The First 3 Months of my new Detailing Business in picture format

**Tato** · 10-04-2015, 08:30 PM

Dear AGO Friends,

Nearly 3 months ago I've placed a thread regarding my new detailing studio (My New Detailing Studio!), where I could explain why and talk about the preparation of my actual workplace.

Today, I'm here to share some of what happened at our Studio during the first ~3 months,

To do that, we'll be counting on mine / co-workers cellphone cameras: with that in mind, I'd gently ask you to abstract some picture quality issues and enjoy our start!

Presenting Joe Reginaldo, which you'll know from now simply by Joe.

This guy is a visionary (see the way he stares to the top!). Not only a very nice person and Auto Detailer, Joe was the major responsible for making it happen. He's a very straightforward person.

...And from the vision, came reality. First day at work was exciting since we could arrange a BMW X6 and VW Saveiro to work with. The X6 now comes to our studio in a weekly basis for washing, but customer already arranged it for a Full Detail and Coating Procedure in the coming weeks. Saveiro was polished and waxed in a quality production fashion.

We have bills to pay, so it's wise to put some cars inside. Joe is a very good salesman and he's using all his ability to feed our needs. He blindly counts on my detailing skills to deal with 'Whatever he Brings'. We have a trustful partnership that's showing to work well.

Some cars stays for longer (like the truck), some just come for fast services (formal washing) and go.

Well, it didn't took any longer than a week so we had our garage full of cars to work with. Although it sounds exciting, here ringed our first 'Red Alert'. On our business plan there should be a defined balance between Quantity and Quality. With quality being our main word, we can't be fooled by how many cars we can do at once, but how many 'Quality' services we can do without one compromising another. We live, we learn... And we learn!

Where's Waldo?

You've found it! I'm frequently reading from Mike Phillips that he knows people that are making a life through the Flex 3401, well, consider me one of those. This tool is a favorite of mine and I definitively don't know what would I do without it...

At the picture above I was testing a Brazilian car care brand called Vonixx - I'm pretty sure you'll be reading about it soon, it's quality is world class. From our testings it demonstrated to be a great alternative to more expensive products, majorly when dealing with softer paint systems.

Before

Product being tested is called Corte Rapido, which literally means 'Fast Cut'. It has a great working time, little to no dusting and incredible finishing capabilities for a cutting compound.

After 1-step using Vonixx Corte Rapido at Lake Country White Hybrid Pad

Excited with the great product I had in hands I did some more work with it, again one step but now I've used an orange (cutting) pad. Great cut, awesome finish.
Before:

After:

Results shown easily puts this product in my shelf, right in between two giants, FG400 and PF2500

*PS: Product was earned from a friend, I'm not endorsed or paid by the brand to say anything good or bad regarding their product.

We took care of the first 'car flood', it was relieving when I could center the F250 truck to work on it with peace of mind!

Another week started and we had everything under control again.

Not for too long!, we're again (thank god) full of work to do, and I couldn't wait to detail the Brown Audi A3

Here's Joe tackling the white Honda Fit with my Rupes 21 (which he calls his own nowadays lol!)

I went to town too, Before:

Afters:

Even though I'm not participating here as much as I wish, I'm always following, reading and moving my sticks. This time I've found a friend in the USA who got a Pinnacle Black Label Coating v2 and sent me by mail. Poor picture, but you can clearly see the v2 stamp:

From my point of view, after hundreds of PBL V1 coating applications, I can only say I could feel a real improvement in PBL V2 product. With caution, my observations are only short-term since it's a new product for me. The product now seems to spread even better than previous version, and is even easier to achieve a leveled streak free finish, a pleasure to work with. Can't say enough, I love it!

My customers love it too, and this Audi got it Prime:

At my new business I keep counting (now more than ever) on my Wife's interior detailing abilities. She carefully works all details to help improving our customers experience inside and outside their vehicles.

Opening a formal business also opened a whole new 'Detailing World' for me. I could meet some great Detailers from my area and proximities (within 100-150km).

From left to right, Joe (my business partner), Ricardo Uras (better know as Saru, a truly talented detailer) and Me.

Saru is such a nice person, he hasn't ever considered us as his concurrence, but as friends. With that being said, he promptly presented me to his What'sapp Detailing group as 'one of theirs', and such act increased hugely my networking with new detailing friends.

With such networking I had the pleasure to meet Jose Carlos, better known as Coxa. He's one of the most (if not the most) passionated car guy I could meet personally. Jose Carlos drove about 100Km to meet us and showed an incredible arsenal of tools and techniques. Needless to say, look by yourself while he's using his favorite tool, pad size matched, perfectly centered and flat to surface being worked - Truly solid technique I could watch in person.

Another cool guy that came by us (~50Km away) was Tiago Plymouth, he's specialized in working with antique and rare cars. He came after me in order to improve his knowledge with the Flex 3401. We had a very enjoyable day and I'm pretty sure we both learned a lot!

There's a lot more friends that are now part of our history (but no pictures, sorry), like Ronaldo from Detailingcars (which is an AGO forum member!), Mateus from Studio VIP, just to cite a few.

One thing I like about my detailing partner is his proactivity, but I surely play with him at our Detailing Group. Here's me, arriving with a customer's car early in the morning. He's already working, as always...

