Detailing has a large vocabulary and an unusually high proportion of it is marketing language wearing technical clothes. Where a term is imprecise, this page says so.
A
Abrasive — The cutting particle in a compound or polish. Diminishing abrasives break down as you work, starting coarse and finishing fine. Non-diminishing (SMAT) abrasives stay the same size and cut consistently until you stop.
Alcantara — A branded microsuede used on steering wheels, seat inserts and headliners. It fails by matting and gloss, not by staining, so it needs mechanical agitation rather than stronger chemistry.
Aniline leather — Uncoated leather, dyed through rather than pigmented and sealed. Rare in modern cars. If water soaks in rather than beading, it is aniline and needs different products.
APC — All-purpose cleaner. An alkaline, dilutable concentrate. Dilution ratio changes what it is: strong for engine bays, weak for interiors.
B
Backing plate — The disc that connects pad to machine. Must match the machine’s thread and be 20–25 mm smaller than the pad.
BACS — Bank transfer as a payment method in WooCommerce. On this site it is relabelled as Interac e-Transfer.
Blend — The polyester-to-polyamide ratio in microfibre, written as 80/20 or 70/30. More polyamide means softer and more absorbent, and more expensive.
Buffer trail — See hologram.
C
Carnauba — A hard plant wax from the Brazilian carnauba palm, the traditional base of automotive wax. Melts around 82 °C, which is why waxed panels in summer sun lose protection quickly.
Clay — A malleable polymer bar, mitt or towel that shears bonded contamination off the paint. Always marrs to some degree; belongs before correction.
Clear coat — The unpigmented layer over the colour. Typically 40–60 microns on a modern car. Everything correction does happens inside this layer, and it cannot be replaced.
Compound — An abrasive liquid for removing defects. Cuts fast, leaves haze.
Concentrate — A product sold undiluted. Compare products by cost per finished litre, not by bottle price.
Correction — Removing defects by abrading clear coat down to the base of the defect. Not filling, not hiding.
CRI — Colour Rendering Index, 0–100. How accurately a light source renders colour against daylight. Inspection lights should be 90+; a value below 80 hides defects.
Cross-link — The chemical reaction that cures a coating from a liquid into a solid film. Temperature and humidity dependent.
Cut — How aggressively a pad or compound removes material. Every pad and compound on this site states its level.
D
Dilution ratio — Written 1:10 or 1:500, meaning one part product to that many parts water. The single most useful number on a bottle of chemistry and the one most often omitted from a listing.
Dressing — A product that restores colour and adds UV protection to trim, tires or interior plastic. Sits on the surface; washes off.
Duty cycle — How long a machine can run per hour without damage. A consumer pressure washer may be rated for 15 minutes in 60; a professional one runs continuously.
DA — Dual action. See random orbital.
E
Edgeless — A microfibre towel with a cut or ultrasonically sealed edge rather than a sewn one. Sewn edges are a common source of towel-induced marring.
Encapsulation — The polymer mechanism in rinseless washes that surrounds a dirt particle so it can be wiped away without scratching.
Extraction — Injecting cleaning solution into fabric and immediately vacuuming it back out with the dissolved soil. The only method that removes soil rather than relocating it.
F
Fallout — Airborne industrial and brake particles embedded in paint. Mostly ferrous, which is why iron removers work on it.
Flash-off — The window between applying a coating and levelling it, while the solvent evaporates. Too early removes the coating; too late leaves high spots.
Foam cannon — A pressure-washer attachment that aerates shampoo into clinging foam. Output depends on the machine’s flow rate as much as the cannon.
G
Glaze — A filler-heavy product that hides light defects temporarily. Legitimate before a sale; not correction.
Graphene coating — In almost all products, a ceramic coating with graphene oxide added. Judge it as a ceramic coating.
Grit guard — A slotted insert in the bottom of a wash bucket that keeps settled grit from returning to the mitt.
GSM — Grams per square metre. Microfibre weight. 300–400 for buffing, 900+ for drying.
H
High spot — Excess coating left unlevelled, visible as a smear or rainbow once cured. Removable only by machine polishing.
