HHR Panel for Mobile Detailing unit?

[mrclean]

Great job and congrats! I'm curious how you learned this trade?

thanks bud, well i started out with my dad.. he was into detailing a while ago.. but he only did it as a hobby. but i was always around to help for the sunday washes and waxes. just last year i took it to the next level. started out by doing my car, my moms car, my dads truck, friends and family.. attended a couple of mike's thursday night open garage sessions.. alot of autogeek forum, alot of you tube.. you pick stuff up from different people and throw it into your mix.

 

[mrclean]

hello guys, truly blessed and business has been good as of lately. here are some of the cars ive detailed.

i also applied opti-coat to the hhr and i love the way it looks.

these 3 mustangs owners contact me to have their mustangs detailed for the miami's tropical park 50th anniversary mustang car show.

this red svt cobra got a engine detail aswell.

1967 stang.. boy doe it roar..

beautiful 2012 shelby cobra.

same shelby, engine detail. gt500 cobra

this bmw customer got a hold of me thru facebook groups.

did his interior too.. seems like interior is where the money is at. been doing alot of those lately.

wax magic on this benz.

the owner of this stunning 2014 licoln mkz got a hold of me thru yelp.

rupes has been a time saver. i did a paint correction on this scion tc in 2 hours.

 

[FrankS]

Beautiful work Josue, what are using for tire dressing and what type of extractor are you using for the interiors?

 

[thebamboo23]

Awesome photos!!

Post up some interior pics again

 

[mrclean]

Beautiful work Josue, what are using for tire dressing and what type of extractor are you using for the interiors?

frank, thank you so much for always checking out my work. really means alot :xyxthumbs:
im using Optimum Opti-Bond Tire Gel for tire dressing.. it goes on really well and the shine is great. i also use it for trim too.
as for the extractor, i dont have nothing fancy for now..i have the bissell little green giant..this one



i will definitely upgrade in the near future, but i must say i have cleaned up beat up interiors quite well with that little guy. i feel its more on the technique rather than the equipment. vacuum first, spray your upholstery/carpet cleaner, either manually agitate with a upholstery interior brush, or use the pc with upholstery brush attachment, blot with terry cloth towels, extract with extractor. voila.
for heavy stains, i will use the steamer.

this is the product i was talking about last time we spoke on the phone.



i get it really cheap, and its legit good. and leaves the car smelling good too. lathers up good, and removes stains effortlessly . im not sure if a lot of guys on here use it.. but this is all i use, instead of folex. not saying folex isnt good.. but for the $, i can buy like 8 gallons of my stuff per 1 gallon of folex.

Awesome photos!!

Post up some interior pics again

thanks for checking out the pics bro, and im glad you like them.. i will look for interior pics and post them up next time!:dblthumb2:

 

[Showtime]

Wish I would have seen this two months ago. I sell mobile detailing trailers in South Florida (across the country but based out of South Florida) and would have helped you out!

Great work though! looks like you're doing well! Now stay out of Fort Lauderdale! LOL

 

[jarred767]

Hey man, Nice thread and truly inspiring work, you've made some cars look awesome! Inspires me that I need to be taking some more pictures and posting them. That minivan was nuts, I cringe every time I get a call about one (especially when I hear kids screaming in the background), as they are almost always a pain, but you made that thing look good!

I found you're thread when looking for HHR's though, and I gotta say you really made yours look really nice. I'm in the market for a new detailing rig and looking between and HHR, Element, and Scion XB right now. After having yours for over six months now, any further thoughts on how you like it (size, reliability, overall)? Thanks man!

 

[mrclean]

Hey man, Nice thread and truly inspiring work, you've made some cars look awesome! Inspires me that I need to be taking some more pictures and posting them. That minivan was nuts, I cringe every time I get a call about one (especially when I hear kids screaming in the background), as they are almost always a pain, but you made that thing look good!

