british detail video

This was discussed over at Autopia recently...

You may critique (I did, too), but this gentleman has built a LUCRATIVE practice. His client list blows mine and most here, away (vehicle wise).

I'd let him work on my vehicle in a second; And although he may not do anything that 'beat up', but the ones that were swirled, he corrected flawlessly, IMO.

Regarding the Zymol Vintage; it costs about $1500 in the states, has free refills for life, and yes, you are supposed to apply it by hand, no applicator.
 
The dude has chops and the ability to detail - no doubt. But you don't need Zymol to achieve the EXACT same and in some cases, better results.

I was not impressed with his wheel cleaning. He failed to reach deep into the wheel. Plus, I'm not sure of the tool used to wash the car, but he failed to rinse thoroughly, let alone rinsing it in the shampoo bucket. If he just does a wash, then whose to say he didn't marr the surface? The technique can use some tweaking.

But, he has a brilliant marketing campaign with the whole Zymol thing and found a niche of insanely wealthy clients who will float his business.

Most people are clueless about detailing and the wealthy will pay to have the "best" put on their car because it is the most money. For example, I care for 5 cars that a doctor owns. Each get washed a few times a month, a wax every 2 months and a full detail 3 times a year. He has a vintage Mercedes. I applied Souveran to one side of the trunk and Nattys Blue to the other. I asked which he liked better. He said "There are two different waxes on there?" I chuckled and finished with Souveran because he said "Just use the more expensive wax then." He even told me to use the most expensive products I have for everything and he'll pay more. He salivated when I told him about the ultra fine powder-like abrasives in the ceramiclear menzerna polishes that will burnish the surface of his cars to an ungodly glass-like finish. He was eating it up!

I've seen fabulous work performed on vehicles on this board and elsewhere. I am confident those who are skilled with the rotary and possess the Detail City spirit of car care can achieve the same results - pro or not.

My hat goes off to him for building a tip top, lucrative business model. Good job!
 
I'm not sure anyone is really criticizing him. We're just poking some fun.
And at his full detail price on 1 car I could live quite nicely.
 
I am from the UK and saw this the other night, The guy seems to know what he was on about but like you all said i was shocked at some of the prices he qouting for goods bought. I dred to think where he gets his MF cloths from?!?


And his washing techniques (no two bucket method) No proper wash mitt?

The Wheel cleaning wasnt that impressive.

Thats just my opnion.

The zymol wax he is using is about 5K in the UK, and is warmed and applied by hand.
 
grisby said:
They were making fun of that video on a mucle car forum that I frequent, so I posted a comeback saying that is the proper way to do a car and that is how I do mine (minus the hand waxing) so now I am waiting for a feedback from that group. I don't think they will be agreeing with me on this one!!

bill g
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Actually IMO that is not the proper way to wash a car. I found several flaws in his process and technique that I would never do when washing my car.

1, he did not use the two bucket method. Big no no.

2, he used the same mitt or sponge for the top of the car as well as the bottom.

3, he cleaned to big of an area before rinsing the mitt. I do a swipe or two than flip the mitt and do aother swipe or two than rinse the mitt in the rinse bucket. His way you are just spreading dirt around the paint and it is a major cause of marring.

4, I can't quite make out what he wash using to wash but it doesn't look like sheepskin to me. Sheepskin is all I use

5, He was washing in a random manor. I always go in straight lines front to back. This way if something does get caught in the mitt it will not leave a swirl but rather a straight line marr and this is less noticeable.

6, he used a MF to dry that was good but his technique was terrible. I blot he was all over the place wiping in every direction.

7, It appears he washed in the sun. Never would I even consider this.

8, applying "the rock hard wax" by hand. This is obviously Zymol BS. I have yet to find a towel or app that is more abrasive than my hand. You are definitely asking for marring doing by hand and no app.


Now to be fair it takes me 3+ hours to wash and dry my car ad he is a "pro" and time is money and 3 hours to wash a car for him probably isn't practical. Also he might have just wanted to clean the car and paid little attention to marring because he was going to polish it out later anyway. Having said that this guy would not get within a hundred feet of any car I owned.
 
Anthony A said:
Actually IMO that is not the proper way to wash a car. I found several flaws in his process and technique that I would never do when washing my car.

1, he did not use the two bucket method. Big no no.

2, he used the same mitt or sponge for the top of the car as well as the bottom.

