Things I saw at the car show SMH!

[KirkH]

I saw a guy wiping his car down with a sponge. When he got to the wheels, he took his paint sponge and used it to cushion his knee on the concrete. Then he stood up, picked up his sponge, and without rinsing it, started wiping his paint.

I saw a 1 bucket wash with Mr Clean dish soap and a sponge. The car show provided a hose for rinsing.

I spoke to a man with a 1958 Corvette. 7100 miles on the odometer original. I thought the paint looked pretty good for probably a 20 year old paint job. He said he had it painted six months ago, but as he was restoring it, he laid mats over it taken directly from the garage floor.


:applause:

[briarpatch]

Car shows are amazing places. So many clones, fakes and just plain poorly cared for vehicles. Were you able to drum up any business?

[KirkH]

Not as successful at this one as CamaroFest. This is a much older crowd, and they don't seem to think us whippersnappers know anything about detailing LOL! Seeing a lot of detailing techniques that are now outdated.

[ronkh57]

I saw a guy wiping his car down with a sponge. When he got to the wheels, he took his paint sponge and used it to cushion his knee on the concrete. Then he stood up, picked up his sponge, and without rinsing it, started wiping his paint.

I saw a 1 bucket wash with Mr Clean dish soap and a sponge. The car show provided a hose for rinsing.

I spoke to a man with a 1958 Corvette. 7100 miles on the odometer original. I thought the paint looked pretty good for probably a 20 year old paint job. He said he had it painted six months ago, but as he was restoring it, he laid mats over it taken directly from the garage floor.


:applause:

Should have said hi to me...… :)

[FUNX650]

Not as successful at this one as CamaroFest.

This is a much older crowd, and they don't
seem to think us whippersnappers know
anything about detailing LOL! Seeing a lot
of detailing techniques that are now outdated.

I don’t know how other folks in
the much older crowd think; but:

This old guy doesn’t get much joy
at Car Shows, lookin’ for a bunch of
swirls, swirls, swirls;

”I'm still a red-blooded American boy;
And I just can't stop lookin' (for all of the):
Girls! Girls! Girls!” {~Elvis Presley; ca. 1962}

https://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/36C92C35-A33A-4835-842C-E3CA55346989.jpeg


Bob

[KirkH]

Yeah we go down to other car shows and its like a big party! We wash and polish cars and talk detailing with car show attendees. Music is played and its a good time had by all. People hang out while we clean their cars after the trip to the show. They are usually thrilled with our service. At the last one, we serviced over 130 cars! But this was the oldest crowd for any car show we have done. I would've thought they would've liked the service. I was wrong on this one. I got the "real car guys wash their own cars" several times. Of course, the guy who had gravel in his sponge said it too!

[LEDetailing]

Car shows are amazing places. So many clones, fakes and just plain poorly cared for vehicles. Were you able to drum up any business?

So true. What is worse than the poor care is the fact that some people can’t see the harm they are inflicting on their car.

On the flip side. I was at a show last weekend and saw dozens of cars out of 500-600 cars shown that were nearly to that “show car” perfect. To be honest my Trans Am with only 8,500 miles could use 10 more hours of polishing to get it to that next level.


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[Setec Astronomy]

This is a much older crowd, and they don't seem to think us whippersnappers know anything about detailing LOL! Seeing a lot of detailing techniques that are now outdated.

Many many years ago Todd Helme had a great answer for a member who worked at a car dealer, and was learning to work in the detail bay from a guy who had been there for 15 years. The new member's question was that the techniques that were preached on the forum (I can't remember if it was Autopia, TID, AF, or here) were much different than what this "expert" of 15 years was teaching him...who was right? Todd explained that it sounded like his coworker didn't really have 15 years of experience, but that he had just been doing what he learned in the first month for 15 years...so he really had 1 month of experience and 15 years of practice (doing it the wrong way).

I've certainly run into people in my life who have already learned all they need to know and aren't interested in learning anything else or getting any advice on anything. Sounds like your car show crowd and I'd say those guys are not the kind of people who you'll find on a forum like this, or not for long.

[UncleDavy]

There is a local ice cream/hot dog stand drive-in that hosts car rallies every week and I stopped by on my way home. It was a mix of classic touring cars and muscle cars. I was appalled at the condition of the paint on every single car. The cars were either faded, scratched, chipped or swirled. Even the engine bays on the muscle cars were lousy. I was hoping to find at least one car in near show quality condition.

