Consumer to Professional Please Help?

[Conceptpaul]

Hi Guy's,

I hope i am posting in the right place. I am a car enthusiast and have been for many years now.

For my job i have worked mostly in car sales and have recently started to work for myself. I buy a tired car and then clean up. I started last year buying an orbital buff and using T-Cut and autoglym tried to get the best results possible. I tried and i tried but i eventually gave up with the orbital and bought a variable speed rotary buff. WOW i can't believe the difference using the rotary truly amazing.

I recently bought a Audi A4 from the auction that was solid black the car was a 1996 and the paint was very tired and full of scratches. I proceded to use

Farcela G3
Farcela G10
Meguiars Paint Polish
Tech Wax 2.0
Meguiars Carnuba Wax

I couldn't believe what i had produced on the paint it was that good i went to see the previous owner of the car who owned a car garage. He couldn't believe it and i am now working for him two days a week and i have done now most of my neighbours cars all down to the audi. (i will post pictured of the paint after this).

I am now going to step it up a gear and open a trade account with Meguiars UK. As i am spending a fortune just now on material.

I need to know what material to buy to create the ultimate shine as the more amazing the job the more work i will get.

Please Help as i have recieved the Mirror Glaze catalogue through the post and there seems to be a vast choice so please steer me in the right direction and tell me what products to use from abrasive to the best shine on both solid paints and clear coats. I know this sounds vaigue but if i know from worst case senario to the best i will find the difference inbetween.

Thanks Again

Paul
Scotland.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Consumer to Professional Please Help?

Hi Paul,

If you're going to get into detailing more in-depth, here's a suggestion from page of this thread...


From page 10

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23614&page=10

First this post by Junebug,

Hey, I'm not really active over here on MOL but I do like to check in and see the cool stuff. On other Detailing Forums there doesn't seem to be as much appreciation for the shops that do fast/production-line like details, but I beg to differ. I detail on the side and after 2 years of trying and buying the pricey flavor of the month boutique brands and working my middle-aged butt off for 10 bucks (or less) a hour - I had one of those "My Name is Earl" moments.

I realized that 90% of my customers just want a clean shiney car - that I can get with either 21 or 26 or if they want, 21 topped with 26. Also, what's the point of doing multiple step paint correction on a 10 year old Toyota with 150K miles that the guy takes to the coin wash every 6 months.

This 151 sounds like exactly what I've been needing for a long time. I'll still have my high dollar stuff for the few customers that really care and APPRECIATE my work, sure could stand a few more of them.

Ya'll hurry up and stock those shelves, May only has a few days left.

Then my reply,

You nailed it. Too many people don't understand that the average person just wants a shiny car, not a show car, at least they don't want to pay for show car results and they're not going to do the work it takes to maintain a show car finish.

Evaluate the customer first, then the paint. Don't sell show car detailing work to a person using their car as a daily driver. Understanding this is key to making your customer happy as well as you, not too mention it will keep you from burning out.

Point being is to be careful you match your services to what your customer's actually want. This will then help you to determine which products to stock to manage your detailing work.

Not sure what's available through Meguiar's U.K. but we'll try to find out as that would make it easier to make product recommendations.

Is there a website address from any particular distributor you're going to be purchasing through?

[Conceptpaul]

Re: Consumer to Professional Please Help?

Thanks for the reply Mike and i understand what you are saying fully.

For the car garage i am working for i am looking for a good result with that will be attractive to potential buyers so quick turn around with maximum results

The results i am looking for for my own clients are results of a very high standard and when i am producing the results then people will pay for the service.

Only recently i have found that i am going a bit over the score with with some of my jobs but on other occasions i am looking for more.

I have full access to your Proffesional range and i am considering buying the following

M84
M83
M7
M21
and for a quick going over M135

Will this cover most of my requirements or do i need a harder cutting compound for the really bad jobs?

Thank you for your time.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Consumer to Professional Please Help?

I have full access to your Professional range and i am considering buying the following

M84
M83
M7
M21
and for a quick going over M135

Will this cover most of my requirements or do i need a harder cutting compound for the really bad jobs?

Thank you for your time.

M84 with both wool pads and foam cutting pads will tackle most jobs, whatever M84 won't tackle is usually deep enough you want to let it go anyways.

On a personal note, I actually like M84 with a small foam cutting pad for most detail work and then follow this with M83 with a foam polishing pad. Again whatever defects are left after this process are usually deep enough that even if a more aggressive compound were available you probably don't want to remove that much pant anyways.

Just because you can completely remove a defect doesn't mean you should completely remove a defect as you don't want to remove too much film-build as you're customer is going to want their car's paint to last over the service life of the car.

That combination should work well for most job you get, a lighter cleaner/polish or a strong cleaner wax would also be good for your arsenal, such as M80, or one of these M82 or M09, and for a cleaner/wax M66 if you can get it or even ColorX

In the future if possible you would like M105 or our new D151, both are phenomenal products and a must have when you can get them.

[Conceptpaul]

Re: Consumer to Professional Please Help?

I really appriciate the time and effort on answering my questions as this will make me more confident i am taking the right steps.

After Using M66 if i want to go all out can i then use M07 and then M21 or having been reading the forum i understand that M07 is a oil product and doesn't dry so that should be my final coat. So is having both of these a waste of time do you think that M07 or M21 is enough?

Also your M135 product will that be good for using after a weekly wash?

Thank you for your help again.

Paul.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Consumer to Professional Please Help?

After Using M66 if i want to go all out can i then use M07 and then M21 or having been reading the forum i understand that M07 is a oil product and doesn't dry so that should be my final coat. So is having both of these a waste of time do you think that M07 or M21 is enough?

If you're working on a clear coat finish, then after the M66 if you want, apply a thin, well worked coat of M21 and skip the M07

Also your M135 product will that be good for using after a weekly wash?

Thank you for your help again.

Paul.

You betcha!

Get a gallon of it as you're going to love this product.