From professional to car washer...

i know that this sounds like a cliche but.. do the best that you can and be glad in it. at the end of the day you will be a better man.



i know that i am proud of you for having enough gumption to go out and work.
 
Well, maybe this summer I'll work part time for them as a detailer. He has seen my work and was very impressed, but was only hiring full time back at the beginning of october.
 
well corey bit spank, another thing that i know for sure is that it is easier to find work when you are working than it is when you are unemployed.
 
I know if this ends up being a very wet winter (for the 4th year in a row!), I will probably have to get a part time night job. I'm not going through my savings again. This 4-6 days straight of rain gets real old. If it is just one or two days, usually regulars will have me at least take care of one or two vehicles and just drive one until the rain stops but when you have several days in a row, no one really wants anything done. This is the 6th wettest year on record in the Dallas area and we still have more than a month to go and rain is forecast on Monday and Tuesday now.
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It will really suck if it comes down to that but I can't control the weather.



Corey-nothing wrong with honest work. Who knows? Maybe your work will be so impressive it gets you promoted.
 
Scott, hopefully you'll get some good days so you can coast through winter. Even if you have to get a different job for a few months, it may be a good change for that time being, you never know.



This is an as needed basis with this dealer. The manager is a childhood friend of my dad, and I frequently go in and talk to him (he let me drive a new RL a few weeks ago). We'll see what happens.
 
It's raining like crazy in ohio also. I have a full time job. I need health insurance. I would have 2 cars a week if it wasn't so bad (how many cars I can do).

Corey Bit Spank I have been doing "winter protection packages" Clay, Paint Cleaner, AIO, SG. I get people to add shampoo carpets, wax and I'm back to a summer package.

It sucks because the cars and motorcycles I love to do are being put away for the summer. I'm now doing cars that could look alot better, but they don't care because it's going to snow.

Good luck Bit Spank!
 
I left early. My stomach got queazy and I tried to go for another hour and puked :(



The only good thing they had going was a wool wash mit. To dry I used a winter wiper blade. Ugh. There were towels but they were dirty. The wash was some "wash n wax" red crap that could clean bugs off of the whole car easily. I had to use a brush to clean the roofs (of the MDX's) because there was no stool. I wasn't going to do any nitty-gritty detailing but they had a wool pad on their rotary and I saw no foam. This, alongside 3m rubbing compound. There was the "Finnesse it finishing compound" in the cabinet which was something I've been wanting to try, but not with a wool pad on nearly new cars. No thanks.



I couldn't figure out what the "peach" stuff was. It cleaned and it protected. Maybe leather stuff? I diluted it a lot and put it on the leather of an MDX. It worked okay. And then the carpet shampoo smelled like foaming bathroom cleaner.



I was the only person working. The dealer offers "free washes to customers" on saturdays. These people must have never learned the "there is no such thing as a free lunch" saying because their cars were clean but were they in better shape after this?



I made good tims. $2-4 per car. I think I either got bad food last night, or I just got nervous about the business manager being an idiot. The one salesperson I know told me to pull an MDX out front and I did. the manager got there and told him that he's taking initiative on things that don't need to be done. So when the salesperson I know left, I told the manager that when I graduate college in 5 years I'm going to buy a car from him hwahwhahwaw.



Overall not a good experience and unless you want to throw away everything that you've learned then it's better to find a completely different job. Not worth puking over :(
 
Corey, I know its off topic but one of my roommates in the Marine Corps was from N. Tonawanda. His name was Benjamin Bowers. Just a unique named city and it caught my eye. I had a friend that worked at a Chevy dealer and they paid him 7 an hour to detail.....then when he complained about the materials they provided and the tools they told him that he had to purchase his own from then on out. To top it off they didnt even give him a raise to compensate for his out of pocket expenses! Needless to say he quit.
 
Corey Bit Spank said:
Scott, hopefully you'll get some good days so you can coast through winter. Even if you have to get a different job for a few months, it may be a good change for that time being, you never know.
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All I do know is that I am sick of it raining all the time. If it was just a line of storms that would move quickly through that would be okay, but it rains for days on end. I am sure Anthony Orosco is sick of the rain as well, I think San Antonio has been having it worse than Dallas this year.



Oh well, on the positive side, since I am mobile, it doesn't really cost me anything when I don't work. I know we had one very wet winter (2000, I think) and several 'tunnel' car washes went under.
 
Corey, If you still want to work through some of the winter on your own time, I have a contract with Anchor Marine on Grand Island, it would be like 1 maybe 2 boats a week at most, and it can pay several hundred dollars each. the only problem is the temperature. I am really not doing any detailing because of the cold, but they still seem to want them done. Send me a IM sir, and i will give you details :)
 
cwcad said:
well corey bit spank, another thing that i know for sure is that it is easier to find work when you are working than it is when you are unemployed.
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Murphy's law. Like everything breaksdown on your car just as your warranty expires.
 
tpgsr said:
Corey, If you still want to work through some of the winter on your own time, I have a contract with Anchor Marine on Grand Island, it would be like 1 maybe 2 boats a week at most, and it can pay several hundred dollars each. the only problem is the temperature. I am really not doing any detailing because of the cold, but they still seem to want them done. Send me a IM sir, and i will give you details :)
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WOOO!



I can handle the cold as long as I don't get sick, but how often do I get sick, really? This was a once every two year thing.



Give me a callzors if you have anything in the next few weeks. I don't need a lot of money, just a little for presents and such. :nixweiss
 
Corey Bit Spank, maybe you felt sick cause of inadequate supplies tools, your expenses to get to work (transpo, food, gas etc.) and getting paid only $6 + tips.



I've had that feeling before. Actually right now. I'm detailing for a body shop, no supplies, using mine, my own towels, etc. Plus all my expenses. That's a lot of lost $. But I'm biting the bullet as Scottwax is, the weather has sucked *** here in Toronto for the whole year.



The summer or lack there of has/is costing me. Fortunately, i don't have overhead but I rely on this profession full time, and we have winter like you wouldn't beilieve. (canada)



I'm not keen on working out in the Canadian cold. money cannot replace my health. I quit a detailing contract cause they had me washing out in the cold.



you guys are lucky, you get paid about $6p/hr, most places here pay $7-8 p.hour (Canadian dollars) no tips.

:down



Good things will come.
 
Last winter I work at the Benz dealership which I did not care for. This winter I think I am going to try do some home improvement projects and try to keep busy the best I can.
 
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