If you haven't already, get yourself some Cerama Bryte cleaner for that glass stove top.
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If you haven't already, get yourself some Cerama Bryte cleaner for that glass stove top.
Looking good!
Thanks Paul!
Thanks, I'll have to give it a try. This is my first glass top and I def need something better.
Thanks!
Not much to report lately.
I do want to give a shout out to my tolco 320cr sprayers. I'm approaching 1 year now with only 1 of them starting to fail. I have about 14 in rotation and the only sprayer to show signs of wear is the solvent bottle (no surprise).
Here's a halfway shot of me cleaning a gross carpet. Sorry I always forget to get the after pic.
https://i.imgur.com/Gofi0xm.jpg
I bought this nifty tire filler.
https://i.imgur.com/SPKNbCL.jpg
And I had to clean a cop car.
https://i.imgur.com/nnH6vLC.jpg
Well the back seat of one. The cops were transporting a stray cat when it decided to pee all over the back seat. It was in a cage but I think it was one of those wire cages hence why the car got covered in pee. I had to remove the rear seat and clean the padding underneath the rubber floor as the pee managed to find it's way down there.
https://i.imgur.com/CPN5EgO.jpg
It was a bit of a challenge figuring out how to remove the back seat since it wasn't the normal explorer seat and I couldn't find any instructions online. For those wondering you have to flip down the top parts of the seats and unbolt 4 bolts holding the rears of the seat rails to the floor. Then the seats flip forward (they're on sprung hinges) so you can unbolt the front of the seat rails. After that you give them the old heave ho and lift them out.
Reinstalled. You don't get much room to work with the walls in front and behind the seat.
https://i.imgur.com/rYyKV0p.jpg
I found a sowing needle in a car. (Not the cop car). Thankfully this is the only needle I've ever found.
https://i.imgur.com/jYg3bbN.jpg
And I need to clean my vacuum more.
https://i.imgur.com/6pMDGQe.jpg
Yes I vacuumed up those masks, paper towels, pencils, and more. I'll vacuum up anything if it saves me a trip to the trash can.
I try to clean out the vacuum every two weeks but sometimes I forget to. I think this was about 2 1/2 weeks of dirt. I only realized it was overdue for a cleaning after it started to lose suction. The velocity vac picks up a ton of sand!
Not much to report boys. After all like the ole saying goes "A detail a day keeps the bill collector away".
Stocked up on some brushes. I love these things.
https://i.imgur.com/oyGyMOu.jpg
Nothing better to turn a bad day around than when you find free snacks underneath seats.
https://i.imgur.com/fO2Arf4.jpg
And I made a new wifi set up for the shop.
https://i.imgur.com/In6FXkR.jpg
One of my pump sprayers broke so I got this crazy idea to add valve stems to my pump sprayers so I could charge them up via the tire filler I bought.
https://i.imgur.com/Pi5EjFA.jpg
The idea worked great at first.
https://i.imgur.com/nXE7ovm.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/2flfbdK.jpg
Until about three days later when the wheel acid ate through the seals in the valve stem. Oops :)
I wish people would drive smaller vehicles. What's wrong with a good ole compact sedan nowadays eh?
https://i.imgur.com/HHUGeBZ.jpg
And I foolishly managed to lock myself out of the shop lol. Earlier today I shot over to the grocery store for some eats and forgot I didn't have a key to get back in as I was borrowing my girlfriends car. My girlfriend was about an hour away visiting family and I wasn't in the mood for waiting around for a lock smith to come by, so I decided to use a rock.
https://i.imgur.com/ELnarCE.jpg
I only lock the garage doors on one side so after blasting out the window I reached in to release the garage door lock and lifted the door up.
The movies lie to you about how clean glass is when you smash it.
The pictures don't do it justice but the glass WENT EVERYWHERE. There was glass bits on the floor all the way up by my workbench on the far wall.
https://i.imgur.com/yIuC3Aq.jpg
I had to sweep twice, and used my vacuum to suck up all the bits as those things were SHARP.
