The Ford Cougar is a car model name mentioned in the podcast. I can explain it more accurately if you share which version or year they’re talking about, since “Cougar” can refer to different vehicles. With that detail, I can describe what it is and why it matters.
Bugs that hit your car can leave stains and can actually damage the paint if you don’t clean them off quickly. The sooner you wash them away, the easier they are to remove.
Water spots are those dried marks you see after water dries on the car. They’re often caused by minerals in the water, and they can be tough to wipe off without using the right cleaner.
Ceramic coating is a protective layer you put on your car’s paint. It helps water bead up and can make bugs easier to wash off. It’s not magic, though—if bugs sit too long and etch the surface, you may still need to polish and reapply.
Etching is when something on the car paint actually damages the surface, usually leaving a dull mark. If it happens, you may need to polish the paint to fix it.
A rinseless wash cleans your car with special soap and towels, without doing a full rinse like a normal car wash. It’s handy when water is limited or you want a gentler, lower-water method.
A bug cleaner is a stronger cleaner made to break down bug splats on your car. Since it’s more aggressive than regular soap, you have to use it carefully so it doesn’t leave residue or damage the finish.
Hyper Clean Bug is the bug-splatter remover they’re talking about in this segment. They say it works well, but they also warn that if you don’t use it correctly, leftover chemical residue can cause problems later in the wash.
“Polymer base” means the product contains special film-forming ingredients. That can help it stay on the paint long enough to work, and it’s often marketed as being gentler when you follow the instructions.
Dwell time is the waiting period where the cleaner sits on the paint to do its job. If you leave the wrong kind of chemical on too long—or don’t wash it off correctly—you can end up with residue that causes trouble later.
A pressure washer is a machine that sprays water at high pressure. Here, it’s mentioned as one way people rinse off or continue the wash after applying bug cleaner.
A foam cannon makes a thick layer of soapy foam that helps loosen dirt before you scrub or rinse. It’s one of the tools people use in detailing, but you still need to handle bug cleaner residue correctly.
A waterless wash cleans the car without rinsing with water. The hosts caution that if you use a very strong bug remover and don’t fully remove it afterward, residue can stay on the paint and cause problems.
pH neutral soap is a gentler car wash soap designed to be less harsh on paint. The hosts warn that if strong bug cleaner residue is still on the car, even a gentle soap may not fully stop the problem.
In detailing, “flash” is when a spray starts drying or setting on the paint. The hosts are saying you can often see it in the spray pattern and splatter, which tells you how the product is behaving.
The “24 hours” guidance refers to how quickly you should remove contaminants from paint, especially acidic ones like bug splatter. The host suggests acting within a day to reduce the chance of etching or damaging the protective layer and paint underneath.
A ceramic coating is a protective layer you put on your car’s paint. It helps repel water and makes bugs and dirt easier to clean off, and it usually lasts longer than wax.
Wax is a protective coating you spread over your car’s paint. It can help repel water and grime, but it doesn’t usually last as long as sealants or ceramic coatings—especially in hot weather.
A sealant is like a longer-lasting protective layer for your car’s paint. Compared with wax, it’s typically more resistant to heat and weather, so it holds up better over time.
“Burn off temperature” means the heat level where a wax or sealant starts to wear out quickly. Higher burn-off resistance helps the protection last longer in summer.
“Element resistance” just means how well the protection holds up against weather and outdoor conditions. Better element resistance usually means it lasts longer and protects better.
Paint protection film is a clear sheet that you put on your car’s paint to protect it from chips and damage. It’s usually more protective than wax or coatings, especially in the areas that get hit the most.
Some products are marketed as “ceramic,” but they may actually be mostly a different type of coating. That can mean they don’t last as long or protect as well as a real ceramic coating.
Sparta is the name of a coating product the shop was using. The speaker says it wasn’t holding up as well as expected, based on what the shop reported.
Uno is the name of a coating product the speaker says is working better than the other one the shop was using. It’s part of their argument that product quality matters for how well coatings last.
A swamp cooler is a fan-and-water cooling system. It can help make the shop air less hot and less humid, which can matter when applying coatings.
Term
AC
AC here means air conditioning, which helps control both temperature and humidity inside a shop. Better climate control can improve consistency when applying coatings, especially during hot, humid summer weather.
