What Inspired You

8 long years as a finance manager at a Honda Dealership. Yeah the money was great but 65+ hours a week plus 2 hours a day driving takes its toll on you and the family.

I had always taken really good care of my own vehicles. I had been told that I was going to wash the paint off of my Mustang when I was in high school several million times!

What other job do you have the satisfaction of a complete turn around and a compliment at the end of a hard days work?
 
This is great stuff guys. It is really interesting to see how everyone got their start. Keep em comming:clap:
 
i've always taken care of my rides. my first car; opel rallye i would turtle wax every weekend it didn't rain. i went over the edge when i found the pac website and moved up to a rotary as i wanted the best shine i could get and because i wanted my rides to standout. they're not perfect by the stanards on this forum yet but what a difference i've made even though the paint isn't where i want it thanks to bfwd...
 
I'm not a professional by no means but have always liked keeping my cars clean. Not until I got my GT500 did I become obsessed with detailing and TID and PAC have helped me get even better at it. Thank you all :clap:
 
EclecTech said:
I worked in a full service car wash in the late '70's while going to tech school. It was cutting edge at the time but crude by what I know now - I would never take a vehicle through a rotating brush car wash.
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Like Jack, I got indoctrinated at a swirl-o-matic in the 70s.. actually I think it was '69 at the tender age of 14. My first job! It all went downhill from there. :(

I did learn the importance of details there but certainly not any particularly impressive methods or materials. A couple of years ago my GF bought a black car. :out: My vehicles always shimmered... or so I thought... until I tried to get hers to a high level after spending 16 months as a dealer's demo and all around go-fer mobile. Etched water spots, swirls, chips, the whole bag of nasties. I started browsing Forums looking for tips and techniques and ended up becoming a detail-supply junkie. :scared:

Since the personal vehicles are now in shape I'm using friend's, relatives and neighbors as guinea pigs so I can get my shine-fix. 3 halogen towers, 1 Brinkmann, 1 Fenix, a rotary, Flex, PC, GG 3" and a rainbow of pads, MFs and pretty labels later the obsession is getting nothing but worse. Anybody know of a 12-Steps group? :doh:

TL
 
I'd always been a fan of the "detailing" sections at Auto Zone/Advance. Wasn't aware that people went any further than that. Then I went to a show in Atlanta maybe 5 or 6 years ago, parked next to a white 1995 Cobra R with paint so deep it made my black 99 Cobra look matte. Talked to the owner for about an hour about how he got his car looking so good. The rest is history as they say.
 
I guess my dad was probably my inspiration as he always kept his car clean and seeing him do it for years as a kid left a lifelong impression in me. I've always done the same to my vehicles but I turned the corner into a full blown obsession probably about 10 years ago when I started to hand polish my car to restore some shine. That's about the same time I found some online detailing forums and soon found the PC, pads, many different products and today if I were to do a complete inventory of everything I have I might fall into some category of mental illness! I love it!!!

Hey TL, 12 step programs are for quitters.
 
Backyard BBQ, having a conversation about cars with a neighbor (and avid car fanatic) and he looked at me and said, "You should think about doing auto detailing, young guy like you could make some money and you love cars"

I pondered the idea and then hit up as many forums as I could that week searching for info.

My initial thought... wax and wax jobs, NO paint correction at all because its too dangerous.

Boo Hoo

That started it for me
 
I was into a Toyota forum and there was this zaino fan always posting - so I asked him where he heard about this stuff and detailing in general. He directed me to detail city and autopia. I soon started reading everything I could and thinking I needed to buy and try everything too. I started detailing for family and friends to pay for my new addiction and slowly I realized that price doesn't mean "best bang for your buck" and just because it sounded so good on some of the vendor forums, it wasn't any better than what I already had. I started buying sample sizes and swapping stuff with other detailers, much cheaper and better than 20 odd quart bottles on the shelves. I'm reducing the number of products I use down to a few that work consistantly and aren't finickly to use. Example - I only use BFWD as my sealant now. But for question of who inspired me - the man, Mr. Helme, I read this C&B on a little English sports car, a Jensen I think and I was totally blown away by the sheer magnatude of the detail. I started reading all of Todd's posts and found out that he was cool about answering my PM's and even spent about a hour on the phone one night helping me get my detailing sorted out. I don't forget folks like that and I'm sure old karma doesn't either, so Todd, you ought to have some good coming your way for helping me and many others out!
 
