The Psychology of Detailing

[JeS10]

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

This is just... wow. I mean, I remember reading that thread when I must've been 18 or 19. I cringed then. I cringe and despair now. A bible quotation on the heatshield? Incredible.

[otolith]

Centurion07 said:

austinsmirk said:

There's more important stuff to do in life than clean cars. Proper clean inside and out once in a while will do.

I wish I could find it but via barryboys there was a link to some bell end detailing his new Astra vxr. Not a month old or with a months dirt on, but squeaky clean with no miles on from dealer. Even measuring the microns of paint depth.

Internet gold.

If you've ever seen how new cars are comically "prepped" for delivery by dealers then you'd be doing it too.

Last new car I bought I told them to leave it the hell alone aside from the PDI and promptly took it to a professional detailer and spent well into 3 figures having it done properly.

Friend of mine had his new 911 detailed before picking it up. He said it was parked next to another new one being picked up, and the difference was obvious. I don't know what had been done with them between leaving the factory and display, but I attended a launch event at the local Porsche dealer, and the brand new cars on display had noticeably swirled paint under the artificial light in the showroom.

[xjay1337]

swisstoni said:

Taita said:

Sump said:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

Agreed.....

Those guys had been radicalised

I'm a interested bystander to detailing really - my cars are usually dirty. But I'd love them to be perfect.

A virgin and a smack head

I remember reading that years ago and it did help me get into detailing as a such.

[JuniorD]

"...I decided to wash in pure reverse osmosis water zero ppm in the dunk bucket and 50/50 pure and hot water in the shampoo bucket..."

I'd like to know how long it took to come to such a critical decision. I'm also disappointed that the hot water was not heated pure water.

[Davey S2]

swisstoni said:

Taita said:

Sump said:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

Agreed.....

Those guys had been radicalised

I'm a interested bystander to detailing really - my cars are usually dirty. But I'd love them to be perfect.

IIRC this was the same bloke who posted a very comprehensive thread of his full detail of a Dyson vacuum cleaner and then took pics of it when done.

Amazingly it wasn't a pi$$take either.

[Davey S2]

xjay1337 said:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

.

'I decided to wash in pure reverse osmosis water zero ppm in the dunk bucket and 50/50 pure and hot water in the shampoo bucket...'

[Davey S2]

Yep, same bloke.

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

[Crafty_]

Davey S2 said:

IIRC this was the same bloke who posted a very comprehensive thread of his full detail of a Dyson vacuum cleaner and then took pics of it when done.

Amazingly it wasn't a pi$$take either.

Actually it very much was a pisstake, that was the point. The astra thread got shared all over the place and he thought the reaction was amusing so did the Hoover as a joke.

Detailing is a hobby for some people. A small number of people will take their hobby to the nth degree - look at home cinema nuts paying thousands of quid for a pair of speakers, cyclists who must buy the lightest bike they can find, will only ever wear lycra no matter how far they are going, pc gamers you must always have the latest cup and graphics card and watercooling and spend forever routing the cables around the case in a certain way.

Every hobby has the nutters. They're having fun, leave them to it.

The guy with that astra had or has a detailing company now, so one would assume his critical eye is of benefit to his customers?
I believe he knew Paul Dalton who was charging supercar owners well in to 4 figures to correct and detail cars even 10 years ago. All the astra guy did was apply the same level of quality. Excessive ? Maybe - doesn't mean everyone else has to do the same.

[MrC986]

It depends what you mean by detailing?....I'm not a detailer as such although given I've had in the past summer wheels and winter wheels (with winter tyres), I'm inclined to twice a year give my car more than just a "clean" in that when the wheels are taken off, the wheel arches are properly cleaned etc. & the backs of the wheels. I see detailing as giving the car a thorough clean that should make it easier to wash in the future & in doing so, it will make up some of the extra time I've invested in the deep clean it has twice or so a year. I don't own a paint depth gauge, nor do I dry my car with an air blower, although I threw my old chamois leather in the bin along with the wash "sponge" many years ago (yes, I have several buckets with grit guards & use a proper drying towel )

I hope I'm not alone in saying that when I come to sell my cars, I don't have people commenting/thinking it's not clean or not been looked after & it usually sells to the first person who sees it without any negotiation - I'll stick my head above the parapet & say, they're are a lot of road side hand wash facilities that do an ok job, but you're paying for convenience & if you've an expensive car, the paint will show the signs long-term (& the wheels definitely could).

