Pints and Polishing Auto Detailing Podcast Oct 28, 2025

SEMA Right Around The Corner Should You Go? Also, A Lot of Detailing Talk! Episode #926

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Concept

SEMA

SEMA is a big car show where companies display their new products and custom cars. It's a great place for car enthusiasts to see the latest trends and innovations in the automotive world.

Car

The Toyota Land Cruiser is a big, tough SUV that can go almost anywhere, making it great for adventures like camping and exploring off the beaten path. People often talk about it because it's built to last and can handle rough conditions, which is perfect for outdoor projects. It's like a reliable friend for your road trips and outdoor activities.

Term

touch car wash

A touch car wash is a type of car wash that uses brushes to scrub your car clean. Sometimes, these brushes can scratch the paint if they're not kept clean.

Term

paint correction

Paint correction is when you fix the scratches and marks on a car's paint to make it look shiny and new again. It involves using special tools and products to polish the surface.

Term

ceramic coating

Ceramic coating is a special liquid that you put on a car's paint to protect it. It helps keep the car shiny and safe from dirt, scratches, and other damage.

Car

Jaguar XJ8

The Jaguar XJ8 is a fancy car made by Jaguar. The 2011 version is known for being stylish and comfortable, with lots of nice features inside.

LIVE

Welcome to the pints and polishing podcast, the most influential and listen to podcast in auto detailing. Welcome to the community.

I want everybody pitching their head this meme because it'll make sense. That meme when you hear it, would you look at that? Would you look at that?

Everybody remember that meme? Hilarious the guy's name was Ed something. I always think about that, Nick, when we get called out for missing an episode.

It's like, what'd you look at that? What'd you look at that? I missed an episode. I was like, oh man, got called out in the Facebook group.

And we're even recording this not just late early for the next week because you got more recordings to do next week.

Yeah, for sure.

So what happened? Something about everybody. I think the best sales team in the world is with Amazon.

Yeah, Amazon.

Everybody.

Yeah, AWS or something. So yeah, we just couldn't record and then I was having some work done at the shop and just had to miss a week.

Now that work at the shop is interesting. People are going to start to see some stuff and we did some things on a reason.

I know one people always talk about what lights should I do, what things should I do in a shop. So you're going to get to share some things.

And as you begin to do some building, you know, people do want to know what coming with, you know, hyperclaim, what are we up to?

And that's some behind the scenes. It's going to be cool to see.

Yeah, I mean, look, it's, you know, landlord here, you know, agreed to upgrade some lights. We didn't get a huge say in that, you know, they have an electrical contractor.

They seem to be really good. You know, both of them are done. The office switched to LEDs and, you know, we have LEDs all over the shop space now.

But now it's just about putting together, you know, and finally taking the shop and turning into a cool space to just kind of work on cars and stuff like that.

But, you know, as I've told everybody, you know, it's just a really small shop, a couple cars. I didn't want something big.

And so we're going to be able to turn in something cool.

Now people that are like, Hey, I want to come on. I'm at SEMA. I'm going to come hang out with Nick at the shop. What about that?

No, we don't. We'll be at SEMA. SEMA is a busy week. And I think if you handle SEMA properly, you should be in and around the strip almost the entire time.

I think it's one of those types of things.

I think detailers at SEMA are the admin. Most detailers are in that SEMA. They are doing that. Would you look at that?

Right? And it's really about the bad things that we see, right? I mean, that's when people are like, as a detailer, should I go to SEMA?

You're getting those text message. I'm getting those text message. First off, we go, yes, you should go to SEMA.

Yeah, if you've never been there, or if you have been there, and it's within your budget and it's something you want to do.

Yeah, man, I still think you should get to SEMA. First of all, you don't actually know when it could go away.

Nobody ever thinks it's going away.

I don't think it's going to go away. I'm just saying no time is better than now.

There's a lot of arguments that some of the halls may need to go away.

You know, and unfortunately, there's a lot of different things that would represent in our industry.

But, you know, when I started going to SEMA, SEMA was every hall plus tents outside, plus, plus, plus, plus.

I mean, they were bursting at the seams. Not bursting at the seams anymore for two reasons.

The convention center expanded and things like that. But it's definitely, it's a different show.

But if you can get there, you should go.

What years did you first start going?

2010.

Okay. Yeah, for me, it was like 2016. 15, 16 was like my first years to go.

And I remember, yes, 17, 18, 19, I didn't ever know it ever got back to that moment.

No, I don't think we're ever going to see that again.