Term
AC garage
An AC garage means the shop is cooled with air conditioning. That matters because coating products can dry or cure at different speeds depending on how hot the air is.
TRX sounds like a specific product used during the detailing process. The host’s point is that in hotter conditions it dries faster on wheels and tires, so you have to work quickly.
A “hot wheel” is a wheel that’s still warm. Putting products on it while it’s hot can make them apply poorly—like streaks or spots—so you should let it cool first.
Term
kettle pop
“Kettle pop” is a figure of speech for when something suddenly boils over. Here it’s describing someone getting fed up and reacting strongly.
The Ford Bronco is an SUV made for driving on rough roads and trails. Because it’s built to go off-road, it can get very dirty, so people often talk about the best way to clean and protect it. It’s a popular vehicle to detail because dirt and grime build up fast.
A “tent detailer” is someone who does car detailing using a temporary setup, like a canopy, instead of a permanent shop. The host’s point is that getting customers still depends heavily on marketing and sales.
A body shop is where cars are repaired after damage, including fixing panels and repainting. The host is saying that how the shop treats customers can matter as much as the shop’s appearance.
Concept
adding value for customers
They’re talking about why customers should pay more for a service. It’s basically the idea of “what’s the benefit to the customer?” and whether looks alone are enough to justify the price.
Concept
customer-perceived value
It’s about what the customer thinks they’re getting. If they don’t feel the benefit is worth the cost, they won’t pay—even if you think it looks amazing.
Concept
high net worth neighborhoods
They’re talking about wealthier areas and how people there may have different expectations about appearance and spending. It’s a way to explain why customers might react differently to detailing and pricing.
Concept
middle class areas
They’re comparing different neighborhoods and how people use their vehicles. In some areas, vehicles get more visible branding to attract attention, which can influence what customers care about.
Towel clogging means your microfiber towel gets covered in product residue. Instead of cleaning the paint, it can start smearing and leaving streaks.
Term
manufacturers of products
They’re talking about the companies that make the detailing products. The point is that what the company recommends doesn’t always match what detailers see in day-to-day use.
This is basically saying: if customers want something you don’t currently offer, you add a product to cover that missing need. It’s about matching the right product to the right problem.
Paint curing is when the paint fully hardens after it’s been sprayed. If it doesn’t cure correctly, it can cause problems later—like coating products not sticking as well or the finish not behaving right.
This is basically a very careful, very clean setup for applying coatings. The cleaner and more controlled the process, the less likely you are to run into coating problems.
Prep work is everything you do to the car’s paint before you apply a wax, sealant, or coating. If the surface isn’t cleaned and ready, the protection won’t last as well.
Term
Ford paint
Different car brands (and even different paint batches) can use slightly different paint formulas. That can change how well a coating goes on and how it bonds.
Term
GMC black
Some black paints from certain brands are known to be tricky for detailing and coating. The host is saying they’ve worked on a fix for that specific kind of paint behavior.
Polishing is how detailers smooth and clean up the paint using products that remove tiny imperfections. Doing it before a coating matters because the coating sticks to whatever condition the paint is in.
Silicone is a residue that some car products leave behind. If it’s on the paint before you apply a coating, it can prevent the coating from sticking correctly and lead to problems later.
A “prep soap” is marketed as a wash product intended to prepare paint for coating or other protection. The speaker argues that many products labeled this way are still mainly high pH cleaners and may not actually provide the protection the label implies.
This is a very strong soap used to clean car paint. It can leave behind something that makes water bead up, even if you didn’t actually apply a protective coating.
Oil content is the oily residue built into many polishing and correction products. It can make products easier to use, but if it’s not cleaned off properly, it can interfere with the next step—especially on softer paint.
Soft paint means the clear coat is more delicate. The host is saying that on softer paint, leftover oily residue from polishing can cause problems unless you prep it very carefully.
Prep wipes are cleaning wipes used right before you apply protection. They’re meant to remove leftover oils so the next product can bond and work properly.
Panel prep means getting the car’s paint surface ready before you put on a protective product. It usually involves cleaning and sometimes polishing so the coating can stick correctly and look right.
