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7 Detailing Products I'd Buy Again & Again...
7 Detailing Products I'd Buy Again & Again...
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About this episode
Exploring the world of automotive detailing, this episode highlights seven essential products that the host repeatedly relies on for effective car care. From the importance of deionized water to pressure washers and steamers, the discussion emphasizes how the right tools can enhance the detailing experience. The host shares personal anecdotes and insights, encouraging listeners to find their unique detailing style while also addressing common misconceptions about products. With a focus on quality and customer service, this episode is packed with practical advice for both hobbyists and professionals.
After years of testing detailing products, tools, and methods, these are 7 detailing products I would absolutely buy again. No hype, no gimmicks—just products that actually work, save time, and deliver real results. In this video, I break down why each product earns its place and how it fits into a smarter, simpler detailing process. If you want better results without wasting money, this list will point you in the right direction.
PRODUCTS TALKED ABOUT:
Tough As Shell Ceramic Spray: https://jimbosdetailing.com/TAS or on Amazon https://amzn.to/4r5UxYr
The Super Soaper: https://jimbosdetailing.com/TSS or on Amazon: https://amzn.to/49KEM2d
Picture Perfect Polish: https://jimbosdetailing.com/PPP or on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4sQWpWu
Microfiber towels: https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/orange-wash-microfiber or https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/everyday-microfiber
Cut & Finish Pad: https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/cut-finish-pad or on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3LsxJ69
Finishing Pad: https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/black-finishing-pad or on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FJNDCPTG
SHOP ALL JIMBO'S DETAILING ON AMAZON: https://amzn.to/3LX3mVE
SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/user/jbalaam?sub_confirmation=1
car detailing, auto detailing, best detailing products, car detailing products, detailing tools, car care tips, professional car detailing, DIY car detailing, detailing advice, ceramic coating, car washing tips, detailing essentials, car care products, detailing setup, car detailing podcast, automotive detailing tips
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Technical
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Term
deionized water
"...I will never wash a car without it. That is deionized water or some sort of deionized water system. I think it doesn't get talked a lot about because there's no real, like, good system to use."
Deionized water is special water that doesn't have minerals in it. This means it won't leave marks on your car when you wash it, making it look cleaner.
Deionized water is water that has had its mineral ions removed, making it less likely to leave spots or stains on car surfaces after washing. It's often used in detailing to achieve a streak-free finish.
Term
pressure washer
"Number two on that same vein is a pressure washer."
A pressure washer is a machine that sprays water very hard to clean things. When washing a car, it helps get rid of dirt and mud more easily than just using a hose.
A pressure washer is a high-pressure mechanical sprayer used to remove dirt, grime, and other debris from surfaces, including vehicles. It can make the car washing process more efficient and effective compared to traditional methods.
Term
foam cannon
"...you pair like a high quality soap, that's actually helping you clean the surface of the car, like the super-soaper in your foam cannon with your pressure washer..."
A foam cannon is a tool used to wash cars. It sprays a thick foam that helps clean the car's surface by loosening dirt, making it easier to wash without damaging the paint.
A foam cannon is a device that attaches to a pressure washer and sprays a thick layer of foam onto a vehicle's surface. This foam helps to loosen dirt and grime, making it easier to wash the car without scratching the paint.
Select text to request an explanation
So in the last couple episodes, I talked about products that I would not buy if I was, or that
I don't buy anymore, rather, right?
And so, but I did think it was a little, getting a little negative, so I wanted to talk about
some products that I absolutely would buy and products that I keep buying personally over
and over and over because they're a good value or they serve multiple purposes or
they just fit for what my style of detailing is.
And again, everyone and even you are going to develop your own style of detailing.
It's no different than any other industry or any other thing.
There's just a preference of the way you like to do it, the way you like to do things.
And that doesn't make someone else's style wrong.
It just makes it different.
And so, you know, if you're, I had some comments that people disagreeing with me
about certain things or whatever thing, and that is part of the fun.
