Whitehorse Auto Spa: 1992 3/4 ton

[WAS]

A detail we did last year on a 1992 Chey 3/4 ton.



I'm sure all of you will notice, the gas and brake pedals are still dirty ! That's because we don't touch them. When I was a university student, I used to work at a local detail shop. One day, we detailed a car, and when the owner came back to pick it up and drove off, he got into an accident pulling out onto the street. He blamed us that the brake pedal was slippery and his foot slipped off it, and shop's insurance paid the damages related to the accident. The only thing that had been done to the pedals was an application of APC... Since then, I refuse to touch pedals (not to mention they get dirty the second the vehicle is driven off from its detail).



Wash:

Wheel Brite Wheel Cleaner

Purple Power multi-purpose cleaner / degreaser

Hogs hair foam brush

Hot water spray wax



Glass:

The Car Salon foaming glass cleaner & protectant



Interior:

APC 1:1 ratio

Meg's Superior Shine Vinyl dressing

Carpets extracted with hot water extractor





Before

After

 

[proudpoppa]

excellent turnaround. i hear you on the pedal issue. we've had people claim to have money taken out of glove box/console areas, which was false. so now ask customers to remove all personal effects before bringing the vehicle in. if any compartment still has their belongings in it we dont touch it.

 

[steelwind101]

That is Great work! I bet they were hoping you would find some grey carpet in there somewhere!

 

[Scottwax]

Nice work, carpets and seats look a lot better now.

 

[WAS]

excellent turnaround. i hear you on the pedal issue. we've had people claim to have money taken out of glove box/console areas, which was false. so now ask customers to remove all personal effects before bringing the vehicle in. if any compartment still has their belongings in it we dont touch it.

Our waiver indicates very clearly that we aren't responsible for any personal effects left in the vehicle. Folks here are used to it anyways, because the only other "professional" shop in town has had a long standing policy (for the last 10+ years) that anything on the floor of the car (between seats, under seats, under floor mats, etc) is fair game for the shop. So basically, money that's on the floor gets sucked up into the vaccums, and once a week the shop employees go through the vacuums and pocket the change. I know how that sounds, but it's completely accepted by the market here, no one bats an eye at it.



Personally, if I see change and I can reach it with my hands, I put it in the glove box. Sometimes there's occasions where only the vacuum can get it, it happens.

That is Great work! I bet they were hoping you would find some grey carpet in there somewhere!

Thanks ! Haha, the red vinyl dash is hard to detail, you can't leave APC on it for very long because it creates bleech-like runs.

Nice work, carpets and seats look a lot better now.

Thanks !

 

[Setec Astronomy]

When I was a university student, I used to work at a local detail shop. One day, we detailed a car, and when the owner came back to pick it up and drove off, he got into an accident pulling out onto the street. He blamed us that the brake pedal was slippery and his foot slipped off it, and shop's insurance paid the damages related to the accident. The only thing that had been done to the pedals was an application of APC... Since then, I refuse to touch pedals.

Understandable, however, since most APC's are alkaline, they tend to be very slippery, likely it was some APC residue perhaps combined with a wet shoe. I thought this was going to be a dressing story, but I'd be pretty confident that a well-cleaned and rinsed pedal would be even less slippery than the dirty one.

 

[WAS]

Understandable, however, since most APC's are alkaline, they tend to be very slippery, likely it was some APC residue perhaps combined with a wet shoe. I thought this was going to be a dressing story, but I'd be pretty confident that a well-cleaned and rinsed pedal would be even less slippery than the dirty one.

Maybe, the pedal might have been hit by extractor spray too, not sure as I was doing the passenger side, not the drivers. I'd agree with you that a well cleaned and rinsed pedal would be better than a dirty one, but just to nip any potential issues, I, nor my employees, don't even bother with them. No one to date has complained yet about a dirty pedal (well that's not true, I did have one customer, but he was complaining about other things as well, one of those types you just can't make happy no matter what you do), and I don't think people even care. Folks care about their seats and dashes the most, in my experience.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

Yeah, as you're saying, either way, you gotta be careful with pedals and steering wheels.

 

[proudpoppa]

Our waiver indicates very clearly that we aren't responsible for any personal effects left in the vehicle. Folks here are used to it anyways, because the only other "professional" shop in town has had a long standing policy (for the last 10+ years) that anything on the floor of the car (between seats, under seats, under floor mats, etc) is fair game for the shop. So basically, money that's on the floor gets sucked up into the vaccums, and once a week the shop employees go through the vacuums and pocket the change. I know how that sounds, but it's completely accepted by the market here, no one bats an eye at it.



Personally, if I see change and I can reach it with my hands, I put it in the glove box. Sometimes there's occasions where only the vacuum can get it, it happens.





Thanks ! Haha, the red vinyl dash is hard to detail, you can't leave APC on it for very long because it creates bleech-like runs.





Thanks !

Yeah, I tell my guys that unless they are not to keep anything out of a customers vehicle under any circumstances. Ever! I put all change in a styrofoam coffee cup and then in the cupholder if applicable, sometimes i hand it right to the customer. The trades we do for the dealership are a different story. If they find anything of significant value I hold onto it for a month and if no one comes to claim it they get to keep it. I usually inform the salesman that took it in on trade so they can let the customer know, but they usually dont.

 

[StadiumDetail]

I bag everything I find in the car, but I can somewhat understand the loose change thing. All the collected/organized change that the customer has is bagged, all the loose change under seats and such 9/10 end up in my vacuum. I would never steal from my customers, the change gets dumped into the dumpster with the rest of the debris, but I just can't spend the time picking up 35 pennies when trying to get a vacuum job done.



Great work on the truck! It looks like you get a lot of the same type of work I do, lots of moderate (I call the above moderate) to just plain nasty interiors, and customers who just don't care about exteriors for a variety of reasons.



Have you ever heard of a Tornado Car Tool? If you've got compressed air at your shop they are a huge time saver on that type of interior, and really any interior. Work is done in less than half the time and makes some sections like door gaskets, air vents and speaker grills a breeze.

 

[WAS]

Great work on the truck! It looks like you get a lot of the same type of work I do, lots of moderate (I call the above moderate) to just plain nasty interiors, and customers who just don't care about exteriors for a variety of reasons.



Have you ever heard of a Tornado Car Tool?

Thanks ! Yep, lots of interiors, and tons of folks who couldn't care less about their paintwork. We do get exteriors too, but not very many at this point.



PM inbound about the Tornado.