[anonymous-user]

When I worked out the costs of all the various snake oils I decided to use two buckets but stick with a chamois. I may clay a car but that's about it. What I will do is spend. £300 prior to sale and it looks great. Although if it's your thing then all power to you!

[foxsasha]

Crafty_ said:

Actually it very much was a pisstake, that was the point. The astra thread got shared all over the place and he thought the reaction was amusing so did the Hoover as a joke.

Detailing is a hobby for some people. A small number of people will take their hobby to the nth degree - look at home cinema nuts paying thousands of quid for a pair of speakers, cyclists who must buy the lightest bike they can find, will only ever wear lycra no matter how far they are going, pc gamers you must always have the latest cup and graphics card and watercooling and spend forever routing the cables around the case in a certain way.

Every hobby has the nutters. They're having fun, leave them to it.

The guy with that astra had or has a detailing company now, so one would assume his critical eye is of benefit to his customers?
I believe he knew Paul Dalton who was charging supercar owners well in to 4 figures to correct and detail cars even 10 years ago. All the astra guy did was apply the same level of quality. Excessive ? Maybe - doesn't mean everyone else has to do the same.

Agreed. All power to him and if it was a choice of buying a car from that fella and, well, pretty much anyone else then I'd be buying from him.

And if you wanted your car cleaned and the paint given a bit of luck and that guy was local to you and reasonably priced then don't tell me you wouldn't use him. Great promotional work both for him and the guys he uses for the other jobs as I can't imagine they'd be anything but 100% fastidious as well.

[G-996]

I laughed out loud when I read this post. I have a confession to make - I have also watched the video on how to wash microfibres towels, and out of interest rather than a sense or irony. It all started 3 years ago when I bought a 911. Since then I have found myself engaging in similarly embarrassing behaviour such as:
- RemovIng wheels to clean them properly, and then using a special wheels-only wax to help keep them clean
- Sorting microfibre towels into 4 grades based on cleanliness, each of which is stacked neatly in their own (labelled) plastic drawer
- Taking 2 days to clean polish and wax the body (not the interior or underneath as obviously there isn't enough time to do this in 2 days)

My kindly wife tolerates this behaviour, but I think at times she did wish I had a less embarrassing habit, like class A drugs or gambling. As for the psychological reason behind this, I have no idea.
Perhaps we should start a Pistonhead self-help group for sufferers? I swear I was realitively normal before this all started

[xjay1337]

G-996 said:

I laughed out loud when I read this post. I have a confession to make - I have also watched the video on how to wash microfibres towels, and out of interest rather than a sense or irony. It all started 3 years ago when I bought a 911. Since then I have found myself engaging in similarly embarrassing behaviour such as:
- RemovIng wheels to clean them properly, and then using a special wheels-only wax to help keep them clean
- Sorting microfibre towels into 4 grades based on cleanliness, each of which is stacked neatly in their own (labelled) plastic drawer
- Taking 2 days to clean polish and wax the body (not the interior or underneath as obviously there isn't enough time to do this in 2 days)

My kindly wife tolerates this behaviour, but I think at times she did wish I had a less embarrassing habit, like class A drugs or gambling. As for the psychological reason behind this, I have no idea.
Perhaps we should start a Pistonhead self-help group for sufferers? I swear I was realitively normal before this all started

Even though most normal waxes will work perfectly well on wheels?
I hope you take 2 days of machine polishing as I once did a 911 inside and out in 16 hours
It is an addiction though but when you start doing it as a source of income you learn that products aren't everything and you can save huge chunks of time by doing things in a different way

These days I can't be bothered at all haha.