A one-step polish is a product meant to both remove defects and improve the finish in one pass. If it leaves residue or isn’t compatible with the coating, you can get problems later.
Clear coat is the shiny protective layer on top of your car’s paint. How “hard” or “soft” it is can change how well products work when you polish or apply protection.
A compound is a gritty polishing product used to remove paint defects. It’s like the “cutting” step in polishing, and it can act differently depending on how soft or hard the car’s clear paint is.
They mean there are lots of different factors that affect how well detailing works. If you don’t know which products and paint conditions were involved, it’s hard to figure out what went wrong.
The BMW 5 Series is a mid-size luxury car. In detailing discussions, it can come up because the paint finish may be tricky to polish safely. The point is usually to clean and protect the paint without harming the surface.
Term
permeable surface
They’re describing a paint surface that seems to “take in” products more readily. With softer clear, that can make it harder to control what’s happening during polishing, so getting a perfect finish takes practice.
The Cadillac Escalade is a big, luxury SUV. People may talk about it in cleaning and detailing because it can pick up dirt and debris like any other vehicle, and the paint needs careful cleaning. The goal is to keep the exterior looking good without scratching it.
“Dirt nibs” are tiny bumps on the paint surface caused by little bits of contamination. They can be hard to remove and you usually need to fix them before applying a coating.
Term
bond to the surface
“Bond” just means the coating sticking to the paint. If the paint is dirty or has leftover polish residue, the coating may not grip as well.
Debris is any dirt or tiny particles left on the paint. If it’s still there when you apply a coating, it can stop the coating from sticking and can cause problems later.
The “wipe step” is when you clean the paint right before applying a coating. The goal is to remove leftover polish oils and residue so the coating can stick better.
A “mid step” is the middle stage of polishing. After you use a rougher polish/compound first, the mid step smooths things out so the final finish looks better.
“Alcohol and water” is a simple cleaning mix some people use before polishing/coating. The host is saying it can be risky on certain paints—especially if it’s hot—because it may cause swelling that ruins the coating finish.
“Soft clears” means the protective top layer on some cars’ paint is more easily affected by polishing and chemicals. If it gets disturbed, it can cause problems later when you apply a protective coating.
“GM black” is a nickname detailers use for some General Motors black paint that can be touchier during polishing. In this segment, it’s mentioned because it can react when heated or when certain mixtures are used.
A “hot alcohol mixture” is an alcohol-based cleaner/wipe used on paint. Here the host is warning that if it’s too hot, it can make the paint swell and cause visible problems after you apply a coating.
“Ghosting” is when a coating doesn’t look clear and even—it can leave hazy or blotchy patterns. In this segment, it’s blamed on the paint swelling after polishing and prep, before the coating is applied.
IPA is isopropyl alcohol, and detailers use it to clean the paint before adding wax or coatings. The risk is that it can make the paint finish easier to damage if you use it the wrong way or at the wrong time.
Marring is when you accidentally damage the paint surface, like creating tiny scratches or swirl marks. It can happen from rubbing too hard or using the wrong cleaning method.
Term
5050 mixture
A “5050 mixture” means half alcohol and half water. The host is saying that even that dilution didn’t eliminate the risk of damaging the paint.
LIVE
Welcome to the pints and polishing podcast, the most influential and listen to podcast
in auto detailing. Welcome to the community before the July. Everybody 250 years, Merica.
What do you think about that, Nick? 250. Hey, it's 4th of July. Always on the weekend.
It feels like it doesn't sometimes fall on like Thursday or Friday or maybe falls every
day of the week. I don't know. Everybody took Friday off there, right?
