How To Educate Folks About Detailing Misconceptions And Myths? (Newbie Questions)

[lovenhim]

Hello everyone. I have several questions about how to deal with, educate or explain various car detailing practices to family members. I do not mean any harm in what I am about to type. I mention it to help explain the story. I live on a small hobby farm with a several family members who did not gradeuate high school, and worked in the trades such as truck driving, carpetry, and welding. They have a lot of false beliefs about certain things. This belief system falls into cars and how they should not be cleaned. Here are some examples.

The best thing to clean glass with is Cocacola.
Use toothpast to buff out foggy headlight.
A buffer, polisher, DA, you name it....will destry the paint or remove to much paint....down to the primer.

I bring this up so that I can learn. My aunt asked me to wash and wax her Subaru Outback. I did that by using Mothers car soap, Mothers clay bar kit, and a one steo Mothers cleaner wax. You know all over the counter stuff. My aunt and uncle have this fear of the clay bar. I am not sure why. Maybe they saw or heard about some trucker using it incorrectly? I was going to apply the wax to the car using a DA polisher with the softest Meguirs black foam pad I have. On speed one to just even out the wax. My uncle freaks thinking the machine will remove clear coat, so I apply the wax by hand.

How do you educate people and show them that if a clay bar is used properly....it is a wonderful tool?

How do you show them that using a DA polisher to apply wax will not harm anything?

Sure you are removing a microscopic amount of clearcoat doing paint correction.

I am trying to learn and understand some basics of paint correction, just for the fun and enjoyment.

How thick is the average Japanese car factory applied paint and clearcoat?

On average how much clearcoat is removed for using a polish to remove swirl marks?

What is the broad range of times that a factory oem paint job can be polished before the clearcoat becomes thin, damaged, or gives up?

By the way, my Aunt's Subarur Outback looks pretty nice even though it was done by hand with over the counter Mothers products. I even used the clay bar on the exterior glass. What a difference it made. Took the water spots right off.

[DaveT435]

A good way to show them what a clay bar does is after a car is washed do the Baggie test and have them put their hand in the Baggie and feel how rough the surface is then go over it with the clay and have them feel it again. Clay removes bonded contaminants, it doesn't remove any paint. It can mar the paint but doesn't remove any. Suburu paint can be very soft so be wear of that.

As far as applying wax you can show him that the pad is softer than a regular foam applicator pad. The machine is simply making a motion similar to the motion of a human hand polishing. Also the pressure is more evenly distributed. When you are using a hand pad usually your fingers are applying more pressure than the rest of the pad.

Have them rub some polish between their fingers so they can see it's not gritty like polishes/ compounds of yesteryear.

[camaro2ssblack]

I’ve experienced similar with my redneck family but it stopped as soon as I pulled up in my Camaro and you could dive into the black paint.

All the sudden I was an expert lol.

[UncleDavy]

Show them the products and tools and let them know that there is no boogey man living inside those items. You can also show them some YouTube videos or even some before and after pictures from the people here on the forum.

[lovenhim]

Thank you. I must admit that my uncle is stuck in the 60s-80s when it comes to any technology. That includes paint, cars, etc. Thanks for the perspective.


A good way to show them what a clay bar does is after a car is washed do the Baggie test and have them put their hand in the Baggie and feel how rough the surface is then go over it with the clay and have them feel it again. Clay removes bonded contaminants, it doesn't remove any paint. It can mar the paint but doesn't remove any. Suburu paint can be very soft so be wear of that.

As far as applying wax you can show him that the pad is softer than a regular foam applicator pad. The machine is simply making a motion similar to the motion of a human hand polishing. Also the pressure is more evenly distributed. When you are using a hand pad usually your fingers are applying more pressure than the rest of the pad.

Have them rub some polish between their fingers so they can see it's not gritty like polishes/ compounds of yesteryear.

[PaulMys]

Some people are very set in their ways.

I would ABSOLUTELY put myself into this category. I am one stubborn A hole sometimes. (My wife will confirm this.)

But, what will always sway me into a different way of thinking is an opinion/group of opinions by individuals with experienced, working knowledge.

Enter AGO. I have gained an incredible amount of info/help on here that has proven invaluable.

[sudsmobile]

Tell him if you screw up his car you'll buy him a new one. That always works.

[lovenhim]

LOL, funny.



Tell him if you screw up his car you'll buy him a new one. That always works.