That is what makes any hobby enjoyable is that you learn from each other.
There are so many times where I thought I knew something.
I put it out in a podcast or a YouTube video and someone told me differently
and I was like, oh, wow, that makes a lot of sense.
Or, you know, they just had a different angle on it.
And so actually for a while there, I was motivated to put out videos
to get like the feedback from everyone because that feedback actually was
really valuable and kind of helped me learn.
And so it's kind of similar really to raising kids too.
I feel like I learned more by trying to teach than I do from actually doing
sometimes, which is or living it, which is different.
So anyway, getting right into it, the number one thing I think this is so underrated.
I don't think it gets talked enough, talked about enough.
But I think if you are serious about the detailing hobby at all and you're
going to be doing whether your own cars or definitely if you're doing, you know,
this as a business, but even if you're doing it as your own cars and just
kind of maintaining your own fleet, the number one tool that you need.
I've used this since day one.
I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever go without it.
I will never wash a car without it.
That is deionized water or some sort of deionized water system.
I think it doesn't get talked a lot about because there's no real, like, good system to use.
I know there's a lot that get talked about online, but the ones usually that look
pretty are kind of small and you're having to change out the resin a lot.
And I think that's another part of it, like where to find quality resin and all that.
For me at my shop here, got it right that time, I rent tanks because I can get
thousands and thousands of gallons of water out of the tanks.
They just come exchange them.
It's very, very simple.
There are other companies out there that sell deionized water tanks
and you can change out your own resin and they sell resin as well.
I've been talking to a couple of them, but trying to do some private label stuff with them.
But some of these brands are old and they're clunky and they don't take advantage
of technology and their website sucks and their customer service is shoddy at best.
I'm trying to navigate through that just to be transparent.
I'm trying to navigate through that right now to see if there's a way that I could bring a
good solution to the market and a solution that not only works, but it's kind of easy to get.
Also, the tanks are heavy, the resin's heavy, so sometimes shipping could be expensive.
So I'm seeing how I could absorb some of that.
But anyway, I'm working through all the kinks on that.
But without a shadow of a doubt, deionized water is the number one tool that you, again,
if you're serious about the detailing hobby, you have to get it.
You just have to.
And I would do this before you get any pressure washer because guess what?
Deionized water works great with a garden hose.
Yeah, you will go through more water with a garden hose than you would with a pressure
washer, but it like not spotting, not having water that spots is so underrated.
It's ridiculous.
And so I, like I said, I rent my tanks.
I will always wash a car with deionized water.
It just eliminates so many issues, so many hassles, just so much that literally just
if you're going to take detailing serious, even as a hobby, even as an enjoyable hobby,
if you want to make it enjoyable, deionized water makes it so much more enjoyable.
It's just a complete game changer.
Either I don't hear it enough or it doesn't get talked about enough,
but it is by far the number one thing that you definitely should get.
Number two on that same vein is a pressure washer.
I mean, some sort of pressure washer, again, makes things enjoyable.
And when I think about a hobby, when I think about doing this professionally,
I want things that are, I want a hobby that I actually want to do and something that I
makes me want to do it.
And when I do it, I feel refreshed after.
I don't feel completely wiped and worn out and irritated and aggravated, right?
That's not the point of why we do this.
And so a, not only deionized water, but then a pressure washer, and then specifically with
like a foam cannon, I would add to that list.
It makes the hobby that much more enjoyable.
It makes it, it makes it so you're not, you're fatigued, maybe physically,
but you have an end result of having like a car that looks amazing, right?
And so getting to that end result helps, you know, having the right tools to get to that end
result helps dramatically, right?
And so, and then beyond that, when you pair like a high quality soap,
that's actually helping you clean the surface of the car, like the super-soaper
in your foam cannon with your pressure washer, with your deionized water.
You can very quickly see how this becomes from a irritating task that you're managing
and trying to deal with all these, you know, outside factors.
How hard, how hard is my water?
How hot is it today?
Blah, blah, blah.
It takes all the guesswork out of it.
