Tipping Point vis-a-vis Detailing

[lokerola]

When I bought my 2011 Dodge Charger R/T I googled "wax". Search engine led me here......And now I have a shed filled with waxes, polishes, pads, towels, on and on.

[BadgerRivFan]

My tipping point was also purchasing a new car... my first "non-daily driver"... a 2001 Corvette.

My desire to keep the Corvette looking it's best led me to two things.

1. Zaino - the Zaino products were all the rage at the time in the Corvette discussion forums. I jumped on the bandwagon and put many, many coats of Z5 and Z2 on my car over the years .

2. Griots Garage Catalog - I don't recall who gave me my first Griots catalog, but I was smitten the first time I flipped through the pages. In addition to Zaino, I've bought a ton of Griots products over the years. Including a GG6 which I used to "buff out" my Corvette every spring with Zaino's AIO (before I really even knew what polishing and sealing was all about).

So yes, my "tipping point" was a new Corvette, Zaino and the Griots Garage catalog!

[Jay's 128i]

For me, it was spending $270 on a detail. Don't get me wrong, the detail was beautiful...... When I picked up my truck, the detailer walked me around my vehicle explaining what he did. As this was going on, I took note on what products he had. Did a Google search and then found this forum. I figured I would just start detailing my own car instead of paying someone. Once going, I found that detailing was actually my therapy. Being in the military, I have constant chaos everyday and detailing my car is great "me time". Being that one can only do so much to their car, I started offering others free details. It was during one of these details, that a random guy driving by stopped and asked "how much?". Told him that detailing was just a hobby for me and that I wasn't a professional. He said that the way I was making the current car I was working on look, that he didn't care if I was a pro or not. That was my tipping point that made me want to be detailet. So now I have two professions, military and detailing

[Don M]

For me, it was working for a shop that did high end detailing, that and buying the newest car I had ever owned, a 1988 Beretta GT/black-metallic. Obviously this was in the late 80s - DEFINITELY pre-internet. I learned how to use the Meguiar's consumer/detailer line and an orbital polisher to achieve amazing results. I did this on my own for several years, then the internet kicked in. First it was the generic detailing sites on AOL, then finally to places like this, where I learned that my "wax-spreader" GEM orbital wasn't all that, so I stepped up to a PC and never looked back. During the tail end of the time I worked at the shop, I picked up a brand new 1989 Camaro - black of course and learned how to keep it swirl-free. Between the Beretta, the Camaro and working at the shop, I was permanently infected with the detailing bug.

And here I am, decades later, with ANOTHER black Camaro.

[suttonri]

I bought my Chevy Colorado last December. After a steady diet sensible economy cars this is the 1st vehicle I've really loved. Last Spring I took it to this mass detailing business that has a good reputation locally. They put the car on a conveyor belt, used the same buckets and mops they had been using for god knows how long, and left missed spots in some places, water spots in others. I quickly decided I would have to do it myself. A Chevy forum recommended the Porter Cable 7424xp with 3m Ultrafine. A quick search led me to AutoGeek and I was off.

[01GreyStangGT]

First car in high school in 1987. My dad got me a 1978 Mercury Cougar and I used Rain Dance on it, then started experimenting.