About Valet Shop

What we are about
There are a bewildering array of car care products on the market, there are dozens of manufacturers making lotions and potions for cleaning, polishing, protecting and revitalizing just about every part of the car you can think of.

In all honesty, there are very few bad products on the market... most do what they say they do, but it can still be very confusing and it's easy to end up buying products you don't need or won't do the job you bought them for.

This problem is compounded by the fact that the most profitable market to aim for is the enthusiast market. Yes, believe it or not, there are many thousands of people who gain great pleasure and satisfaction from spending their time 'detailing' their cars. (It's not as strange as it might sound, and you may well find yourself getting hooked). They like to spend their spare time and spare cash collecting and trying out exotic products.

We don't aim for the enthusiast niche. The people working behind the scenes of this website are professional car valeters, so we sell the products that we use, and in many cases have used for many years because we just haven't found anything to beat them. Every product here is here for a reason. We aren't swayed by fancy packaging or extraordinary claims but we do get impressed by results, ease of use, economy, and manufacturers who are reliable in supply and delivery, and who are willing to spend time giving us support and advice... after all, we will pass this support and advice on to you.

Please note - the photos on this page are NOT stock photographs. The photos you will find on this website are of cars valeted and reconditioned by us at our workshop in Chelmsford Essex.

Why no telephone numbers? Why no address?
The honest answer is that there just aren't enough hours in the day to give full and detailed answers to all the questions we get. This doesn't mean we don't have time for our customers, far from it. It's been our experience that we find ourselves giving the same answers over and over again! A far more sensible approach is to answer those questions once and ensure that the answer is put on the website.
The reason we don't have an address on the website is that if we do, some people (especially salesmen) come knocking. Our stock is in several different locations, our staff are in several locations, and we really aren't geared up to receive visitors -- we are web based.
We do of course have an address and several telephone numbers -- we even have a fax number. So if you feel that you really need to talk to us by phone, need to send us something, or even visit us, then please use the contact form provided and we will arrange an appointment.

*About Our Performance Tables
For waxes, polishes and some other popular products we will be adding performance tables to help you compare. We give each characteristic a score out of ten, for example, cleaning, cut, and gloss. This is for guide purposes only -- we haven't scientifically measured these things, in many cases it would be impossible to do so, instead we have chosen numbers we feel best represents the qualities of the products based on many years of us using them. This has lead to hours of arguments among our staff as it is a subjective matter and everybody has their favourite products, and may even be able to get more out of them due to technique. But all in all, we feel the numbers are about right and serve as a useful guide.

Cleaning
Many products have components in them which will clean your paintwork. These ingredients can remove dirt and grime which is not removed my normal washing.

Cut
Some products will contain abrasives which polish by removing tiny amounts of dead and oxidized paint -- those with more aggressive compounds can also be used to polish out light scratches.

Gloss
Gloss is how shiny the finished result is. A slick wet-look is usually produced by using oils as an ingredient, however oils are not durable so manufacturers need to strike a balance.

Depth
Products that are optically clear can give depth to the colour of your paintwork, however they don't hide scratches and can show them up. Products which contain fillers and diffusers hide light scratches but generally don't give much depth.

Protection
Some products are designed to give a high gloss, some to hide scratches, some to polish - the coating on your car can be hard or soft, or in the case of 'true' polishes, virtually nonexistent!

**Durability
This is a very difficult thing to quantify, it depends on the time of year, the weather, how often you use your car and how you wash it. All can effect durability, but we have tried to give an overall score based on our experiences.

Application
Most of our products are for hand use, but many can also be used with orbital polishing machines. Some polishes and compounds are only really any good for rotary machine application as they require the speed and heat generated by the machine action to work properly.

Ease of Use
Any issues with the ease of use will be noted in the 'pros' and 'cons' at the bottom of the page. We may also give tips for application within the yellow tips panels.