And then you can just enjoy the craft, enjoy the hobby,
enjoy what you're doing.
And guess what?
When you enjoy the process, you do it more, right?
I am so bummed that I gave away that slogan to a brand that I was helping.
I created the slogan for them, enjoy the process.
And I regret that I gave that one away because that's a good one.
I really enjoy that.
So, okay, so you have your DI water.
You have your pressure washer hooked up to your pressure washer.
You have a foam cannon.
And that's where I see a lot of people get totally in the weeds.
Like they focus on the foam cannon and it doesn't have a stainless steel ball.
And is it stainless steel in the inner workings?
And you know, what's the flow of the pressure washer?
And they get all caught up in the weeds of the, sorry,
the foam cannon that they're using or even the pressure washer.
And they never even talk about the deionized water.
It's like crazy to me.
It's like, well, the deionized water will actually make your foam cannon work better.
Your deionized water will maybe make your pressure washer work better.
I don't know about that.
But definitely it will make your foam cannon work better.
But your pressure washer will help your foam cannon use less water.
It'll help you use less water.
But the foundation of it all is the deionized water.
So you've got to start there, right?
I mentioned it in the last one, but a steamer.
A steamer is so versatile even for a DIY or a driveway detail or whatever.
You can get the cheaper McCulloch steamers to like 150 bucks on Amazon.
If money, you know, you want the best of the best
and you're willing to invest a little bit more money.
The VX5000 is a insanely good steamer.
It's super durable.
You could even use it inside your house.
I've used it on like tile and grout.
It comes with a bunch of attachments, but that one's like,
I think a thousand bucks or might be 1200 bucks by now.
But that one has multiple uses that you could even use it inside your house.
So to me, a steamer is invaluable, right?
That's definitely another product that or another, yeah,
another product that I don't buy often, but I used often.
And so I've had my VX5000 for 12 years now.
It's never broke.
It's never been serviced.
I threw it in the back of my truck.
It's a little wonky now because I don't use it as often as I used to,
but it still really, really works.
And that's, you know, 14 years later.
So in my opinion, it was a really, really good investment.
Let me check my notes here.
Another one, it kind of falls in the tool category as well,
but I'd still consider it a product.
That's an air compressor.
This is something that I fought for a really, really, really long time
and just didn't see the value in and didn't see the need for it,
especially for how much space an air compressor can take up.
But now having one, it's like, again, like infinite amount of uses.
You can blow off a car.
You could use it on interiors where I think it's like most valuable.
I talked about in the previous podcast episode,
like a value add.
If you're doing this as a professional,
like and you see a customer that they're, you know,
tire pressure is a little low.
You could fill it up for them.
I know that seems so basic and easy,
but honestly, if you think about service based industries,
just in general, it feels like everyone does the bare minimum.
So it actually doesn't take that much more effort
to like go above and beyond.
And so, you know, doing a simple service
like just filling up the air in their tires is huge, right?
It reminds me as an aside, there's an HVAC company around here,
locally in Southern California,
and their slogan is, you know,
heating and air conditioning and then good deeds for free.
In fact, they had a whole campaign,
a whole marketing campaign,
about how they did good deeds for free, right?
And that was their kind of differentiator.
And it's because that is valuable to customers
and especially I think in service based industries
and really just industries across the board,
doing the bare minimum is really the norm.
And so going above and beyond that
is a really good way to differentiate yourself.
And so it's something I actively practice in my product,
you know, brand, my customer service,
I will smoke anyone's customer service.
There is no other brand on the face of the earth
that has better customer service than I do.
And I really pride myself on that.
And I know that because I do all the customer service myself, okay?
So there is no other brand that even gets close
to the customer service that I offer.
And so for you having compressed air,
not only does it have like a million and one uses
when it comes to car detailing,
but it has a million and one uses
and how you can kind of wow the customer
to go above and beyond.
Not to mention how you could use it
in your day to day family life, right?
Pump it up to kids bike tires,
fill in the wife's car with air.
