Exterior+

You have washed the car, and it looks clean from five metres away. Then you open the door, and there is the grey line on the sill. The front still has a speckled layer from the insect season. Behind the wheels sits black spatter that neither sponge nor high pressure would shift. It is not because the wash was poor — it is because those marks are no longer dirt. They are chemistry that has bonded to the surface.

Exterior+ is the wash that takes off that last layer.

What we actually do

The foundation is the same hand wash as in the standard wash — cold wheel cleaner, snow foam with 5–7 minutes' dwell time, high pressure and the two-bucket method. Then comes what sets the two apart.

• Tar and asphalt spatter. Solvent is applied to the sills, behind the wheel arches and along the lowest 20 centimetres of the doors, and left to work until the black spots release on their own. We do not scrub them off — they come off chemically, or they do not come off here.
• Insects. The front, bonnet, mirror housings and windscreen get their own insect remover with dwell time. Insect residue is acidic and corrosive, and on a warm bonnet surface it begins attacking the clear coat within days. That is why we work it off gently, never with pressure.
• Door sills and door jambs. This is the place no automatic wash reaches. We open every door, the boot and the fuel cap, and clean the jambs, rubber seals and joints. This is also where road salt builds up over a winter.
• Bonnet edge and boot jamb. The edges where paint meets sealing strip, and where moisture otherwise sits.

Finally, the car is dried with microfibre and compressed air, the glass is washed on both sides, the tyres are given a shine, and inside you get vacuuming and a wipe-down of the dashboard and door panels.

Why it pays off

What looks like unsightly marks is, in practice, an ongoing process. Insect residue and bird droppings are acidic and etch the clear coat. Asphalt and tar bind to the paint surface and hold moisture. Salt in a door jamb sits dry one day and wet the next, and it is the cycle between the two that starts edge rust.

Doing this twice a year — once after the insect season and once after the winter season — is cheaper than polishing out etch damage later, and considerably cheaper than repainting a door edge.

If the car is being used for sale or handed back after leasing, this is also the wash that reveals what the paint actually needs. If there are scratches under the dirt, we see them here and let you know, so you can consider one-step polishing with your eyes open.

How often should you have it done?

Twice a year for most: one round in March when the road salt needs to come out, one in June after the insect season. If you drive a lot on country roads or park under trees, a third round in autumn can be worth it.

How long does it take?

Around 3 hours for a small car. The chemistry needs dwell time, and dwell time cannot be rushed.

See available times and book Exterior+ — we come to wherever the car is, in Tønsberg and the rest of Vestfold.