What's your earliest detailing memory?

These stories are great !! Thanks Todd, for thinking of this, and to all who have taken the time to post..

I remember being a little kid, probably 9 or so, going to my Dad's business early on Saturday morning, during school and every day in the summer.

The first thing I had to do was take out this honking long black wooden pole that had all these numbers on it, open the caps to the gas tanks, and take readings of the gas, write them down, and then give them to him.

Then we rolled out the stacks of display tires, signs, maybe put up some flags, opened the bays, turned on the lights, made sure everything was still clean, and get ready for the day = 12 hours worth .

I really learned to like the smell of new tires, leaded gasoline, and a lot of other smells, that came from the Body Shop/Detail Shop.

I was so lucky to learn so much from my Dad and all those great people who worked for him. He taught me everything. He and my Grandpa were car crazy way back then, they had to have clean cars and new cars every few years - my Grandpa actually, every year, got a new car. How lucky is that??? :)

I learned all phases of all this stuff and saw many things change as the years went by.

My Dad was ex-military and pretty much a pretty strong disciplinarian about how to treat a car, care for a car, clean one, detail, paint, he knew it all. He said we need to always do all this stuff and it will make us proud of our cars and appreciate them more.
I was too small to really understand all that until later; at that time, I just wanted him to open up the old Coke Machine, get me a cold one and let me sit down for a minute.

When I got older and found out about car magazines, I could not get enough of them and read them cover to cover the same day they came (and still do that today).

I will always remember the different smells of the different parts of the garages - they all had a different smell. The ones I liked the best were the paint shop (lacquer thinner, enamel reducer), and the detail shop - 3m compound, and other things...

Was hoping I would one day get married and have a couple of boys to teach them all I have learned about this stuff - instead we were blessed with 2 wonderful girls !!!
They kind of dabbled in the stuff with me when they were growing up, but you know, girls do mostly girly things and being out in the cold garage is not usually the place you will find them.

So, I thought, well, at least they know what it is to have really nice detailed vehicles to drive all the time. And wouldnt you know it ? They liked that enough to know that they want their vehicles today to be like Dad used to do them !! I feel sorry for their husbands... :) They are not car guys as much as me or any of you guys, so they have had to have a few crash courses, and sometimes I will drive down to California and spend a week with them and Detail all their cars for them.

This car thing is in my genetic make up, I will always do it, I do it pretty darn good, and am going to one day be planted in the shiniest casket they have ever seen !!! :):):) Hey - don't forget my Ipod - where's my Westone's ???

Dan F
 
Stokdgs said:
I remember being a little kid, probably 9 or so, going to my Dad's business early on Saturday morning, during school and every day in the summer.

The first thing I had to do was take out this honking long black wooden pole that had all these numbers on it, open the caps to the gas tanks, and take readings of the gas, write them down, and then give them to him.

Then we rolled out the stacks of display tires, signs, maybe put up some flags, opened the bays, turned on the lights, made sure everything was still clean, and get ready for the day = 12 hours worth .

I really learned to like the smell of new tires, leaded gasoline, and a lot of other smells, that came from the Body Shop/Detail Shop.
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Wow, Dan. That takes me back when you talk about the smells and the dip stick for the tanks. My grandfather owned gas stations and my dad was a mechanic. I can remember all the way back to 4 years old working with my grandfather at night and on weekends. That was when you had to reset the pumps with a key and I got to have my own set. As I got old enough to be in the shop I was always put to work doing inventory and general cleaning until there was a repair job I could handle. I think I could identify the smells of burnt tranny fluid, a burnt clutch and gear oil before I could ride a bike. The smells of detailing are very different. When I recently walked into a full garage all the smells hit me and I felt at home.
 
I remember as a kid watching my mom wax her car with Kit if I remember correctly. I really didn't know what she was doing exactly but it stuck with me.

Story #1

Fast forward to 1995 when my mom gave me her 1994 Cavalier and bought a 1996 Cavalier. That's when I discovered Meguiar's. I saved some money and bought a bottle of Gold Class Shampoo and a can of Gold Class wax. I honestly washed and waxed my car every weekend and my step-dad would always say "you're going to wash the paint off that car". This was my usual routine until I discovered Meguiar's Quick Wax. Then it was wash and paste wax every other week and wash and quick wax in between.

I had a friend with a Dodge Avenger and she always kept it clean which caught my attention. One day we were talking about "detailing" our cars and I asked her how she kept her wheel wells looking good, her response changed my life and how I looked at cleaning my car - tire foam. She said she simply sprayed them with tire foam after spraying her tires. Naturally I had to try this and was blown away! Well after dressing the tires and wheel wells I took a close look at my black plastic bumper covers and went for it. Turned out pretty good until your pants touched them. This is where cotton terry towels came in, a quick wipe down after foaming the bumpers and everything was good to go!

Story #2

A year later, 1996, I was driving the 96 Cavalier off and on and maintaining that for my mom as payment. Well I happened to be at Advance Auto Parts and notice this 3 step system by Meguiar's. I remember loving the Gold Class wax and thought I would try this out on the 96 Cavalier to pamper it a little more. I knew I was doing something to the car but really didn't know what exactly, until the day came that I picked up my girlfriend from school to give her and her friends a ride home. When we dropped off my girlfriends' friend, her mom came out of the house and walked over to me and I thought I was in trouble. The first thing out of her mouth wasn't hello, who are you, or anything like that. Instead she asked me "What did you do to this car?". I replied "washed and waxed it". She said "no, you've done something more. That's not just wax."

Thanks to Meguiar's 3 step system - 1) Paint Cleaner, 2) Pure Polish, 3) Carnauba Wax, someone took notice of my hard work and I was hooked from that point.

