How did you come to use Adams?

[Audog]

Just wondering how we all came to use Adams. I started with the usual mass market products, Meg's, Mothers, etc. and while they are good I felt that something was missing. That led to web searches and eventually to Griots, again a good product, but still something missing. Further searching lead to Chemical Guys, again good, but their videos remind me of the Vince from ShamWow telemercials. Then one day about a year ago, a chance encounter recommend Adams detail spray and now a year later I have a garage full. Every product I have from Adams has been great, does what it says, smells great and is priced reasonable. That's my story, how about everyone else

[egott_91]

Started out using Mother's and Meg's when I was an ignorant, young teenager. Then I started watching detailing videos, specifically Junkman's videos when he was still representing Adam's, and I decided to try them out. Now that I'm a sophisticated, well-educated 24 year old I have mainly all Adam's products. I have a few from a couple other companies, but I started out with the essentials kit from Adam's and haven't looked back.

[pirahnah3]

Started out with the typical local parts store sale finds Armor all, turtle wax, and such, always thought they were good enough. Got into the car club scene and realized that i wanted some more out of the products, moved up into the megs and mothers lines at the store and thought hey these are better. Then I started to go to some larger shows and with much nicer cars. Finding out that most are NOT new paint as one always thinks or that people spend days cleaning them I again wondered how. Then one year at Carlisle I was introduced to Adams with a FREE 4oz detail spray and micro fiber cloth via a mod for a very large car club. Got into it there, wow the stuff was awesome, and smelled good enough to drink. Didnt get into the line there thou, saw some of the prices and well my lowly job paycheck couldnt afford that, not for my daily driver, maybe some day. Several vehicles and some time later the job has improved, along with the wallet, and the vehicle as well. 

[bjoeaull]

Wanted to learn about paint correction so logged on to Youtube and watched some junkman videos and been hooked since.  

[stripesace]

Bought a new car and was looking for how to take care of Alcantra. Needless to say Dylan's post opened a whole new can of worms.

[Mazzdog]

Always used Megs, Mothers, whatever was on sale... wanted a new car but figured out that i just wanted a clean car so started washing with the half gallon of Megs... My brother in law is pretty into this stuff so i started researching more and talking to him... Google lead me to Adam's and since this is the only high end stuff i've used, I don't really have much to compare it too.. i've been extremely happy with the quality so haven't found a reason to go anywhere else.. I have looked at Chemical Guys stuff, but it's way to confusing with their 15 different products are the same use for every single product... i'm confused again just thinking about it.

[PlainOleS5]

I had driven a company car for years and had no reason to was and/or care about that vehicle!

 

When I purchased my car and got into a local Audi car club/forums there were posts talking about detailing and Adams products.  After a few meets and seeing how some of these vehicles looked I was sold.  With my vehicle being black and knowing that I would want to take REALLY good care of it, It just made sense to go with a quality product.  After doing some research and seeing all the you tube videos as well, I couldn't pass up Adam's! 

 

I haven't looked back since and I've loved every products I've tried!

[Tim]

Mine is your typical story, just like the ones you've heard hundreds of times. It was a crisp October Saturday night four years ago and I was getting ready to meet a few friends when I got a message from one of their husbands. I thought Barry was playing a joke on me, so I didn't call back and headed out. Right after I got to the restaurant (ok, it was a bar and I'm trying to make it look better) I got a second call, but this time I answered.

 

Oh Barry was there again, but this time he wasn't on the phone alone - Mike was on with him. (Full disclosure, I don't really remember "Mike's" name, but I needed a name, so...). Mike was the Grand Poobah of the local Knights of Columbus. He along with Barry spent the next five minutes trying to convince me that I actually had won their raffle they drew earlier that night. The grand prize - a 1984 Corvette.

 

A few days later I picked up my prize, a previously unseen black corvette with just under 60k on the clock. Imagine what a 27 year old car that hasn't really been pampered looked like. I decided that if I was going to have a Corvette, it should look nice, not at all how it looked back then. I spent some quality time with Google and researching the results, watching videos and learning all I could.

