings; the wax stops next summer's layer bonding.

Iron. Every car that uses the A1(M), Gunnels Wood Road or the Lytton Way run collects brake dust, and it lands on the paint and the alloys as particles that rust in place. The iron remover in the decontamination turns purple as it dissolves them, and the wheels, which no brush has got clean in a year, come out the colour they were sold in.

Tar. Resurfacing on the A602 and the Six Hills Way roundabouts throws tar onto the sills and the lower doors as black freckles. The tar remover takes it off chemically rather than by rubbing, which is the difference between a clean sill and a scratched one.

Site dust. The £1bn Station Gateway began on the Oval on 30 January 2026, and the indoor market is being converted into a college campus. A car parked in the town centre, Bedwell or St Nicholas wears a grey film that is alkaline and abrasive, and the right way to remove it is the decontamination and the clay, not a dry cloth.

How it goes

Two to three hours on the drive, water and power included

Type your postcode into the booking page, pick the Exterior Detail and a window, and take the 10am one: the job runs two to three hours on a family car, and the clocks went back on 25 October. A drive is ideal and a court bay works if the washer can get round the car; the only real condition is a dry day, because the wax needs dry paint to bond. Your washer brings water and power and works in order: the detail valet, the iron and tar removers, the clay panel by panel, the deep wheel clean, the plastics restored, the windscreen compounded and protected, then the spray wax. The before and after photographs come with the receipt.

Hertfordshire's gritters run from October to April, which gives the detail two natural dates. April, after the last salt, lifts a winter's iron and tar and leaves the car waxed for the summer. September, before the first grit, lifts the summer's honeydew and site dust and sends the car into the salt season protected. For a car you intend to keep for years, the September detail is the preparation for a ceramic coating; for a car you are selling, the detail the week before the photographs is the best money you will spend on the price.

The details we do in Stevenage

• A car that has sat under a maple in a Pin Green court all summer: Exterior Detail for the honeydew, then a wax to stop next year's.
• An A1(M) commuter with brown wheels: Exterior Detail; the iron remover does what scrubbing cannot.
• A car parked near the Station Gateway works: Exterior Detail for the cement film, the only safe way to lift it.
• A match day car from the streets round the Lamex: Exterior Detail for the tar and the brake dust of a season.
• A car going on sale in Great Ashby: Exterior Detail the week before the photographs.
• A keeper: Exterior Detail in September, ceramic coating after.

More on this: what a mobile detail includes and ceramic coating in Stevenage.