I had a friend who got started into hand washing before me, and one day when we were washing my car together, he gave me a microfiber towel, probably a costco one, I was skeptical of the towel at first because I thought it would scratch the paint :doh: then it ignited me to autozone's detailing section. Before I use to dread the idea of washing a car for 8 hours doing a 3 step process, but now I can't imagine how I could do 3 steps in 8 hours. Sometime later I found detailing forums.. AG, DW, and of course TID :D
 
I started detailing as a little kid at my Dad's gas station/repair shop and Body Shop. I went every Saturday and spent the day there, doing all kinds of things. My Dad and my Grandpa were both clean car/new car fanatics, so I guess I picked it up from them and always liked to do the cleaning of cars as well as learning about repairs, engines, tires, everything.. He taught me how to use buffing machines with different grades of wool pads.

I never stopped doing this kind of work, even worked a few years in a couple of body shops in California as a Painter, but later took on another career field in the Military and then for the next 40+ years of my life - Telecommunications, my 2nd great love.

But those jobs are hard to get for a few years now, so I am back at Detailing, full time.

Have learned a ton of new processes and about new products from the good people who sponsor this site, and from all the great people who contribute their time to teaching us their experiences in pictures and words.

Enough of this kind of detailing stuff has rubbed off on my two grown daughters, that they shame their husbands by doing a better job of cleaning their black SUV's all the time; but I occasionally take a roadtrip to California to go over their rides, all 4 of them, and then come back home.

Dan F
 
Some great stories here, mine's similar to Stokdgs:

My dear ol' dad was a car dealer and loved to clean up cars. I got it from him. He used to say, "I can spend a few hours on this car and make an extra grand." And he was right.
Pops was a new car dealer but his heart was most into finding a nice used car, he'd buy it right, clean and polish it 'til it looked like new, and make a nice profit.
I also got the detailing bug from growing in Reno, NV and having access to Bill Harrah's auto collection, a friend of mine worked there and Bill was a friend of my dad. My buddy that worked there was in the prep dept and took car of some of the most rare and awesome cars you could ever imagine. I learned a lot things from him.

I've had some incredible cars over years thanks to my dad and I always took excellent care of them... so I could sell 'em for more than I bought 'em for. The the "practical" side of detailing for me.
It's also just plain fun to bring out the best in a car, to get paid for it is the icing on the cake.

I was layed off from my hospital job in surgery (of 22 years) a couple of years ago and I wanted to have my own business, one that would not involve having to deal with incompetant people telling me what to do and having to grovel at their feet, ie: hospital administrators. You get your chain yanked enough and it's time to go in a new direction.
I always loved detailing cars... so here I am.
 
I started washing cars with a little dishwashing soap or laundry detergent - (whatever would make bubbles) or just using the swirl-o-matic until I got my first car. I waxed that little beetle every weekend with some turtle wax and a random orbital that i got for $20. It wasn't until I got my first black mustang that I started doing more research happening upon Autopia. I didn't really understand the concept of "polishing" until I came here. With the help of you guys, I have caught the bug and see swirls everywhere.... so thanks a lot :huh: not only that but I have shown my girlfriend and she calls me out now when something doesn't look right... again thanks a lot. :toetap05:

I keep learning and am inspired and taunted by all of the shine and shows on all those exotics.

Glad to be a part of such a forum that is not full of pretentious members.
 
I was basically on a car forum and saw write ups from Deep Gloss of details he has done. His work made me want to keep my car in that shape because the cars he did would come out beautiful, so I did research even prior to getting my first car (only got it last year). I would learn little techniques here and there, and go to Advanced Auto Parts, try different products on my sisters and parents vehicles. When I got my car finally, I decided to stop buying all of my detailing products from Advanced Auto Parts and order stuff online. Did a couple details since and they've come out great. I try to educate others of this type of detail, mostly people older than me and they don't seem to want to grasp the concept. I try to tell them what works, and what doesn't work, but they don't seem to believe me because maybe I am young (i.e., not using a Ryobi Random Orbital, or wax can't fix imperfections in the paint). :confused: But I learned a lot of this stuff from you guys and Autopia.
 
I got into it after I bought a new car and took it to a local tint shop.....

I brought a couple of sheets to cover the rear of the car with the hatch up but, these two guys were sloppy and their belt buckles left chafe marks on both rear quarter panels. I was really mad and this dude came out and said "I'll fix that". He applied some polish and the marks just wiped away. I thought he was a hero. After a wash or two they came right back and I got mad all over again.....:biggrin:

I wasn't going to give these clowns another shot so I started to do some searching and I found this place called Autopia and discovered a whole new world with it's own language. The more I learned the more interested I became with the advice from the pro's and their techniques.......

I'm still learning and respect the hell out of the guys that can do this for a living.......
 
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