You are capable of detailing your car and take car care seriously.  You take the process more seriously than what most people who are not that into detailing communicate.  That is the short story version of what I want to share with you.  I often see posts on various social media channels with these two common themes.  Someone posts a question looking for a overly simplified answer to his or her problems.  Also, the nature of the question reveals to professionals he or she needs more knowledge in general to continue the stated detailing task.  I or someone else asks for more information in the process of providing a thoughtful answer.  There is no response, likely due to knowledgeable people suggesting to this person what he or she needs to hear and not what the person wants to hear.  Then there is the second part.

“Hey guys I was washing these bugs off and I got these scratches (severe enough damage from household supplies where a repaint might be necessary).”

“I ceramic coated my car and I got this oil slick (very bad high spots from rushed detail that will be difficult to remove).”

“I polished my car but these swirls are still there (underestimated the severity of the scratches and created some more).”

“I cleaned the interior and this happened (damaged plastic and navigation screen from household or caustic All Purpose Cleaner).”

I have been hearing about these stories more frequently lately, yet this is a time where there is much more information about detailing available.

Let me tell you a personal story about myself, that I really have not shared with most people in years.  In what feels like a lifetime ago, I am going back to a time when I was a sophomore transitioning to my junior year in high school.  I decided to try out for the high school football team.   I made an unconscious agreement with myself that I was going to give my best effort.  I was not a natural.  My coach once told me I may have been the worst athlete he ever seen.  He also told me he was proud of me the following week.  I remember expressing my intentions to play high school football early on and was often mocked.  To be fair, growing up I was often bullied.  I was a timid person and socially awkward kid.  I also did not remotely have the physical build of a typical football player.  This was a time (mid 90s) before social media or internet trolling was a thing.  There was this guy in one of my classes that found out I had made the football team.  “You made the football team!  If you made the football team, I could make the football team.”  I never saw him for fall tryouts.  Imagine that!

My point here is a lot of people who are doing something with detailing often for the first time, are taking or bombarded with advice from this type of guy.  Perhaps some of you to some extent are this guy.  Like the guy who had a perception about me in high school, many people have a negative perception about the challenges of detailing and the cost of running a profitable detailing business.  Unfortunately for those people or for those who are influenced by those people, they make critical mistakes and or often become very humbled detailing their own car.  Many of these problems could be avoided by taking detailing more seriously.

My advice was never about telling people they are not competent enough to detail a car.  I just believe if you jump in out of arrogance, after hearing the price and time required from the highly recommended detailer, you are only hurting yourself.  The elephant in the room, like many readers, my budget encouraged me to be a do-it-yourself detailer.  I did not assume there was a quick fix.  I respected the process (the steps), the work, appropriate products needed, and care required for detailing.  Some of that involves reading the directions, even when the products seem similar.  It is not rocket science but that does not mean you can be arrogant without consequences.