Exterior Detailing in Hartland, Wisconsin

From our shop

About 25 minutes

Price

Quoted

Key stage

Solvent + decon

Local factor

Bike racks

Hitch racks

A hitch rack swings. Every time it tilts down to open the tailgate and swings back up, the frame or the pads contact the rear bumper and, on some vehicles, the tailgate itself. Grit trapped between pad and paint grinds. Over a season that leaves a rubbed patch on the bumper cover and, on painted bumpers, marring that shows in sun.

The bikes on the rack add to it. Tyres carry trail mud and it flicks onto the tailgate and rear glass at speed. Chains carry lubricant and it transfers onto whatever the bike leans against while it is being lifted on — usually the bumper and the rear quarter. Chain lube is oil; it holds dirt, it will not wash off, and it needs a solvent stage.

Roof racks

A roof rack in rain drips. Water runs down the rack feet, picks up whatever is on the feet and the towers — road film, grease from the fittings, dust — and leaves a dark line down the paint below each foot. On the roof itself, the towers sit on grit that grinds as the car flexes, and a season of that leaves a dull ring under each one.

Bikes on a roof rack drip onto the roof after wet rides, and the drip is trail water carrying mud and chain lube. Roof drip lines are the tell of a Hartland cycling vehicle, and they are a solvent-and-clay job rather than a wash.

Trail mud and the river

A vehicle that parks at trail heads and the Bark River puts its lower panels and arches into mud regularly, and trail mud packs behind mud flaps and into arch liners where it stays damp. It is mineral rather than organic, so it does not decompose, but it holds moisture against metal and it carries grit.

The exterior half of a Hartland vehicle is: solvent for the lube and the drip lines, iron and clay for the film, arches cleared, then protection — because a rack that is going straight back on the car will start the cycle again unless the paint has something between it and the rub.