And, you know, we've attended different shows here recently that have nothing to do with detailing.

And you and I can say some of those have shrunk by an entire hall.

You know, those are now down to one hall or two halls instead of four halls.

I mean, trade shows in everything, whether that's automotive or not, is in the same boat that, you know, it's an older crowd.

A lot of young guys aren't going to things like this.

I would say all you young guys, if you use SEMA correctly, it's an experience and you can see the rest of the world of automotive.

And that's what I would say to anybody, go really learn what the rest of automotive is doing.

Now, that's interesting, isn't it?

Interesting.

Why we wouldn't just be walking around talking to other detailers and looking at the next coding and, oh, this tool is this different in this pet?

Yep.

Why wouldn't we do that?

Well, I'll just tell people, I mean, all I can do is really share, I'll spend very little time in what's called the West Hall, which is detailing.

I might actually spend a little bit more time because we're doing some projects for the Land Cruiser that I have and there's overlanding stuff in that part of the hall now.

But that's getting bigger and bigger, you know, taking over more and more space.

But I think when you look at it, guys, I think sometimes it's really easy not to have a perspective on how other parts of this industry work.

You know, go into the body shop, go into wheels and tires, go into the tool areas in the central hall.

You know, you might see a little different professionalism, people hustling a little more, people more inviting, people that aren't trying to, you know, sell the next latest greatest thing, they're just trying to connect with people.

And I think, and again, there's people in the detailing and PPF space that do a good job of that, but it's few and far between as when you really look at how the other halls are run.

I think the one thing you'll notice is energy.

There's an energy problem in the West Hall compared to the rest of the show.

So detailing wise, is there really anything new that could be like, wow, you got to go see?

I'm just trying to think of what people have put out.

I'm trying to run through my mind.

I'm sure others are like, oh, maybe there's this one new little, I can't think of anything that's like.

No, and but that's why I've always, or at least the last five years, I've been telling people, besides that, I think we lost one of the four, five years or we lose two years.

I think we only lost one year.

Yeah, I think just one.

I think that one year you're thinking about it was like, completely dead, right?

Like, you had sent me like, they've moved all the things way far away from each other.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's all running together now, but I would tell anybody that goes set up meetings.

If you don't have set up meetings, don't stand and BS in the booths, you're much wet better to go learn from the rest of the automotive industry, in my opinion.

I think there's there's a lot of positive that comes from going and talking to people you have relationships with.

But I think it's also way more beneficial to go see how the rest of the automotive business operates.

I think there are people that are going to start doing that.

I know there's there's quite a few people in our, I guess I say our circles, so to speak, those that are in our community, those that are around us, they, they have that kind of in their blood.

I think it's probably more of what our crew is.

But those that aren't, I say, listen, just the same as you, if you're going to go to see you, if you're thinking of SEMA, you go for the food.

Yeah, I love the food in Vegas.

I mean, that's, that's part of the reason to go.

There's, there's New York, New York, these little pizzerias, the best trampoline I've ever found.

There's little put Vegas.

Yeah, you go down to old Vegas.

I mean, if you're into steakhouses, you got the world class of the world class here.

You got views of the strip.

You can go to Italian restaurants.

You can go to, I mean, anything you want, are you into like, I mean, just go to Chinatown in Vegas, you know, which is only a couple blocks from my shop.

I mean, you know, realistically, I think the best way to experience SEMA is to take it as vacation.

Don't stuff your calendar.

I think that's a big mistake for a lot of people is they go, I'm going to go to the show from eight to noon and I'm going to go do these crazy stuff from, you know, one to six.

And it's like, I just don't think that's the best way to experience Vegas.

And, you know, you can just take my, my two cents is what it's worth is two cents.

I think there's a lot of ways to enjoy SEMA.

I think we should celebrate SEMA.

I don't think we should lie about SEMA, which, which usually gets, you know, people pretty, pretty upset.

But it looks like a lot of people have followed our line of thinking all of a sudden as the economy's gotten a little tighter and announcing they're not going to go and they're not going to be there and they're not going to have a booth.

So it seems like that what we've been telling you guys for five years, the world's allowed to change.

It's going to change and you're either going to change with it or you aren't.

And I think you guys will probably see what I've seen the last five years if you visit this year.

And I, I'd love that you said that the world is changing.

Here's what I want to ask you about in that moment of the world's changing and I'm at SEMA.

All right, so I'm at SEMA and I'm seeing these people.

What is 2025 and not, you know, let's say 2019, 2018, right?