I think when you get something you want to take pride in you try your best.

[Inertiatic]

Clean them occasionally as best as is practical...cleaning something that lives outside that obsessively is bonkers IMO

[Alex_225]

I think there's a variety of reasons why someone gets into detailing really. Well apart from the obvious thing that they like a clean car.

For me, I'd always liked a clean car but was content with the local car wash. Then in 2005 I ordered a car I still own today, an RS Megane 225. Ok, not the pinnacle of motoring but to a 23 year old something special and remains the same for me today. So from then on I vowed to only clean my own car from then on.

Bought a load of Meguiars gear which worked for a while until I signed up to Detailing World and it all went downhill from there. I will hold my hands up and say I am very OCD, I have three cars that will only see the dry sunny days and one daily car which sees all round use.

I started off just wanting my Megane as clean as possible, it was my pride and joy so I felt it deserved it. When you start out learning about detailing though, it can make you critical of things that just aren't necessary and I eventually came full circle. All my cars are polished, protected and cleaned regularly by me. I get a sense of satisfaction from my cars looking their best and being that bit shinier than the next car. I think any car deserves to look shiny and apart from driving a car, I learn my cars, their imperfections and character by cleaning them myself.

Plus, if I can get 13 year old paint looking like this with the right kit and some elbow grease, I don't see why anyone would knock detailing.

JeS10 said:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

This is just... wow. I mean, I remember reading that thread when I must've been 18 or 19. I cringed then. I cringe and despair now. A bible quotation on the heatshield? Incredible.

I've been on DW a long time and I also cringed then and more so now at the way that particular chap went about things. Don't get me wrong it's detailing, it's pedantic and it's extremely particular. I'm sure he was considering rejecting the car due to some sort of fallout on the roof or something ridiculous. Got the impression he was trying to out-OCD everyone haha Maybe I'm cynical though.

Edited by Alex_225 on Wednesday 5th April 12:21

[willisit]

I was told, the past weekend by a neighbour, that I must "love washing cars" as I was always outside doing it. I don't - I just like my cars being clean. I was cleaning both my wife's S5 and my wee Viva, and that means an interior and exterior clean, the usual snow foam, polishes etc - and even a small amount of wax on the wheels to keep the dirt off a little longer - but if it takes more than 3 hours, I'm done. I would like to spend more time, but there has to be a limit to it - and our roads are hardly places for these impossibly clean cars (I might as well mount it on the wall).

That said, I did take a new car to a specialist and have it ceramic coated - the difference was night and day and it takes a lot less effort to keep it "new" looking.

But like the 911 chap, I could easily tip over the edge and go too far. But, there are better things in life to be doing!

[julianm]

Do detailers apply the same fastidious attention to their ovens?

[mon the fish]

Considering the Astra chap detailed the Dyson in 2007, and his Astra a year later, I doubt it was done in self-mockery after the Astra thread went viral

[Steve_W]

Good grief - that's a blast from the past!

He did seem to take the ribbing well; I always thought the Dyson thread was all in jest and showed he could take a joke at his own expense.

Mind you, some bits of it did make you wonder, such as pulling off the badges, considering rejecting the car for a paint blob on the roof, and the supposed cost of some of the products used:

"The wax used today came from a £10,000 Daniel Swarovski Ltd Edition one made especially for Paul and elite customers of Pauls "

[RichB]

Mercury00 said:

I'm not one of those people, but on the rare occasion I clean my car I take a lot of time to do it, and I do feel almost as if it runs better, and I can appreciate and enjoy the car more when it's looking spotless.

This can start at a young age. As a kid during the school summer holidays I would strip my push-bike down to it's components and wash them in paraffin then oil and reassemble it all. Of course it did go better afterwards and it's not just psychological. If something is properly maintained it will perform better. Of course it can be taken to extremes!