I found you're thread when looking for HHR's though, and I gotta say you really made yours look really nice. I'm in the market for a new detailing rig and looking between and HHR, Element, and Scion XB right now. After having yours for over six months now, any further thoughts on how you like it (size, reliability, overall)? Thanks man!

im glad you like the hhr and i appreciate your kind words. if youre in the market for a detailing unit, definitely look into the hhr. its great for what we do. as you can see i carry all of the stuff i need for any type of detail. the car itself its great, i havent had any issues with it so far. unfortunately i was hit by an 18 wheeler in the beginning of this month and now my front end is banged up. im still fighting the insurance from the person that hit me to get it fixed.. definitely take pictures of all your details and if you can shoot videos as well. check out my instagram and see my videos. wish you the best of luckrops:

 

[jarred767]

im glad you like the hhr and i appreciate your kind words. if youre in the market for a detailing unit, definitely look into the hhr. its great for what we do. as you can see i carry all of the stuff i need for any type of detail. the car itself its great, i havent had any issues with it so far. unfortunately i was hit by an 18 wheeler in the beginning of this month and now my front end is banged up. im still fighting the insurance from the person that hit me to get it fixed.. definitely take pictures of all your details and if you can shoot videos as well. check out my instagram and see my videos. wish you the best of luckrops:

Thanks man, I appreciate the response and that's good to hear that the HHR has worked well for you. Sorry about the accident, that doesn't sound like fun at all. I'm leanin my way towards the HHR more and more, so I might steal a few setup things that you posted in this thread. Thanks again!

 

[mrclean]

Thanks man, I appreciate the response and that's good to hear that the HHR has worked well for you. Sorry about the accident, that doesn't sound like fun at all. I'm leanin my way towards the HHR more and more, so I might steal a few setup things that you posted in this thread. Thanks again!

The accident was no fun...and I hate the fact that it's in a shop. I fear the worse... paint overspray, and all of that has been going thru my head. The good thing is that it's opticoated .. fingers crossed and I should have it back by next week. I've been detailing out of a Santa fe sport that the insurance company has provided. . And I hate it. Nothing like having the hhr. I would highly suggest to by the separator or whatever you call it.. this will prevent from stuff flying to the front in case you ever brake hard or what not...another member from this forum bought a hhr panel after seeing this thread too. R3 detailing from Houston Texas is also detailing out of one and he is happy with it also. Once I Put THE lettering ON It People ALWAYS Think THAT I actually Work For A Detailing Company. It's awesome if they only knew.

 

[Sicoupe]

I've been following your thread from the beginning and just wanted to say I'm happy to see you succeeding my friend, keep up the awesome work your doing!. Kyle

 

[JWilliams.RadiantDetail]

I like this! Getting into detailing with a friend and neither has a suitable vehicle, at the moment an HHR is way out of our price range. But I love your setup, he absolutely hates HHR's, but I think if I showed him this he might come around. Maybe if we hustle in a year we could afford one of these. We don't want, or need a huge van, this seems close to perfect. At the moment I have a Saturn Sky Redline, which is maybe the worst possible car if you're trying to be a mobile detail. It's passable for rinseless washes (barely lol) I have to figure out a way to get money for a ride like yours asap. Your tails of customers falling from the sky since you got it is very inspiring lol.

 

[TopGun619]

I've been detailing semi professionally for the past two years, before that it was more of a hobby.

I currently have a 1994 Ram 1500 and it has a lot of little issues and I'm about ready to just fix a bad alternator and see what I can get for it. I have been a fan of the HHR for a while now, even before I got my current rig (I bought the truck and most of my equipment used from a guy that had been detailing over 20 years). I realized very early on that I don't need the big truck. I haven't used my truck for the past two weekends (I only do weekends now), while I wait on an alternator, I've used my daily driver an 06 Saab 93. I've done my regulars on the weekend and I use their water and just a regular hose, so I fit everything I need in a couple buckets and put my shop vac in my front seat and leaf blower in the trunk. So I now I know that I an use HHR, thanks for this thread just goes to show it works out.

I have a huge tank in my truck, but I also have a spare tank that is smaller to be honest I don't know the capacity, but I think it's 30-40 gallons that I might use. I haven't done many cars lately where I don't have access to water and occasionally I've used water-less washing but a lot of people aren't completely sold on it.

I have my eye on two HHRs right now that I might pull the trigger on, one is a full panel and the other is the one that is the partial panel. I'm leaning more towards the partial panel one in case I ever want to just take everything out and still have a backseat, otherwise the seats can just stay folded flat, I'll lose the cubbies that are built in, but I can just organize things a little different. If I go for it I'll let you know and share my setup.