Yeah, I think that was the, I mean, that's, that's what I did with my teams here. I know
you guys worked a light schedule Friday and, you know, just to kind of help get some, some
of the sales boxes out. But yeah, I mean, it was more, I'll tell you this, I mean, driving
to work, it looks like everybody took Friday and Monday off, you know,
I took a picture on Friday. I meant to send it to you and Mildren and our group text to
like, it was vacant. I mean, our whole street where all the offices were and warehouses,
everybody was vacant. You know, so it was funny. It was like, wow, Corona all over again. Here
we go. Yeah. No, it was great getting to work today. I'll tell you that. So 4th of July
always does one thing for us is it's our yearly reminder on some stuff. I got a buddy that
yearly reminds us when he got his eyes shot out with the firework. I'm like, come on my
guy. Like, you know, like celebration, but we got to move on from that. Right. You know,
like, we used to joke about, you know, don't shoot off your, you know, fingers, all those
things. I like the memes that said someone out there doesn't realize this will be the last day
where they have 10 fingers. Those are the funny memes. The joke is always, I think,
internally you and I and I am guilty. I did like circa 2015. I think it showed me a memory and it
was like I did post video of fireworks. But it does crack 2026, you know, people still look at
this firework. Oh, you don't got fireworks like I got fireworks. Like it all doesn't come out of
the same Chinese factory. But we all get the same thing. Trust me. It's not some, you know,
conspiracy. Yeah. So a couple of things. Like I said, we always do as fireworks. It's lining
Cougar for me. The variety pack now they did a variety pack this year. So love lining Cougar
variety pack. And it's a yearly visit from your HOA because you're the guy yelling that people
get off of his lawn, right? It's funny. No, we don't we don't have full blown lawns here. So
that's not a real thing. You don't even have a lot, right? We don't have to do all
So no visits from the HOA but we did have plenty of people. I got a text from a detailer was headed
to the beach this week, you know, wished him a great trip. It is a time a lot of people in 4th
of July take road trips. It's part of summer. You could go to, you know, there was a national
lampoon summer vacation, right? There's always some memories, always great times that we do have
on road trips. Now, the thing that we do have to talk about when we're talking about road trip
is our yearly reminder on how fast you got to get those bugs that you hit on the way to the
beach or grandma's house or wherever you're going. How fast do you need to get those bugs off?
We would say as fast as possible. I don't think you and I would have much of a
variety of opinion here, right? Which is, you know, I had, you know, you and I were talking about
last week, I had an irrigation line pop in my front yard and it got all over my car.
It's the same thing there, right? You got these water spots. I mean, irrigation lines,
let's be honest, not the cleanest water probably in your city at that time. It's like,
you got to get them off. I mean, that's the way it is with bugs as well. You got to get them off
as fast as possible. Now, this is also the reason to say your car needs to be protected, right?
Like, you know, ceramic coating is the perfect example when you look at bugs and you go,
that gives you a little leeway, but it doesn't give you all the leeway. And if it does etch,
at least it'll etch the ceramic coating and you can kind of polish it off the ceramic and reapply.
But, you know, for a lot of people driving out there, I'd say as fast as possible.
And that means not when you get to the beach and hang out for a couple of days. That means
when you get to the beach. I mean, that's my routine. My routine is to carry some eco on,
carry bug. Listen, I did church this Sunday in my garage too. And I tell you, there's a
peace of mind with our bug cleaner, hyper clean bug, peace of mind of knowing, listen,
I'm doing a rinseless wash and I can spray our bug cleaner straight onto the paint. And I mean,
a peace of mind of having it. One thing we have done recently, I don't know if we talked about
last year is we did make it a little stronger. Right. I mean, it is a little stronger now for
those of you that are using hyper clean bug, those either do use it, you love it. And you love to
brag about us. This is why we wanted to do our yearly reminder. Okay, guys, if you're new and
you're wanting to know new products for detailing, hyper clean bug is definitely one of the top rated.
You could say it's probably listed as as best detailing products for beginners. Yeah,
you definitely say bug is one. Yeah, I mean, our bug cleaner, there's a couple things that have
kind of shown up as we've seen the growth of Facebook groups and people sharing problems,
you know, things they've run into things they've caused. You know, just using something that's
really strong comes with a trade off. Right. And you see a lot of I was getting bugs off the front
of this car, but then this happened. That's what you want to avoid. You want to avoid the then this
happened. And hyper clean bug. Again, we love to tell people this it's a polymer base. It's
something that's safe, safe, uncoded and uncoded vehicles. Spray it on liberally, let it dwell
as long as you can. And then like you said, whatever your wash procedure is go from there.