 

By now it was November and if you've ever been to the Cleveland area, you know you aren't in a hurry to detail in Cleveland in November, so I had time. But then, I met someone that would quickly become the arch nemesis of my wallet - Dylan and his sales. First it was Black Friday, then Christmas and New Years. Presidents Day, St. Patrick's Day, even March 30th!

 

I was spiraling out of control! What is this thing happening at Grabiak in April? I had to attend! Junkman, Lynn and Adam were all there as were Rich, Rich, Scott, Dan and countless others. I had an addiction and I found a support group!

 

Oh, so I guess that was a long winded way of saying I found Adams through a Google search.

[Erictski]

Never really cared about car maintenance until I put an order in for a 2016 Black Toyota Tacoma.  Started reading the tacomaworld forum and saw mention of Adams products.  Checked out the online store and watched a ton of videos.  Thought they sounded great so put in an order for the daily driver kit.  loved the products so have since ordered like 4 more times and have a stocked shelf now.  Should be getting the truck before Christmas so ill be ready to keep it looking great.

 

I love the customer service and the forum here.  Some of the products are a bit expensive comparatively but the support you can get from this forum, the store live chat or phone service is worth it to me.

 

Thanks Adams Polishes for some great products and a nice small town business feel, even from 1500 Miles away.

[Erictski]

 I have looked at Chemical Guys stuff, but it's way to confusing with their 15 different products are the same use for every single product... i'm confused again just thinking about it.

I agree with the Chemical guys comment.  pricing on some products looks enticing, and I actually tried a couple products, but seriously, why 5 different all purpose cleaners, 10 car washes, 10 tire and trim dressings, it is very confusing.

[Ricky Bobby]

I started in 2009 when I started buying from Phil @ Detailers Domain and noticed he used a ton of Adams stuff in his writeups - watched some of the old videos and been buying from Adams ever since

[kvas51]

I was looking for something to protect the new wheels I got on my truck and found Adam's products at a hardware store. Found out they were a local company so I went by there warehouse and got treated like I was their best customer from the first time I entered. Every product I tried was the best I had ever used. So now I have almost everything they sell.

[mc2hill]

A co-worker had a local detailer work on her car and she brought in one of the Adam's MF towels (the old blue ones).  The detailer was also an Adam's dealer and was doing a demonstration at a local car show.  I watched him easily remove the swirls on a Foose Overhaulin' Challenger.  I purchased VRT and Detail Spray that night.  They were so easy to use I started buying more stuff.  The products worked great, and the color coded polishing products were simple to figure out.  

 

Now I am a Beta Tester, and have almost every product in the catalog (and some samples that are not!).  Also have made several good friends thru this forum.  And each year I usually get a couple of folks turned on to Adam's products.   

 

 

[Rich]

I was at the Corvette show at Carlisle at least a dozen years ago and this strange looking Italian guy was walking around handing out little bottles of this stuff called Detail Spray and he came over to my black Vette and sprayed the hood and wiped it off. We got to talking and from that, we became friends, and I've been hooked on everything Adam's ever since. The only other products you'll find in my closet are things Adam's doesn't sell.  And that's not much!

[NG13]

I was never a "detailer" but I have cleaned hundreds or thousands of cars. When I was in high school I worked at a local car lot as the car washer/detailer. Mostly I washed the inventory but occasionally got in on a detail of a trade in or an auction purchase. We used a lot of Zep products as well as some other stuff that I don't remember. Fast forward to a couple years ago, I was building my Chevelle, and I thought I knew what I was going to use to keep it up. I would use "the best", Mothers and Megs  .  

After I finished the Chevelle and had been washing and waxing it with "the best" and using, what I know now to be, junk microfiber towels, I had a buddy who had his car polished before our car show. The guy who polished it told him about this wax he uses...buttery wax. Told him it was the best stuff he had found, was really easy to use and you could even use it in the sun. This guy even said he waxed his truck almost every wash it was so easy. Well needless to say, it took me another year before I went in to the body shop to ask about this buttery wax. I went in and talked to the guy who had recommended it to my friend and he had a new bottle he sold me. He also said that this Adam's place had really nice wash soap and he couldn't stop talking about the Undercarriage Spray. About 2 weeks after I bought that bottle of buttery wax I had watched almost every video Adam's had on YouTube and had changed a bunch of my wash routine and had placed an order for nearly $550 worth of product and gear! That first order was at the end of August and I have been so impressed with everything that I have acquired nearly every chemical and a good selection of towels, brushes and even a Rupes 15 & Mini.

