Straight answers, including the unhelpful ones.

We bring everything. The rig carries its own water tank, filtration, pressure system, generator and extraction equipment. You do not need an outdoor spigot, an outlet, or a hose. That is the entire point of a self-contained mobile setup: it means we can work at an office lot, a condo garage or a street spot in Portland just as easily as at a house.

A parking space we can work around, roughly one space either side of the vehicle, and the keys. For interior work, take out anything valuable or personal beforehand, since we would rather not move your belongings around. Correction and coating work also needs a garage, carport or covered space, and we confirm that with you before booking rather than on arrival.

A maintenance visit runs two to three hours. A full Signature Detail is five to eight hours depending on the size and condition of the vehicle. Paint correction is a full day for single-stage and two to three days for multi-stage, and a ceramic coating adds cure time on top of that. We give you a realistic window when we confirm the booking, and we would rather quote long and finish early.

Yes, for most services. Washing and interior work go ahead in wet weather, we set up under cover where we can, and rain does not affect an interior extraction at all. Paint correction and ceramic coating are the exception. Those need a dry, protected, covered space, and if the forecast or your space will not allow it, we reschedule rather than compromise the result.

Two things. First, contact method: a drive-through brush or a dirty wash mitt is what puts most of the fine scratching into clear coat in the first place, so our wash process exists mainly to avoid adding damage. Second, decontamination: chemical iron removal and clay treatment take out what is bonded into the paint, which no wash can do. Run your hand across a hood before and after and the difference is immediate.

Effectively, yes. A coating is optically clear and semi-permanent, so it locks in whatever is underneath it, including every swirl mark, for years. Coating uncorrected paint means paying to preserve the defects. We will always tell you what level of correction the car actually needs, and if the honest answer is a single-stage rather than a full multi-stage, that is what we will quote.

Usually, and it is one of the more common jobs we do. Embedded hair in woven carpet and cloth seating needs mechanical extraction rather than vacuuming. It takes time, and heavy cases add to the interior labor. Tell us there is a dog in the car when you book and we will schedule the hours for it instead of running short on the day.

No, and anyone who says otherwise is selling you something. Polishing removes defects that sit within the clear coat: swirl marks, wash marring, light scratches, buffer trails, oxidation. If you can catch a scratch with a fingernail, it has gone through the clear coat and no amount of polishing will fix it. That is a paint repair. We measure paint thickness before we start and tell you what will and will not come out.

Both sides of the Columbia. Vancouver, Camas and Ridgefield in Clark County, plus Portland, Lake Oswego, West Linn and Happy Valley across Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. If you are just outside that ring, call and ask. It is often still workable, particularly for larger jobs.

For a coated or sealed car in this climate, a maintenance visit every four to eight weeks keeps it genuinely clean and keeps the protection intact. Without protection, road film bonds faster and you are looking at a full decontamination every time. For most people the cheapest long-run option is one proper detail, protection on top, then a short interval after that.