You know, if you're using a pressure washer or a foam cannon, if you're using rinse list,
waterless, all that stuff is is your choice. But the issue becomes when you use these
really, really, really dangerous strong cleaners is a lot of times you take rinse list wash out,
you take waterless wash out. And then if you use a pH neutral soap, that stuff is still
dwelling on the surface and causing further damage, which is why you get to the end of the
detail for some of these guys. And they go, you know, it never dried. Well, technically it did
because you never neutralize it off the surface. And so now you have a bigger issue than just
removing bugs. Yeah, great point. Great point. You know, we talk about the flash is what when
people say what do you see you generally will see this spray pattern where you can almost
see somebody with a squirt bottle spraying across the hood. And there's this little splatter as it
goes. Now, we we had said in the past, and this is sort of like what we kind of not necessarily
hang our hat, but we we do say listen as soon as possible, like within 24 hours, right? There's
there's acidic reasons for getting it off the paint. And I'm glad you mentioned that, you know,
it is give you some window of leg room. If you do have your your vehicle ceramic coated. Let's say
we don't you know, let's say we got wax versus sealant versus ceramic. You know, if I've got bugs
that get onto a waxed vehicle, right, like the acid from the bug will deteriorate that wax very,
very quickly. Will you get longer 24 hours? Yeah, you probably get a little bit of window
room there. But what's your opinion on wax and bugs? I mean, wax gonna protect minor, but but
not nearly as good as the others. Well, I mean, a lot of waxes really don't hold up well in the
summer, right, because they become temperature dependent. And I think that's one of the things
that people don't realize about wax. That was the big step up in sealant, right, because it's a more
synthetic product, they could they could do the burn off temperature was much higher, right, that
was the big step up is it's not going to wear as quickly. So a freshly waxed vehicle is going to
be very different than that waxes at day 28, in the middle of the summer, right? So and that's why
the step up from wax to sealant was so big. And that's why the step up from sealant to ceramic
coating has been so big is because of that temperature and sort of element resistance to
the outside world. That's really the difference. And right, you can take that all the way to
paint protection film and all those kinds of things, you're getting more resistance as you go
up the levels, right, wax is not heavily resistant to temperature and elements or whatever, sealants
a little bit more ceramic coating is exponentially more PPF is more, right, like so you got to
understand these protections and you and I have never talked about it as like good and bad,
because really not enough people have their car protected at all, right. So if they do choose to
wax, great. The issue is is the durability, the sealant, again, the issue can become durability,
ceramic coating, you kind of, you know, get away from all of that because you know what
if yours isn't a good one, what the durability is. So I think it's a good conversation of
when it comes to bugs, I wouldn't expect waxes and sealants to hold up extremely well. In my
experience and your experience, they will provide something, but it's all going to be dependent
how long it's been there, right, like your wax at day 30, you're sealing at, you know, month five,
those things become very weakened situations sealants, you know, when we think of the spectrum,
we got wax sealant ceramic coatings that they're each going to be versus each other also on a
spectrum like you mentioned longevity, also on a spectrum of well, what can they withstand?
Bugs are, you know, they're the we can joke in a reality say, you know, bugs in different areas
are different. I you can drive down here through Oklahoma and suddenly you just hit this swarm,
you almost think it's raining. But no, you just hit this, you know, I don't,
sometimes we feel like they're mosquitoes, but they're like, damn, that's a big ass mosquito.
You know, like, I know love bugs and different places that have specific bugs, where they really
go after them. Maybe there's a sealant that can be on that pH spectrum, maybe. But generally,
then acid from a bug and not everybody understands that bugs all contain a lot of acid, you know,
when that that those guts get squished out all over the paint, it's acidic. And that is what
does the eating and it eats into if you have a sealant. Well, he's not going to be acid protected
as much as when we're talking versus a ceramic coating, you mentioned something a second ago,
if they get a good quality ceramic coating, right? There's the other part when we think of,
you know, wax versus sealants versus ceramic. Did you get a true ceramic? Or did you get this
hybrid blend of something that they call a ceramic that is really just a sealant?
