After I got out of the Navy, I bought a used '68 Mustang fastback (gold with a 4 speed and 302 engine). When I started dating my wife (the first one!), I actually paid a kid to wash the car every week so I could impress the girl. Then came marriage and poverty. Traded the Stang for another guys 65 Plymouth Belvedere. It was baby blue that was totally dull and chalky. Just by accident I tried a little rubbing compound on one fender and I was hooked. Did the whole car by hand and people that knew the car were amazed and thought I had it repainted. I was totally gone (as is the first wife - thank goodness). I used to wash and wax all 5 cars every week till I sold the my Corvette a few month ago. Now I "coast" through Saturdays doing only the 3 CRV's and the Black Prelude. Detailing has been my savior as a release from life's stress and pressures. BTW, the kid that bought the '68 Mustang still has it, restored and running but mostly a garage queen. I see it about twice a year and it always brings back a ton of memories and the "wish I wouldn't have sold it" syndrome.
At what point did you become interested in detailing?
- Thread starter White95Max
- Start date
Prometheus said:
Ah, the black car. Me, too. Actually, I thought that I had been "detailing" my car for the last 10 years. To me, detailing was hand washing, polishing, and waxing. For the last 5 years or so, I used Meg's 3-step Deep Crystal system (paint cleaner, polish, and wax). With these and a cheap-o orbital buffer, I was able to keep our first Lexus SUV (red) in fairly good condition. My wife got a black Lexus sedan about 5 years ago. Relative to the SUV, it was neglected. We didn't wax it as often and it was parked outside during the day. It also went through the dealer's car wash at every oil change. I was able to get it looking okay with some attention with the Meg's Deep Crystal, but not as good as I wanted it.
A couple of months ago, we traded in her black sedan for a black Hybrid SUV. That's when I knew I needed to take my "detailing" to a new level. The Lexus Owner's Club forum had a detailing forum in which many referred to tips from Autopia. So, here I am. Now armed with a PC and more knowledge about process. Still learning, but I've already improved my game quite a bit. The 6 year old red SUV is looking better than ever. I'm hoping to keep the black SUV looking as nice as it does. I've already gotten it to look better than the day I picked it up. I really appreciate the generosity of the people here for sharing their experience!
Reflections1
New member
This is a great thread! I started in the mid 80s when I bought my first car at 14. It was a 1969 Chevelle SS that was in good condition with original paint. I got the car very cheap from my Grandfathers friend. It was my dream car. 396 SS. I remember putting that car on Jack stands for weeks and just cleaning everything. Back then I knew I had the bug. Well sad to say the SS was stolen and never recovered. PI$$ES ME OFF to this day because I know I would have still had the car today. I then bought a 73 Camaro. This car had perfect paint and I kept it like that (or I thought I did) to the day it got hit by an Avis Rental flatbed. Then I had a new 89 Blazer and that truck was great but Black and four wheelin dont go together and I didnt even bother to try to keep up on it. Then I got the itch to build a full size street truck. I went to the dealer and bougt a 1993 Ford Flareside in Electric current red metallic. I lowered it, went nuts with custom audio (in 93 the stereo system was 7000.00) wheels, performance mods and anything else you can think of. I kept that truck garaged and pretty myuch walked to work on rainy days. That truck is what taught me how to detail and the rest was history. I now detail proffessionaly and still maintain my truck on a daily basis.
As a kid i didnt care about my cars much, they were pretty much beaters. Somewhere in my 20's i bought a new Ranger XLT and would wash it once a week with Dawn. I tried "waxing" it a couple times, but it nver beaded more than a week or 2, so i figured the stuff was hype and garbage.
I bought a new fire engine red F350 a few years ago, and was determined to make it look like new as long as i owned it. I think i swirled the crap out of the paint in 3 weeks.
I have friends that own a body shop and went to them about my paint, casually. They said clear coat is very soft, and you should use something besides Dawn and a sponge to wash the truck with.
So i went out and bought Zip Wax car soap, and a blue long handled brush....
I still thought waxing was a joke, so i only would wash my truck, and let it drip dry...
About a year ago i made a computer case that i wet sanded and buffed by hand, it came out pretty nice, and a light came on in my head.
With the internet and an idea of buffing paint i looked for an online community that knew about this stuff.
Here is where i ended up
And "waxing" aint no joke !!
I bought a new fire engine red F350 a few years ago, and was determined to make it look like new as long as i owned it. I think i swirled the crap out of the paint in 3 weeks.
I have friends that own a body shop and went to them about my paint, casually. They said clear coat is very soft, and you should use something besides Dawn and a sponge to wash the truck with.