Let's go through some different types of people that might be at SEMA.

First off, let's just go to the fun one.

The detailer show up and fight guys.

I haven't thought about that a long time.

They're gone.

It is kind of gone.

I haven't seen much about that.

That is true.

That's a good one.

I guess, I guess because like you said, lower economy.

What's going on?

They're done.

But what about that Facebook group influencer at SEMA?

Now, that's a specific type of person.

That's the guy that's in the group.

That's the keyboard guy.

I mean, then then goes to the booths.

Those are interesting people to see when you actually meet them out in public.

Yeah.

No, that's a good point.

Those are two good ones right off the gate.

All right.

Next one that would be more older, but not so much now thinking influencer.

IG influencer.

Yeah.

Here's the funny thing about that.

I kind of said this, I think last year coming out of SEMA.

They aren't.

SEMA is still really big about like having people on a stage somewhere.

You remember seeing that like that, you know, and what is it the south or the

central hall or whatever they got that stage.

They're still kind of big about that.

I don't think they've quite figured out how to have internet personalities out

and about at the show consistently.

I don't think they've done a good job with that.

Matter of fact, I know they haven't.

I've been there.

But I saying this to you, I would say right now.

I don't think a lot of those people go.

Just think the Instagram influencer, right?

The Tik Tok Instagram, you know, short form guy.

The only one I could think of that I've seen that's going that she's listen,

I get the autograph, take the picture, get to do it.

That lucky 13 paint shop.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

She's a good looking chick.

Yeah.

She's probably going to go.

But again, she's going through.

Yep.

She's going because she's sponsored.

And so, yeah.

Yeah.

This is this is one of the things that I think people got dibs on her.

He's like, hey, that's his.

Okay.

I'm joking.

Um, but we, we, we look at this way.

Life was different when all these companies were picking up TV

personalities and they would.

That wasn't there.

There we see them.

Are they there anymore?

It just depends, man.

It depends on who's got a deal.

It depends on how big the deal is.

You know, you'll see a lot of oil companies will bring in their,

their people that are on social media.

They're usually good about spending money for obvious reasons.

The automotive business and I can't say last year, you know,

they still had the Jay Leno types and, and, but again,

they were sort of isolated to that stage.

I just think it's kind of outdated, you know, in a lot of ways.

So I don't know that it has the effect that once did, but yeah,

I mean, there's always going to be those, but in the detailing

space of like tick tockers and IG, I mean,

those people have to foot their own bill to get here.

Largely that ain't going to happen.

Yeah.

All right.

Last question and you don't know because you don't go.

I only went to a couple and those were generally that,

you know, non non, I guess brand party, but you know,

big brands all throw parties.

Now parties like it was 2019.

Hell no.

Right.

I mean, those things were 200 grand a night.

Yeah, easily.

Easy.

Yeah.

Look, you're looking at now the publicly traded PPF companies.

They still do something.

Although last year, even that was kind of on the chopping block

and starting to be talked about as getting rid of that.

So I think it's going to be interesting.

You know, for somebody like me, you know, I just,

I get, I get invited to a lot of those things.

A lot of negative happens in those things.

We've had a lot of incidents over the years.

We've had some serious incidents over the years.

We've had some minor incidents and everything in between.

And I'm not just talking detailing.

I mean, largely detailing companies don't throw the massive parties.

It is the, the PPF, the, the tent, the, the bigger, you know,

publicly traded companies that seem to be doing it now.

But I, you know, guys, if you can't afford your own drink,

then I don't know.

It might not be wise to go to, to go to SEMA.

You know, I had no, like I said, there was, there was a couple that I

went to that were, that were just put on by a person, right?

Not by a brand, but the ones that were put on by a brand,

everybody would go and I was like, I'm not,

I'm not going to go drink their drink.

I'm not.

I'm going to go pay for my own drink.

And look, I mean, the, the PPF company that, that I used here,

you know, since I started the shop, they were very nice.

They're like, Hey, here's a ticket, you know, this and that.

You, you, it is a sign of respect, you know, for their customers.

I'm just warning people.

If you knew the stories coming out of those parties, I think you'd be kind of

in a rush.

I mean, there's incidents where police got involved and different

things like that.

Like it's, sometimes you got to ask yourself, is this worth it?

Yeah.

Right.

And again, that's kind of where I come out.

Well, and we did our, you know, we'd have our pint night on Tuesday.

There'd be another thing we'd do.

And then, you know, we'd have a couple nights that we were free.

And I was like, I don't want to, that's where I want to go to Vegas,

right?

