Funny Detailing Story

JSFM35X

New member
Just read a story on the forum about dirty wheel and tires that reminded me of a funny story I thought I'd share:

When I was about 17 years old (26 years ago)I washed and waxed cars as a summer job and after school for extra money. I had been trained by working at the local Dodge dealer along side the new car prep guy. I though I was getting pretty good so I went out on my own the following summer.

All I ever used was Turtle paste wax, bug and tar remover, Zip wax car wash, Armorall, windex, an old electrolux canister vac and polishing compound. I made great money, learned about customer service and had alot of fun.

I had a few regular customers who used to see me doing my parents cars. Never advetised and had plenty of work just form word of mouth. I had a great regular customer who had a mint 924 Porsche. Cranbury Red and he loved it. He hired me to wash and prep the car every Friday so it was ready for the country club for the weekend. I would ring the bell on Friday, his wife would pull it out of the garage and I would go to work. She would tell me things like, "My husband loves this car too much..it's clean and yet he wants you to wash it..unbeleavable?" I would wash it and prep it, ring the bell, get paid and she would circle the car and pull it back into the garage. I would wipe down any water that leaked out of the seams and leave.

Husband would always be very complimentary and refered friends and many people from his club to me.

One faithful Friday I showed up and to my surprise, his wife told me, you are going to earn it today..you are going to clean a car that needs to be cleaned..mine! I said just yours or both? She said mine today and his either later or tomorrow. Her car was a 3 series BWM that was garaged but was so dirty, I have not seem wheels that black unless why were painted black (remeber this, it's important later). I decide to tackle his car first as it was a peice of cake campared to hers and I did not have any wheel cleaner with me. She agrees and after I explain I will need more time for her car she is OK with my comming back Saturday AM to finish. I show up Saturday loaded for bear. The car is outside in the middle of the drive way and I begin with the interior. Next I move to the exterior. I still have nightmares 26 years later on those rims. I used the harshest weslie? wheel acid from Autobarn and I must have cleaned each wheel 4-7 times. Got them really good but not perfect, but a 95% improvement. I had black under my nails for days!I compounded the whole car and waxed it twice. Car cleaned up really well. I was happy. This took me from 9AM until 2PM or so in the afternoon.

Rang the bell and my nightmare begins. She acuses me of switching her wheels? She thinks her wheels were black! Not silver. She is freaking out and tells me I am not getting paid and I need to come back when her husband is home to see him. I said-are you kidding? I don't even have the keys to the car, the car never left your driveway. I live around the block do you really think I would steal your wheels? I told her that these are stock wheels from BMW and they had tons of brake dust but under the dirt they are silver. She goes on to tell me that this is a sport package (IS on the back and the wheels are BLACK). I am not winning this so I leave, knowing full well the husband knows the deal.

He comes back form playing golf and stops at my house. I am a little up tight even though I know I did nothing wrong. He is laughing his ass off. He tells me that he bought that car used for his wife and the wheels were so dirty he never attempted to clean them. His wife never took the car to a car wash so they stayed filthy. He knew they were not black wheels but it never occurred to him that his wife did not know! I charged $ 75.00 bucks back in the day for a wash and wax. Never occurred to me to charge more for those that were compunded because I thought I was making crazy money anyway. He gave me $ 100.00 for the car and appologized. He told me it came out great and that his wife is very happy. He said, your still comming back Friday right? I told him absolutly.

I kept him as a customer until I went to college and my brother took over and continued. We both worked it summers and had a ball, made great money and had alot of fun. Of all the things that happened this was the story that sticks in my mind 26 year later!
 
That's a good story. That's the first time I've ever heard of someone not knowing what color their wheels were lmao
 
Cool story bro. :bigups

cool-story-bro.jpg
 
So for anyone who originally read this, I was out for dinner with my Wife over Labor Day Weekend and I ran into the husband in this story. He and his wife have since divorced and we had a great laugh at recounting the whole event. He had traded the Porsche in for a Benz and still lives locally.

He tells me that as he has gotten older, he is not so critical of his paint finish and admits to using the swirl a matic as his main mode of "detailing". He also told me that he re-tells this story a few times every few years and gets a good laugh each time.

It really takes me back and makes you smile!
 
So for anyone who originally read this, I was out for dinner with my Wife over Labor Day Weekend and I ran into the husband in this story. He and his wife have since divorced and we had a great laugh at recounting the whole event. He had traded the Porsche in for a Benz and still lives locally.

He tells me that as he has gotten older, he is not so critical of his paint finish and admits to using the swirl a matic as his main mode of "detailing". He also told me that he re-tells this story a few times every few years and gets a good laugh each time.

It really takes me back and makes you smile!

Sounds like trading her in was a good move; he should have kept the Porsche!
 
Sounds like trading her in was a good move; he should have kept the Porsche!

They were always a miss-matched couple. He was such a good guy and great cusotmer. She was always unhappy and suspicious about what I was doing and just upset that I was washing what she considered to be a clean car.

It taught me customer service at an early age. It paid off because I earned more than my friends over those summers and at times detailing was my only job. The detailing jobs carried over into the school year so that certianly helped. This particular cusotmer gave me alot of referals consistanting of his friends and guys from his Country Club. These referals kept me busy outside my immediate neighborhood. He would just tell me, "save Friday afternoons for him always"-and I did. It was great money for me at that time in my life and washing a Porsche was alot of fun for a kid who was car crazy from birth.

Way back then the supplies we quite basic-Armorall, a can of Turtle Wax, Liquid Ebony for dark cars & 3M Fill in Glaze for light colored cars (Todd-do you even remember these last two products), Turtle Wax Bug and Tar remover, Dupont #7 Polishing compound, never dull for the exhaust pipes, Windex, tuff stuff for interiors and Zip-wax car wash. A single gray bucket and a sponge. I dried all the cars with something called and absorber (synthetic cloth).

Fun to remember those times.
 
That is absolutely knee-slapping hilarious. Some people are in a world of their own. Not trying to "one up" you or hi-jack your thread but I have a shorter story I would like to share about a coworker.

A woman I work with is a total car slob. She leases her cars and almost never cleans them. Whenever I get in she always has to move stuff off the seat and my feet are in a sea of garbage. So one day she actually traded her car in for a new one and another woman I work with literally paid her a compliment on how nice a job she did on cleaning it!!! hahha it was a totally different car (same make and model but newer)but no one realized.
 
That is absolutely knee-slapping hilarious. Some people are in a world of their own. Not trying to "one up" you or hi-jack your thread but I have a shorter story I would like to share about a coworker.

A woman I work with is a total car slob. She leases her cars and almost never cleans them. Whenever I get in she always has to move stuff off the seat and my feet are in a sea of garbage. So one day she actually traded her car in for a new one and another woman I work with literally paid her a compliment on how nice a job she did on cleaning it!!! hahha it was a totally different car (same make and model but newer)but no one realized.

I dont get why people want to ride around in a pig stye. I understand that some people can live with out a show car finish, but to ride in a garbage dump is crazy.
 
I agree, it's just one of those things that no one will ever know the answer to. On a regular basis I see people with crap filling the back seats and blocking the rear window....barely enough room to fit a driver. I just don't understand.
 
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