Although surrounded by car-care products, veteran Chicago area vehicle detailer Larry Emmons said "just wash it" when asked about the single most important thing a vehicle owner can do to keep it looking sharp.

"Dirty air and rain here are among the worst enemies of car and truck paint" Emmons said. "Washing a vehicle once a week thus is the best single thing to keep that junk from damaging paint--although it also should have wax protection.

"But even a wax job usually only lasts about six months in this area. Garaging a vehicle definitely helps keep its paint looking good. Keep it from ultraviolet sun rays as much as possible."

Emmons, 61, is a lifetime car buff who held white-collar jobs unrelated to autos before opening Emmons Coachworks in west suburban Villa Park in 1989. He's owned 38 cars and even built a sleek sports car of his own design, which he still drives.

Part of Emmons' business involves vehicle detailing, which mainly draws customers 30 to 50 years of age. "Detailing" involves making a vehicle's exterior and interior really stand out visually. For example, if a tool like a toothbrush is needed to get rid of that last speck of engine compartment dirt, the tool is used without a second thought.

The other part of the business is selling merchandise with names of exciting cars, including Bugatti, Porsche and Corvette. The items include car covers, key fobs, driving gloves, shift knobs, hats and shirts. There are even exquisite hand-built model cars.

"Business is good because Chicago is a 'car town,"' Emmons said. "We have two thriving area Ferrari dealers, but more Porsches, BMWs and Mercedes-Benz models are seen here than Ferraris because Chicago is more conservative than, say, Los Angeles. But we have many car clubs devoted to everything from Mustangs to Corvettes. The country's largest BMW club is in this area."

Emmons Coachworks also sells many car-care products, from precleaners to waxes. They're from Connecticut's Zymol Enterprises because Emmons is a Zymol products distributor in Illinois and two other states. Emmons Coachworks is one of six Zymol detail centers in America.

Those products are used on everyday vehicles--but also on near-priceless auto show cars such as the 1937 Bugatti Type 57 SC owned by fashion industry mogul Ralph Lauren. (That wax costs $968 per container.) Zymol even formulated a wax called Zymol Royale to protect the finish of one of six 1920s Bugatti Royale models, considered works of art.

Zymol waxes are priced from $38 per container to--wow!--$1,347 per container. Emmons said the latter wax is "hand-poured instead of mass-produced," and that buyers get "free refills for life."

However, Zymol wax is meant to be spread thinly, and it's doubtful if a $1,347 container will be used often. Emmons said most vehicle owners apply too much wax, no matter what brand they use.

Why so expensive? Because Zymol wax contains a high percentage of carnauba wax, which is the hardest, and thus most protective, wax for vehicles. A block of 100 percent carnauba wax is harder than a block of concrete, and thus needs something to transform it into a wax that can be easy to spread on vehicle paint. Some outfits use petroleum products with carnauba, but Zymol uses vegetable oil because it's said to be more friendly to paint.

"The more carnauba content, the more expensive the wax," Emmons said. "The most Zymol will go is 61 percent carnauba content. Also, it's white carnauba, which is better than the more common yellow carnauba wax."

Emmons Coachworks has a reputation for being a good vehicle "detail" operation, and takes six to 10 hours just to do a "simple exterior detail."

The cost?

"The average price is $225 to detail a vehicle exterior, or $350 for an exterior and interior," Emmons said. "It's very labor-intensive work, done by hand. We don't use power paint buffers because they can get a job done faster--but not as well.

And they can damage paint. It's hard to find a place that does a good job with buffers."

Hundreds of auto detail shops are in the area. Some are good, but others do "rush jobs" with cheap materials. Those jobs don't hold up long because hurry-up shops survive on volume, not quality. Besides working on vehicles from individuals, some detailers work on used cars sold by auto dealers, who want a car to look good only for a short time until it's sold.

"Good detail shops get private party business through word-of-mouth referrals," Emmons said. "I now hire other people to do most of the detailing. I used to close shop here at 6 pm., and then detail a car until 3 a.m.

"Many people look for short cuts, but there are no short cuts if you want to do a really good detail job."

Or even a good standard wax job. Emmons shudders when "time-saving" combination car washes/waxes are mentioned. He said many such products contain silicone, which leeches into the paint pores and can actually damage paint.

Many Emmons Coachworks detail customers own expensive cars, including Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Lexus models. But some own average cars or trucks. For instance, it recently detailed a late-model Ford Taurus.

"It's not what type or kind of vehicle you drive, but rather it's how you feel about it" Emmons said.

He said many people make the same mistake when waxing a car as they do when painting a house--they neglect preparation work.

"With house paint, prepping involves scraping away old paint. With vehicles, you must remove old, loose wax, dirt and imperfections such as paint swirls," Emmons said, moving to the trunk of a half-detailed Chrysler PT Cruiser to illustrate his point.

"We remove loose old wax and surface debris from paint with clay. If you don't use clay, even a nicely waxed surface will feel a little rough if you run your hand over it. But the paint feels creamy if you use the clay, which removes lots of invisible junk sitting on the paint."

In fact, the right side of the PT Cruiser trunk, where clay was used, felt remarkably smoother than the left side.

That's why Emmons says his customers, who want to do vehicle waxing on their own, need a pre-wax cleaner product before waxing a vehicle.

Isn't this all a little compulsive?

"Many really nice cars cost about $60,000--and up. So it's no wonder that people want to keep such a vehicle looking its best for pride of ownership and, eventually, top resale value," Emmons said. "However, even owners of lower-priced vehicles are taking better cosmetic care of them.

"Most of my detail customers are men, but women customers often are best when it comes to seeing small imperfections. They're more detail-oriented."