Let me go out and eat the food I want to get.

Let me go do some nightlife.

And like, and that's where our crew, we, we wouldn't necessarily go

to those other guys' parties those times.

We'd go out and experience Vegas.

That's the way to do it.

Yeah.

And that's what I say.

Treat it like a vacation.

But I mean, if everybody's asking me what to do in Vegas, which I've gotten

a lot of these, you know, text messages, guys, it's the food and entertainment

capital of the United States.

Okay.

If you're not into the entertainment, whether that's a, you know, you could

stick around or come in early if the Raiders play or the Knights play or,

you know, go to one of a zillion shows.

If that's not your thing, then you're going to, you know, bar hop or, you know,

go to different spots or, you know, go sightsee or whatever.

That's cool.

But if you're not going to enjoy the food, man, I don't really have a

laundry list.

You know, you guys aren't going to be out where, you know, in the suburbs where

kind of Vegas has blossomed, you know, many of you aren't going to take the

drive to these places to go do these things that, that really if you live

here, you know, I only go to the strip for trade shows.

And essentially, if I want to go watch a hockey game or something like that.

So, I mean, it's, it's a food scene.

It's an entertainment scene.

And that's what you got to, you got to realize.

All right.

So while we're there, we're looking at cars like we joke to most detailers are

going to judge whether we're there.

You've mentioned, you know, just walking through a box store, right?

Just walking through the grocery store looking at cars.

You know, we can all have some judge minerals, but I remember a time.

I bet you you do.

Well, well, you remember a time that you probably use one of these, huh?

The old sponge.

I mean, let's, let's think of these people that are, are scratching some cars.

And you go, the world's changed.

Well, the world's changed in some, some styles, but we can all understand that,

you know, maybe this, this, this sponge is better than, than or not better.

Apologies is worse than, you know, the towel technique that you have or some

people would go now, you know, the, the two bucket method is much better than

the sponge.

Okay.

We can see some progression while at the same time, if, if we're leaned over a

hood, wiping off and something happened to get caught in a microfiber and we go

and wipe, we've all been there and we just see that mark appearing.

That's horrible.

That feeling.

It's horrible.

Oh, like, is there anything worse?

I, when you're due to, maybe the burn, maybe burning a car, maybe.

Yeah, that's, that's a bad feeling.

Yeah.

But, you know, after everything and then something in your town, you've done all the

stuff and then something in your town.

Now I saw this picture in a, in a group and they were curious if this would scratch

a car.

Now, just guess if you know the location that they're referring to.

It's a car wash, of course, right?

Yeah, there you go.

And it's a boar's hair brush.

We can just mentally picture that image of a self-serve car wash and a boar's hair

brush that probably eight months ago had some hairs.

Yeah.

And they want to know, right?

But the average person does pull into them.

You know, does that brush, is the brush what causes scratches, right?

Like somebody that's listening, somebody that, I got plenty of people.

I know, a lot of us know that we have, we coat their car and then some people will

go to a self-serve wash and they, they say they just spray them off.

Yeah, but you, you can see.

Yeah.

I mean, everything at the car wash is a two-fold problem, especially a touch car wash.

I mean, I guess we should, should say that it's always the people that are ahead of

you and what is in those, you know, spinners, what's in the brushes, what's in the, whatever.

I have generally seen a lot of very dirty vehicles go through a car wash.

And so I got to ask myself, did all the debris fall off the brush?

No, because we've all been there.

I mean, you've used something on your tires and gone and used a pressure washer.

And you're like, man, that thing still won't come out.

You know, I got to get the, you know what I mean?

So I think I see these questions a lot in groups.

And it's like, guys, I'm not going to sit here and be the guy that demonizes car washes

because largely people that go to car washes are doing it out of convenience.

We're all very aware who, who listen to us.

I just think the best case scenario is just getting out there, getting out of there without

your mirror being ripped off.

I mean, there's going to be some type of damage every time.

I just, I don't think there's going to be a one time you go, unless you watch the guy

change out everything to brand new right before you pulled in.

So there's a whole lot of new people that you're talking to, right?

On the other part of marketing as a company that we do, any, I could, you know,

any clues from them about what they think about me pulling up to a self-serve wash.

You know, it's, it's that brush.

It looks okay.

Cause we're all going to question, right?

Like, Hey, I, which we talked about a second ago, you know, the, the technique of dumping

into this bucket and then going into this bucket safe.

No, this mid safe.

No, this is it.

How do we really know what is the safe way?