Sorry to ramble but that's how I got started. :)
 
Embarrassed to say this. But my first attempt at trying to detail a car was when I was about 8. I grabbed a Scotchbrite pad, some water and a can or Borax. Figured I clean the bird crap off of Dad's freshly painted Buick.


Well as they say.... Learn from your mistakes. I won't do that one again EVER.
 
Dear Friends

My first detailing memory is when I was age nine to eleven and detailed my new Puma shoes with rubbing alcohol. After four our five "details" the gold lettering on the back of the shoe faded almost to invisible.

I also recall polishing some white Nike shoes around that same time.

My first recollection of detailing a car was when I was fifteen. I was very much into cars then since I thought I'd be getting a new one when I turned sixteen. I waxed my ex-brother-in-law's 4x4 S-10 several times.

When I turned sixteen and my father gave me a new GTI, I was obsessive and compulsive with its detailing. I lost interest in detailing in 1986 and the bug just hit me again in October of last year when we bought a new Odyssey.
 
Nth Degree said:
I loved building plastic car models when I was a kid. From about age 8 I can remember getting so detailed. I would actually paint each and every nut and bolt individually. I could never get the bodies to a level I wanted though. If I only knew then what I know now I wonder how some of those might have turned out. The hours I put in would rival some of the major details I see here.

As for real cars, I started waxing my mom's car when I was about 12, primarily for Mother's Day each year. Turtle wax of course. The car was a '78 Grand Marquis. When I couldn't figure out why the paint wasn't smooth the way I wanted I asked the detail guy at the local car wash while waiting for the car to come out of the Swirl-O-Matic. That's when he showed me his "magic clay". I've been hooked ever since.
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Funny, I was very much into model car building and was extremely obsessive as well. I actually rented a couple of books at the library that were how to build model cars and used all of the ideas: Threads for spark plug wires, foil for aluminum pieces, sanding the tires to 'flat spot them'. A couple of years ago I found a model building forum were the people were just as obsessive about their model cars as we are detailing. I built an Enzo, wet sanded and buffed it, did all the detail work. Probably had 100 hours into total, ordered special kit parts from over seas (easily had 300 dollars into it) then my (then) 4 year old smashed it.

I might take it up again when I have some more free time.
 
rwright said:
I remember as a kid watching my mom wax her car with Kit if I remember correctly. I really didn't know what she was doing exactly but it stuck with me.



Story #2

A year later, 1996, I was driving the 96 Cavalier off and on and maintaining that for my mom as payment. Well I happened to be at Advance Auto Parts and notice this 3 step system by Meguiar's. I remember loving the Gold Class wax and thought I would try this out on the 96 Cavalier to pamper it a little more. I knew I was doing something to the car but really didn't know what exactly, until the day came that I picked up my girlfriend from school to give her and her friends a ride home. When we dropped off my girlfriends' friend, her mom came out of the house and walked over to me and I thought I was in trouble. The first thing out of her mouth wasn't hello, who are you, or anything like that. Instead she asked me "What did you do to this car?". I replied "washed and waxed it". She said "no, you've done something more. That's not just wax."

Thanks to Meguiar's 3 step system - 1) Paint Cleaner, 2) Pure Polish, 3) Carnauba Wax, someone took notice of my hard work and I was hooked from that point.

Sorry to ramble but that's how I got started. :)
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I read about the Meguiar's 3 step system in a Hot Rod magazine around that time. I went out, bought it, grabbed my dad's orbital, some terry bonnets, and went to town with out a clue what I was doing.

But it has carnauba and looked great!
 
I used to race motocross when I was a kid, 50-80cc bikes. After the weekend races were over, I would come home from school during the weekdays and pretty much disassemble my bikes and clean them all up. I had the motors out, wheels off darn near completely torn apart so we could "detail" them the right way before the next race. Don't want to show up with a dirty bike to the races :bigups
 
I find it interesting as you read people's write ups on what you learn you can clean. Even after I was more serious about detailing I never thought to clean the wheel barrels (back side of wheels), dressing wells as I do now (just sprayed armor all initially and still good in a pinch), cleaning and then dressing the fuel filler area, waxing door/trunk jambs, and cleaning up more under the hood (still my least touched areas).

I will confess I have not removed a license plate yet to polish/wax behind that.

It is just another excuse to buy a brush or applicator and some product.
 
go figure. mine is the exact duplicate of RTexasF in 1956, a schwinn bicycle that my brothers friend had put flames on the front fender. even down to the simonize was. brutal stuff. next was doing a full compound and wax on my dads abused 60 ford. $5 and he ripped me off.
 
Todd Helme said:
Funny, I was very much into model car building and was extremely obsessive as well. I actually rented a couple of books at the library that were how to build model cars and used all of the ideas: Threads for spark plug wires, foil for aluminum pieces, sanding the tires to 'flat spot them'. A couple of years ago I found a model building forum were the people were just as obsessive about their model cars as we are detailing. I built an Enzo, wet sanded and buffed it, did all the detail work. Probably had 100 hours into total, ordered special kit parts from over seas (easily had 300 dollars into it) then my (then) 4 year old smashed it.

I might take it up again when I have some more free time.
Click to expand...

Since you are bringing up model building. I also shared that fun with my dad. The summer I was 10 he started to build all metal models. These were basically just like a plastic kit except the part were all metal except for what would have been cloth. All parts had to be sanded down and fully prepped and painted. Here is my dearest piece that I still have left.

1912 Duesenberg SJ

1912%2520Duesenberg%2520SJ.jpg


This car has been in this case my dad made in 1963.
 
my dad not only kept his cars clean but also went over and cleaned his bosses cars too. i would wash and wax my first car, an opel rallye that i bought new, each and every weekend. coulda had stock in liquid turtle wax.
 
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