So i went out and bought Zip Wax car soap, and a blue long handled brush....
I still thought waxing was a joke, so i only would wash my truck, and let it drip dry...
About a year ago i made a computer case that i wet sanded and buffed by hand, it came out pretty nice, and a light came on in my head.
With the internet and an idea of buffing paint i looked for an online community that knew about this stuff.
Here is where i ended up
And "waxing" aint no joke !!
In a nutshell, I had been washing cars since the age of 12. I had gotten the hang of it pretty quickly and even would embarass a few pros over time. However, being a quasi-perfectionist, it wasn't enough. Over the years, I used products like NuFinish, Zymol, Turtle Wax, and even some of the Meguiar's pro stuff but still wasn't satisfied.
When I was 17, my parents owned a body shop and I was the person who cleaned the cars when the customers picked them up. I didn't have much in the way of supplies (unless you count Joy Dishwashing detergent and Windex). At the age of 19, I learned how to run a rotary for the first time by polishing my father's SUV (I used a cleaner wax and a wool pad on the rotary). At the time, I was amazed at how it came out.
Fast forward to 2000. This was the year I got my first Maxima. I had the basic knowledge but felt I needed to know more. That's how I wound up here. Since then, I have learned quite a bit but I still feel I have a long way to go.
Now, my detailing supply collection has mushroomed and includes a PC.
When I was 17, my parents owned a body shop and I was the person who cleaned the cars when the customers picked them up. I didn't have much in the way of supplies (unless you count Joy Dishwashing detergent and Windex). At the age of 19, I learned how to run a rotary for the first time by polishing my father's SUV (I used a cleaner wax and a wool pad on the rotary). At the time, I was amazed at how it came out.
Fast forward to 2000. This was the year I got my first Maxima. I had the basic knowledge but felt I needed to know more. That's how I wound up here. Since then, I have learned quite a bit but I still feel I have a long way to go.
Now, my detailing supply collection has mushroomed and includes a PC.
Spilchy
New member
For me, my detailing obsession started at soon as I could walk. My mother told me I would open drawers all over the house and organize everything inside them. I would remove all the books from the book shelves and organize them in a symetrical descending order. I had an obession with straightening things out everywhere so they were in perfect order like setting the table, stacking papers, magazines or situating decorations on the coffe table or in the display book cases. I loved to wash and dry the dishes by hand.
When I was a young kid, my grandfather bought me a BMX Mongoose bicycle. The entire bike was chrome-molly with blue chromed mag style wheels. It was THE single coolest bike that anyone had - it blew away those with Hutch, Torker or RedLine! I shined it routinely with Noxon metal polish and old wash cloths. The same fastidious nature I had with all other facets of being neat, organized and clean transfered over into my personal posessions.
Like blkZ28Conv, I watched my father wash and wax our cars and keep them perfectly mechanically maintained - not to mention our lawn and garden was perfect. My grandfather used to have his car washed and then drive to the local park and wax his car in the shade. We were all very similar in our OCD-like personalities.
So I started to help my father and used the old school products like Noxon, Blue Coral, Kit, Turtle Wax and Meguiar's Cleaner wax. We used old bath towels.
In 2001, when I leased my Jetta VR6, I decided to do some research about detailing on the internet after owning it for a year and using the same old prodcuts and accessories. I found CMA and learned a lot from them and bought a handful of products. I then saw Autopia on CMA and came to this site and soon joined. My understanding of detailing, proper products and techniques EXPLODED and I took my skills to a whole new level.
So my love of detailing I believe is a natural extension of personality and the way I was born, coupled with my love of cars. It's a perfect match to act out my "obsessive compulsive disorder".
When I was a young kid, my grandfather bought me a BMX Mongoose bicycle. The entire bike was chrome-molly with blue chromed mag style wheels. It was THE single coolest bike that anyone had - it blew away those with Hutch, Torker or RedLine! I shined it routinely with Noxon metal polish and old wash cloths. The same fastidious nature I had with all other facets of being neat, organized and clean transfered over into my personal posessions.
Like blkZ28Conv, I watched my father wash and wax our cars and keep them perfectly mechanically maintained - not to mention our lawn and garden was perfect. My grandfather used to have his car washed and then drive to the local park and wax his car in the shade. We were all very similar in our OCD-like personalities.
So I started to help my father and used the old school products like Noxon, Blue Coral, Kit, Turtle Wax and Meguiar's Cleaner wax. We used old bath towels.
