Ever wonder about your neighbors and detailing??

[Pats300zx]

Today I was out working in the yard and I noticed one of my neighbors down washing their car. I was like "WOW" its 90 degrees and they are going full bore until I saw the products that they were using.



I watched them wash the car with Dawn dish soap and a scrubbie pad. At this site, I had to go inside cause I was getting nauseous to my stomach. :eek:



Well after dinner I went outside to do some watering and I noticed that they were still at it. Stuff all over the driveway and low and behold a can of Turtle Wax rubbing compound and a terry cloth app sitting on a stool. :scared



At this site, I decided enough was enough and ventured down with some Meguiars NXT samples that I had picked up.



My neighbor is very nice and has no clue about car care. I helped her get tons of tree sap off her car with some Stoners Tarminator.

The tree sap has eaten into the clearcoat and the marks won`t be coming out with no matter what products I used. I tried to give a brief explanation of what she should and shouldn`t use.



All and all I feel I did my Autopian good deed for the day

:cool:

[andriver]

Nice neighbor. Too bad most people are clueless.

[imported_COBRyan]

Some people are clueless, but I can give this person`s attempt much more credit than a person who never even washes their car at all.

[du3ce]

i never seen my neighbors wash their car

[LouisanaJeeper]

Originally posted by du3ce

i never seen my neighbors wash their car

yup, same here



most people around me go to the automated car wash type places that charge $15-$20

[Bill D]

Originally posted by du3ce

i never seen my neighbors wash their car



I see maybe one or two, that`s a stretch, do so once a year :eek:

[paco]

I`ve been trying to tell my neighbout about 3M`s Hand Glaze. He think`s it the greatest thing since slice bread but can`t understand after a day or 2, the shine goes away.



He just doesn`t get it. He doesn`t own a can of wax!



I`ve tried and tried but he doesn`t get it.



Then there`s my other neighbour who`s clueless but is trying to learn. Every time he see`s me out there, he`s always coming by and asking me to try some out.



I`ve got him hooked now on MF and S100... slowly he`s coming on board.



He hates his Simoniz RO... what a mess he made of his car the other day. Heavy compound by TW, cheap RO unit = swirl city when it all it needed was No. 9 and a bit of elbow grease. Fortunately, he hardly ever (1-2x year) washes his car so he had no significant swirling. Then again, heavy oxidation, etching etc. to contend with.



Even some of my educated friends who really get a kick of detailing still won`t convert over to the multi-step products. Some of it Canada`s fault. We just don`t have the Brick and Morter store exposure to products. When all you see at Canadian tire (our main retailer for car products) is Turtle Wax, Eagle 1 and Meguiar`s 1-2-3/Gold Class and NuFinish since you were a kid, tt`s kind of hard to educate people.



Paco

[paco]

$15 - 20 for an automated car wash. WOW.



I thought $10 CDN was excessive for a what amounts to 50-cents worth of soap and 1/2 hr of your time.



I`ll admit in the winter it can be the only option sometimes but in the summer... there`s really no need for it.



Plus, they don`t really clean all that well. Everytime I`ve used one, there`s always a dirt film on the finish.

[LouisanaJeeper]

well, it is not that bad of a deal. they do a hand vac., put it thru the automated, towel dry where the blower did not dry it, then dress the tires and wipe down the interior.



granted it causes bad swirls, but it is not as bad as the dirt brushes most places use

[ncal]

When all you see at Canadian tire (our main retailer for car products) is Turtle Wax, Eagle 1 and Meguiar`s 1-2-3/Gold Class and NuFinish since you were a kid, tt`s kind of hard to educate people.





USA is not much better as far as what stores carry. The only good thing is I can get the Meguiar`s pro line at the local body shop. In general our society (car washes, dealers, cheap product manufacturers) contribute to this myth that car care is simple and your vehicle is armored like a tank. I tried approaching a number of realtors about detailing service since they use their vehicles for business but no dice. Why pay a detailer when you can just hit the car wash on the street that gives you a `custom express detail` for half the price and 100x the swirls : D

[KenSilver]

I`ve never seen any of my neighbors do anything more than a wash, and I`ve only seen a couple of them do it once every few months. I think they all do the wet-n-sand local car wash.



In fact I`m the "weird one" in our `hood because with 4 cars I`m usually out on the driveway with a hose and gear every day or two.



So far no one`s pointed and laughed at my daily diligence, but that may be because of the neat vehicles I own :) But then I haven`t seen the guy up the road cleaning his own Ferrari either.



We, the detailed-obsessed, must be the bane of our neighborhood.



Ken Silver

--------------

1999 Mercedes SLK, 1999 Suzuki Grand Vitara, 1993 Mercedes SL500, 1991 Daimler (Vanden Plas). Finish detailing, then start all over again...

[DaGonz]

I have three "autopians" in the neighborhood, so I don`t seem all that strange to the rest of the neigfhbors! ;)

[sQuashed]

All of my neighbors yell "mine is next" when they see me out working on the car every weekend !!

[imported_CBX Carl]

I really enjoy using my FM Walkman when detailing. Ignorance is Bliss sometimes.

[Nates]

Hey at least your neighbors respect autopianism. I live in a complex (no garage) and my neighbors (with a few exceptions) love to laugh at the fact that I`m always out washing and polishing. Then they seem to take some sort of diabolical glee in the once a month hosing off their rolling bird toilet next to my lovingly cared for cars, welding oxidized paint, bird nuke, environmental evil, and just plain bad energy over my nice new coat of Glanz:angry . Oh well, someday I`ll have a garage......mmmmm garage.