A little of my background:

Author: Dan

After high school, I landed a job detailing cars at one of the local shops. I received a bit of satisfaction from seeing an individual bring their car in for a detail. The looks on some of their faces when they get their vehicle back from you and say, man; I haven’t seen it that clean since I bought it. Most of our shops business was from the area dealerships used car departments. While working there I had to work a few weeks at every station, when they realized I had run a high speed before I stayed at that station the rest of the time.
Trying to make extra money on the weekends, I started asking friends and family if they needed their cars exterior detailed. I never was a fan of detailing the interior of a car although I could do it, considering the shop I worked at, (which had some of the best car wash equipment around in the early 90’s), made me rotate positions at first to see what others have to do and kind of where you fit in.

I saved up my money and bought a Milwaukee 2800 rpm polisher, the same that I used at work, and an orbital polisher from sears. It wasn’t long before I had small clientele and had at least few cars every weekend to polish if I chose to. This was before the mobile auto detailing craze and I could make an extra $150 to $200 in just a few hours on the weekend. Although I did have to ask my customers for water and electricity, since I had no on-board generator or holding tanks like someone who owns a mobile auto detailing company, but I never had anyone think twice about it. The problem would be if you wanted to target a larger customer base, being able to detail cars right in the parking lot at someone’s office. This makes it very convenient for the customer and very powerful for the detailer.
My mobile auto detailing setup:
I cleaned cars out of the back of an old 76 Chevrolet Monza for some years in my free time. It was a hatchback and I could put everything I needed back there. Then I landed a good job pipe-fitting. This is when I no longer had time to take care of my few loyal customers and wound up recommending them to a friend.

Regrets, Well,,, I don’t know -  I can say I really enjoy detailing someone’s car and seeing them look at the car the first time. Especially white vehicles; there are some tricks to make someone think you painted their car if it’s white. I just wash it with degreaser, it just strips it clean and doesn’t streak like on other colors. Of course there still is all of the polishing and waxing still to do after this.

Stages at a detail shop:

1.   Pressure washing area:

When the car first arrives at the detail shop it goes straight to the car wash area. Here they use industrial strength degreasers and a mild acid to clean the wheels, tires, engine, floor mats, and anything else that can be cleaned with water. The car is scrubbed with a long handle car wash brush to remove any dirt and road grime. This is an important step in the detailing process. Bugs, for instance stuck on the front of a car are much easier to remove using water and a little elbow grease than with any polishers or compounds.

2.  Engine Compartment:

When cleaning the engine compartment with a pressure washer there are precautions to take. Try not to spray high pressure water right at plug wires or distributor cap as this will cause the car not to crank until the electrical system is all dried out.
Normally, we would make sure the engine was running when washing an engine. So, make sure the engine is cool and crank the car, then spray the engine compartment with degreaser taking care not to overspray any on the cars finish, purple power or super clean will work great. Let soak 30 seconds or so and spray off. Make sure to rinse the fenders and front end often so the degreaser does not streak the paint which will be difficult to polish out.

3.  Polishing station:

We first look over the car for any tree sap, road tar, or gum or anything stuck to the finish water did not remove. We can use a variety of products to remove these type things, but for do it yourself; plain old gasoline on a rag will remove most tar, tree sap and sticky things. If the cars finish feels rough to the touch, it is possible it has some over-spray on the finish. You can get over-spray from numerous places. Maybe they are painting a water tower near your office or there is new construction of a building or high rise where you parked your car. This can be removed using a clay bar before we polish the car. It is not absolutely necessary to clay it first, but it will make the polishing process easier and less steps since you will not have to polish off the over-spray first.

4. Polishing:

Once we have the cars finish cleaned of any foreign substances we can precede with polishing. We do polish each and every panel on the car the first go around, but with the more abrasive polish, we want to remove scratches and any faded areas. The final polishing steps will take care of anything else. We use a glazing compound next, which is designed to remove swirl marks.

5.  Interior station:

We had a crew that specialized in interiors. The cars carpet, seats and any cloth on the door panels are all cleaned using a high pressure water injection and extraction machine. It is really a pressure washer nozzle in the head of a very powerful vacuum cleaner. This will clean fabric with plain water that is hard to believe until you see it in action. Then they actually wet down the dash with a mild degreaser and using special brushes, compressed air, and towels they are able to clean every nook and cranny and dress it out to look brand new. When the interior is complete, the windows are cleaned last with special emphasis on the rear views. Can you imagine getting in your clean car and looking in the doors rear view covered in wax? It’s easy to miss believe it or not.

6.  Final waxing and wipe down:

The last step at the detail shop was to remove any swirl marks or fine scratches from polishing and a good coat of wax or sealer. We used an orbital polisher and special paint sealers and glazing polish for this. Next is a good wipe down, we wipe all door jams, gas door, hood, trunk, and using a detail brush we gently sweep away any wax from the trim, or emblems on the car. At this station we also, paint the wheel wells black, and spray a clear coating on the engine to give it that shiny new look. We also put dressing on the tires and any other rubber on the car to give it that shiny new tire shine. We then would park them outside in the sun and have a look at them to make sure it was swirl free and that we hadn’t missed any wax or any dressing that may have gotten on the finish.

General information:

Using a high speed polisher takes a little practice. If you are not familiar with using one, I suggest practicing on an older car that will not be detrimental if you burn it. When I say burn, this is when the pad digs in or gets hung up and grinds the paint down to the primer or metal. If the pad gets too saturated in compound it makes it easier to burn one. So using a small amount of polish at a time to do only small areas at a time and this will help keep the pad dry and make burning less likely. You will notice the compound starts to powder when the pad is running good. Keep a pad cleaning spur handy, this help fluff it and keep it dry.