We, we, we don't talk about, you know, you know, with clutch culture and everything now

and the amount of viewers and supporters and everybody that's DMing all the time or

leaving comments.

I don't even think the general car owner thinks about any of this.

I think that's one of the things we've kind of gotten wrong in detailing for a long,

as far as I, as long as I've been in it, which is we think our belief systems are out

amongst the masses.

And it's not the masses dude.

It's like one or 2% of the masses.

Maybe.

Right.

I'm, I think those are probably pretty large numbers, right?

Less than 5%, let's say.

So 95% of people don't notice a scratch.

Don't notice a swirl.

They're interiors and by our standards of people like us are probably going to rate

towards bad, not even average.

They're going to be actually in bad shape because average to the average guy that's

not into this is still pretty dirty to people like us.

I just think we take for granted that everybody knows what we do, that everybody understands

how hard it is to keep your car looking good, how much of a commitment is, whether that

be financial or you doing the actual work.

I just, I think we've completely missed the mark.

We've talked about this a million times on here.

I just think we don't speak honestly about the consumer and you know, it could be a Porsche

owner.

It could be a Bentley owner.

I mean, we have a Bentley that I see all the time driving to work right out right, right

in my neighborhood.

I bet his wheels have not been cleaned in eight months.

I'd say eight months.

The Bentley is about eight months old.

So I don't think he's ever done anything to that Bentley since bringing it home.

I think I'd be pretty accurate.

I'm close.

I'm close to right because I've seen it since it had temp tags on it.

Well, people should just, you know, passion meets purpose and you know, just get more

encouraged to go clean more cars, Nick.

I'm with you.

The question that I think we all have to start asking ourselves is have we been talking

over people's heads?

Have we listened to the wrong people?

Yeah, that's always a huge problem for any of us.

And I think a lot of us will start to, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on.

Are you starting to say what I think you're starting to say here?

Because there is inside of detailing like this cultish idea that we are the only, right?

And we have the, and there's, jeez, I mean, you watch videos from whether it's a detailer

or a brand.

Hey, listen, we have the number one.

We have the, and it's like, for what?

What do you have the number one to remove this, to do that, to do what?

Like at the end of the day, detailing is so minuscule to your point, 1% under 1%.

And does that make it less worthwhile?

Absolutely not.

You actually would go, well, that was what creates the massive opportunity of the 99%.

And maybe we should associate just as a detailer, we should associate as car care professionals.

Yeah, we've kind of talked about this.

I mean, this is why people go, we're not a car wash, right?

You know how people say that.

We're not a car wash.

Totally agree.

But there's a conversation of that if you don't have a solution for customers to get their car cared for in a more elevated way.

So let's call it maintenance on their car.

Then where are they going to go?

Because we have this idea.

And I think, I think, you know, social media drives this home really hard, especially if you're in the detailing space.

You think there's all of these DIYers out there.

Yeah, there's some DIYers.

But I got news for you.

We all live in a neighborhood.

How many of your neighbors have a power washer set up, foam cannon set up, rinse list set up, you know, wheel cleaner set up.

You guys all live in neighborhoods.

Some of you live in one.

Yeah, you guys, some of us live in nicer neighborhoods or middle average middle class neighborhoods or lower middle class.

All kinds of different people that have a reason to take care of their car for different reasons.

And they're not doing it themselves.

I've got neighbors that clean their cars, but you mentioned a power washer.

Very simple.

None.

Still using the hose.

And by the way, you can get a result.

Like, let's not, you can get a result.

But we have the coolest thing about what you said is what I feel is there's all this room for growth and to talk to new people.

And to explain to new people how to experience their car, just a little elevated.

I mean, just if the average person knew how to wash their car and keep their interior clean, you're helping damn near the whole 99%.

Right.

I mean, because most people just don't do it.

And so we have all this room, but I think we also love to talk about paint correction.

We love to talk about ceramic coating.

We love to talk about all these things that you kind of have to be on the inside to understand.

And it does kind of get lumped into a moment, right?

I'll go back to a story from months ago because, you know, we're, we're headed back out to try out for the MLS.

We got tournaments this weekend, tournaments next weekend.

And, you know, remember I was in Kansas City and there was a lady that walked out and I was just using our rinse list.

I'm sorry.

Using the lab product.

And she goes, Oh, are you detailing your car?

It's an interesting word to say.

I'm just washing it.

Yeah.

But even she associated somebody who regularly cares or wants to keep a clean car.

That's somebody who is detail.

