What is a detail?

pig9.jpg
 
Wow, I leave for a few hours and come back to this? LOL!!!

Anyway...

THENIZZZEIL said:
hey mike thats a nice layout on your site....do you pay someone for your webdesign or is there templates out there?
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Were you talking to me (hard to tell with all the drama going on..hehe) If so, thanks for the compliment. Just today, the website is finally 100% (at least, I hope we're done...still need to double check everything thoroughly). After firing our first web guy, we've been working with our new guy for the last couple weeks hammering it out to get it done. The guy did a great job IMO.

My wife is a graphic designer so she came up with the design and layout for the site and we paid some one else to do the hosting and the production of the site (no template). Again, thanks for the compliment!
 
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To me a, a "detail" is bringing back a vehicle's original assembly line appearance and then enhancing it. By this I mean bringing the finish to a mirror and treating all rubber and leather for protection. There is not a certain number of steps since every vehicle is in a different state of condition.
 
by useing glazes and all in one waxes . those are cheap clean up jobs .they do those by me for 135 bucks. they look great intill it rains and all the glaze runs off and the swirls reapear.
 
ASPHALT ROCKET said:
Then you should, I believe proper POLISHING would remove the swirls when done correctly, so there is your swirl removal part of the process.
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:iagree:If you're going to polish and not remove swirls then why polish in the first place. Just wash and wax.
 
To be fair I think you have to do what the customer wants. I think I do a good job of explaining exactly what people are getting whether they want a full clay, buff, polish, and seal or if they just want a clay and AIO product. I have had a few that want the full deal, but more often then not, they only want the AIO. They either don't have the money or don't care that all the swirls and scratches are removed, they just want it to look better. This is disappointing for me since I like to do my best work on every car I do, but that's not always possible. Granted it's only appropriate to charge the accordingly. I won't charge for a full buff and only do a AIO. That's just not good business at all. I don't know if that's what people are getting at here but I don't see the problem in doing what the customer wants.

I think the key to the whole thing is you do your best work possible working within what the customer decides they want. I will always before returning a vehicle ask a customer to inspect it thoroughly and if they find anything or anything in the near future to give me a call and I'll be happy to fix it for them. And I've NEVER had anyone walk away unhappy or disappointed. I actually quite routinely get tips.
 
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The key here is knowing what the customer wants and being able to deliver it..plain and simple.

If you are a one man shop then you need some people skills.

Don't know what all the hub-bub is about?
 
mshu7 said:
Wow, I leave for a few hours and come back to this? LOL!!!

Anyway...



Were you talking to me (hard to tell with all the drama going on..hehe) If so, thanks for the compliment. Just today, the website is finally 100% (at least, I hope we're done...still need to double check everything thoroughly). After firing our first web guy, we've been working with our new guy for the last couple weeks hammering it out to get it done. The guy did a great job IMO.

My wife is a graphic designer so she came up with the design and layout for the site and we paid some one else to do the hosting and the production of the site (no template). Again, thanks for the compliment!
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ahh nice ya i want to ramp up my site too, its a lil basic but it gets the point across...i want to get some FLASH on my site and make it all cool like teh websites nowadayz...
 
Geez boys I thought I was on another detail forum there for a minute
Don't give us autopians a bad name either please.

He who exalts himself will be humbled
Glad you all sorted it out.

Anyways my work is different most of the time
yes I do the $130 to 165 dollar speed shine jobs with one step machine polish and your exterior and interior general cleaning and protection (no wet vac) but my specialty is paint rectification and enhancement

Some of my customers are showcar people and happy to spend $500 on me spending 10 to 14 hours to buff the paint with menzerna etc.
The most I've spent on a car is a week. That was for an extremely fussy porsche owner but in the end the car blew everyone away and it was so good in the rain that he got home and the car looked just washed. It should be after seven coats of Wolfgang DGPS and four coats of p21s wax (was back in 2004)

IMO us pro's here don't detail, we refinish cars.
Car cleaning is what shops do for car yard vehicles, general public's pig cars & mobile washes.
Detailing is much more involved and covers most of the people on forums. Definately do excellent work for sure.
Refinishing is the top class where you spend whatever time it takes to take the car beyond what it's ever been before.

Paint, glass, wheel, wheel arch, tyre, interior etc cleaning, polishing, burnishing and protection.

I've never seen any pics of your work justin but I won't be a wanker and judge you, I have trust in alot of autogeeks
Some mobile guys amaze me with what they can do for the time they spend

Just glad I have my workshop.
Now can we get back to sharing, learning and growing.
 
