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As I've mentioned in a couple other posts, detailing is more of a hobby than a money-maker for me right now, but I'm slowly building up something of a portfolio of work in hopes that I can attract a small number of regular clients and start making some cash by doing something that I enjoy. Being relatively new to detailing, I offered to spend a few hours cleaning up a co-worker's car so long as he covered the cost of the supplies used and allowed me to post before and after pictures online. I told him that if he liked my work, he could pay me for future jobs, and if not, hey, there's no obligation to bring his car back to me.
While this is definitely not a great business model, I'm really only looking to take on three or four regulars at this time, so I don't mind doing a car here and there "at cost" to gauge interest and build experience. Besides, I think many of us weekend warriors get into detailing more because of our passion for clean cars than out of a desire to earn money. An unexpected side benefit of this job popped up, though - a woman who lives in my neighborhood was driving by as I was finishing up, and she stopped, asked if she could blog about my hobby, took a couple pictures of my work, and set up a tentative date to have me wash and wax her car. Pretty cool!
Anyway, on to the details of the detail - this is a 2007 (I think) Mazdaspeed3. Neat little car. Overall, the paint was in decent condition - swirling was minor, a number of RIDS and rock chips, some unfortunate cracking on the front bumper that I couldn't do anything about, and a pretty clean interior. The owner had made his first attempt at waxing the car about two weeks ago, using an orbital and some variant of Turtle Wax applied way too thickly - there were white blotches of residue all over the car, and a fair amount of residue on the trim. As much as I wanted to do a full correction, I didn't have the time (or the shade to work in), so we agreed on a wash, spot correction of the most visible RIDS, and sealant.
Before:
Started by cleaning the wheels, tires, and wells with a mix of All Wheel Cleaner, Super Degreaser, APC+, and Hyper Wash with a bug sponge and a variety of brushes. There was some adhesive foam inside the wheel barrels leftover from a previous set of weights that I was unable to remove without pulling the wheels off, which I was not prepared to do. I'm so used to my own wheels being easy to clean because they're well-maintained. These were another story altogether, although not nearly as bad as some I've seen here on the board. I've got some Wheel Brightener and Sonax Full Effect on the way to help out with neglected wheels in the future - I spent almost an hour working on these before I even got to the body of the car.
With the wheels done, I gave the car a thorough rinse, treated some minor tar buildup with Body Solvent, and washed the car with Hyper Wash using a Meg's MF mitt and the two-bucket method with Grit Guards. After washing, the car was dried using Water Magnets and a leaf blower - I'm still trying to get the "sheeting" drying method perfected.
Next, I moved on to the spot correction. The owner and I had identified the two most visible groups of RIDS, one on the hood, and the other down the length of the passenger side. I was unable to get a good shot of the hood, but you can see the scratches on the door below - the wax residue made them quite visible. I could feel the scratches with my fingernail, so I wasn't expecting to be able to do much.
I first tried ScratchX 2.0 with a 4" SoftBuff polishing pad on my G110v2. This removed the bit of wax residue still hiding in the scratches, but that's about it. Switched pads and broke out the Ultimate Compound, which did slightly better, but again, these scratches were deep. After two applications of six section passes on each scratch with no significant improvement, I decided that I wasn't going to be able to do much without wet sanding, and I was not about to do that for the first time on a client's car!
Scratches are definitely still there, but not as visible unless you're close up and at the right angle.
After doing what I could to minimize those scratches, I switched over to finishing pads and sealed the car with NXT 2.0. While waiting for this to dry, I got to work on the interior. As I mentioned, it was pretty clean, though the dash was a bit greasy thanks to the owner's liberal use of ArmorAll. No interior pics. Floor mats and carpet were dry brushed and vacuumed, interior trim was wiped down with QID, and the door jambs were cleaned with APC+.
With the interior done, but the NXT not yet dry (I was working in direct sunlight at this point), I decided to seal the wheels with Cleaner Wax - this worked well on my Hyundai's wheels as far as removing a bit of persistent brake dust that had worked its way into a couple of scratches on the wheels. I didn't get quite the same results on this particular car, but I'm hoping that the wheels will at least be a bit easier to clean in the future.
At this point, the NXT still wasn't dry (I have gotto make enough room in my garage to be able to work on cars in the shade!), so I dressed the tires with three coats of Endurance Spray and took a break. Finally - this almost two hours after applying the sealant - I was able to begin removing the NXT residue. I finished up by cleaning the interior and exterior glass with Glass Cleaner Concentrate. This was my first time using the glass MFs from ADS, and they worked quite well - while their texture makes them a bit more difficult to wipe across the glass without your hand slipping off, they leave behind no lint, and are very effective at cleaning. I prefer to use the rough side for the initial cleaning, then grab a clean towel and flip it over to the soft side to remove any cleaner left behind.