Which is great.

I mean,

The more we can get that out there and that's what the internet has done.

I mean, as much as we all talk about the negative of, you know, detailing tick tock or, you know, detailing YouTube.

The one thing is, is that it's made the word more popular.

You know, it's made the thought process of detailing is coming across people's feeds a little bit more than it would have without all of this.

Right.

They would have never even known because some of you started, you know, years and years ago.

I mean, you'd have to explain to people what detailing even was largely now when you get a phone call.

They at least know you're a shop or a mobile guy.

They may not.

They may use the word car wash here and there.

I need my car wash, but more people use the word detailing.

And that's why some of this stuff for everybody that wants to make everything negative or they want to think that everything's positive.

It's always somewhere in the middle.

And we are in the middle of more people know about detailing.

Great thing.

More bad information about detailing, bad thing, you know, but it's a great thing.

More people know about things that we do or they can learn to take care of their car better.

And I think it just comes down to this for me is I think sometimes we need to remember that 99% of people have no idea what we're talking about.

And so it's okay to just talk about the simple stuff.

When somebody asks you a question about a car wash, don't go crazy.

You know, don't go bashing the car wash to say, look, I mean, these are the things that are going to happen when you go there.

You need to be aware, you know, but it's hard for guys to tone down.

I mean, it really is.

Yeah, it really is.

You know, one thing that is hard to tone down.

I know that I've really tried over the years is to stop bragging to you about the amount of damage that I do on cars.

I sent you a picture last week and you know, I've had to tone it down because well, they're just becoming few and far between the less I clean cars.

Yeah.

But I had a customer a long time ago, sent you a picture of and it was a Jaguar convertible.

I said it was a let's see, I haven't written down 2011 X J eight.

Yeah, those are great.

I used to love those things.

Me too.

Except when you go oops.

Like I said, there was this moment that that I did something I think we can we can all have those moments and appreciate them.

The customer when you're talking to him because I was reliving a memory and I I just sent the guy a message and and he was still chatting back and forth with me and he's a great guy.

And his name is Chuck and Chuck goes, you know, I still use your your waterless.

I did the the the Nick and Marshall routine.

Hold on.

Let me go into our account.

Let me say I'm like, this doesn't make sense, Chuck.

Like, what do you mean?

Oh, I still have some.

How this bingo bingo.

How do you and so he then talks about these other vehicles and he's like, I still have some and I've been cleaning with this.

Huh?

How much did you give this guy 32 ounces?

But I'll give him his point.

He goes I was still finding it at so I was still sitting on some shelves at research and Whole Foods for many years.

Now you and I can imagine how that looked in the bottle.

But but you go, wow, you know that this guy found a rhythm or routine.

How many years has been since I think, you know, I don't know.

And you just we always go like, man, you never understand why people would say some things that they say, right?

It's wild.

It's interesting that somebody would tell me that when we could do the go how what?

Huh?

Yeah, people people don't think the Internet's real.

Oh, yeah.

But when people are records, but when people will tell me like to John, this is a guy in Canada that uses revive his quote.

Are you guys putting unicorn blood or piss in revive magic sauce, right?

Like if there's something that you can believe how simple revive is to use.

Well, don't do it.

No, Dan.

Like if I would have had revive on those seats of that Jaguar, I'd never have that story to tell, right?

Yeah, 100%.

No, it's it's absolutely true.

I mean, it's one of these things like we it's so cool to see where all the products are now all the different people using it and how much you can explain to somebody who

had products that damage the hell out of things to now have products that don't and there's no risk with them.

That's just something you can't get across if you didn't ever have the fear about damage.

So speaking of damage, hard to make, you know, a lot of guys right now, we definitely seen pony.

I've seen.

I can probably send you I have been screen shotting.

I need to send send you the amount of people that I'm seeing in other groups, not ours posting, you know, here's what they have.

They need this for it.

You know, I got to get four grand for this or hey, I've got this set up with a truck.

And if you want the truck and the chemicals and all the stuff, it's 30.

If you want, I saw this one was 30.

And then if you want with the customer list, it's 40.

Yeah, I saw that.

I did somebody sent me a customer list there, huh?

Like, yeah, no, I look at this.

And for those of you haven't been through it, I don't think 2025 when is as well for some people.

That always happens.

But I think you're seeing that elevated now.

And for those of you that go through wintertime, it's going to probably be, you know, a very tough wintertime in some places.

And I don't like seeing any of this, but it's kind of why we've been saying on here for five plus years.