One other thing...nice logo by the way, mine is similar, I designed it myself. I used to do a lot of military owned cars because I lived/worked near a military base and my logo in a way catered to that demographic.

:xyxthumbs:

 

[dwhit757]

hands down, my favorite thread on this site. I've learned a lot from your innovative approach to mobile detailing. I want to use a HHR for my detailing as well. thanks a lot for sharing your come up in great detail for us. can't wait to see what's next for you and hopefully I can share my journey (in MD) the way you have w/ the same type of success.

 

[jarred767]

hands down, my favorite thread on this site. I've learned a lot from your innovative approach to mobile detailing. I want to use a HHR for my detailing as well. thanks a lot for sharing your come up in great detail for us. can't wait to see what's next for you and hopefully I can share my journey (in MD) the way you have w/ the same type of success.

You are correct, it is a great thread, Josue is great guy and very helpful, I've asked him a few questions through this thread and a few others and he has been extremely helpful in answering them. I also took inspiration from this thread and went the route of the HHR for my mobile detailing vehicle (I started my own thread too here: http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...ew-hhr-panel-my-mobile-detailing-vehicle.html but I'm not as far along with it yet myself).

They are great cars for a small one or two-man detailing operation and in my opinion have just enough space to hold all that I need to, while still being fun to drive and much more economical than a large truck or van.

Good luck with your adventures, AG is a great site and there's a very impressive amount of beneficial info on this site!

 

[OTSDetail]

Super thread bump, but i finally just read through all of this since Jarred linked me on my own thread. This is crazy. I really want one of these now. I found an HHR SS for sale, and who (as a car guy) wouldn't want a turbo work vehicle?

 

[GSKR]

hello guys, ive been detailing on the side and using my regular car (04 honda accord) for a while and its been good. with my income tax return soon approaching i want to take it up a notch and get me a mobile unit. first, i wanted a ford transit.. seems very cheap on gas, and very roomy.. the only thing is that its pricey $10k and up..my starting up budget cant cover that. the other option i had thought about was a van. seems what everyone goes for, but im afraid of the gas mileage i can get. even with a v6 econoline. that lead me to my last choice. the hhr panel. i researched it, and it has good reviews, great on mpg..combine it gives you 30mpg rops: my only concern is the space. so i got on craiglist and checked a couple of used ones that are on sale..and i schedule to see one today. i just came back from looking at it.. and im pretty sold on it. i took a measuring tape. and these are the dimension on the cargo area. roughly its 5'-5'' long by 4'-0' wide and 2'-9'' in height. i definetly see myself putting a 50 gallon water tank, generator, vacuum, reel hose, and make a small cabinet to hold the chemicals and towels. i found one for $4400, only down side is that its a rebuilt title..the owner showed me the pics of how it looked before..and it was a rear bumper damage, the main carriage frame didnt get hit or anything. i got down there and looked, he also agreed on going with me to the chevy dealer to do a diagnostic check on the car.. and it checked out ok. here are some pics of the vehicle im tempted on getting.

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it's a 2008, has about 59k miles on it. test drove it and it runs great. my question is to you guys that own mobile units... will this be a good buy for a mobile business? hope to hear from you guys.Feed back please

No I wouldn't buy that,there is no simplicity there.The only way I would buy that Chevrolet van would be below true book value,far from retail.once you buy that truck with the title like that it will come back to haunt you.Buy a used transit .

 

[mrclean]

No I wouldn't buy that,there is no simplicity there.The only way I would buy that Chevrolet van would be below true book value,far from retail.once you buy that truck with the title like that it will come back to haunt you.Buy a used transit .

actually, it's the best investment I've made so far in my detailing career. I bought it with the intentions on keeping it for long term. Chevrolet even honor the recall that it had, even with the rebuilt title.

 

[GSKR]

actually, it's the best investment I've made so far in my detailing career. I bought it with the intentions on keeping it for long term. Chevrolet even honor the recall that it had, even with the rebuilt title.

Glad it's working out for you,how many gallons of water were you able to fit.

 

[OTSDetail]

actually, it's the best investment I've made so far in my detailing career. I bought it with the intentions on keeping it for long term. Chevrolet even honor the recall that it had, even with the rebuilt title.

I think the next investment for me needs to be a solid mobile vehicle. I feel like my business would double if not triple at least with mobile detailing.