AutoHeed
New member
- Jan 16, 2013
- 100
- 0
Hi autogeek,
I am Marcel from Jakarta, Indonesia. I've been a silent reader for almost a year. I studied International Relations in Holland and now am working in the Embassy of Belgium in Indonesia. Recently I found that car detailing has been my passion.
In September 2012 I decided to take my passion/hobby to a part time business. Call it Autoheed. Catchy. Not used elsewhere.
Since then, I've been getting quite a lot of 'orders' and every car always provides new knowledge. From the extremely easy job to 'i am sorry that I can't do anymore about your car, sir'
I have been collecting the tools and chems from time to time. Testing and experiencing every combination of pads, brush, arm movement, section pass, wax, etc along the way.
Buying detailing stuffs here is relatively no sweaty job. Meguiars, mothers, collinite, carpro, menzerna, autofinesse, blackfire, armor all and turtle wax arepretty common here. Abit of forum search and you can find them. The hardware though is another thing. Detailing brush, wheel brush (daytona like), DA polisher and pads require more individual import from outside the country.
I have Meg's DA 220v2, flexipads mf pad, LC CCS pad, LC flat pad, cheap wheel brush (sometimes i use baby bottle brush), detailing brush (modified paint brush lol) and tons of microfibers. For chems, i have megs, sonax, mothers, blackfire, carpro, autofinesse and armor all. Not bad for starter i think.
Special hello to Mike Phillips and Nick as the 'ancient ones' of detailing and this forum. Hello too to other professional detailers that have achieved stunnning and jaw dropping result. Thanks for taking time to share your hard work so everyone can grow and learn.
A little bit background of typical car owner and car wash business in Indonesia. Car wash is everywhere. It is a mushrooming business. Literally every minute driving, you will find it. They use 1 sponge per person for every car from open till close. Imagine that. The price is around 2 bucks. There are also some that use meguiars products+wax and bla bla bla. But the product itself won't prevent scratches. I'm not degrading someone else's business buT the fact is just that.
The number of motorcycles and public transport here is humongously tremendous. They drive like a madafaka and wont even bother to brake. Not careful and thoughtful at all. That is why some car owners just won't bother to have their car properly detailed. They don't even know the difference of swirls and squirrel lol.
Furthermore, the number of hack detailers are so high. They put price so low that it kinda kills the good intention business like us.
This baffles me much. But thanks to the forum, I've been setting up goals and improving a lot.
Okay, enough chitty chat. I am going to detail a 2009 black E200 Kompressor this weekend. It is going to be a one-step correction and interior detailing. I reckon that Benz paint is hard and I'm planning to use MF cutting pad with either Fixer or Mothers Pure Polish. Megs UC will be too agressive and needs further polishing i suppose. The price is agreed at the one step process. What is your suggestion? The owner said that he is a perfectionist and would like to have his creme colored interior vaccuumed and be stain-free. Do I need a steamer for this? I usually spray, let it sit and brush and wipe away. Usually works for me.
Thank you guys for spending time to read and comment this. I really appreciate it.
Marcel @ AutoHeed
I am Marcel from Jakarta, Indonesia. I've been a silent reader for almost a year. I studied International Relations in Holland and now am working in the Embassy of Belgium in Indonesia. Recently I found that car detailing has been my passion.
In September 2012 I decided to take my passion/hobby to a part time business. Call it Autoheed. Catchy. Not used elsewhere.
Since then, I've been getting quite a lot of 'orders' and every car always provides new knowledge. From the extremely easy job to 'i am sorry that I can't do anymore about your car, sir'
I have been collecting the tools and chems from time to time. Testing and experiencing every combination of pads, brush, arm movement, section pass, wax, etc along the way.
Buying detailing stuffs here is relatively no sweaty job. Meguiars, mothers, collinite, carpro, menzerna, autofinesse, blackfire, armor all and turtle wax arepretty common here. Abit of forum search and you can find them. The hardware though is another thing. Detailing brush, wheel brush (daytona like), DA polisher and pads require more individual import from outside the country.
I have Meg's DA 220v2, flexipads mf pad, LC CCS pad, LC flat pad, cheap wheel brush (sometimes i use baby bottle brush), detailing brush (modified paint brush lol) and tons of microfibers. For chems, i have megs, sonax, mothers, blackfire, carpro, autofinesse and armor all. Not bad for starter i think.
Special hello to Mike Phillips and Nick as the 'ancient ones' of detailing and this forum. Hello too to other professional detailers that have achieved stunnning and jaw dropping result. Thanks for taking time to share your hard work so everyone can grow and learn.
A little bit background of typical car owner and car wash business in Indonesia. Car wash is everywhere. It is a mushrooming business. Literally every minute driving, you will find it. They use 1 sponge per person for every car from open till close. Imagine that. The price is around 2 bucks. There are also some that use meguiars products+wax and bla bla bla. But the product itself won't prevent scratches. I'm not degrading someone else's business buT the fact is just that.
The number of motorcycles and public transport here is humongously tremendous. They drive like a madafaka and wont even bother to brake. Not careful and thoughtful at all. That is why some car owners just won't bother to have their car properly detailed. They don't even know the difference of swirls and squirrel lol.
Furthermore, the number of hack detailers are so high. They put price so low that it kinda kills the good intention business like us.
This baffles me much. But thanks to the forum, I've been setting up goals and improving a lot.
Okay, enough chitty chat. I am going to detail a 2009 black E200 Kompressor this weekend. It is going to be a one-step correction and interior detailing. I reckon that Benz paint is hard and I'm planning to use MF cutting pad with either Fixer or Mothers Pure Polish. Megs UC will be too agressive and needs further polishing i suppose. The price is agreed at the one step process. What is your suggestion? The owner said that he is a perfectionist and would like to have his creme colored interior vaccuumed and be stain-free. Do I need a steamer for this? I usually spray, let it sit and brush and wipe away. Usually works for me.
Thank you guys for spending time to read and comment this. I really appreciate it.
Marcel @ AutoHeed
