Do you teach Friends/Family?

[HealthyCivic]

Have any of you guys taught your friends or family how to properly wash a car show-car style or how to clay or compound?

My mom (who's in her 60s) just got a new car for the first time since I've been detailing and it was kinda fun because I just showed her how to wash the car for a swirl-free finish. It's funny too because she actually cares about it a lot. I know that it's not everyone's cup of tea and not everyone even cares or wants a swirl-free finish, but she seems to understand well haha.

I actually really enjoy teaching this stuff. I'm going to be doing an informative speech in my speech class about what a clearcoat is, what swirls/scratches are, and how they are removed. I think much of it comes from me being inspired by Mike Phillips who was not only good at it, but was a great teacher.

[SHYNEMAN123]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

Great question.

I have been detailing for over 30 years and I am still learning and I have had the pleasure to teach over 2 dozen how to buff. The one dealer ship I worked for as the Asst.Body shop Mgr had a very large recon dept and the Mgr never detailed. They would get the senior employee to show the newbee's the ropes.They sold a brand new black corvette that was dealer traded from another dealership and it was a mess so the recon mgr asked for my help.
After that I would get to spend a couple of days with each newbee.

My oldest son who is now 26 was 12 years old when I let him run a rotary over his mom's car and my youngest Rudy is 6 and just starting out with the P/C DA.

[the_invisible]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

No, because if everyone has a swirl-free car, mine wouldn't stand out.

Seriously, I don't think car care is everybody's cup of tea. Quite frankly I hate detailing. I think claying is a pain in the butt, and swirl removal via compound is painstaking. The reason I am into detailing is that I want to try something new, and master it at an amateur level. I have successfully built a couple of auto-x cars and 400hp engines from scratch in my own garage. Detailing is another challenge I wanted to undertake before I die. Eventually my will to operate a rotary will die, and my cars will become swirled up again when I find another challenge to undertake. But until then I think I like the results produced by the makita, M205, and a finishing pad!

Frank, I never knew Rudy has an older brother!!! At least you do not have a wide generation gap between you and your oldest! My oldest son is 25

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

I have taught my daughters the basics. They seemed appreciative.

What I find funny is that when they come over to visit, they will have some type of story about a car they seen with swirls, clear coat failure etc.

[SHYNEMAN123]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

No, because if everyone has a swirl-free car, mine wouldn't stand out.

Seriously, I don't think car care is everybody's cup of tea. Quite frankly I hate detailing. I think claying is a pain in the butt, and swirl removal via compound is painstaking. The reason I am into detailing is that I want to try something new, and master it at an amateur level. I have successfully built a couple of auto-x cars and 400hp engines from scratch in my own garage. Detailing is another challenge I wanted to undertake before I die. Eventually my will to operate a rotary will die, and my cars will become swirled up again when I find another challenge to undertake. But until then I think I like the results produced by the makita, M205, and a finishing pad!

Frank, I never knew Rudy has an older brother!!! At least you do not have a wide generation gap between you and your oldest! My oldest son is 25

Yep I thought I was way done with little ones until the first Christmas with my girlfriend ( now wife of 7 yrs) and her 2 daughter's when I bought each of them a set of matchbox cars and the girls were 7 & 9.

She found out I was just a big kid and how much I love kids.

[tcope1]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

While this might be different then "teaching", I have learned not to push detailing on any of my friends. I have tried to point out things like micromaring and it seems to me like they don't really care about the small scratches. I also have tried to show them how to correctly wash a car and they think I'm a little crazy (might have been the two buckets and the leaf blower used to dry). I did some paint correction and plastic treatment on my friends 12 year old Land Rover. He thought I was crazy as I spend about 18 hours over 3 days to do just the exterior.

[Jossy92]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

I haven't taught, but I have shown several friends my Megs collection and shared what I have learned on this forum.

Actually, I guess I do teach: Last week I spent 5 hours on a lady friend's SUV. I taught her that a hot looking blond can get me to work on her car.

Very greatful for what I have learned here.

[SHYNEMAN123]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

Be very careful that is how I met my wife she wrecked her van and the shop her insurance company told her to take to gave her the run around and it ended up at my shop.

She saved her $500.00 deductible
got a 10 disc cd changer, compliments of the MGR> ( ME)
a full detail
carpet repaired and redyed.
1 year engagement with diamond
A baby boy
A new house
A pool
A dog



But she was worth every penny

[the_invisible]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

Be very careful that is how I met my wife she wrecked her van and the shop her insurance company told her to take to gave her the run around and it ended up at my shop.

She saved her $500.00 deductible
got a 10 disc cd changer, compliments of the MGR> ( ME)
a full detail
carpet repaired and redyed.
1 year engagement with diamond
A baby boy
A new house
A pool
A dog



But she was worth every penny

Interesting!!!

I will show this trick to my friends who are still single...

[scott0999]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

I've introduced a few of my friends to the grit guard. we had a small grit guard group buy actually lol

also shown them the claying, paint thickness gauge, compounding/polishing/waxing

I like teaching it but theres no way they can learn in a few hours what I've spent countless hours reading on here

[Zeta Detail]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

theres no way they can learn in a few hours what I've spent countless hours reading on here

Yeah, but on the other hand it's a lot faster and easier to learn from hands-on experience and seeing someone who's experienced do it.

I really enjoy teaching others how to detail. Last month I went with my friend to a pressure wash and we washed her new car using TBM, good Meg's soap, a wash mitt and a drying towel. I taught her how to do things properly. She was quite surprised to learn that you need to dry the car! She was very happy with the results, and I showed her how you can actually save money by taking the car to the self-service pressure wash rather than to the automatic brushes car wash. I also tried to convince her that washing the car by hand is fun and rewarding.

... But, as the Invisible said, I guess it wasn't her cup of tea. She probably thought that it was too much work and she's not following my advice.

Most people still think that an old sponge and dish washing detergent is a perfectly good way to wash a car. My dad actually looks down on me for having this detailing hobby and he purposefully ignores my advices.

[KC's]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

Yupp
the whole point of my detailing is to help people to recognized paint problems & educating them how to over come......many of my friend find me 'long winded' (aka boring)

many came back telling me, they showed off their rides to their friends & able identified problems with others rides...

i was happy when i detail the 8 yr CRV, when his friends showed to him, his new(2nd hand) 5 series....he's swift to point out the swirls... :-)

[the_invisible]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

Yeah, having others point out other people's paint problems is good for business.

[Jossy92]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

Be very careful that is how I met my wife ...

I will keep that in mind. Speaking of married, I got one of my friends interested in Megs. She wound up spending all day detailing her car and it looked great: Gold Class, Clay, QD, NXT, M40 and some other stuff.

A week later, her hubby decided to surprise her by washing her car with laundry soap.

Liquid scented laundry soap? Naw. Perfume free liquid laundry soap? Nope? He used powdered laundry detergent.

I helped her get rid of the body.

[john m.]

Re: Do you teach Friends/Family?

Sure, ive taught my parents about the defects, spotting them, how to remove them ect. Heck, my dad will point out the swirls in cars and such

However, they arent into doing the work themselves but they are good at spreading the word that ill do peoples cars