Man, who you listen to and how you organize your business is really going to make a difference when times get tough.

And I think some people found that out this year for sure.

And going into these even tougher times, then this is why I was kind of bringing it up is you got the option of, I know, let's just go ahead and say what it is.

There are people that will look at revive and go, well, that is a ready to use product, right?

And they will compare it to XYZ product.

In fact, I saw one, I mean, it's hard to make money on a car when you're burning doors up, right?

I mean, you, I think you and I were in a group message where, and this guy, he had used this company and we know the back story ride.

This other company bought them and they started sourcing all their rods from some other place, right?

Now suddenly coming overseas.

Now suddenly all these people are having burned doors, right?

This guy had a burned up door and then he goes, what do you, the only way he could fix it was what to put, he tried dressing.

That didn't work.

And then he had to put what bumper die.

Yeah, trim die.

Yeah, trim die on the door to try and get it to cover up and you go ready to use or this one that was caught, you know, they could, but you did this amount of day.

Here you go.

Yeah.

No, look, I mean, we talk about this about EPC.

I mean, in general terms, you can make APC pretty safe, right?

You can, it can be a pretty safe product except for that one time you run into a door that it's not because APC inherently has that tiny bit of danger in it.

Doesn't matter whose you use.

Summer's safer, a lot safer than others.

Don't get me wrong, but APC has always had that hint of it could burn a door.

That, by the way, that was true 25 years ago.

That's true now.

Even with all of the change in technology of APC, there's still a root part of those types of concentrated chemicals where something can happen.

But then when the ingredients get cheaper, the probability of something happening goes through the roof.

So that's the problem, right?

Because I always wonder if this one that they were talking about this, I think this one itself, when they've said some things in the past, it was supposed to be.

But then like this change of the company selling has really brought in something that people don't understand.

They will never have known the back story, right?

They don't know what happened.

And they might have used to use it and it was okay.

Suddenly now we're seeing, I mean, you can't, in Facebook groups, you can't deny over and over this product from this brand is burning.

Yep.

And usually what happens guys, when companies are purchased, that company that purchased the other company is looking to get their money back.

Pretty quick.

They're not, they're not trying to sit there and not make money.

But reducing cost is the number one thing they do right out of the gate.

Oh, they're getting this stuff over here and we got this other supplier over here and we're going to go get it cheaper and that'll save us 10% on every product.

And look, I used a product from a company that their pro line was great for 10, 15, 20 years and they got purchased by a big company and it didn't take minutes.

I mean, basically when they ran out of inventory and that new inventory started getting put on the shelves, you knew right away.

And the first product that's happened to me, they had a fantastic degreaser.

Fantastic.

Always worked.

Never an issue.

Look the same.

Perform the same.

There was never a batch issue.

Nothing.

I got that new stuff and I go, well, this ain't working.

Called the rep who's now at a different at a tool company.

I said, Hey, I never seen this and it got pretty quiet and it got pretty quiet.

The next time I saw him here in Vegas, he goes, We've changed some things.

I said, Yeah.

And so that that actually when that happened and those changes started to take effect, I had to go look for new suppliers for the first time and five, six, seven years as a business owner on basic stuff.

We're not talking about, you know, a specialty product or, you know, just going to, I mean, going and finding a new coding I liked or whatever.

We're talking about the base of my business that was just altered immediately when this company was purchased.

And for those of you that don't keep up on that stuff because you're busy, I certainly understand, but there's been companies for years and years and years in this business to get purchased out of the blue.

And I can promise you and you probably knows, I know you have a story too.

It's never the same.

Once it's purchased, it's something's going to change and it's going to usually change and affect you, the user.

All right, so we end on this one, this post.

I love this out of our group.

This was from Shane.

A lot of fun because I know a lot of people always curious, you know, what are some ways I can use and they'll fill, you know, fill in the blank.

Like, let's just talk about enzyme because that's what this is about.

So if you got a product and you're learning, you know, how some different ways I can use this.

Enzyme, first of all, it's like a card up your sleeve, right?

That's so good.

Or, you know, an ace in the hole, right?

Like, it's almost like a magic trick you didn't know you had that you can spray on things and just the product itself will go and attack protein based stains.

So Shane had a really great post inside of our group.

Cranberry juice stain on my daughters.

And, you know, I'll just stop there.

I didn't know it was just a lunchbox bag.

That's a pretty impressive lunchbox bag.

Yeah, that was like her like, you know, food, whatever, some of those like luxury handbags or something, right?

Like, that's what it looks like.

