The Most Important Safety Gear (PPE) For Car Detailers

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Unfortunately, safety is one of those things that’s taken for granted until it’s too late. Today I decided to show you the most important safety gear you should wear while detailing vehicles. 

Car detailers are faced with trash, vapor, cigarette smells, detailing chemicals (APCs, Coatings, Dressings, etc.), and many other things that aren’t healthy at all. 

Exposure to various smells, especially toxic chemicals, will negatively affect your health. In the long run, those chemicals may even lead to serious diseases of your skin, eyes, lungs, etc. 

I don’t want anyone to get any disease, and I’m gonna try to show you the most important PPE for all car detailers, which will prevent all those chemicals and smells touch your body or enter your respiratory system.

Also, wearing protective gear may also improve your results since it’s a barrier between your skin and the car. When we sweat, all those oils from our skin end up on the vehicle and ruin the quality of detailing the job done.

Protective masks and gloves are something you can’t detail without. The rest of the gear is recommended to have, especially if you’re doing ceramic coatings, compounding, painting, etc.

Must-Have Equipment For Car Detailers

Here’s all the equipment that you should have if you’re a car detailer.

Face Masks

Masks are the number 1 protective things you have to buy if you’re detailing vehicles. Even if you do only your car, it’s important to wear a mask.

A high-quality mask will prevent you from inhaling all those harmful chemicals and also help you to easier withstand the bad odor of some very dirty cars.

There are two types of masks that you should consider buying:

• Medical face mask
• Professional face protective mask

I would suggest that everyone buy a medical face mask, which is the most affordable one, and will protect you from general detailing jobs such as washing, cleaning the interior, and cleaning the extraction, etc.

However, if you often do ceramic coatings, polishing, compounding, paint correction, or similar, you should consider buying yourself a professional face protective mask. I like this one from 3M company, it’s one of the best out there for all car detailers.

Of course, there are some face masks in between those two that I mentioned, so I’ll leave the choice up to you. Any mask is better than no mask, so get one.

Gloves

Gloves are one of the most important PPE for auto detailing, because of the following:

• They’ll protect the skin on your hands
• By wearing them, you won’t touch the car with your hands which are full of sweat and oils.

The hands are the most exposed part of our body to all the chemicals, trash, contaminants, dust, dirt, etc. That’s the reason why wearing high-quality chemical-resistant gloves is very important.

When it comes to picking gloves, there isn’t much to worry about. Any gloves will do the job. 

However, if you asked me, I would choose these gloves from Amazon; they’re one of the best gloves for car detailing.

Protective Glasses

Whatever goes into your eyes will enter your bloodstream. This is especially important when you’re using APC, carpet cleaning solutions, waxes, ceramic coatings, etc.

That’s why wearing protective glasses is as important as using gloves and a face mask. 

It’s a very cheap piece of equipment, and it would be a shame if you don’t invest $5-15 for your safety.

Cap

You should also use a cap whenever you’re detailing, especially if you’re detailing vehicles somewhere in the sun.

Wearing a cap will prevent the heat from the sun goes directly on your head, which will make it easier for you to work outside.

Also, all those chemicals that I always mention could have a bad effect on your hair, so you should think about it. 

Any cap with eyelets will be fine since those have better airflow.

Waterproof Sneakers

First things first, the most important thing about sneakers is that they should be comfortable for you. 

Wearing uncomfortable shoes for 8-9 hours will hurt your legs.

Furthermore, I suggest you get some waterproof sneakers because you work a lot with water. It’s a very common situation that you get your feet wet, which isn’t good for your health.

There are also some fabric protectant sprays that you can use on your sneakers to lower the chance of water entering them.

Long Pants

I know it’s hard to wear long pants, especially in the summer. And I’m gonna be honest with you; even I don’t do that.

However, if you have sensitive skin, you should always use long paints when detailing.

Some of the chemicals may be very irritating to your skin and will very likely cause itching on your skin.

Should you buy expensive equipment only?

There is no need to spend too much money on safety gear. However, I would recommend you not to be stingy when it comes to buying these:

• Face masks
• Gloves

As I said earlier, those two are the most important safety equipment for every car detailer, and you should wear them all the time.

Conclusion

You know, we all neglect our health too much. Not only when it comes to car detailing but all the time.

Those bad chemicals, vapors, and more aren’t a joke. I would be happy if you took at least some of my recommendations and protected your health.

I think that I showed you the most important safety gear that every car detailer should have, and more important – USE IT.

Of course, you could get plenty of other things to protect yourself even more, such as aprons, etc. 

Whatever you can do to protect your health, do it. Your own health should always be in the first place. Stay healthy, guys!

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