If a picture can speak a thousand words, as a detailer, what does this picture say?

S

SoCal Mobile

New member
I was passing by my local drive thru car wash the other day and noticed in the LOOOONG line there was a 2012 Bentley. (Not the car in the picture) But, I could not believe my eyes when I saw that $250,000 vehicle in line for a $15.00 car wash, (I assume) maybe he spent $40.00 and got the high end package and the brushes really beat the heck out of his car. CRAZY!!!!



Link to picture:

http://i1221.photobucket.com/albums/dd475/joeseals/BadBrushes.jpg
 
Those brushes are grand, everyone's filth being rubbed on the next car. Next time I'm at the Jeep dealership for parts, I need to take a picture of their wash machine. It would be out of place in a 3rd world country. The brushes at one time used to be blue, I think. They are now black, as is the machine and the whole bay.
 
SoCal Mobile said:
Troy read the whole comment over again. I said "Not the car in the picture" :tsk:
Click to expand...



Oh I read the whole thing. Just thought it was funny that you took a picture of a BMW and not the Bently you were talking about...
 
TroyScherer said:
Oh I read the whole thing. Just thought it was funny that you took a picture of a BMW and not the Bently you were talking about...
Click to expand...



The lot was to full to get in to get a picture of the Bentley. I REALLY wish I could have gotten one. Really!!!!
 
It's funny that you mention this. I have a new customer that let me detail his Bentley Azure. Same thing....you can tell he takes it to the local brush car wash. Even had the left over blue residue from the soap/acid bath they give it. It's white but you can still easily see the swirls.



Some people just want the quick wash to make their cars "clean". Even if it is a $250k car. They don't see the difference cause they don't see paint like we do. It's a shame.



I actually ran into a Maserati owner about a month ago at a gas station. Beautiful car and I asked him if he had a detailer. His response was he takes it to the local car wash and "those guys take care of him". I just cringed and handed him a card and said if he ever needed anything to let me know. His car was also white and covered in swirls.



Just amazes me that you can spend that much on a car and not take care of it the proper way. But just goes to show that cause you have money doesn't mean you know how to maintain things.
 
It’s important to educate clients on proper care post-detail, although ‘swirl o matic’ car washes are job security you owe them that much as a professional.



The area (Hampstead, London) I’m staying in has more than its share of Bentleys and exotic vehicles , and the local car wash is de rigueur for most of them. Joe Public just wants a 'clean' and shiny vehicle to drive (only way to 'tap' this market is to give them what they want and perhaps convert or up-sell a small % to a proper detail

 
The only people that really care about the swirls in their paint, IMO, are the fanatics, or people who have been taught how to see the swirls. Unless you have been shown how to see the defects, you're eyes are going to see clean and shiny and that's about it. But once you learn how to focus your eyes on the paint to see defects, you will then see them all the time and they will drive you nuts until you get them fixed unless you really just dont care. Get a good picture of a 50/50 of badly swirled/corrected paint and show it to someone with swirled up paint and say "this is how your car looks now, this is how it should look, while pointing to the picture. Then have them look at the car and say "can you see the swirls like in the picture?". Then once they see the defects they will (hopefully) want to get them removed. This works in my mind anyway, what do you think?
 
IME it's not that they don't care how the car looks. Some of my clients drive the new exotics as DD's in rotation. These are the flavor of the month vehicle. They are traded in yearly. It's what's in the "big" garage that matters. They still have the DD's detailed occasionally but know upkeep is more time consuming.



Many of these new toys are around only till the next newest toy is released. When you can throw out 500k plus on a rare collectable what's 100-250k on a car you can get any day.(just a different mindset)
 
Yeah it does sound like I'm saying they don't care, but what I mean is they don't notice. What I mean is that they cannot see the swirls and other defects because they have not been shown how to see them. The average person sees the car is clean and shiny, but their eyes don't focus on the defects like ours and other people who know how to see the swirls/defects. So show them a plain as day picture and then show them their car is the same way and they will start to notice the defects more. And explain to them that this is what the car wash is doing to their vehicle and they may start to think twice about using them.
 
Drive to La Jolla and you'll see high-end cars going through these things all day long. It's ridiculous, but detailing is for OCD people.



My old boss makes big $$ and drives a new Toyota 4Runner. When I left to pursue detailing full-time I asked him if he wanted me to take care of his interior (he has to labs that chew on everything). Once when I was in the back on our way to a business lunch he looked in the rear-view mirror and asked if I was freaking out because of how dirty it was (he knew I detailed on the side). His response to me was, "when I get a nice car I'll let you detail it".



Oh, sorry boss, but a car that's worth twice what you pay me in a year is a damn nice car to me!





I also agree with "flavor of the month" cars. They are "company" cars. I just detailed a 2006 M3 for a guy who was the second owner. He said it was previously a corporate car. I was like whaaaaaaaaaaaaa? What corporation is that? Are they hiring? And yeah, swirls, scratches and bad paint job patches all over it. So sad. Cost twice as much as my car and look 1/2 it's worth (paint wise).
 
It's not just the car washes guys. I have seen many, many cars trashed by detailers that were supposed to be hand washing. In fact, I just drove by a franchise detail shop yesterday on the way to pick up a car offering $9.99 hand car washes and the guy washing was just hammering the truck they were doing with a ratty old wash broom. Some of the new automatic washes are actually less abrasive on the paint than most other forms of washing too. It's all about whether or not the operator is using the best equipment (and using it properly) and has a high volume of water being used between the car and the new soft cloth "brushes".
 
I see it here weekly. A few Bentlys, Masseratti's, Lambos, etc going through Auto Bell car wash and kids out there with dirty rags drying them down and hitting the water off the wheels with the same rag, etc. Whats funny is that around here, the ones with TONS of money are cheap and tight as hell. The ones with basic luxury cars or medium budget sports cars like Corvettes, Camaros, etc are the ones who don't question the price and want good quality work done and also like to be educated on maintaining the vehicles themselves.



It's just how it goes sometimes...
 
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