And you go, wow, so you definitely know, like, Nick, you got some daughters, cranberry juice.

That's a tough combination.

Whether this is, you know, not your go to but plenty of people with kids in their cars, plenty of kids spilling things, or like this, some nice handbag or a lunchbox bag, a couch.

Yeah.

Plenty of uses for a couch and enzyme.

Enzyme is one of those unique products that we can use so many places.

Yeah.

And I always, if you're working on a car, the safest thing that you can do when working on carpets in a car, fabric seats in a car, is to make sure you put enzyme down first.

After you vacuum it.

Yeah, after you vacuum it.

Actually, there might be a defense that you could do a light spray before you vacuum and just allow it.

Enzyme is one of those things that's kind of like how it sounds.

It's supposed to start eating away at things.

Right.

You know, that's exactly what it's for.

A lot of stuff in laundry detergents and stuff, they have enzymes in them to help break down stains.

But I always say it's the safest thing you can do in cleaning carpets in a car.

Cleaning, like you said, something that was spilled on a sofa.

If enzyme goes down first, then you have less chance of setting a stain and making it so it's impossible to get out.

And a greater chance of removing it.

Yeah.

Just because you're using those enzymes to your advantage, which other cleaners don't have.

You don't have that.

They actually can't.

I mean, they just can't.

Like, even if you look at complete, you got light soil, light dirt, stuff that you know what it is, completes great.

That's why it's a two-part system, because they both clean something a little different.

But you could go in with something like APC, which is what people do.

And the first thing they do is they set a stain that should have been had with enzyme.

And now enzyme is going to struggle to get that stain out because it's been set by APC.

And there's a chemical reaction.

So honestly, if you carry one product to make your life easier on carpets in a car, it's enzyme.

Throw that down first.

You know, wipe up.

You know, if you're using an extractor, a steamer, doesn't matter.

Towel, all that stuff works.

And then come back with complete, which will attack some other things that enzyme doesn't attack.

I think some people talked about using them in laundry.

Like you said, there's some brands that have it.

But some people have talked about spraying it as a pretreat before they go put their clothes in the laundry.

Absolutely.

That's how safe it is.

And that's the other thing.

I mean, enzyme, you can think of it as more of a natural product that actually, you know, eats away at bacterias and different things like that.

To some extent, like it's just a safe product to use.

And it's in a lot of things you don't think about.

Like it's just in formulas.

But this is specifically just an enzyme cleaner.

I concentrate ready to go.

You know, put it in your bottle and go to work.

And it's that is the best.

If you were going to have one product for carpet, that's the one you would choose.

Yeah, I agree.

And the other product you said like anywhere, right?

Yeah, anywhere to clean up anything as a stain.

I think I'm going to reach for enzyme first.

I think it's going to be cool.

Like Shane, other people that post really interesting things they've cleaned up with enzyme inside the hyper clean specialist group.

So we'll see everybody over there.

We're looking forward to seeing all the cool photos and posts and what everybody puts out.

All right, guys, we'll talk to you next week.

About this episode

The discussion centers around the upcoming SEMA show, with insights on whether detailers should attend and how to make the most of the experience. The hosts reflect on the evolution of SEMA over the years, emphasizing the importance of networking and learning from other automotive sectors. They also dive into detailing techniques, product recommendations, and the challenges faced by detailers in a changing economy. The episode wraps up with practical advice on using enzyme cleaners effectively for various stains.

ceramic coating paint correction SEMA touch car wash

Toyota Land Cruiser

Original notes

In this conversation, Marshall and Nick discuss various aspects of the detailing industry, including the importance of attending SEMA, the evolution of influencers, the impact of car washes, and the significance of enzyme cleaners.

They emphasize the need for detailers to adapt to changing dynamics and consumer awareness, while sharing personal anecdotes and insights from their industry experiences.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Memes in Podcasting

02:55 Shop Upgrades and SEMA Preparations

05:54 The Importance of Attending SEMA

09:06 Changing Dynamics at SEMA

11:50 Influencers and Their Presence at SEMA

14:48 The Party Scene at SEMA

17:50 Car Washes and Detailing Techniques

20:52 Consumer Awareness in Car Care

22:24 Rethinking Detailing Conversations

24:23 The Importance of Car Care Education

27:27 The Evolution of Detailing Awareness

28:11 Navigating Product Quality and Safety

37:31 Utilizing Enzyme Cleaners Effectively

Pints and Polishing Auto Detailing Podcast

Nick Walters and Marshall Hill

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