How did you get into detailing?

[SheldonH]

Tell us how you got into detailing.
For me I bought my first car two years ago when I was 16 and wanted it to be clean so it looked nice. So I went to Walmart bought a sponge Meg's car wash and some "shiny tire stuff" lol and went at it. But then one day I googled how to get bugs off and well I remember that day I came across ag and well days and days of reading and watching videos literally, 2 years, and about 1000 dollars later I'm OBSESSED!! Now I run a small part time detailing services and last month made roughly 400 dollars after I take out my cost. This is a passion and I truly love it.

So I'm just wondering how all of us got obsessed with detailing

[swat ss]

I have been "washing" my vehicles ever since i could drive. It wasn't until I had my vehicles paint corrected professionally that I gained a lot of interest in actually detailing.

I was taught by that detailer a lof of what I know now. Also, just from doing it more and more. I now detail all of my families and friends vehicles. Not quite into the business aspect yet. Maybe I will slowly start. I usually just ask my friends to cover products.

[AutowerxDetailing]

When I was really young I would always help my dad detail his El Camino and garage kept '70 Chevelle SS. I remember one time a cop pulled over while we were washing it just to ask how he got his rims to sparkle so much. We always had a whole shelf stocked full of detailing supplies.

Up until recently I could never afford a particularly "nice" vehicle. My first car I bought for $100 from a friend and the paint job was 1/3 yellow, 1/3 primer, 1/3 rust. I hated driving such a piece of crap and did everything I knew how to do to make it look nice. (My rims were the shiniest in town!) Over the years my cars got sequentially nicer and along the way I learned more and more about how to keep them looking their best.

I knew I was a detail geek when: I had a Dodge Raider 4x4 that blew out a main bearing and needed to be re-built. So, like any rational 20 year old I bought a Haines manual and went to town on that motor. 1 year later every single engine part on that thing had been disassembled, cleaned and polished. Eventually I got everything back together and it ran like new. That's the longest detail job I have ever done and I have been hooked ever since.

[Kaban]

when i lived in Israel as a little boy, we washed cars on the supermarket parking lot while the car owners went shopping. We did it with my brother and our friends and make real nice money (for our age of course). Then it kind of progressed into the hobby and obsession it is today. Before detailing, I just washed our cars weekly very thoroughly, I didn't know what wax was or what it did, never heard of paint sealant, only thought buffers were for professional body shop workers, only heard once or twice what clay bar was and thought it had something to do with pottery and spreading mud onto your car to deep cleanse it. And of course, since I never waxed our cars, I remember scrubbing the hell out of the front bumper to get the summer bugs off.

[npatel123]

It's not very difficult to keep your vehicle looking good. With regular care even a very old car can look new. It does a good job of washing away dirt. I always used a sponge to wash my car but small grains of sand are almost impossible to get out of the sponge unless you take a great deal of time to do so.

Scorpio (http://www.mahindra.com/What-We-Do/Automotive/Products/Scorpio)

[HotWhipT/A]

I've always been interested and tried with what little I knew at 16 to claybar and wax my car. Later on their was a Tropicare dealer and local detailer in my local car forum. The company is now called Showroom FX and they used to have their own line of stuff. I bought the original Porter Cable back when it was just starting to become popular along with a few foam pads and some products. I had seen others results, but I wasn't getting the same. That was about the extent of that for a while. In hindsight, I know what I was doing wrong then....too much product, not enough working time and a weak machine with a 6.5" pad.
A few years go by for me and a high school friend of mine had started a small mobile car washing business that he had been doing for 3 years and in the 4th year he slowly started getting into and learning real detailing/paint correction. I really wanted to learn how to detail because I had finally got a very expensive paint job on my TA and wanted to keep it looking its best. He basically introduced me and showed me most of what I know now. I did my entire Trans Am myself doing what he told and showed me and it came out more than amazing. As he got better at detailing and his business grew, he needed some occasional help when he got busy. I would help out when I could and he would pay me a little for my time. He would figure out what machine/pads/compounds/polishes/steps to do and we got things done together. I tell him what we should do half the time now! LOL I've done countless cars with him now and have encountered just about everything vehicle wise and paint wise. Many exotics, some of which I get to drive! I've also been able to use pretty much everything AG sells which is great. I have an arsenal of my own detailing supplies now for myself, family and friends. Being that I have the time and am on these forums and he isn't, I get to show him new things and get him hooked on new products now!