3, he cleaned to big of an area before rinsing the mitt. I do a swipe or two than flip the mitt and do aother swipe or two than rinse the mitt in the rinse bucket. His way you are just spreading dirt around the paint and it is a major cause of marring.

4, I can't quite make out what he wash using to wash but it doesn't look like sheepskin to me. Sheepskin is all I use

5, He was washing in a random manor. I always go in straight lines front to back. This way if something does get caught in the mitt it will not leave a swirl but rather a straight line marr and this is less noticeable.

6, he used a MF to dry that was good but his technique was terrible. I blot he was all over the place wiping in every direction.

7, It appears he washed in the sun. Never would I even consider this.

8, applying "the rock hard wax" by hand. This is obviously Zymol BS. I have yet to find a towel or app that is more abrasive than my hand. You are definitely asking for marring doing by hand and no app.


Now to be fair it takes me 3+ hours to wash and dry my car ad he is a "pro" and time is money and 3 hours to wash a car for him probably isn't practical. Also he might have just wanted to clean the car and paid little attention to marring because he was going to polish it out later anyway. Having said that this guy would not get within a hundred feet of any car I owned.
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I can understand being a perfectionist, but to be honest (and I say this as an enthusiast) you're way beyond what I'd consider the point of diminishing returns.

I'm happy to have my car looking better than 99.5% of those on the road... substantially better. It's a daily driver, so treating it like a show car just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, especially in terms of time. My wife misses me enough as it is.
 
heffergm said:
I can understand being a perfectionist, but to be honest (and I say this as an enthusiast) you're way beyond what I'd consider the point of diminishing returns.

I'm happy to have my car looking better than 99.5% of those on the road... substantially better. It's a daily driver, so treating it like a show car just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, especially in terms of time. My wife misses me enough as it is.
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All the steps I follow in my wash regime are preventive. This allows me to minimize my polishing. I can get by with once a year or every two years without using an abrasive because of this. For example this year my spring detail will be very easy. I will clay and I probably will not have to go any higher than Menzerna FP II on the horizontal surfaces although I might even be able to get by with just Vanilla Moose. The vertical surface will get clay and VM. This is a very light approach and I will be able to get away with it because I follow the extreme approach to washing that I do. I have lots of time but I have a limited amount of clear coat so I spend the time it takes to conserve my clear.

For the record I know I go to the extreme. I am not a pro I am an extreme enthusiast and enjoy every minute I spend on the car.:howdy
 
Anthony A said:
Actually IMO that is not the proper way to wash a car. I found several flaws in his process and technique that I would never do when washing my car.

1, he did not use the two bucket method. Big no no.

2, he used the same mitt or sponge for the top of the car as well as the bottom.

3, he cleaned to big of an area before rinsing the mitt. I do a swipe or two than flip the mitt and do aother swipe or two than rinse the mitt in the rinse bucket. His way you are just spreading dirt around the paint and it is a major cause of marring.

4, I can't quite make out what he wash using to wash but it doesn't look like sheepskin to me. Sheepskin is all I use

5, He was washing in a random manor. I always go in straight lines front to back. This way if something does get caught in the mitt it will not leave a swirl but rather a straight line marr and this is less noticeable.

6, he used a MF to dry that was good but his technique was terrible. I blot he was all over the place wiping in every direction.

7, It appears he washed in the sun. Never would I even consider this.

8, applying "the rock hard wax" by hand. This is obviously Zymol BS. I have yet to find a towel or app that is more abrasive than my hand. You are definitely asking for marring doing by hand and no app.


Now to be fair it takes me 3+ hours to wash and dry my car ad he is a "pro" and time is money and 3 hours to wash a car for him probably isn't practical. Also he might have just wanted to clean the car and paid little attention to marring because he was going to polish it out later anyway. Having said that this guy would not get within a hundred feet of any car I owned.
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How much road driving do you think that Maserati MC12 went through?

Yes, the graphics weren't high resolution, however, I highly doubt the car sits outside or is driven very much at all.

Furthermore, he was doing this routine right BEFORE he was to detail it. I'll admit, I could care less to do 2 buckets, 2 mitts and a '3 hour' wash routine when I'm just going to clay polish and seal afterwards. He'd be wasting time.
 
GSRstilez said:
How much road driving do you think that Maserati MC12 went through?

Yes, the graphics weren't high resolution, however, I highly doubt the car sits outside or is driven very much at all.

