BrandonL

Bruce, my local rep, does it out of his house. I think he has his business revolve around word of mouth and work at car shows.

Thank you Bill

Shane, in Seattle I graduated from Auburn High School in '01. Then I spent some time working and went back to Green River Community College. From there I moved to LA, went to a local city college here and transferred to Pepperdine. Most of the cars here aren't all that bad. The big thing is the sun and the sea air since the school is right off the beach. There is some fading and oxidizing happening on the paint of some cars here but it's really not too horrid

Good question. You would have to ask them but if they are like everyone else it probably takes a buy in, possibly a business license, and some drive to make it work

Thanks for the input guys. I'm defiantly conscious about how long each job will take and the fact I'm marketing to college kids. What I think I'm going to do is take the suggestion of putting together a price list of a bunch of small things that will probably sell more and then put a few detailing packages together as well. It's difficult for me to put together pricing packages because, though it is a school, it is a very "rich" school with students driving new high end vehicles and receiving large allowances from their parents (unfortunately I'm not one of them, I'm a financial aid charity case ). Soooo I think I'm going to start low, build a business, and then go higher on prices when I get a solid customer base set up and when the economy turns around a bit. Thanks for all the tips guys, please keep them coming

Man, good business opportunity for me if I ever move back. I lived in the Seattle area all my live untill about 2 years ago.

Well I just met my local Adam's dealer today and he's a great guy! I live about 20 minutes away from b_pappy and I needed to get some upholstery cleaner and some more detail spray so he told me to swing on by his house. He spent about 30 minutes or so giving me some more information on the products that I didn't know already and gave me a demo on some of the undercarriage cleaner too (even gave me a sample bottle of it). Anyways, if any of you are in or near Northridge be sure to give him a buzz and swing by. Thanks for the great service Bruce. I'll be sure to come see you in a month or so when I'm ready to step up to that Porter Cable PS- Mods feel free to move this, I wasn't sure where to post to brag about great service from an Adam's rep

I was absolutely thinking about doing this myself. My father-in-law has this haggard old Saturn SC-1 that is everything a car's paint shouldn't be. I'd like to take some before and after pictures of this car and show them to potential customers. I'll be sure to post the up here too

Thanks for the info everyone. The area that I'm thinking about working in would be my school which is Pepperdine in Malibu. Most of the kids there (at least the ones that drive) have some decent money so I was thinking that maybe $100 for basic exterior detail and an extra $30-50 for a complete interior detail wouldn't be out of line. Maybe more if the car is in really bad shape. As far as giving away detail spray I was thinking that giving away some small spray bottles with my name and phone number on it (the small $3 ones that they sell) would be a good way to generate repeat business. Just a thought but I didn't think it would cut into my profits enough to matter really.

Well I'm good at washing, learning the clay bar (should have that down soon), just used the swirl and haze remover and resto for the first time and think that came out very well, and just now getting waxing down to the point that I'm comfortable charging for it. Interior I have experience with but haven't done engine bay so probably won't focus on it. Also I'm thinking about giving away a MF towel and a bottle of DS with every full detail

I have one of these carpet shampooers and I really like t. It pulls out stains very easily and helps me remove the dog hair that my two bull dogs like to leave behind. Intact I'm going to try this in conjunction with Adam's Upholstery Cleaner this weekend for the first time. Does anyone have experience in using this as a detergent in the machine or should I spray it on first and then use the machine and another cleaner in that seperatly?

So I'm thnking about posting up flyers on campus advertising detail service to pick up some extra money. Obviously I'm no professional but I'm confident that I can offer the right service to college kids (and faculty) for the right price and hone up my skills in the process. So for those of you that do this professionally what do you charge? Thanks for any information

That's nothing, Zymol has a wax that is $2,000, one that is $8,000, and one that is (and I'm not even close to making this up) $50,000 I can't for the life of me figure out what justifies that kind of money for wax, even on concourse cars

Should I mist it with the detail spray?

Thanks for the reply. Now what does that mean to the uninitiated such as myself?

Haha, no not quite. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to school in an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog. USC is a great school and I really considered it there but I decided that I didn't want to have a wear a kevlar vest to go to class. That neighborhood was hard when you went to school and it's even more dangerous now

I've been seeing a few threads about the paste wax that Adam's is coming out with and everyone seems to be very excited about it. What is the difference between a paste wax and a liquid wax like the Buttery Wax? Just curious, thanks everyone

Ok, so I've never really been very good at waxing my cars. I have never taken the time to learn the best methods or even what the best products to use are. However, that is all changing now. I have a 2002 WRX Wagon that I'm going to be waxing up today and I'd like to know how much wax to use. I know I'm not supposed to use that much but how much is too much? I was thinking that putting a dollop on the pad about the size of a quarter to do each panel and about twice that to do the hood would be good. Does that sound about right? Thanks for any help everyone!

Well looks like demand is big enough for me to look into brewing a non-alcoholic brew. I'll stop by my local home brew store the next time I'm getting ingredients and see what they recommend

Come on down here, we've had 70+ degree weather since....well....it's pretty normal to have 70 degree days in the winter. Not to rub it in or anything

Ok, I'll have to try that when I get home tonight. I didn't really think about that because the brown spots are about the same color as the top was before I cleaned it but that might be the issue. Thanks for the tip And I don't have any before pics but I'll snap some after and post them up. I'm going to be detailing my WRX wagon this afternoon and I'll take some before and after pics of that

Thanks Adam! I'll keep an eye out for a non-alcoholic recipe for you. If I ever see you at a detail demo I'll give you a 6 pack

Hey guys, I have a question about cleaning the top on my wife's Miata. I just got an essentials detail kit that has all of the goodies in it. My wife's Miata was in pretty rough shape detail wise until yesterday when I busted everything out and gave it a good once over. The car came out great, I am very happy with everything in the kit but I am having an issue cleaning the top. The top started out so dirty/faded that it was almost brown. I cleaned it with the regular car wash and once it was dry I applied the VRT. So far I have used about 1/5 of the bottle over the course of the last 28 hours and I'm still getting some brown spots. Now don't get me wrong, I love this stuff because it's still by far the best results that I have gotten from anything so far but do you guys know of a better way to bring the color back? Should I use something else with this or just keep adding to it until it's fully black? Thanks guys

No kidding! That's pretty neat! Did you go to Pepperdine too? I'm working on getting into Graziadio right now. Pepperdine has an accelerated masters program that combines a BA degree and an MBA with 5 years of total studying. They wrap your senior year in the BA program with your first year of the MBA program. Then after that there is only one more year of study. I should know by this time next year (the end of my junior year). I really like it there I haven't made a non-alcoholic brew but I would imagine it is possible. Do you not drink alcohol? If not I might be able to find a recipe for you

Heck yeah, I'm down. I'd offer to have it at my house so I could serve directly out of the kegerator but unfortunatly I live in my landlady's basement on a dirt road, not the most convenient for a detail clinic, haha!!