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Meghan said:
We didn't close it because we were hoping you boys could vent and work it out. But in the future I would like everyone to please remember the purpose of this forum and please keep the name calling for the playground. We pride our forum on not being like all the others, so please try to work with us and keep it about car care.... that is why we are all here, right?
Everyone here knows we will go the distance to help everyone out, but please do us the favor and help us out by keeping the bashing off the forum.
Thats all I'm saying!:D

Now give up some group hugs! :grouphug:
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Kudos for the amicable way this was handled, 'hands off' was a good decision but it was close, most Mods would have closed it down a couple of pages ago. :righton:

O.K. back to sharing Knowledge / Experience
 
THENIZZZEIL said:
ahh nice ya i want to ramp up my site too, its a lil basic but it gets the point across...i want to get some FLASH on my site and make it all cool like teh websites nowadayz...
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I've got a couple people I know here locally that seem to be pretty good. If you want contact info for both of them, just shoot me a PM!

:cheers:
 
mshu7.......
Your site looks amazing. I'm so glad you've taken this profession seriously. You've done your research and have the right equipment and above all you have the right attitude. You are going (and probably already are) to do well at this.

You know you have mine and all the members here, full support!

Any chance of seeing you setup?
 
Detailing & AG

I read a few of the comments about detailing and AG products etc.
IMO AG, Autopia,Detail City, and almost all the detail sites;

#1 Endorse their own products or one the manufactor has paid
them to endorse.

#2 They sometimes bad mouth other products.

#3 All of the products are over priced.

If we could get the MSDS sheets for 99% of the car detailing products they would all be very similar in content. Maybe a little more color or different
colors. Basically the same major process for production. Like GM, BMW,
Mercedes, etc. All these company's make cars some are better than others and more expensive. But high prices do not mean a product is better. Performance is Proof! Just my opinion! I'd like some feed back from the people who do not have a vested interest in any of thes company's.
I'll probably get kicked out of all the sites I visit for telling the TRUTH!


Rcihard
Showroom ShineFeed back please
 
Detailing!

Stop drinking the Hater Aid People!
If a guy spends 2 days on a vehicle and a guy spends three hours on a vehicle. The main issue is Client Satisfaction! I realize that some of you good people are top notch pro's and some of you are speacialist. We are all striving for one thing. To Satisfy client's and ourselves. We all have a Passion For Cars! We also like to see them looking good. That's what we do!
Have Fun while we are working!
Have a Great Day All!


Richard
Showroom ShineFeed back please
 
justin30513 said:
mshu7.......
Your site looks amazing. I'm so glad you've taken this profession seriously. You've done your research and have the right equipment and above all you have the right attitude. You are going (and probably already are) to do well at this.

You know you have mine and all the members here, full support!

Any chance of seeing your setup?
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Justin,
Thanks for your compliments and support. It really means a lot to me! I can't tell you how much you and others have helped me along the way. So, THANK YOU!!!

I've done a lot of research over the last couple years (online and out in the driveway) so that when I finally did get this business off the ground, I was fully prepared. I don't want to be some hack detailer that is here today and gone tomorrow. I want to do this long term and build this up. One thing that I've learned, especially recently, is that you have to find a niche and fill it. Just as we were talking about, you have to adjust your services based on what your customers want, and not what you want. If that means only doing a one step polish or even an AIO job, so be it. The key is to do quality work that makes them happy and brings them back to you.

The site itself has taken a lot of time to build. Early on some on told me that to go all out with the site because that is my main source of advertising since I don't have a store front. I definitely took it to heart. As I've mentioned, my wife is a graphic designer so she came up with the overall look and layout of the site. We spent a lot of time coming up with all of the reading material and figuring out the right services to offer in each package. Finally about 3 weeks ago we had our website guy start throwing everything together. I thought the hard work was done but it wasn't. We've spent even more time tweaking the site, adding improvements, slowly finding any mistakes that come along the way, etc. We're really excited that all our hard work has FINALLY paid off with the site. We area already starting to plan for phase 2 of the site.

As far as my trailer setup, I'll try to get some pics of the inside. It's not very organized right now. I have most of my stuff in totes and portable drawers. Over the winter I want to spend time constructing organizational shelving, etc. for it so that I can work easier and faster when it comes to getting things in and out of it. I've got a job to do tomorrow so I'll try to get pics and post them up.

Again, thanks for your compliments!!! :righton:
 
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Looking good MSHU7, great job on the site as well!
 
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