In 2001, when I leased my Jetta VR6, I decided to do some research about detailing on the internet after owning it for a year and using the same old prodcuts and accessories. I found CMA and learned a lot from them and bought a handful of products. I then saw Autopia on CMA and came to this site and soon joined. My understanding of detailing, proper products and techniques EXPLODED and I took my skills to a whole new level.
So my love of detailing I believe is a natural extension of personality and the way I was born, coupled with my love of cars. It's a perfect match to act out my "obsessive compulsive disorder".
NYC2SoCal said:It was just a little while ago.. We just bought a new Sienna XLE Limited with NAV in Arctic Frost Pearl, and was reading the forums at www.siennaclub.com.. An autopian (toyotasienna, I wonder if that's TRD-22 here) posted a Detailing 101 thread. I was intrigued by the process and attention to detail of the post. I decided to come to this site to see what it was all about, and I got sucked in, sinker,line,pole,boat and all!!
No offense to anyone, but I cannot see myself being a professional detailer, I'm better at something else!! ;-) It'll be one of my hobbies.
This is a big step, compared to when I lived in NYC, I really didn't care about the condition of the car... You wash it, it rains the next day... You wash it, it snows the next day.. And when you park it on the street, well, why bother?
Moving out to Southern California, I would watch my neighbors wash their cars in amazment.. To me, it was like, I think I'll pay 9.95 for the local hand wash place. I thought these folks were nuts washing their cars every other week or so... I washed my car when someone wrote "wash me".. :rofl .... Then I got the addiction from autopia.org... Me thinking my neighbors were nuts, the roles have reversed now when I see them (with the "this guy is nuts" look) looking at me with my PC!! :buffing:
That, sir, would be my father. I think he's registered under CarsFreak here. He seems really busy and never has a chance to post here anymore.
Since I'm still relatively young, I've only been into detailing recently. Believe or not, my dad, once my brother was born, never really cared for the Camry that sat outside 24/7. I never saw it waxed and when it was washed he used the same sponge that he applied Eagle One wax with as a wash sponge along with Joy dishwasher liquid. I remember when I was 10, I never knew why other cars beaded water why but our Camry had water flat on the surface sitting there. And talk about giant ugly swirls collected from 7 NE winters.
I stumbled onto ClubRSX and was reading their detailing section when I was 12. There I learned about Zaino and Meguiars and read the usual religious wars between them and their users.
My first bottle of wax since the Eagle One Polish/Wax was a bottle of Prestone wax that was new at the time and it beaded quite well. In fact, it lasted from Nov. 2002 'till February of 2003 when a small spot on the roof started to fail to bead.
Then my dad signed onto Meguiars Online and I just read their articles and such and have since gotten a hoard of stuff. Got the PC and love it.
Hopefully when I'm out in there in the business world 10 years down the road, I still have time to treat the cars the way they should be treated.
imported_guapsnaman
New member
It's when I got my first brand new car, 2003 Maxima SE with 14 miles on it, and wanted it to stay new. It's a damn special thing when you get a brand new car and you treat it so well even two years later. Once we signed those papers for the car, I went online found this place, and it taught me all I needed to know. Now my car looks better than the day I brought it home 2 years and 98 days ago (with less than 13,000 too).
mdsmithers
New member
Great stories.
Seems like I have always been detailing cars, just didn't know it would turn into this. Once I put rubbing compund on my sister's car, opps. I've detailed bikes, lawn mowers and even my son's red wagon - it's fun to see em slide around in there. The max is black and it's taken my obsession to another level, possibly unhealthy
. I've started doing details for family as gifts and it's spread to others friends. Great hobby.
NYC2SoCal, I'm mdsmithers on that thread for the Sienna
Seems like I have always been detailing cars, just didn't know it would turn into this. Once I put rubbing compund on my sister's car, opps. I've detailed bikes, lawn mowers and even my son's red wagon - it's fun to see em slide around in there. The max is black and it's taken my obsession to another level, possibly unhealthy
. I've started doing details for family as gifts and it's spread to others friends. Great hobby.NYC2SoCal, I'm mdsmithers on that thread for the Sienna
Accumulator
Well-known member
TRD-22 said:
Heh heh, I got a kick out of that
imported_Picus
New member
It was my G35 coupe for me. My first car was already in bad shape paint wise (88 Civic DX) so I never bothered doing much to it aside from an occassional wash with an age old wash mitt (/shudder). After that I went through a series of VW's that I didn't really care for much. Then I got my '03 G35 coupe (black of course...) and that's when the obsession started. Now I own a G35 sedan (black, why do you taunt me!) and it's been an even bigger challenge. I recently got a PC and am getting decent with it so I hope to transform the car soon. Pics forthcoming, of course.