Initially I was going to order a replacement from the door manufacturer but turns out they don't sell them online as you have to go through a authorized dealer to buy them. Not wanting to wait a week plus with the window broken I took a trip to the hardware store nearby as they sell custom cut glass. Two pieces of glass later (dual layer for better insulation) and some rubber butyl I had laying around you can't even tell. Total cost was $15. I'm grateful I'm resourceful lol.
https://i.imgur.com/54kjKjs.jpg
Here's the rock I used.
https://i.imgur.com/0aZhEbi.jpg
I'm kinda amazed someone didn't call the cops on me as I was wearing a black hoodie and the diner next door was fairly busy. Worst of all I didn't have any ID on me as I had forgotten my wallet upstairs inside the shop.
And lastly, here's one of our cats sleeping.
https://i.imgur.com/9sFZSK0.jpg
Damn, Ed.
Gonna have to start calling you Rock-Key Balboa. ;)
That is one serious WiFi setup :)
Hi all,
Sorry I haven't posted much. Truth be told, I shut down my business as of yesterday.
Earlier this spring I kinda came to the realization the business wasn't doing so hot, and to be honest it stopped being enjoyable to run. The only real part of it I liked was the actual detailing. My retail sales dwindled down to the point where the business was able to tread water financially but it never left me much to live off.
It was an exciting adventure to grow the business from nothing and I feel like I've learned more valuable lessons than I ever imagined. There's been lots of great days and awesome cars I never even dreamed of getting the chance to touch but there's also been so many rough days of taking bad jobs just to make ends meet.
I'm looking forward to starting the next chapter as I start a new software development job Monday (one I'm extremely excited for!) and am fairly optimistic about the future. I'll be keeping the shop as the mortgage + utilities is cheaper than rent around here and this is exactly why I built the apartment above it. Plus with how many projects I like to do in the garage it's basically my dream house haha.
Thank you guys for always being supportive and saving my butt more times than you can imagine. There's been so many times when I encountered some random issue during a job that the first thing I did was break out my phone to search through the thousands of posts on here looking for help. You guys never let me down.
I do have a few small updates to share of what happened over the past few months:
The motor in my extractor died. Thankfully I knew it was going to happen as the extractor turned extremely loud one day and had ordered a spare motor to keep on hand a month or so prior. Of course I never replaced it till it died mid use.
https://i.imgur.com/0Zmrc6d.jpg
View inside of the motor. Can't imagine why it failed.
https://i.imgur.com/J2WxdEX.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/kC4fVeh.jpg
I was cleaning a single cab pickup and needed to recline the driver seat forward but the lever had broken off long ago.
https://i.imgur.com/SCvJFYZ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/5k1itwe.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ba5vQIE.jpg
My velocity vac broke on me.
https://i.imgur.com/OBD40Jj.jpg
If you remember, I actually posted up a photo about the cracks a long time ago. I never actually bothered to order a spare housing though as I didn't think they would spread. I had to rig up a solution to keep it operational for a few days before the replacement came in.
https://i.imgur.com/SVyNkqE.jpg
My parents gave my girlfriend and I their old washer / dryer. I took the washer apart to clean it out plus sandblast / respray the frame. Here's a mid action shot lol.
https://i.imgur.com/Atl8OGY.jpg
And my last detail as of yesterday.
https://i.imgur.com/bHwjykK.jpg
I should mention all these nice cars aren't what I usually detail. These are just the cooler ones worth sharing.
Thanks again you guys. I was always so excited to share the progress with you all since you were the only ones who would understand why I bought the various things I did.
Now that your business is history and you have a conventional job at least you can count on a regular and steady pay day. I went through the same thing when I was younger... And it worked out well for me as I was able to retire at 54.
Having a business is great when everything is going well but the lean times can be brutal.
Your garage/apartment set-up is something I always thought I'd like to have. Now that my kids are grown and the ex is long gone, I've always thought that a big shop with an apartment in the corner would be my ideal living arrangement... I'm jealous.
Good luck going forward.
Good luck with your new job, Ed, you do have some skills.
Best of luck moving forward, Ed.
I hope you pop in once in a while. :)