Hi,
My name is Bill Pratt. I found this site today from a link at Vintage Mustang Forum when a winter washing question came up. I've been perusing the forum for a couple of hours now and am blown away by the wealth of information.
I became interested in doing my own detailing when my little fleet of show cars and daily drivers reached 6 cars. Paying someone else to do them didn't make sense and the show cars really need to be done on my schedule rather than what a shop can accomodate.
Today, I use a varied collection of products. Most of them will change based on what I'm learning here. The things I have that are consistent with this site include the Porter-Cable random orbital, the various velcro pads, clay bar, fine polish, and MF towels. However, most of the other products are either Griots,
Meguiars, or household products.
The process of detailing a car before the show is recreational and I am always slow to leave the garage when the car is finished because I usually just want to stand there and admire it. The daily drivers are harder to do because they're in worse shape generally and the F-150 is just so darn big (it doesn't actually fit in my garage sufficiently for proper detailing).
The "jewel" of my collection is CatVert, my custom 1968 Cougar convertible. It's the only one exactly like it in the world and is loosely one of four known to have been done to a factory standard using the Mustang as a model. I guess one could call that my dream car since I don't know what I'd ever replace it with and have no desire to replace it at all. A close second is my Jaguar XK-8, which is driven year-round as long as the roads are clear and dry.
I'm too new at detailing to have any secrets yet. I'm here to learn and apply the expertise of others.
I've slowly been branching out from my own cars to doing detailing for the rest of the family and selected close friends. I expanded the circle a bit when my teenagers were raising money for the People-to-People Student Ambassador trips a few years ago. I'm hoping to retire from a high-tech management career in about 10 years and would like to continue doing detailing as a way to stay active and generate a little extra cash.
Thanks for all the knowledge that's been posted here already. I've been puzzling over how to keep the Jaguar looking good over the winter without going to car washes; now I already have the QEW thread as an answer!
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