Furthermore, he was doing this routine right BEFORE he was to detail it. I'll admit, I could care less to do 2 buckets, 2 mitts and a '3 hour' wash routine when I'm just going to clay polish and seal afterwards. He'd be wasting time.
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Yes I know he was going to polish after the wash so he probably didn't care too much about wash technique. I made mention of this in my first post. Still doesn't change the fact that his technique is poor IMO. I don't find anything outstanding about his abilities from what I have seen.
 
GSRstilez said:
Regarding the Zymol Vintage; it costs about $1500 in the states, has free refills for life, and yes, you are supposed to apply it by hand, no applicator.
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I think that's actually Zymol Royale Glaze. For some reason it's not listed on Zymol.com, but I did find it here:

http://www.autosupermart.com/store/shop/zymol00123.html

It costs $7K+. You can tell he's not using Vintage because Royale comes in a double tub and Vintage is only a single tub of wax.
 
I taked to Zymol on the hphone today and they said he uses both (ti also says on his web site) you can buy the royal in n.a but itsnot listed on the site, however it is listed on the ukl site, so check there. And as to the reason that his producst are so expesive is becasue zymol which only comes in the samll containors. For example the the hd celasner (which they say you need) only comes in a 8.5 and 16 oz bottle. The 16oz is about 40 bucks and lasts on 2-3 cars. So when u says its 55 pounds for 5 gallons its becasue they dont come any bigger then personal use size.

Also i noticed someone asked hwta kind of sponge he is using, again zymol lol.
Also as it was mentioned you haev to apply it by hadn, as ive mentioned before its bcasue when you wax you are melting a thin layer on your paint, so when you use your hands you heat up the wax better then if you used an aplicator pad, its a pretty cool system. After exams i plan on doing an experminet with anttys. Applying by hand and applying with an aplicator. Ill see how it goes (although with certain waxes it porbley wont make a diffrence)
 
That video and the clown in it are IMO exactly what is wrong with most people and detailing. The whole thing was product not process. He spent most of the time bragging about how expensive the products were. BS IMO.
 
Anthony A said:
That video and the clown in it are IMO exactly what is wrong with most people and detailing. The whole thing was product not process. He spent most of the time bragging about how expensive the products were. BS IMO.
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I think alot of that show might be becasue hes on tv. It dosent make god tv when somone goes i have wheel cleaner. it makes better tv when someone says i have wheel cleaner that costs me 75 pounds. Thast what people want to see. Also i dont like lots of the methods he uses however he seasm to be very sucsefull adn i dontthink someone would get a million dollar car detailed (even if they know nothing) it was damaging there paint. I dont agree with lots but he has built a system that works very well for him. If his customers are satisfieds and he can afford to put food on the table hes done somthing right
 
I went out on a job this morning with Troy to detail a Caddy and I couldn't help but tell Troy how much everything I was using costs:

"Going to apply a coat of Wolfgang Deep Gloss Sealant at $20+ a bottle with my $3.00 German applicator. The paint on this car isn't cheap so I have to be very careful."

Seriously, I think this guy has it going on. Critique his technique if you will but make sure you learn from his business plan. Do you think he ever hears something like this?

"Larry's Auto Detailing down the street said they will only charge me $50 for a complete detail, in and out! Can you match his price?"

Bah! He would laugh off such a request. His time is valuable and his clients are happy to pay for his work. He has clients that sit in their garage with a glass of wine just staring at the car after he has performed his magic. Not only that, but he also is bringing respect and prestige to the auto detailing profession. I'd love for him to join Detail City and share his thoughts on marketing a detailing business. Then you guys can get him using two buckets, two Grit Guards in each bucket, 6 sheepskin wash mitts and a foam gun! I bet he would raise his prices if he took his washing up to the next level. :D

Dwayne
 
perhaps an e-mail to him (im sure its listed on his site) telling him this site exists may do the trick. Its always ncie to have more people with diffrent opions her. I know i have a few questions to ask him like how to get started, and did he start with zymol, was that an extra latter. I think it would be intresting to talk to him. See how to make 5g a detail
 
Anthony A said:
That video and the clown in it are IMO exactly what is wrong with most people and detailing. The whole thing was product not process. He spent most of the time bragging about how expensive the products were. BS IMO.
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You've taken that piece of the show completely out of context. This is an excerpt taken from an hour long show. The whole point of the segment was to see what some people pay to have their supercars worked on to talk with someone lucky enough to be around those cars.

I'd suggest you watch the entire show. He was ASKED to give all that information.

http://www.mininova.org/tor/284721
 
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