todd@bsaw said:
Yay for the sake of discussion!
I am in no way an authority in the detailing industry nor would I consider myself even an influential member of the Autopia community, so my opinions are just that and I am more than willing to accept that I shouldn't be telling other people how to operate their business. I'm not trying to be a jerk and I know this discussion has come up many times before in the pro forum, but I do enjoy a good argument and am open to other view points. Just wanted to get that out of the way because it seems lately many web forums I frequent turn into bickering matches too easily.
As far as the term, it's just a word. I'm not exactly sure why I get annoyed with someone calling a general car wash a "detail" but I do. What should you call it otherwise? I don't know... car wash? Car cleaning? Maybe detailing is the best word for it but I've even had a number of people think that "detailing" is pin-striping... I tried to
define what a detailer is on my web page and would welcome any discussion.
You bring up some good points about mechanics, but I would consider that a difference between a mechanic and a fabricator (unless I'm reading your analogy wrong). I feel that a detailer should at least have the know-how to use a buffer properly to perform paint correction and offer it as a service. The OP does neither and calls all his services "detail" packages. You, on the other hand, no where imply your packages are "detail" packages and at least offer paint correction as an added service.
So if it's the hacks that are cheapening the term "detail", then how would you define a hack? Would someone offering a top-level "Prestige" detail for $160 that will probably marr the paint using a claybar but take no effort to even lightly polish the paint surface before applying a wax be considered a hack?
Consider this a peace offering for sake of discussion if you will, but I welcome the OP to return to our beloved forums and join the conversation and inform me where I'm mistaken. I would be more than happy to eat my words.
lol, no worries, healthy discussion is good, this doesn't have to turn into some childish bickering session.
I'd agree that a detailer should have the know-how to perform most if not all the tasks associated to the trade. I'm going to refer to detailing as a trade, because, well, it is a trade. A lot of people will argue that it isn't because there's no official ticketing system (in terms of education and on-the-job experience, like an apprenticeship), but none the less, it is a trade. A skilled trade, as I'm sure most of us would agree that you have to have some skill and experience in order to detail properly.
Using that mind-set that detailing is a trade, then, just like any other, there are various levels of experience and skill. Let's move away from the mechanics, and go to electricians. You've re-modeled your living room, and you now need an extra 110V outlet where there previously wasn't one. An apprentice electrician can most likely perform the install properly, adhering to building code (in terms of maximum allowed outlets per circuit, maximum distance between drops, etc), and ensuring everything works as it should. Can that same electrician run wiring for a 3-phase electric motor running an industrial water pump ? How about wiring in parallel 110V 15-amp circuits to a 550V transformer for 1/8" sewer line heat trace ? Probably not, that's when you call the Journeyman or Master electrician, who charge a lot more per hour than an apprentice.
It's the same idea, some detailers just don't have the skills or experience, that's why there's folks who have been doing it for longer, who can charge more.
A hack is a person who performs the work but doesn't know what they are doing. For example, an electrician who simply splices into an exisiting circuit when the maximum load is already in use, just to cut corners, or because they don't know any better, is a hack. A detailer who has never compounded before and doesn't know how to use the equipment or products is a hack. A detailer who skips polishing between claying and waxing a swirl-city vehicle, but tells the customer that "it'll look good as new", is a hack.
A detailer who clays but doesn't polish before waxing is not a hack, if that's what the customer WANTS. If someone wanted me to wax their vehicle, even though it was swirl-city, I would do it, after explaining very carefully what they should expect afterwards. It's actually very easy to see the "line in the sand"", it's the difference between knowing what you're doing and not knowing. What the customer wants is a completely different topic.
The only difference in my example of an electrician is that if they do "hack work", it's technically illegal (if there's an electrically-caused house fire where people die, you could see some serious jail time) where-as in the detail world it's not...