[Farmallluvr]

you can lead a horse to water........

and what PaulMys said ...stubborness... ,after 25+ years I find that I am still learning new techniques and products to make my life easier.
I wasn't 100% sold on orbital polishers even after purchasing mine but lots of reading and a few questions here on AutoGeek has kind of pushed me over the hump and renewed my interest in detailing in general.

don't be afraid to try new things or experiment a little here and there:dblthumb2:

[SWETM]

Coca-Cola to clean windows with I have not heard before. But as a rust remover it used to be working great at. I think that the recepie has changed a bit so it's not so effective any more but who knows. Maybe use it as an iron remover LOL. The sticky mess after the sugar though could be hard to remove. We used to cover a bicycle with a bottle of Coca-Cola at the evening. And in the morning rinse it off and the rust was completly gone. So have seen it worked. Also bolts and nuts in a bath of it worked great. Wondering if it where citrus acid in it and that's why it worked great to get the oxidized iron particals desolveing. And since it's acidic based it could work good as glass cleaner and on water spots on it. Just a thought.

It's hard to convert some to new things. You can demonstrate on another vehical than there own and let them be with you to witness your process when polishing and the prep work. And talk them through the work you do and why. Explain during the work and what you are carefull with and educate them that way. Just be carefull on the Subaru cause it has almost on every paint a soft finicky clearcoat. So look at polishes and pads that work in those situations.

And as noted before when you work with hands it could accually be more aggressive approach than machine polishing. Take a foam or mf applicator and press with the pressure you use against the palm of your or others hand. Then take the polisher when off and with a foam pad or mf polishing pad and do the same thing. And explain the feeling of the more spread pressure from the polisher than from the applicators.

[Eldorado2k]

Coca-Cola to clean windows with I have not heard before. But as a rust remover it used to be working great at. I think that the recepie has changed a bit so it's not so effective any more but who knows. Maybe use it as an iron remover LOL. The sticky mess after the sugar though could be hard to remove. We used to cover a bicycle with a bottle of Coca-Cola at the evening. And in the morning rinse it off and the rust was completly gone. So have seen it worked. Also bolts and nuts in a bath of it worked great. Wondering if it where citrus acid in it and that's why it worked great to get the oxidized iron particals desolveing. And since it's acidic based it could work good as glass cleaner and on water spots on it. Just a thought.


It still works great, however the new and improved method is to use Diet Coke because it doesn’t contain sugar so it’s not sticky like regular Coke. Add some aluminum foil to scrub with and rust be gone.

[Eldorado2k]

While we’re on the subject of educating customers... I say it’s best to Not educate them on squat! Here’s my reason why and this has happened several times...

Potential customer calls you and hits you with their extraordinary messy situation... You respond, “ok yea, I can handle that”
Customer says “oh really? Cool, how are you going to do it”?
That’s when you make the mistake of telling them... And low and behold, they text you a day before your scheduled appointment to inform you that they’re going to cancel on you.

Never again am I going to tell a customer how I’m going to solve their problem. They’re just going to have to trust me.[emoji57] I ain’t giving away my techniques for free so they can try and hack it.

[UncleDavy]

While we’re on the subject of educating customers... I say it’s best to Not educate them on squat! Here’s my reason why and this has happened several times...

Potential customer calls you and hits you with their extraordinary messy situation... You respond, “ok yea, I can handle that”
Customer says “oh really? Cool, how are you going to do it”?
That’s when you make the mistake of telling them... And low and behold, they text you a day before your scheduled appointment to inform you that they’re going to cancel on you.

Never again am I going to tell a customer how I’m going to solve their problem. They’re just going to have to trust me.[emoji57] I ain’t giving away my techniques for free so they can try and hack it.

That happens in other industries as well. The customer tries to fix the problem himself and makes a bigger mess of things. That customer will probably call you back and you will have to repair the hack that they attempted.

[Eldorado2k]

That happens in other industries as well. The customer tries to fix the problem himself and makes a bigger mess of things. That customer will probably call you back and you will have to repair the hack that they attempted.

You’re probably right about possibly making a bigger mess of the situation, but I doubt they’d call the same person back to correctly fix their problem. That’d be embarrassing, and most people would just call another detailer to avoid that.

Plus some people might be able to half arse the results based on the tip they got from you and live with it.

[Eldorado2k]

I had it happen just a couple of days ago... It happens the same way everytime it happens. Nomore!

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