Inside the truck
Every tool. Every chemistry. Every reason.
Detailing is craft, and craft lives in the tools. This is what Richie's actually using on your vehicle — and why we picked each one over the alternatives.
Why it matters
The gap between a wash and a reset lives in the tools.
Most detailing pricing variance comes down to one question: did the shop use professional equipment, or did they use what fit in the trunk of a sedan? The categories below cover the gear that separates a documentable detail from a quick rinse.
01 · Category
The truck
Everything we need lives in a fully-equipped service vehicle that pulls up to your driveway and self-supplies water, power, and hot water. No outlets to borrow, no hose to run, no neighbor to apologize to.
- Onboard fresh-water tank — service runs without tapping your home water supply
- Pressure washer with adjustable PSI for safe paint contact
- Hot-water system for interior steam and stain extraction
- Inverter generator so we can run extraction and polishing tools anywhere
- Color-coded organization — separate microfiber, brushes, and pads for paint, wheels, and interior
02 · Category
Polishing & paint correction
The most defect-removal-per-hour comes from a small set of tools used correctly. Dual-action and rotary polishers paired with the right pad and the right cutting compound is what separates a wax-and-go from a real correction.
- Dual-action polishers for safe defect removal on most paint
- Rotary polisher for heavier correction on harder clear coats
- Foam, microfiber, and wool pads — different cuts for cutting, polishing, and finishing passes
- Compounds and polishes graded from heavy-cut down to finishing — every car gets the right grit, never one-size-fits-all
- Swirl-finder LED lights to verify removal under directional light before declaring a panel done
03 · Category
Ceramic & paint protection
Coatings are the most consequential product we apply. They live on your paint for years, and a bad pick — or a good pick applied wrong — is expensive to undo. We work with professional-only formulations that require certification to install.
- 5-year ceramic coating with documented warranty card on every install
- 1-year SiO2 spray sealant for the Gloss & Protect package
- Wheel-face ceramic and glass-specific water repellent
- Trim ceramic to restore and protect black plastic against UV fade
- Pre-coating prep: iron decontamination, clay bar, panel-wipe — ceramic only bonds to a properly stripped surface
04 · Category
Wash & decontamination chemistry
What touches your paint matters. We use pH-neutral soaps, dedicated buckets, and decontamination chemistry that's measurably gentler than the rinseless-and-go formulations many shops cut corners with.
- Two-bucket hand wash method with grit guards on every job
- pH-neutral soaps — never high-alkaline degreasers on body panels
- Iron remover that visibly turns purple as it dissolves brake-dust particles bonded to the clear coat
- Clay bar for embedded contaminants the chemistry can't reach
- Panel-wipe / IPA for stripping oils before correction or coating
- Wheel cleaner formulated for face, barrel, and brake-dust separately
05 · Category
Interior steam & extraction
A vacuum gets the surface. A real interior reset needs heat, agitation, and extraction. The interior side of the kit is the part that turns a 'clean enough' detail into a documentable reset.
- Hot-water extraction machine — professional-grade carpet shampooing that pulls contaminants out of the foam padding, not just the surface
- Vapor steamer at high temperature for vents, seams, and headliner
- Enzyme-based pre-treatments for protein stains (food, blood, urine)
- Solvent pre-treatments for petroleum-based stains (grease, crayon)
- Dedicated leather chemistry: pH-balanced cleaner, conditioner, UV protectant
- Pet hair extraction tools — rubber brushes, pumice, high-velocity air
06
Specialty & finishing
06 · Category
Specialty & finishing
The smaller tools are where craft hides. Most of the visible-quality difference between an average detail and a documented one comes from the last 20% of work that the average shop doesn't bother with.
- Detail brushes in three densities for emblems, vents, and panel seams
- Microfiber towel program — separate towels for paint, wheels, glass, and interior, replaced on a color-code rotation
- Plastic razors for tar, sap, and adhesive removal without scratching
- Headlight restoration sandpaper kit + sealant for permanent results
- Ozone generator for deep odor neutralization
- Inspection lights at multiple color temperatures to catch what the daytime sun misses
Ready when you are
The tools matter. The work matters more.
Every detail is documented with the products used, areas treated, and warranty terms. You get a record of what happened to your vehicle — not a guess.