I`ve been detailing THIS LONG!

Don

Don

Darth Camaro 12/27/15


This book (the 1st Edition) came out in 1988 - JUST BEFORE I started working at a shop and the detailing bug really took hold. I was "cleaning and waxing" car before then, but you couldn`t call it `Detailing.`

The 2nd Edition (pictured here), came out in 1995, long after the shop and 3 years after starting the career I would retire from.

This was pre-internet, and I was SO EXCITED to find this book in the bookstore ... I read it over and over, studying everything so I could be a "Real Detailer." I even took it to read on a vacation (just me and the wife, no kids, so we could have "us" time).

At that time, most of the stuff was brand new, cutting edge for me. I found the book last night, while cleaning the basement, and Man! Did the memories come flooding back!

While the basic principals are similar to today, many of the techniques are so against the principals of "Today`s detailing," that you would be forced to burn your union card if you ever caught doing them ... One I remember clearly was the recommendation to use steel wool on fender lips/edges!!!!

In the morning, with my coffee, I`m seriously thinking of leafing through the book and seeing JUST HOW MUCH things have changed in 30 years.
 
Don- Heh heh, yeah...I have a couple copies of that one myself! Also Auto Detailing the Professional Way and Engine Detailing.

And yeah, to some extent, every one of those was a lesson in what not to do.
 
I know some have been detailing longer, but several have been detailing for less: 2024 marks 30 years I`ve been detailing. I still have the car I taught myself on. I gotta do some kind of special detailing thing for myself coming up in this following year.
 
I was going to write a long post about how the internet has completely changed how we learn about things like detailing, but I`m too tired.
 
Accumulator said:
Heh heh, well... it`s changed how *some people* learn about things like Detailing ;)
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I`m not sure how to interpret that, but if I haven`t opined about this topic here before, I attribute the current state of the art in products, pads, machines, etc. to the build it/break it, wash-rinse-repeat of forums. Say it`s 30 years ago, and you buy that book. Maybe you don`t understand some things, maybe things didn`t come out the way you hoped or the way they indicated in the book they would--what was your recourse? Write a letter to the author care of the publisher? Maybe you bring your book to your car club, and talk about it with your buddies, and next time a buddy brings HIS detailing book, but his book doesn`t even address the topic, or has a completely different technique. Maybe if you are very lucky your car club gets a Mike Phillips or Rod Kraft from Meguiar`s to give a detailing class, featuring Meguiar`s products.

But 10 years later, instead of trying to hunt down another detailing book, you join Autopia and post your problem/question--and before you know it you have a bunch of answers, maybe a couple of off the wall ones, maybe one from some guy named Setec (what kind of name is that, anyway?), but you get some actionable advice, that you go out and try, and you get new results, that you come back and report and ask more questions, and get some more answers. After a few more go-rounds, you have learned more, made some more mistakes, gotten some more advice, gotten good results, and what`s more other people have read your thread, asked other questions, and they tell two friends, and they tell two friends...wait, that`s shampoo, but you get the idea.

I think I talked about this over on the Optimum forum and referred to it as a crowd-sourced search for best practices, or something like that. There was just no way 30 years ago to spread information, vet it, critique it, improve on it, share it, over and over, until everyone is using the Accumulator non-marring wash technique...well, that didn`t happen, but it`s kind of like an engineering development process, you build it, you break it, you find out what works, what doesn`t, you disseminate that info, and so on. You can`t do that with a book from the bookstore.

I guess Accumulator is saying he learned everything he needed to about detailing before the internet....but at least WE had the internet to learn from him!
 
Setec Astronomy said:
I guess Accumulator is saying he learned everything he needed to about detailing before the internet...
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That is indeed what I meant...I was just thinking how I don`t believe I`ve ever watched a Detailing video.

Eh, that`s just me and Detailing :o The way the internet has changed Research in general really something.
 
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