[SYMAWD]

When I saw the first winter washing tutorial on YouTube.

[marquez93]

I've managed the reconditioning of new and used cars at a luxury car dealership for over 12 years.  I always just used the products that we bought from the local distributors and thought it was fine.  And all of my detailers really only used rotary buffers.  They have porter cable's, but really only used them for spreading wax.  I came to accept that you had to be really good with a buffer to keep a car from getting holograms (we always called them swirls). 

 

Over the years, we have continued to grow and I took on more and more responsibility.  It wasn't until this past spring when I got my new GTI that I realized I just didn't have the time to maintain my cars while I'm at work anymore.  So I needed to stock up at home and I didn't want to buy quarts and gallons of product from the local distributor (although now I find myself already buying gallons from Adam's).  At about the same time, I also heard about the Rupes line of polishers and thought that we should get one and try it out.  Through the vwwortex forum, I had heard about Chemical Guys and Adam's.  CG had a good price on the Rupes 15, so I ordered it through them and got a free glaze with it.  So I decided to get some of their 4oz bottles of polish and sealant and I detailed my new GTI at home using the Rupes.  I was really impressed (mostly because of the Rupes 15).  So I wanted to keep stocking up at home.  I got a recommendation on vwvortex to go with Adam's so I got the essentials kit, waterless wash kit, and glass cleaner and sealant kit to start.  It was much easier to choose what to get from Adam's compared to the myriad of CG products that have already been mentioned in this thread.  I was able to get nearly as good of results on my wife's CR-V just by doing Revive by hand and buttery wax.  The beading was unbelievable for months with just buttery wax.  And the VRT was great on the black plastic trim that goes all around the bottom of the car.

 

From that point, I was addicted and decided to go exclusively with Adam's.  My wife's car always seemed to look better than mine no matter what I did to mine.  But that's mostly because hers has more metallic.  So now I have almost all of Adam's products at home.  I have used HGG a few times, but I still haven't found the time this fall to strip any CG stuff that might be left and get some LPS on the car for winter.  And at my work, we now have added a Flex 3401, Rupes Mini, and now a Rupes 21 from the Black Friday sale.  And almost all of my guys love the Gen5 pads and the Adam's polishes.  I still can't get them to convert totally from their rotaries, but they're starting to see the light.

[Drive XR7]

Mine is your typical story, just like the ones you've heard hundreds of times. It was a crisp October Saturday night four years ago and I was getting ready to meet a few friends when I got a message from one of their husbands. I thought Barry was playing a joke on me, so I didn't call back and headed out. Right after I got to the restaurant (ok, it was a bar and I'm trying to make it look better) I got a second call, but this time I answered.

 

Oh Barry was there again, but this time he wasn't on the phone alone - Mike was on with him. (Full disclosure, I don't really remember "Mike's" name, but I needed a name, so...). Mike was the Grand Poobah of the local Knights of Columbus. He along with Barry spent the next five minutes trying to convince me that I actually had won their raffle they drew earlier that night. The grand prize - a 1984 Corvette.

 

A few days later I picked up my prize, a previously unseen black corvette with just under 60k on the clock. Imagine what a 27 year old car that hasn't really been pampered looked like. I decided that if I was going to have a Corvette, it should look nice, not at all how it looked back then. I spent some quality time with Google and researching the results, watching videos and learning all I could.

 

By now it was November and if you've ever been to the Cleveland area, you know you aren't in a hurry to detail in Cleveland in November, so I had time. But then, I met someone that would quickly become the arch nemesis of my wallet - Dylan and his sales. First it was Black Friday, then Christmas and New Years. Presidents Day, St. Patrick's Day, even March 30th!

 

I was spiraling out of control! What is this thing happening at Grabiak in April? I had to attend! Junkman, Lynn and Adam were all there as were Rich, Rich, Scott, Dan and countless others. I had an addiction and I found a support group!

 

Oh, so I guess that was a long winded way of saying I found Adams through a Google search.

 

Cleveland represent!

