Hello fellow detailers! 17 years of detailing here!

[shreffy]

Hello fellow detailers! I'm Shreffy and am from Franklin, Pennsylvania which is right between Pittsburgh and Lake Erie I have been detailing cars on the side for 17 years now. I have many return customers and always get referrals. It's all done by word of mouth and I very rarely need to advertise my service

My detailing service first started out when I was about 20 years old, when outside of my parents' place cleaning my 1990 Ford Probe like every other day. That was the first car I owned on my own so I took good care of it. One day, a sister of a neighbor of mine pulled out front when seeing me cleaning up my Probe while on her way to her sister's place and rolls down her window and says, "Hey Josh (my first name), I have a doctor friend who just fired his detailer and is looking for someone to take care of his Mercedes. Would you be interested?" I was in awe because I have never touched a high end car before let alone detail one. I said, "Ok, I can give it a try." Then she goes on to give me her doctor friend's phone number. I called him up immediately and scheduled him with me for the following weekend to detail his Benz. He wanted me to come to his house and pick it up then bring it back when I was done. Of course I was nervous! I have never driven a car like that before and now I would have a $90,000 dollar car that I am responsible for. So I took it home with me, cleaned it up real nice for him and brought it back to him. He comes outside of his home and checks out the job I did on it for him and he was real happy with it and paid me in cash. From that point on, I was detailing Dr. Lorenzo's Benz for him every Saturday. I detailed it for a few Saturdays straight for him and THAT got my gears clicking like "Hey, that's only one car and I am making this kind of money from it. Imagine the money I can make doing more cars!" and from that point on I have been successfully detailing 17 straight years now on the side. And in those 17 years, and thousands of cars I have detailed in that time period, I have never ever not once have gotten one complaint from any customer about the work I do

This is the first detailing site I have joined and I am happy to answer any questions, give pointers, receive tips and pointers from you all, or just plain b.s. with our detailing brotherhood out there Thanks guys and gals! I look forward to speaking with you all

~Shreffy~

[Mike Phillips]

Great story!

Welcome to AutogeekOnline!

[shreffy]

Thank you, Mike! I work full time in auto sales for a Chevy, Cadillac, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Ram Trucks, and pre-owned dealership. I work 7 days a week between doing sales at the dealership and detailing peoples' cars for them on the side from home. I have been in auto sales for 11 years now. I have tinkered with cars since before my teenage years so cars are a passion of mine, I guess you could say I own a customized '99 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T which I show and I just bought a 2015 Chevy Colorado Z-71 crew cab a month ago which is loaded! I love it

[mbpress01]

So since you have been doing this on the side for some time, what products, pads, tools do you prefer? Also, what did you see as the biggest change from 17 yrs ago to today - tools pads, polishes, all of them, etc. Finally, what do you see as the trends in the future?

Other than coatings, I am waiting for a GG Boss like machine that is forced rotation as well as a one stepper that compounds like FG400, polishes like SF2500 (or equivalent) and finally seals and looks like either Zaino or Four Star. That would really cut down my time being a weekend warrior.

Thoughts?

[shreffy]

Hey, how are you! Thanks for the reply! For quite some time, I was a huge fan of Meguiar's products. I thought they were always pretty easy to use and cut detailing time down a bit from the over the counter stuff I was using before that :P I also like 3M products like the glaze and such, and I also like Collinite stuff. I don't use anything high speed and have found ways to make the lower speed buffers, etc. work for me just by trial and error. I started out doing higher end cars back in the day from the get go so I was a firm believer of taking it slow and slowly working the high shine back into the paint because I was nervous as hell messing with those expensive rides LOL. I joined this site to learn about other product manufacturers out there and other product that would be a "step above". A "one stepper" like you say would be great and I too would love to find ways to help cut detailing time down. I would love to find or develop a product/coating that would hold up to the harsh winter weather all winter long here in northwestern Pennsylvania. The state throws down sodium chloride on the roads during the winter here and that stuff kills the paint on our vehicles and speeds up the oxidation process..Grrrr..so something to protect against that all winter long that you only need to apply once before the winter season would be sweet!

[Paul A.]

Welcome Shreffy! Great intro post.

[shreffy]

Thanks Puckman! Nice meeting you

[Rod73]

Welcome to the forum Josh. It is an honor to have someone with your experience and obvious passion to share information with

[Kamakaz1961]

Hey Sheff!! Welcome to AGO and loved your story!! Way way way cool!!

Peace!!

[4u2nvinmtl]

Welcome to Autopia!

I live in Montreal and I know all about the harsh winters. I've been using Klasse AIO and 4 to 8 layers of Klasse SG to protect from the salt mixture the city puts down. I recently switched a product called FK1000-P and have been told it's as durable as Klasse.

FK1000-P is very well priced so it won't eat into your profit margin and I'd say you could do about 100 cars with one Tin not to mention it looks incredibly good! Also, if you wax by machine the pads fit in the opening of the tin/container.

After 17 years of detailing whats some of your favourite products?