Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 6
The reality of the 100% Hand Car Wash
Time for a little story...
I had a guy show me his black Corvette after paying a pro detailer $300.00 to buff it out and remove all the swirls and scratches and he was asking me if I thought he was within his rights to ask for his money back because just a few weeks after paying to have his Corvette detailed it was now filled with swirls and scratches again and the water wasn't beading up like it did after he first got it back.
The first thing I asked this guy was,
"How do you wash the car?"
He answered me and said,
"I run it down to the 100% Hand Car Wash"
I explained to him that while the lettering on the sign invokes the mental image of a high quality, careful hand wash to the delicate and scratch-sensitive clearcoat finish on his black Corvette that that's just a dream, not reality.
The wash mitts at a hand car wash become worn and tatty and they are dropped onto the ground all the time. They are not replaced often and chances are they are used and used and used until there's no life left in them.
So when he shows up to have his black Corvette washed it gets the same treatment the dirty Honda or Ford Escort gets and that is the source of the swirls and scratches in the paint on his Vette, not the work done by the detailer.
Take ownership of the car wash process
I then told him if he really wants to maintain a show room new finish on a black Corvette that he'll have to take ownership of the washing process or pay a professional to come to his house and wash the car like a pro.
He was saddened to hear this as he told me he just retired and in his mind that meant he didn't have to "work" any longer, work meaning washing his brand new black Corvette.
He thought, like a lot of people think, that a nice looking clear coat finish should simply hold up and always look nice no matter how it's cared for and that's not reality.
Paints have changed
Clear coat paints are scratch-sensitive, this means the tend to be harder than traditional single stage paints but still scratch and swirl easily. In order to maintain a nice looking finish a person has to be careful and use the highest quality products they can obtain anytime the paint is "touched"
Silver Metallic for people that don't want to be bothered by swirls
I recommended to him to sell the black Corvette and buy a silver metallic Corvette as it will be much harder to see the swirls and scratches in the paint and then he could continue taking the car to the 100% Hand Car Wash and be happy.
Educate your customer
On that note, I just answered two e-mails from people asking for recommendations for car detailing projects they have coming up for customers and in both cases the cars were neglected and thus filled with swirls and scratches. Both people contacting me were going to do multiple-step buff-outs to restore a show car shine.
I asked them if the owner has changed?
By this I mean, if the owners of these cars let them go so long that they are now swirled out messes, what has changed that means that the same thing won't simply happen again after these two detailers return the cars with a show car shine?
If the answer is "nothing" then I recommended that they simply do a one-step process and this would be matching their services to the owners of the cars.
Like explained here,
A few tips on starting a part-time detailing business
The point being it doesn't do the detailer any good to restore a show car finish on a car that's not going to be washed carefully. The hard work they perform won't last and chances are good the owners have unrealistic expectations in that they probably figure, like the Corvette owner above, that if they pay for a quality detail job that afterwards, something MAGICAL happens and now they can treat the car/paint any old way and it SHOULD stay looking just like the day the detailer returned the car back to them.
It doesn't work that way and it's the detailer's job to educate their customer and then match their services to their customer even if it means doing a less complicated buff-out.
The only exception to the above is if the car owner then hires the detailer to regularly maintain the car via a Maintenance Plan where only the detailer washes and waxes the car into the future.
Time for a little story...
I had a guy show me his black Corvette after paying a pro detailer $300.00 to buff it out and remove all the swirls and scratches and he was asking me if I thought he was within his rights to ask for his money back because just a few weeks after paying to have his Corvette detailed it was now filled with swirls and scratches again and the water wasn't beading up like it did after he first got it back.
The first thing I asked this guy was,
"How do you wash the car?"
He answered me and said,
"I run it down to the 100% Hand Car Wash"
I explained to him that while the lettering on the sign invokes the mental image of a high quality, careful hand wash to the delicate and scratch-sensitive clearcoat finish on his black Corvette that that's just a dream, not reality.
The wash mitts at a hand car wash become worn and tatty and they are dropped onto the ground all the time. They are not replaced often and chances are they are used and used and used until there's no life left in them.
So when he shows up to have his black Corvette washed it gets the same treatment the dirty Honda or Ford Escort gets and that is the source of the swirls and scratches in the paint on his Vette, not the work done by the detailer.
Take ownership of the car wash process
I then told him if he really wants to maintain a show room new finish on a black Corvette that he'll have to take ownership of the washing process or pay a professional to come to his house and wash the car like a pro.
He was saddened to hear this as he told me he just retired and in his mind that meant he didn't have to "work" any longer, work meaning washing his brand new black Corvette.
He thought, like a lot of people think, that a nice looking clear coat finish should simply hold up and always look nice no matter how it's cared for and that's not reality.
Paints have changed
Clear coat paints are scratch-sensitive, this means the tend to be harder than traditional single stage paints but still scratch and swirl easily. In order to maintain a nice looking finish a person has to be careful and use the highest quality products they can obtain anytime the paint is "touched"
Silver Metallic for people that don't want to be bothered by swirls
I recommended to him to sell the black Corvette and buy a silver metallic Corvette as it will be much harder to see the swirls and scratches in the paint and then he could continue taking the car to the 100% Hand Car Wash and be happy.
Educate your customer
On that note, I just answered two e-mails from people asking for recommendations for car detailing projects they have coming up for customers and in both cases the cars were neglected and thus filled with swirls and scratches. Both people contacting me were going to do multiple-step buff-outs to restore a show car shine.
I asked them if the owner has changed?
By this I mean, if the owners of these cars let them go so long that they are now swirled out messes, what has changed that means that the same thing won't simply happen again after these two detailers return the cars with a show car shine?
If the answer is "nothing" then I recommended that they simply do a one-step process and this would be matching their services to the owners of the cars.
Like explained here,
A few tips on starting a part-time detailing business
The point being it doesn't do the detailer any good to restore a show car finish on a car that's not going to be washed carefully. The hard work they perform won't last and chances are good the owners have unrealistic expectations in that they probably figure, like the Corvette owner above, that if they pay for a quality detail job that afterwards, something MAGICAL happens and now they can treat the car/paint any old way and it SHOULD stay looking just like the day the detailer returned the car back to them.
It doesn't work that way and it's the detailer's job to educate their customer and then match their services to their customer even if it means doing a less complicated buff-out.
The only exception to the above is if the car owner then hires the detailer to regularly maintain the car via a Maintenance Plan where only the detailer washes and waxes the car into the future.
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