imported_themightytimmah
New member
As far as LSPs, I'd look into getting yourself a tin of S100. It hides a lot better than the Klasse twins, and it goes on/off like a dream by hand. You can get it at any harley dealership too. I've done wax jobs on full-sized cars in 15 minutes before with S100, any other wax takes atleast 25-30. If your willing to machine apply it, you might want to try FK1 Pink too. its only about 20 bucks for a big (16oz) tin, and it looks pretty damn near as good as souveran, at 1/6 the cost per application. Its my new go-to wax for "nice" cars.
Not being able to remove swirls is not a huge deal, very few people outside of pro detailers are able to get em out, and half of my customers dont even know what a swirl mark is anyways.
For carpets, try taking out the floormats, and using a BFH (rubber, preferably) to bang on the floorpans. This'll help get the sand up using only a vacuum. Then spray the mats down with diluted APC, brush em out good with a carpet brush (go brass bristled on nasty spots), hose em out with the strongest stream you can, and then extract with the shopvac. Do a final extraction going in opposite directions, so that you leave stripes in the mat. Doesn't take more than 30 seconds of additional work, and it leaves a real good impression.
As far as being young and a detailer, I'm only 18, and my business has really been taking off in the high-end lately. If you know any rich people, cut them a deal and do a really primo job. Thats how I got most of my contacts. Then, when their friends come to you, jack up the prices and continue to do top-notch work. Its worked for me, but then again I live about 10 minutes from several very high-income areas. After only 4 months of going pro (I did 2-3 years of side/semipro work first), I'm working on Lexuses, BMW's, etc, fairly often. Another good business angle to try is to do details on bank repos, before they go to auction. Although I'd rather be working on some guys Porsche, repo work has really paid the bills for me lately.
Not being able to remove swirls is not a huge deal, very few people outside of pro detailers are able to get em out, and half of my customers dont even know what a swirl mark is anyways.
For carpets, try taking out the floormats, and using a BFH (rubber, preferably) to bang on the floorpans. This'll help get the sand up using only a vacuum. Then spray the mats down with diluted APC, brush em out good with a carpet brush (go brass bristled on nasty spots), hose em out with the strongest stream you can, and then extract with the shopvac. Do a final extraction going in opposite directions, so that you leave stripes in the mat. Doesn't take more than 30 seconds of additional work, and it leaves a real good impression.
As far as being young and a detailer, I'm only 18, and my business has really been taking off in the high-end lately. If you know any rich people, cut them a deal and do a really primo job. Thats how I got most of my contacts. Then, when their friends come to you, jack up the prices and continue to do top-notch work. Its worked for me, but then again I live about 10 minutes from several very high-income areas. After only 4 months of going pro (I did 2-3 years of side/semipro work first), I'm working on Lexuses, BMW's, etc, fairly often. Another good business angle to try is to do details on bank repos, before they go to auction. Although I'd rather be working on some guys Porsche, repo work has really paid the bills for me lately.