[timaishu]

I was given my moms taurus as my first car.

I then spent $299 to get it repainted at earl scheib! Had to keep it looking clean. :)

[01GreyStangGT]

I started when I was 12 and washing the family vehicles became my job. It was the one chore I actually liked. My dad was a mechanic and I grew up around his shop and helped in the body shop at times, so detailing my family and later my cars was natural for me.

[Kinalyx]

I bought my current car (black 05 GTO) and loved everything about it. Other than the super ultra mega custom swirly black paint(high dollar yo). I started researching on my car forums, and as most of you know, most car forums are sponsored by Adams.

Adams was supposedly the greatest thing ever, but i got a tip from a buddy on the forums to come over to AG and see whats up.

That was 8 months or so ago. Ive since spent somewhere near $1500, probably more that i dont remember. Im still having issued with this crazy soft black, and am about to buy a master blaster, just to try to keep the swirls down.

Shawn

[lokichaos]

When I got my license I started to really take an interest in how the car looked. Started off by roaming the web, and the addiction finally kicked in after I found AGO ;)

[wgilles]

I like my story...

When I was about 13-14 my brother in law had a 2005 Black Nissan Maxima that he took very good care of. He always let me help him wash it etc.

When I turned 17 and got my first car, I wanted a Maxima too! I bought a 2005 Dark blue Maxima and took equally good care of it. After I started researching more about detailing online I became more of a detailing freak. I would ALWAYS get compliments at school on how good my car looked even though it was 10 years old at the time.

Ever since then I've taken very good care of all my cars and love detailing

[shoeless89]

In 2009 I got sober. After getting my car I really liked keeping the interior clean. Probably because keeping my car clean was not a priority when drinking and using drugs lol Well I then decided to start cleaning the exterior. Since I pretty much do everything alcoholicly, I dove into it head first. I started reading and learning as much as I could about it. Then I found AG which just fueled the fire! From there its history :) Thats the quick version lol

[07gtcs]

I loved keeping all my cars as clean as possible since my first car at age 16, but new nothing about detailing and "good" products until a few years ago a friend turned me on to claying my car and then liquid glass. I thought that was great stuff! This spring in researching how to keep my "mid-life crisis" car (07 Mustang GT/CS) Car Show ready I stumbled in here, and the rest is history.

[Bates Detailing]

When I lived in Monterey Bay California - I worked at the Private end of the airport (just got out of the Air Force where I was a mechanic on F-16s). While refualing, marshelling, towing all these 20, 30, 40 million dollar jets - I had a guy paying me to start cleaning them. He taught me everything from rotary polishing, to metal polishing, to basically everything when it came to aircraft detailing. He had to go overseas for a couple months (he was an ex Navy Seal and was training troops in Iraq), he asked me to run his business. So I did successfully - when he came back I moved to St. Louis where we teamed up. Long story short - it all came crashing down..... So years later I decided to give it another run but have know one weighing me down, and I decided to diversify and focus on all industries - not just one. The End

[Gurge]

I always washed / waxed my car. but never considered it 'detailing'

until a few years ago I got rear ended. at the same time my clear coat on the front of my integra was failing. so insurance paid for the rear to be painted, and I paid out of pocket for the front end. Body shop agreed to polishing everything that wasn't painted

got the car back, and wanted to know how best to protect it. started learning about the PC, sealants, clay, what holograms were and how to remove them (the body shop left some for me of course). Started buying tools, products, pads, sealants.

did my car. then a friends. bought more stuff. did another friends car. bought more stuff. etc etc etc

To this day the momentum keeps on rolling and the biz keeps on getting bigger. But now I'm able to charge more and get more cars from complete strangers :-)