Earliest memory detailing a car

craigdt said:
My earliest memory of detailing is scrubbing my parents first ever brand new car.

Be 5.
Love shiny new red car.
Want to help mom.
Scrub new car with wire brush.
Just trying to help.jpg


She is still mad at me about that :D
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:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: I can't imagine what I would do if I had a kid that did that
 
Eldorado2k said:
My dad found this polaroid of me washing their Datsun way back when I was about 3-4 yrs. old. Just look at how shiny I left moms car!😃

View attachment 41440
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Cool picture. I love old photos. wish my parents would have taken more when we were younger. I Like how your vintage Polaroid looks just like the "instant" effect in iPhone's photo edit.
 
NextLevelDtail said:
You wanna know what's sad?

Is special moments like that in our life when we were younger we didn't think they were so special.

Looking back at my childhood stuff that I thought was normal or boring, turns out to be some of my best memories.

It's really odd what age does to you.
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You're right.

Things I took away from that day was spending time with my Dad, learning how to wax the car, a beautiful sunny afternoon, and my Mom and Grandma making dinner for all of us.

On some degree I savored so many moments as a kid, as I do now. In that respect I'm fortunate that I knew to do that.
 
The good old days of time spent in the shade with my blue tin of Rainx car wax. Such good times !!!!

Sent from my KFFOWI using Tapatalk
 
charlesatlas said:
This was in the early 60s or late 50s...you used Simoniz wax as I helped my father and you did one panel at a time and it took hours just for one panel..not sure how long it lasted but from the work involved it should have lasted for one lifetime.
For windows we used glasswax which is still the best and easiest method for clean streak free windows.
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It was indeed Simoniz, thank you for that. I don't know why I thought it started with a "P". Maybe 'cause it was a Pisser trying to get it off!
 
dlc95 said:
You're right.

Things I took away from that day was spending time with my Dad, learning how to wax the car, a beautiful sunny afternoon, and my Mom and Grandma making dinner for all of us.

On some degree I savored so many moments as a kid, as I do now. In that respect I'm fortunate that I knew to do that.
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The older I get the more I appreciate the smaller more mundane
things in life. Spending time with family and playing with my kids. Just like you, sitting down with my family and eating dinner every night. Things some take for granted, i seem to enjoy these moments more and more as I get older.
 
Probably this!

296477267.jpg


Dad bought this '73 Nova new. Loved that car. Sold it in '80 when I was 11. Cried when it left! 350 4 speed and positrac.
 
Getting my parents 1994 dodge grand caravan and going to walmart to get some armor all. I was so excited and proud of how great I was taking care of my car.
 
Pats300zx said:
The good old days of time spent in the shade with my blue tin of Rainx car wax. Such good times !!!!

Sent from my KFFOWI using Tapatalk
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Wow, that reminds me of when I lived at home, with my first car. We didn't have a garage, so after a washing, I'd drive to this church that had a large parking lot. Along the edges of the lot were trees, which provided much shade. I'd have a cooler of beer, the windows down and the radio on. A nice, relaxing afternoon (a weekday, of course).
 
LEDetailing said:
Cool picture. I love old photos. wish my parents would have taken more when we were younger. I Like how your vintage Polaroid looks just like the "instant" effect in iPhone's photo edit.
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Thanks👍🏽 And yea you're totally right about the way those old pics naturally look.. I hadn't thought about it like that until now.
I trip out on the 2 other cars across the street, it seems like everyone drove a little Datsun or similar car back then. Lol.

My final memories of that car was 1 day my mom came home from work and she said a warehouse nearby to where she worked had somekind of big explosion. And when that happened, a huge amount of chemical or paint came down like overspray over what must've been maybe a few acres of land. From that day forward that car had little specs of black paint all over it. Just imagine overspray from hell... It's too bad clay wasn't around or my little self might've been able to do something about it. Lmao.

Totally ruined the car when that happened... Smh.

@AllenK. Cool picture!👍🏽 It's crazy how these pictures have physically been around for 34 - almost 40yrs!😛 Wow how bout that to make us feel a little old😏lol.
 