[BillE]

Kinda makes one wonder...when 'our' daily drivers are lookin' better than 'their' show cars.

Bill

[Setec Astronomy]

Kinda makes one wonder...when 'our' daily drivers are lookin' better than 'their' show cars.

To be fair, people have different motivations with the cars they own. Some people like to keep their things like new and original, some people like to modify/personalize everything, some people "just want to drive it", some people just want the trophies, some just want the social outlet.

[JFire72]

Many many years ago Todd Helme had a great answer for a member who worked at a car dealer, and was learning to work in the detail bay from a guy who had been there for 15 years. The new member's question was that the techniques that were preached on the forum (I can't remember if it was Autopia, TID, AF, or here) were much different than what this "expert" of 15 years was teaching him...who was right? Todd explained that it sounded like his coworker didn't really have 15 years of experience, but that he had just been doing what he learned in the first month for 15 years...so he really had 1 month of experience and 15 years of practice (doing it the wrong way).

I've certainly run into people in my life who have already learned all they need to know and aren't interested in learning anything else or getting any advice on anything. Sounds like your car show crowd and I'd say those guys are not the kind of people who you'll find on a forum like this, or not for long.I could have easily fit in the 15 years of doing the wrong thing category. Only in the last 10 years have I been making strides in relearning and bettering my technique as time goes on.

I think we can all say we started somewhere. For example, I was taught in the 80's from my dad, that Dawn dish soap was what you used in the bucket. And of course it was one bucket without a grit guard, and whatever towel you had laying around, which included T-shirts. He would use diapers that we had laying around to dry, back when there was a diaper service that came to your door. The good ole' days LOL!

Speaking of car shows, I went to a cars and coffee event in Pontiac MI a couple of weeks ago. I cleaned my up my car the day before and was satisfied it looked ready. Of course, the next morning I left and a thunderstorm decided to form and come down ONLY around my house. When I got to the show it still looked 1000 times better than 90% of the others there LOL! I agree that alot of people don't care for their paint so much, but there were a couple there you could tell they loved their cars. This event had a bit of everything there, from old to new, and from muscle to exotic, even had a few supercars there. It was a blast!

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[Setec Astronomy]

I think we can all say we started somewhere. For example, I was taught in the 80's from my dad, that Dawn dish soap was what you used in the bucket. And of course it was one bucket without a grit guard, and whatever towel you had laying around, which included T-shirts. He would use diapers that we had laying around to dry, back when there was a diaper service that came to your door. The good ole' days LOL!

Honestly, it's a different world today. There is so much info available via the internet including forums like this one. Back in the 70's or 80's you might send in a reader service card from Popular Mechanics and get a Meguiar's brochure in the mail that gave you a rudimentary outline of car care...you might then call up a regional office and talk to someone, or maybe get some advice at a car show or auto parts store (and we know how good that advice probably was).

[JFire72]

Honestly, it's a different world today. There is so much info available via the internet including forums like this one. Back in the 70's or 80's you might send in a reader service card from Popular Mechanics and get a Meguiar's brochure in the mail that gave you a rudimentary outline of car care...you might then call up a regional office and talk to someone, or maybe get some advice at a car show or auto parts store (and we know how good that advice probably was).

LOL!

Very true, I remember even in the 90's the info wasn't readily available, or maybe it was and I didn't try very hard. I do remember trying every single product out trying to get that wet look I would see on a nice car. Back then I had NO idea what I was doing, and can only laugh at myself now.

And back then, I don't think my dad ever had a car magazine or the like that would have said how to do anything either. Nor do I think he cares much now even LOL! He still thinks going through a local touchless wash and having a guy at the end drying his truck off is good enough. I have tried to tell him to leave his truck with me for a day, but he's stubborn haha!

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[UncleDavy]

Honestly, it's a different world today. There is so much info available via the internet including forums like this one. Back in the 70's or 80's you might send in a reader service card from Popular Mechanics and get a Meguiar's brochure in the mail that gave you a rudimentary outline of car care...you might then call up a regional office and talk to someone, or maybe get some advice at a car show or auto parts store (and we know how good that advice probably was).

The barber shop was also a good place to get advice from car washing to how to do your taxes.