garnet92

Assuming that spending $55 on a detail job doesn’t mean that you don’t eat for awhile, I’d let the detailer do the dirty work. You can start your own maintenance after he’s knocked down the first layer or two. Let him do the pickaxe and chisel work. Just make sure when you make your deal with him that he commits to a sparkling clean engine bay. After that, you’ll clean all of the (many) areas that he missed and start on your chosen receipt for “squeaky clean”.

I use Simple Green, Armorall, and low pressure water with baggies over some components. It works fine for me.

You might also check out some of the detailing forums, there’s a tremendous amount of good info there on general detailing – a lot of “pros” lurking.