@AllenK. Cool picture!���� It's crazy how these pictures have physically been around for 34 - almost 40yrs!�� Wow how bout that to make us feel a little old��lol
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Yup! Turned 46 in October! Still try to act young,and I don't really look that old. My back feels 46 though. You can't be Superman forever! I have some more pics of that car,and also the '67 Chevelle he had before the Nova. The Chevelle jumped out of gear,and rolled down a steep embankment at a shopping center here. Totalled it.
Seriously beautiful car. That is why he wound up with the 'new 73 Nova SS.

I am 100 percent sure my Dad still has those spray bottles in the picture. We used Bleche White to clean tires,and Turtle Wax car wash. No telling how many brain cells the Bleche White killed especially if it was windy out. I grew up on Turtle Wax. I thought I was something when I went to using Rain Dance!!
 
I remember waxing my dads car which was a maroon 1946 Dodge. We lived on a major street and I was not alowed to go on the drivers side for fear that I would get hit by a passing car I always washed my dads car on the one side . It must have seemed funny to have my dads car clean and shinny on one side. Back then I used Simonize and cheese cloth. Even half of the windsheiled was cleaned.
 
8-10 years old washing mom and dads vehicles. My job was always to use the shop vac. That turned into a vacuum addiction (love doing it)

the best and most vivid memory is when i was 15 and just bought my truck, which i still have


Ill never forget, when i got it home, my aunt/uncle and my cousins were going to the local amusement park for the day....and they invited me and my brother to go along

he went and i stayed home. My mom asked me "why didnt you want to go?'

my response was "I want to clean my truck" (at this point it was home for probably 12 hours or so, i got it home late the night before)

I spent the entire next day...i mean 7am to 11 pm working on my truck. I pulled the seats to clean the carpets...i did the tires, wheels, wheel wells, engine, wash, wax, frame etc....(like a 15 year old would with his new truck)

I remember having that thing so clean....I used Armour All on the inside of the fan shroud :buffing:

I used WD-40 on the frame with a old rag.....(which i still do) so my frame was black and shiny


Still have the truck, it sits now and i drive it about 1000 miles a year....just during the summer (see profile pic)


that day i spent out in the barn cleaning, started a addiction to clean vehicles.....


My truck was always the cleanest in high school. Everyone else beat the crap out of theirs, I babied mine....and still do
 
AllenK said:
Yup! Turned 46 in October! Still try to act young,and I don't really look that old. My back feels 46 though. You can't be Superman forever! I have some more pics of that car,and also the '67 Chevelle he had before the Nova. The Chevelle jumped out of gear,and rolled down a steep embankment at a shopping center here. Totalled it.
Seriously beautiful car. That is why he wound up with the 'new 73 Nova SS.

I am 100 percent sure my Dad still has those spray bottles in the picture. We used Bleche White to clean tires,and Turtle Wax car wash. No telling how many brain cells the Bleche White killed especially if it was windy out. I grew up on Turtle Wax. I thought I was something when I went to using Rain Dance!!
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I remember that stuff!!! do they even make it anymore

I remember it worked great, but it was a pain to remove
 
Dang, Eldo and Allen...you's good looking as kids!
 
My dad drove an 18 wheeler as a career. He always loved keeping his trucks clean and waxed. There are pictures of me helping very young, and I remember helping as well. I ended up learning young from a local guy that did them and graduated to detailing my dad`s friends show trucks. Those along with automobiles helped put me through college.
 
I had an uncle who did body repair. In my preteen years, I'd help him with a weekend paint job. I'd do some of the taping, then while he was shooting paint, I'd sit on a milk crate with a can of Dupont #7 compound and polish the pile of chrome we took off.
In '71, I bought a totalled '67 Malibu. After hanging new front sheet metal, he shot the previously white car with the new bronze paint I chose, followed by clear lacquer. Not trusting me with a rotary, he gave me some pointers on color sanding and more Dupont compound. I hand-rubbed the whole car after wet sanding with 600. Just typing it makes my shoulder hurt! I was told not to wax it for at least three months, so I went to my local paint supplier and asked what kind of polish I could use. They sold me a bottle of Meguiar's #7 and it came out pretty well.
67Chevelleafter-1.jpg

45 years later, I'm still using the same stuff on single stage paint!

Bill
 
It was around 1965 with my dad, working on his 1964 Oldsmobile dynamic 98 in Black and white interior. I wax my first car after my first wash. Great time with him.
 
I started detailing at age 12.
I use to spend my allowance on the few products they offered to detail my families cars.
Now 52 years old and own a detail shop.

Wouldn't have it any other way.
 
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