Newbie from Pittsburgh...

MattGraf

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What's up all. My name is Matt (go figure from my username,) I'm 32 and live in the south hills of Pittsburgh. I am an avid car enthusiast and "driveway detailer," I've been a car guy my whole life and have been into novice detailing for about 15 years. Recently I have been toying with the idea of turning this hobby into a way to earn a living, I have been doing small side jobs for friends/family for years and have been increasingly more interested in going into business for myself and getting away from my 9-5 gig...now, I make a comfortable living so it's not an easy decision...thankfully my better half is quite successful which allows me more of an opportunity to take a risk.

Anyway, long story short, I was searching for tips on how to make money detailing and it led me to this site. Needless to say, I was immediately hooked. I've been lurking for about a week and decided to introduce myself as I plan to be around for a while and will soon be making a purchase from autogeek. This website has been humbling, overwhelming and encouraging. I learned that I am probably not as good of a detailer as I thought I was lol, I learned that there are countless products out there to choose from and I was also encouraged by the fact that with proper research, the right products and the right technique that I can substansially improve my detailing skills and ultimately reach my goal of cornering a market of high end and exotic cars. My current fleet of cars consists of a 2013 Hyundai Sonata limited turbo (my toy) a 2013 Acura ilx (her daily driver) a 2006 Hummer H3 (everyone needs an suv) and a $600 1998 cavalier (my winter beater.) The sonata and ilx are new and have been hit with collinite 845, neither requires any correction at this time. I put a coat of colly on the Hummer today but will be doing a correction on that when the weather breaks and the cavalier, well......it's actually not bad for a 15 year old car with 163k miles and will most likely be my guinea pig and also display car to showcase how well certain products perform.

I have to say, my entire life people have thought I was crazy because I actually thoroughly enjoy detailing cars and my cars are always clean...I can't believe there is an entire online community of people who are just like me haha it is great to know and I'm happy to have found this site!
 
Thanks everyone! I have a bunch of pics of my sonata and I took a few of the Acura on Saturday after the 2nd coat of colly, I also took some of the hummer yesterday after a fresh coat of collinite. I dom have a good camera though, just the old iPhone cam so it's hard to capture fine details. The hummer was purchased pre owned and the dealer "detailed" it, surprisingly there aren't any buffer trails visible (probably because I have so much wax on it) but it's far from perfect (they used a rotary) so that will be my first attempt at correction in the spring. I'll try to capture pics of the process, I'm excited and can't wait for my products to arrive and the weather to break.
 
PS: the hummer is black so that should be fun, at least it will allow me to gain experience real quick with the color and size of it. I've used rotarys for years in production type details but the DA for correction is new to me.
 
Welcome to the group. I'm about 2 hours south during the week so if you need an extra hand just let me know. :)
 
Welcome to AGO, i live about 30-40 minutes away from you! I own and operate my detail shop in Monaca, fixed location and mobile. If you ever need a hand or have a question feel free to ask!
 
Ryan: thanks man, I am a pretty experienced detailer and have rotary experience but after finding this site I'm more interested in learning to correct with a DA. If I have any questions I'll definitely shoot them your way, I am really really getting anxious to start my business and get away from the daily grind to do something I love, perhaps one day I can come check out your shop and get some tips and tricks.

Waxoff: where exactly do you live? I'm in South Park and work in bethel.
 
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