A detailers necessities

[CustomQuinton]

I have been detailing for a while now at a dealership, and have picked up a few extra details from coworkers who were impressed with my work, but I want to step it up a notch and start my own detail service, I don't want to spend a fortune but I want to do a good job, so I guess what I'm getting at is what tools would you suggest to get good results without braking my bank. Of course I'll need waxes, clay, cleaners, soaps and so on, but as far as tools go I'm wondering what I should start out with, I'm quite fond of my tornado at work and was considering getting one of those, if I could find a decent carpet extractor I would love to have one of those as well. Any suggestions would be useful, thanks!

[T3 AutoDetails]

What kind of budget were you looking at?

[ihaveacamaro]

I'm on my phone right now but if you search through my past threads, you'll find something along the lines of ultimate detailing supplies list. It has everything I think is necessary for a detailer.

[Pureshine]

First for get everything that dealer taught you about detailing lol! Do you want todo paint correction or just do the basic detailing?

[dooyaunastan]

- 2-3 5 gal. buckets (Wash/Rinse/Wheels)
- 2-3 Grit Guards
- Wash media (MF chenille wash mitt, wool, natural sea sponge)
- Shampoo of your choice

- All purpose cleaner
- Wheel cleaner
- Tire and wheel brushes, smaller brushes for lug nuts, crevices, etc
- Tire dressing

- Interior cleaner
- Interior protectant
- Leather cleaner/protectant/conditioner/AIO
- Glass cleaner
- Smaller brushes for nooks, crannies and crevices

- Exterior trim cleaner/protectant
- Wax/Sealant/Glaze/AIO

...but if you plan to correct you need to look at:

- Polisher (PC7424xp, Meg's G110v2, GG 6", Flex, Rupes, or rotaries)
- 3", 3.5", 5" backing plates. be able to handle most, if not all curves and smaller areas with the appropriate pads
- 3", 4", 5.5" pads, LC Flat pads are a good place to start, the Hydrotech's should be even more user friendly, but they're more expensive

- Compounds, more options the better really, varying cuts and finishing abilities
- Polishes
- Glazes
- AIO's
- Pad cleaner
- CarPro Eraser or IPA diluted to ~11% to check your work
- Lighting


That's all I can think of off the top of my head for the moment, but I think that covers most of it.