Gear guides · DIY car detailing
Detail your own car without guessing what to buy.
Expert picks for polishers, ceramic coatings, foam cannons, wax and interior kits, with prices pulled live from Amazon. We stock nothing and sell nothing, so a pick here is never something we are trying to move.
- Products with live prices
- 169
- Prices last checked
- October 5, 2026
- Products we stock
- 0
- Pages on the site
- 104
169 products across the site, every one a real listing resolved through Amazon’s catalog. Prices expire on their own after 48 hours and fall back to “Check price” rather than showing you a stale number.
How this is funded: we earn an Amazon commission when you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. We sell nothing and stock nothing, so a pick is never a product we are trying to move. Prices are pulled live from Amazon and were last checked October 5, 2026; where we cannot verify a price we say so rather than print an old one. Full disclosure.
This month's winners
The top pick in every category
One product per category, each one the number one in its roundup. Prices are live from Amazon and dated; tap a tile for the full write-up.
Best overall
Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light
The longest-lasting coating a home detailer can legitimately install
Best interior cleaner
Chemical Guys Total Interior Cleaner and Protectant
One bottle for every hard surface in the cabin
Browse by category
Six categories, built around the order you actually work
Wash, decontaminate, correct, protect, maintain. Each hub covers one stage, with the roundups, comparisons and technique guides that belong to it.
Polishers
Polishers & paint correction
The machine matters less than the pad and the compound on it. Here is how the tiers actually differ, and where spending more stops buying you anything.
Updated October 2026
Coatings
Ceramic & graphene coatings
Durability claims in this category are the least reliable numbers in detailing. Here is what the tiers actually are, and which one your car wants.
Updated October 2026
Washing
Washing, foam, decon & drying
Almost every swirl mark on your paint was put there by a wash. This is the part of detailing where technique beats product, and the products still matter.
Updated October 2026
Protection
Wax, sealants & protection
Carnauba looks better and lasts weeks. Sealants last months and look flatter. Both are still worth owning, and here is when each one is the right call.
Updated October 2026
Interior
Interior detailing
The interior is where a car is actually experienced, and where the wrong chemical does permanent, visible damage. Dilution matters more than brand here.
Updated October 2026
Wheels
Wheels, tires & trim
The dirtiest part of the car, cleaned with the harshest chemicals available. Matching the cleaner to the finish is what stops a wheel being ruined.
Updated October 2026
How this site works
Independent, because we have nothing to sell you
Phase 0 research for this site found that every topically-deep competitor in DIY detailing is a store. A store can only recommend what it stocks.
01
We stock nothing
No product line, no inventory, no house brand. When a cheap product beats an expensive one we can simply say so, which a retailer cannot.
02
Prices are live, or absent
Every price is pulled from Amazon and dated. After 48 hours without a refresh they disappear and the button says Check price. We never print a remembered number.
03
We say what we have not done
We have not used these products. Every page is labeled research-based, built from published specifications and the patterns in verified-purchase reports.
04
Specifications or nothing
Where a manufacturer does not publish a figure, our spec tables say Not published rather than carrying an estimate. There are more invented numbers in this category than most.
Read these first
The four pages that carry the argument
If you read nothing else here, read these. Three of them cost nothing to act on.
Order of operations
The detailing order of operations
The full ordered sequence with what each step undoes if taken out of turn, including the five sequence errors people actually make.
Updated October 2026
The two bucket method
The two bucket method
Why one bucket fails, the full sequence, the three-bucket variant for wheels, and the mistakes that defeat the whole exercise.
Updated October 2026
Paint correction steps
Paint correction steps
One-step against two-step correction, how to judge which your paint needs, and the honest limit on how much clear coat you can spend.
Updated October 2026
Coating maintenance
Ceramic coating maintenance
The weekly, quarterly and annual routine for a coated car, what to never put on it, and how to revive beading that has dropped off.
Updated October 2026
Latest
Most recently updated
Every page carries the date it was last reviewed. The date moves only when the page actually changed.
- Adam's Polishes vs Griot's GarageOctober 2026
- Armor All vs Chemical Guys for interiorsOctober 2026
- The beginner detailing starter kitOctober 2026
- The best all purpose cleaners for detailingOctober 2026
- The best applicator padsOctober 2026
- The best budget car polishersOctober 2026
- The best car carpet cleanersOctober 2026
- The best car detailing kitsOctober 2026
Transparency
How this site is funded
Iron Mako Media publishes 104 pages here and earns an Amazon commission when you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. That is the only way this site makes money — there is no sponsored content, no paid placement, and no product line of our own.
It also means a pick is never a product we are trying to move, which is the structural advantage we have over every detailing retailer writing the same pages.