Which First - Interior or Exterior ?

B

bswombaugh

New member
I was just curious as to what order everyone typically performs a complete detail. Do you go at the exterior first and then do the interior or is it the interior first then the exterior last ? Is there a reason you do it one way or another ?

I find myself always wanting to start with the exterior first and the paint correction probably because this is what I enjoy the most and get the most satisfaction from. I don't enjoy interiors as much and typically do them last.
 
Usually interior first and then exterior. The reason being, if you do the exterior first and then go to do the interior, there is a good chance you will get dust/dirt from vacuuming or blowing out with compressed air coming out of the interior and settling on the paint of the freshly washed vehicle. Which is super annoying!

The only time I would start with the exterior is that if the vehicle is covered in mud and I would probably end up getting it all over the interior (and my clothes!) I'd rinse off the vehicle first to get all the mud off but leave it at that until I was done the interior.

Hope that's helpful!
Derek
 
Personally, I do the outside washing first. I live in So Cal - and it stays warm and sunny most of the year. So I like to get the car washed before the sun and heat get too unbearable. I save the polishing and waxing for after the interior is clean. I like to sit down and admire my work when I am done with that.
 
Without a doubt, interior first.

The reason why is simple. If you're spraying interior cleaners around door panels, etc. you don't want those chemicals landing on the freshly detailed exterior. You're also likely to rub against the car at some point while working on the interior with either your body, a vac hose, etc. You don't want to do that after you've already polished the paint to perfection.
 
It depends on what I'm doing and the condition. I live in a farm town so I do some pretty dirty trucks so I would do exterior first on those. If I'm doing a paint correction I will do exterior washing and polishing then interior then wash it again to remove polishing oils and dirt that might have came from interior process and then LSP.


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I don't have any shade, so if I'm doing a two bucket wash i'll wash it first thing in the morning and then pull it in the garage and proceed to work from the inside out. If I do a rinseless I'll take care of all the inside work first before doing anything to the outside.

One benefit to doing the inside first is I don't like doing the inside as much so it gets that part out of the way.
 
JSFM35X said:
I hate interiors and wheels.

Do the interior first and then the wheels.
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I hate interiors and 95%+ of the wheels out there. But I do the interiors first for the same reason as the others, you don't want to get dirt, dust and cleaner/protectant chemicals blowing out an open door or window and landing on your perfected paint. So I do the interior first (including glass and door jambs, THEN I close up the car and do the exterior starting with the wheels, tires and wheel wells. Then wash from top to bottom.
 
I do the interior last (most of the time) because I don't like to be getting in and out after washing, re-washing, pulling in the garage, pulling out of the garage, and back in the garage. I suppose you could put something down on the floor for these concerns (but a lot of times my hands are wet and touching the shifter/steering wheel too). I don't worry about overspray of the interior chemicals because I typically spray onto a MF away from the car and not directly on any surfaces, which eliminates (or extremely limits) opportunity for those chemicals to get on the fresh paint detail. Many times, if the sealant has had full cure time (12-24 hours), I'm going to do a RW before the customer shows up anyway.

Sometimes, I'll do the full decon and pull the car in the garage and do the interior at that point (once it won't be leaving the garage again and I won't be getting in and out). As you can see from other posts, there is no RIGHT way to do it. Whichever way you go, there is opportunity to muck up the part you did first, so just be cognizant of that and do the order that works best for you.
 
I'm super lucky most of the time, because I'm known as the 'paint guy' I end up doing all the polishing, and my coworker does the interiors... that being said, I usually do the exterior first, and accept the fact that I might get some 'grease' (interior protectant) overspray on the paint... we just buff that off at our final once-over.

The thing that drove me nuts is when someone would clean all the windows before they're done the interior! Cleaning windows is the LAST thing we do :)
 
Noting that I generally only do my own vehicles...

I generally do a quick vacuuming of the interior first, and quick-clean anything that catches my eye. Then I do the exterior and when that's done I come back and finish up the inside.
 
As is the consensus, I do the interior first, then the exterior. I remove the mats, vacuum, then clean and treat the vinyl. Then I'll clean the glass. Finally. I'll extract carpet and seats as necessary...and if I do, I may leave doors and/or windows open to dry...this means the exterior may even wait till the next day! The exterior will get a pressure rinse followed by either a two bucket wet wash or a rinseless. If correction is required I would clay. polish and wax. If not, I may just use a spray wax topper and then treat the exterior black plastic. Last would be headlight protectant and exterior glass followed by a cold favorite beverage!!!
 
After prepping, we do the interior 1st. We then put a few blowers inside and start on the outside. Interior is pretty dry by the time we're done an hour later.
 
I don't like to get *too* involved with the interior until the rest of the vehicle is clean. Just all that "activity around a dirty vehicle" makes me paranoid about the dirty paint getting touched/brushed against (result = marring). Once all the paint is *clean* I don't mind manipulating doors/etc. and doing stuff that might involve a lot of activity around the door openings/jambs.

Again, I can see how it'd be different for Pros or whenever doing a full (correction) detail.
 
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