My mom stops by all the time to just constantly hit a curb.
And so her tires are a little flat.
It's no big deal. I pump it up.
Saves them from having to go to the gas station,
having to go to the mechanic
and ask them for their air, right?
Another one that I would use is
quality products that you like,
that you mesh with and believe
in the people behind those products.
And I know specifically on YouTube,
there's so much brand bashing.
There's so much, you know, this and that.
And I'm guilty of kind of engaging in that
with my torture test or cheap versus expensive.
And that really came from a place
of being very frustrated of like,
why can't why do brands need to lie to people?
Right? Like I don't understand.
And it still happens today.
That'll continue forever.
It's never going to change.
It doesn't matter how many
cheap versus expensive videos I put out there
or how many torture test videos I put out there
or how many other videos.
It doesn't matter.
It's still going to remain the same.
But the way and the thing that I think we could do
is change our mindset towards that and start.
This is why I think I still put out YouTube videos
and why I'm excited that I have a brand.
And I know that a lot of YouTubers get bashed
for having their own brand.
But if we think about it
and we kind of change our mindset around that,
it's actually the best thing for consumers
because you get to see the face behind the brand.
You get to see the thoughts
and the mythology behind launching another product.
Right? And so I think following a person online
and then supporting their brand
is kind of the best thing you could do for the industry.
I will say I am really disappointed
because just like with anything in life,
people will exploit that
and they will claim that it's their own brand.
They will claim that they sampled things to death.
They will claim that they spent hours
and years and years and years developing a formula
when it's simply not true.
But I think we can all kind of start to see through that.
It's actually one reason why I try to go
overly transparent with showing product development videos
like I have with the Super Super
or the spray-on sealant that I'm working on
or other products that I'm working on.
I try to go over and beyond to be transparent with that.
The polish took six months.
I documented the whole process
because one, no one's doing that.
A lot of the videos that come out
after I started doing that,
we're kind of like,
oh, these are the formulas that I'm working on.
And it's like, oh, that formula's done.
It's great.
And it's like product development
doesn't work like that.
Product development,
when you're actually creating something from scratch,
takes a long time and a lot of iterations.
Even with the polish,
I didn't show about seven iterations that I worked on.
And so anyway, so I think quality products,
that brands that you like,
you know the person behind the brand,
and then they have to have great customer service.
They have to have top quality customer service.
And so, whether it's a shipping issue,
there's so many things that can go wrong
when it comes to supporting a brand from your standpoint.
Not only are you putting trust
that they're not going to sell your information,
you're putting trust in that you're putting
your credit card information into their website,
you're trusting that they're actually
going to ship the products to you.
And then shipping damage happens.
How do they handle that?
Is the customer service easy to get a hold of?
All those things.
But again, if you have,
I know a lot of YouTubers get heat
for having their own brand,
but honestly, it might be the best type of brand to support
because they have the most to lose.
If you start bashing their brand online
and they have a following,
that's going to significantly impact them.
And so, I think actually supporting,
and I may be biased because I have my own brand,
but supporting a creator who has their own brand
might be the best brand to support.
If you think about a big box brand,
if you send in a customer support ticket
or a customer support email,
I mean, chances are it goes to the abyss
and you never hear from anyone, right?
Could be wrong in that,
but high chance that it goes into the abyss.
So I think supporting a creator who has more to lose
is actually a better buy for you
as also the consumer home hobbyist, whatever.
So yeah, high quality products, I'd recommend.
Pump sprayers are another one.
I would just use like a garden hose,
sorry, not a garden hose, pump sprayer.
I would use a lawn and garden pump sprayer, probably.
This is something where I would not splurge on
and I would not, I just don't think
the value is necessarily there with that.
It's kind of how I feel with foam cannons,
like not necessarily sure the splurge is always worth it.
I think that there is added value in higher
or more premium foam cannons,
but that gap between like, is it significantly better
than a cheap one, it verdicts out, right?
I will say that there is some like niceties.
