Mobile car detailing in Inner North.

Braddon is not Ainslie

Braddon and Turner are nearly all flats. A short drive out, Ainslie and O'Connor are still mostly houses. The two jobs look nothing alike.

In the older streets we are beside a cottage where the garage went in decades later at the back of the block, down a long narrow drive. The drive decides whether the van gets past the house at all.

In the flats the car is in a numbered bay, and access is the whole question. Ramp clearance first. Then an outdoor tap we can reach with a hose, and a 240V point near the bay rather than three levels up. We bring the rest.

The last one is permission. Some complexes are fine with a detailer in the car park and some are not, so that gets asked before the booking, not on the morning. Water, power and a yes from the building, and we are down there.

Covered space beats a back yard

Paint correction from $397 and ceramic coating from $997 both need a garage or covered space for the day. A car park can be a better room for that than a back yard. No wind, no pollen landing on a wet panel, no sun tracking across the bonnet.

The limit is height. Sprinkler heads, ducts and pipe runs hang below the slab, so the clear height is always less than the ceiling looks. We measure the ramp and the lowest point overhead before a coating goes in the diary.

Coating runs from $997 for three years up to $1,597 for seven years on a large 4WD.

Pines overhead, cold panels

This is the leafy end of Canberra. Park under the pines at Haig Park, or along the older streets, and needles collect in shuts, cowls and roof rails. Resin marks the flat panels. Spring adds pollen on top. A full detail from $225 takes that back off. The monthly plan, from $90 for the exterior, is what keeps it off.

Cold is the other half of a winter job. Panels are cold, water will not leave the surface and a coating cures slowly. Winter coating work gets a longer booking window, and we will move a day before we cut a cure short.

Two of us, one van, three jobs a day across the inner north. No shop and no drop-off. We do not fit paint protection film, window tinting or rim repairs.