Hologram — A three-dimensional buffer trail left by a rotary, visible as a shimmer under a point light source. Removed by refinement with a finishing pad.
Hydrophobic — Water-shedding. Causes beading and sheeting. Not the same as protective — a surface can be hydrophobic and offer little chemical resistance.
I — L
IPA — Isopropyl alcohol, diluted as a panel wipe to remove polishing oils before coating. The step most often skipped, and the cause of most coating adhesion failures.
Iron remover — A thiol chemistry that dissolves embedded ferrous particles and turns purple as it reacts. The colour is a reaction indicator, not a performance score.
Jeweling — A final refinement pass with a very fine polish and soft pad, done at low speed for gloss rather than defect removal.
Levelling — Wiping a coating during its flash-off window to leave an even film.
Long-throw — A dual-action with a 15 mm or 21 mm orbit. Covers ground faster than the 8–9 mm machines that preceded it.
Lubricity — How slippery a shampoo makes the wash water. Higher lubricity means less chance of dragging grit across paint.
M — N
Marring — Very light surface scratching, typically from towels, mitts or clay. Removable with a polishing step.
Microfibre — Synthetic fibre split into filaments finer than silk. Specified by GSM, blend and edge type.
Micron — One thousandth of a millimetre. Clear coat is measured in microns; a paint depth gauge reads in them.
Non-acid — A wheel cleaner chemistry safe on virtually all finishes including polished and anodised. The correct default when the finish is unknown.
O — P
Open time — How long a compound stays workable before it dries out. Longer open times forgive a slower arm.
Orange peel — Texture in the paint’s surface from application, resembling citrus skin. Requires wet sanding; polishing will not remove it.
Panel wipe — See IPA.
pH — Acidity, 0–14. Neutral is 7. Neutral shampoos are coating-safe; alkaline shampoos strip protection, which is what a pre-correction strip wash is for.
Pre-wash — Chemistry applied before contact washing to soften and lift grit. On a winter car this is the step that prevents swirls.
Polish — An abrasive liquid finer than a compound, used to refine haze into gloss.
R — S
Random orbital — A machine whose pad both orbits and rotates, with rotation driven by friction. Stalls under pressure rather than burning paint, which is what makes it safe.
Rinseless wash — An encapsulating wash used without rinsing, in a bucket. Correct for winter, apartments and water restrictions. Wrong for a genuinely filthy car.
Rotary — A machine whose pad spins on a fixed axis. Cuts fastest; will strike through an edge in seconds.
Sealant — A synthetic polymer that bonds chemically to paint. Months of durability, forgiving application.
SiO₂ — Silicon dioxide, silica. The active chemistry in most ceramic coatings and SiO₂ sprays.
SMAT — Super Micro Abrasive Technology. Non-diminishing abrasives that cut at a consistent rate.
Strike-through — Cutting through the clear coat into the colour beneath. Permanent, and requires repainting.
Strip wash — A deliberately alkaline wash that removes existing wax and sealant, done before correction or coating.
Swirl — Fine circular scratching in the clear coat, almost always caused by washing and drying rather than by the road.
T — W
TDS — Technical data sheet. The manufacturer’s published dilution, coverage, cure and safety figures. See our Data Sheets index.
Throw — The orbit diameter of a dual-action machine, in millimetres. 15 mm is the practical default.
Topper — A spray product applied over an existing coating or sealant to restore water behaviour. Maintenance, not protection in its own right.
Twisted loop — A drying towel weave with long twisted fibres, holding several times its weight in water.
Two-bucket method — Washing with one shampoo bucket and one rinse bucket, returning the mitt to the rinse bucket between panels. The cheapest available reduction in wash-induced swirling.
Waffle weave — A microfibre weave with a raised grid, low-lint and used for glass.
Water spot — Mineral deposit left where a water droplet evaporated. Type I sits on the surface; Type II has etched into the clear and needs polishing.
Wet sanding — Abrading paint with graded wet abrasive paper to remove orange peel or deep defects, followed by a full correction. A separate discipline from polishing, and unforgiving.