[Thorsager]

     I have all my performance upgrades done at Grabiak Performance Center in Western PA. They have a large showroom full of Adams products which I began to try. It was not long before I was hooked. I have attended several Adams detail clinics at Grabiak's and go to the Carlisle shows each year to visit the Adam's tent. Great products and customer service!

[JHL88]

After I used meg's and what not OTC I searched for best detailing brands and I remember seeing Adam's vs. Zaino and I happened to choose Adam's bc zaino seemed confusing at the time.  Plus Adam's overall seemed more attractive initially as well.

[Zach5.9CTD]

Well. Before adams I was a dedicated meguiars buyer/user. Was a very active member on meguiars online and got to know a lot of the guys on a pretty personal level.

 

Dexuded I was getting pretty good at detailing so I started my own business which you can see logo on my avatar.

 

Anyway. Meguiars always releases these new products right about SEMA time and similar to chemical guys they have about 4 or 5 lines of essentially the same thing. Just add "ultimate", "dub", "mirror glaze", "detailer" somewhere on the bottle and mark up the price. I was starting to get so confused that I wasn't sure what to buy and essentially quit detailing for a couple years. I mean who needs so many different lines and names of the same product.

 

Anyway, I am still using some of my meguiars stuff just so it doesn't become wasted money. However last August I got an e mail from adams as I showed an I tires teddy in them in the past but always just deleted the e mails as I wasn't in the detailing mood. So I saw this email advertising mystery boxes at 29.95 with 40+ worth of product in each box. So I said what the hell and ordered 3. Been hooked since and have spent close to or over 1000 bucks with the company and as of right now have no reason to look elsewhere. They have one product for each thing and that's that. Offer same product in various sizes BUT it's still same product with same name. SO much easier!

 

So thank you adams for using the KISS method for all of us

[jessewsmith]

I always wanted to try Adam's and one day about 7 months ago they has a flash sale and i got 2 buttery wax's for under 20.. after that i orderd some detail spray,car shampoo, and tire shine. the next day i used the detail spray and i was just hooked! 7 months later and i have spent $750-800 into Adam's..

[CMDChase]

I moved into my current house in 2008. This was the first time I ever had a garage and now I could clean my cars at my convenience. I knew there had to be something better than the OTC products I was using so I began researching on the Internet. I had it narrowed down to 3 companies...Chemical Guys, Griots and Adams. I decided to go with Adam after watching his videos. He seemed like a guy with a great deal of honesty and integrity. So, I ordered a few things from him and haven't looked back after 7 years. I was right, too. I have had the pleasure of being in Adam's company on several occasions. He's as nice a guy as you'd want to meet.

[blcksilv08]

Went from a Pewter(Silver) Silverado to a black Silverado and was tired of the stuff off the shelf at Pep Boys and started doing some searching. I remember I ended up searching specifically for detailing supplies made in USA and found the Adams site. After looking through everything I was somewhat interested, then I saw some of Dylan's posts on gmfullsize and wanted to try something. I ordered some APC and SVRT, after trying the parts store plastic treatments I used SVRT and knew I was about to open up my wallet. Then the customer service and sealed the deal. I have yet to come across another company in this industry that matches them in the combo of product quality and customer care.

[LFairbanks]

Had a customer on a route that was a serious car guy.  Don't remember what cars he had as it had been so long ago.  I do however remember seeing that West Coast Chopper that he had just got.  He was telling me about how somebody passing thru had shown him the product and he became a distributor.  So I picked up a small detail kit.  And from there it grew.  I want to say that was roughly 13 or 14 years ago.  Not sure what happened with the guy I bought product from as he isn't a distributor any more.  And neither is one of the local Ford Dealerships in town.  So all my orders are placed over the internet.  Which makes it easy for me.

[Firebuff17]

When I bought my truck I joined RAM forum. I was reading alot of posts and many people asked numerous detailing questions. Adams was always the overwhelming answer. Plus they are a preferred vendor on RAM forum. So I went to the website and was quickly overwhelmed. Saw an ad on Adams main page of a sale for the daily driver kit. Watched the video and immediately purchased. Over the next couple months I bought a few more things and never looked back.

Adam and crew got me hook, line, and sinker.

Edited December 13, 2015 by Firebuff17