This is probably one of the most famous Coffee Makers in Brazil, whenever I place a picture of Joe working, I may follow with a picture of mine working hard too as Detailing Barista:

Joking totally apart, this guy is a godsend who always impresses me with his passion to detail cars:

And he always does a very good job

He's 50, but I can't cite many 20-30-40 y/o guys who can handle the hard work he imposes (me included!). He's truly a detailing workhorse.

Here's more candidates to production work performed at our garage,

A PP Ultra work worth a SF4500 pass + seal!, when time is money and quality is key.

Here I was captured performing production work on a small GM,

Surely, when I noticed the production demand, I ran to grab some of this:

And it was a sure shot, can't say enough how useful this product has been at our studio for performing production work.
Before/After (drew a dotted line since I haven't taped the test spot):

Before/After, awesome 1-step.

And many others that went through the AIO treatment, as a bonus the bottle seems to last forever.

**Tato** · 10-04-2015, 08:31 PM

The dark spots you see bellow are road tar, this car was infested with tons of it after driving behind a truck on a just pavemented road:

After (headlights with Meguiar's PlastX, paint decontaminated (washed, iron / tar remover, clayed) and polished with Menzerna 3n1)

We try to detail every work, even the production ones. We need to offer a differential while exerting our passion:
Before:

After:

We worked together on this bike, I did the polishing:
Before:

After correction step:

Not only from Hybrids lives the Flex 3401

Surface was then re-polished using SF4000, 'erased' and coated using CQUK

While I was busy working on paint, Joe took care of some details which surely improved the outcome of our work
Before:

After:

On this 3 month period I lost the count how many Toyota Silver Trucks we did...

They generally come in this way

But always leave this way, even the bolts are detailed

Another Toyota Silver Truck, the returning X6 to be polished soon, and another small GM Celta but from the same customer I did the first one showed above.

I'm ready for them. Why not give emphasis to the Mother's T-shirt I've earned by lucky while participating in a detailing event!?

And again we have a Full House:

Joe went ahead and tackled the interiors,

I went ahead for the polishing routine. The following pictures are from a Benz CLA250, it's not the same you saw at the beginning of the thread but exactly same year and model. However this costumer was more concerned about proper care and left it for me to work on it as I wish.
Before:

After:

The other side:

General view:

Hood on warm light:

Hood on cool light:

Ready for delivery:

The odds of working that much are only visible when you arrive (happy, but!) tired, late at home:

I do my best to avoid but it's generally routine

Well, my little Princess, forgive me since I'm doing all this for you!

This is what motivates me to keep on!

This is my toughest weapon

It happened again!

Unfortunately, not everything in life happens like we plan. For those who haven't followed my full history, here's what happened to my old detailing studio (still my parents house) Happy Birthday Tato!

Even though I've sued the builders for the earlier events and justice is doing it's role, we were victims of another material dropping. Luckily this time there wasn't anybody at home (I was at new Detailing Studio), so we suffered only material loses that they had to promptly undo and answer for.

Life goes on, and look at what I'm working up there (a Silver Toyota Truck)

And after flipping those, we could get new jobs like this Porsche Cayenne and (guess what!) another Silver Toyota Truck... lol!

Working Logistics

We got rid of the silver truck first, which opened space for 2 more cars, the Black GM Captiva and the Honda Civic.

Joe tackled the black Captiva and left the Cayenne for me. Here are some work performed on it:

Before:

After Cutting Step (it was then polished and sealed using WGDGPS)

Cutting Setup:

More details on Cayenne, Before:

After1:

I then used Pinnacle WaterSpot Remover to get rid of trace waterspots on side of pillar (those hasn't come out during CarPro Spotless done earlier)

After2:

Final Look:

Almost ready, before:

After:

I've then finished the Cayenne and left it ready for delivery,

And yesterday we finished the Civic, leaving us empty and ready to rock next week!

Here's our business card,

Don't forget adding me at whats'app! (country code is +55).

--------------

That's all folks!

Even thought I couldn't capture with enough quality every moment, I did my best to join all pictures together in order to share our story with you.

I apologize in advance since we are still arranging things and trying to improve our workplace in a daily basis, including making it clean and pleasurable to work at.

I truly appreciate any critics, comments, suggestions or even questions you have, please, feel free to write your opinion to us.

To finish, I thank you very much for you to taking your time looking at what we've done lately, hope you enjoy as much I enjoy watching your routine!

Count on me,

Kind Regards, from Brazil.

**custmsprty** · 10-04-2015, 08:41 PM

Awesome, great studio and as always first class work.

**RTexasF** · 10-04-2015, 08:50 PM

Really an exceptional documentary. I enjoyed it immensely, thank you.
I am very happy for your success.

**AutowerxDetailing** · 10-04-2015, 08:54 PM

These pictures make me happy. Keep up the great work!

**MikeLW** · 10-04-2015, 08:58 PM

Thanks for the share! You have a world class operation going for you!

**Sicoupe** · 10-04-2015, 09:27 PM

Really happy for you my friend! Hope nothing but the best for you and your family buddy!

**Kamakaz1961** · 10-04-2015, 09:50 PM

Wow wow wow!! So cool!! Congrats on your detailing studio!! I wish nothing but success!! It looks like you are already off to a great start!! Beautiful shop beautiful friends and family!!

Again, much success!!