Total time was about 7 hours, which I think is pretty slow compared to some of you guys, but it's a learning process. I'm pretty happy with how this Mazda turned out, even though I didn't get to do anything about the swirls. Most importantly, the owner was thrilled when he picked it up.
After:
While this is definitely not a great business model, I'm really only looking to take on three or four regulars at this time, so I don't mind doing a car here and there "at cost" to gauge interest and build experience. Besides, I think many of us weekend warriors get into detailing more because of our passion for clean cars than out of a desire to earn money. An unexpected side benefit of this job popped up, though - a woman who lives in my neighborhood was driving by as I was finishing up, and she stopped, asked if she could blog about my hobby, took a couple pictures of my work, and set up a tentative date to have me wash and wax her car. Pretty cool!
Anyway, on to the details of the detail - this is a 2007 (I think) Mazdaspeed3. Neat little car. Overall, the paint was in decent condition - swirling was minor, a number of RIDS and rock chips, some unfortunate cracking on the front bumper that I couldn't do anything about, and a pretty clean interior. The owner had made his first attempt at waxing the car about two weeks ago, using an orbital and some variant of Turtle Wax applied way too thickly - there were white blotches of residue all over the car, and a fair amount of residue on the trim. As much as I wanted to do a full correction, I didn't have the time (or the shade to work in), so we agreed on a wash, spot correction of the most visible RIDS, and sealant.
Before:
Started by cleaning the wheels, tires, and wells with a mix of All Wheel Cleaner, Super Degreaser, APC+, and Hyper Wash with a bug sponge and a variety of brushes. There was some adhesive foam inside the wheel barrels leftover from a previous set of weights that I was unable to remove without pulling the wheels off, which I was not prepared to do. I'm so used to my own wheels being easy to clean because they're well-maintained. These were another story altogether, although not nearly as bad as some I've seen here on the board. I've got some Wheel Brightener and Sonax Full Effect on the way to help out with neglected wheels in the future - I spent almost an hour working on these before I even got to the body of the car.
With the wheels done, I gave the car a thorough rinse, treated some minor tar buildup with Body Solvent, and washed the car with Hyper Wash using a Meg's MF mitt and the two-bucket method with Grit Guards. After washing, the car was dried using Water Magnets and a leaf blower - I'm still trying to get the "sheeting" drying method perfected.
Next, I moved on to the spot correction. The owner and I had identified the two most visible groups of RIDS, one on the hood, and the other down the length of the passenger side. I was unable to get a good shot of the hood, but you can see the scratches on the door below - the wax residue made them quite visible. I could feel the scratches with my fingernail, so I wasn't expecting to be able to do much.
I first tried ScratchX 2.0 with a 4" SoftBuff polishing pad on my G110v2. This removed the bit of wax residue still hiding in the scratches, but that's about it. Switched pads and broke out the Ultimate Compound, which did slightly better, but again, these scratches were deep. After two applications of six section passes on each scratch with no significant improvement, I decided that I wasn't going to be able to do much without wet sanding, and I was not about to do that for the first time on a client's car!
Scratches are definitely still there, but not as visible unless you're close up and at the right angle.
After doing what I could to minimize those scratches, I switched over to finishing pads and sealed the car with NXT 2.0. While waiting for this to dry, I got to work on the interior. As I mentioned, it was pretty clean, though the dash was a bit greasy thanks to the owner's liberal use of ArmorAll. No interior pics. Floor mats and carpet were dry brushed and vacuumed, interior trim was wiped down with QID, and the door jambs were cleaned with APC+.
With the interior done, but the NXT not yet dry (I was working in direct sunlight at this point), I decided to seal the wheels with Cleaner Wax - this worked well on my Hyundai's wheels as far as removing a bit of persistent brake dust that had worked its way into a couple of scratches on the wheels. I didn't get quite the same results on this particular car, but I'm hoping that the wheels will at least be a bit easier to clean in the future.
At this point, the NXT still wasn't dry (I have gotto make enough room in my garage to be able to work on cars in the shade!), so I dressed the tires with three coats of Endurance Spray and took a break. Finally - this almost two hours after applying the sealant - I was able to begin removing the NXT residue. I finished up by cleaning the interior and exterior glass with Glass Cleaner Concentrate. This was my first time using the glass MFs from ADS, and they worked quite well - while their texture makes them a bit more difficult to wipe across the glass without your hand slipping off, they leave behind no lint, and are very effective at cleaning. I prefer to use the rough side for the initial cleaning, then grab a clean towel and flip it over to the soft side to remove any cleaner left behind.
Total time was about 7 hours, which I think is pretty slow compared to some of you guys, but it's a learning process. I'm pretty happy with how this Mazda turned out, even though I didn't get to do anything about the swirls. Most importantly, the owner was thrilled when he picked it up.
After:
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