I don't think that's a word either.
I think I made it up, but I think there are some niceties
or some nice to haves with some of the premium foam cannons.
Yeah, it's nice if the O-ring doesn't go, you know,
could put within a few washes.
Yeah, it's nice when it doesn't tip over.
Yeah, it's nice when it has a big mouth
that you can easily put soap in.
Yeah, it's nice if you could change the foam
from vertical to horizontal.
Those are niceties and then you can decide
if that's worth a more premium price tag for you.
But pump sprayers are kind of the same.
Like I've had more success, better success
with just like cheapies from Amazon
or the lawn and garden pump sprayer
that I picked up from Amazon or the HDX one from Home Depot.
And it's like 20, 25 bucks or maybe even less.
And it works incredibly well, right?
So I would definitely have pump sprayers,
especially instead of buckets, right?
In the previous episode, I talked about
how you don't need buckets.
This one, I'm like, get pump sprayers,
instead of buckets, you'll be happy.
And then again, high quality towels.
I mean, look, I like Costco towels.
I buy Costco towels for the house.
I buy Costco towels for the shop
because for me, nothing cleans glass better
than a brand new Costco microfiber towel,
even with some water.
That's kind of just a hack that I have.
So I do keep a pack of Costco microfiber towels
kind of on hand at all times.
But when it comes to touching the paint,
wiping the paint, a higher quality towel is ideal, right?
And so I think investing in some high quality towels,
you reuse them.
It's going to save you a bunch of time.
But it kind of goes in the same vein
of like high quality products
that you align with the founder's kind of viewpoint
of the industry or what they see fit, right?
And so towels kind of are the same vein for me
in that as well.
So obviously I would recommend all of my own products,
the Jimbo's detailing products,
I think those are high quality.
I think you're going to get the most value out of them.
I don't play any games or any shenanigans at all.
I'm the only one behind it.
I don't have any investors or backers
or like private equity behind me, maybe one day,
but I don't.
So when you're supporting my brand,
you're directly supporting me and the mission that I'm on.
You are not supporting a venture capitalist
or a moneybacker or anything like that.
Not that there's anything against that.
It's just not my favorite, right?
So maybe I'm jealous, not really,
because I've played that game too
where I've started brands for people and it's not fun.
And so yeah, those are, I don't know,
five or seven products that I constantly buy
that I would continue to buy the Jimbo's detailing products.
Obviously I would continue to buy over and over
in large quantities, kidding.
But I will link all my products below
if you want to support this channel,
if you want to support my brand,
if you want to support the mission I'm on.
Again, it's kind of beating the dead horse at this point,
but I have tons and tons of experience with this.
I've seen the industry from every angle.
I've been completely jaded by this industry
to see how the sausage is made.
I've seen the bad actors.
The bad actors are still out there.
The bad actors are still doing the same old, same old.
It's never gonna stop.
And so the really only way to combat that
is to create a different option
and another option for people.
And so that's what I've done with my brand.
And that's why I continue to do YouTube videos
and podcasts and all that kind of stuff
is because the only way to combat those bad actors
is to show people that there's a better option
or a different option.
There's an option that people do things,
they do do it differently.
And so that's what I'm trying to do
because trying to call them out,
I've done it for years and years and years
and it just looks bad for me.
They gaslight and it looks bad on everyone, right?
And so instead of doing that,
which is what I've done in the past,
what I'm really focused on
and trying to do especially this year
is just highlight that,
hey, there's a different way to do things
and I'm gonna show you how it could be done differently
and in doing that,
it'll highlight how bad
some people actually run their brands
and their businesses.
So with that,
hopefully you guys got some value out of that.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
What products would you add to this?
Again, this is just kind of an off the cuff
short list of things that I notice
I use every single day or continue to buy.
I continue to buy over and over and over again.
And so, but let me know what I missed on the list.
And so with that, I will catch you guys on the next one.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks for watching.
Thanks for supporting the brand.
It means a ton up and up.
Let's go.
See ya.
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