Yeah, no, it's it's a really big concern. Look, I talked to somebody recently, a shop that was
flipping over to Sparta, they do a lot of work. And they told me that the coating that they've
used and they were experiencing issues with it. And I go, it's funny. Almost everybody in your
state that I talked to that use that coating was having issues with it. Almost 100%. Actually is
100%. And he goes, Yeah, we've been experiencing it for a long time. This and that. He noticed a
difference just using our Uno product. And he goes, Uno is holding up better than this five
year that I used to use. And why is that what and guys, I would never get on these calls and ever
bash a brand, you know, that's not what we do. I just say, Hey, look, I understand we've been
hearing that, you know, let's talk about our stuff. But there isn't a lot of thought being
given today in the marketplace is about because ceramic coatings are everywhere,
literally can be sold on Amazon. I mean, they're just everywhere. They're all around us.
There seems to be a, it's all the same mentality. And that's why we throw the caveat in there.
You have a high quality ceramic versus a mid quality versus a low quality, you're going to
see a difference in these types of scenarios. And you need to recognize that and probably
decide to use a different coating when you see these types of things, but
you know, not everybody does that. So you need to understand the great a product you have on your
car. Yeah. So the interesting thing too about summer, you know, as two guys 40 plus years in the
business, we've seen and we see it regularly every summer. It's really interesting what the heat does
to detailers almost creates this magical mirage where they just for some reason think
could didn't ever was going to get hot this year. Yeah. Well, you don't have something like we have
sun doesn't get hot like it's hot here. Right. I got a text from a guy has been using our coatings.
We were talking about coding saying, yeah, there definitely are some differences that you do need
to do when it comes to laying down ceramic coating. Well, I got a text from a guy, you know,
Hey, it's humidity here's high. Yeah, hadn't been high there the past four or five years.
You been with us? Yeah, not like this. Okay, you know, I mean, but let's go over right like
got to give him a jacket just funny guys guys says a tax or he knows we're just joking around with
them. But you know, inside of our group, you saw Kathleen, you know, talk about a swamp cooler and
trying to get maybe she comes in earlier in the day. Maybe if you're somebody doesn't have good
AC or great AC, you know, just even AC in general. First shop I had didn't have AC. We don't have AC
here. Yeah, so we had to come in early. We had to go around do different things we had to try
different because that humidity it is rough is rough and the sweat if you sweat down your arm
and touched it all. Yeah, yeah, over over. Yeah, I think, you know, I stepped in and coated a lot
of vehicles last Monday with my guys. And even in an AC garage, which we were in,
we saw differences, you know, it was hotter outside, which means that area wasn't as cool,
even though it's being cooled, wasn't as cool as it normally is if I did it in, you know, November.
And so we made an adjustment, right, like, you know, take take a product like stack.
When I'm laying stack and it's December, I can do half the car at a time. Like, my guys don't do
that, but I can do a half car at a time, like just boom, knock it out. You got to be moving pretty
quickly. Okay, so I don't want everybody to kind of understand like, we're talking about moving at a
really fast clip here, but I can get a half a car down. And I can go back and everything's ready to
go. I can't get anywhere. I can't do a half a car, even in an AC when there's a door that has heat
coming off of it, you know, just the ambient heat in this building. It may say 72 on the thermostat,
but we all know that it's not 72 in December in that building is 72 in the summer. And so you see
differences. I've always just been somebody and maybe this could help people. I've always been
somebody that kind of lays a small area on the hood or whatever, and just get an understanding of
what's going on in that building, whether it's my shop or someone's house or whatever. I can pretty
much understand what I need to do just laying a small area. I mean, even if that's just one strip,
you don't have to do a square. If you just do one strip, and you watch it, you know, even if you're,
you know, if you wear a watch, just watch it and go, Okay, what am I seeing here? If that's what you
want to get that technical with it. But I can get a feel for things by just doing a small spot.
And I think that would probably help a lot of people, you know, no matter what coating you use,
especially as you, like you said, you're going into high humidity areas, whatever,
just do a spot and see how it's reacting. And then you can go from there.
So the heat also not only does it mess with an application and have you need to change some
processes. And you need to change that and most all your stuff, right? I mean, your TRX is going
to dry on the wheel and the tire faster. You definitely don't want to let AWX dry, right? You
definitely don't want the AWX to go sprayed onto a hot wheel. You need to cool it off before, right?
There's some common sense things that we're always going to everybody's going to have to adapt to.
I think why we're adapting many of us get a little frustrated, right? Not necessarily product wise,
but it's the heat. We're out working, we're sweating, stuff's not going right.
We can just get frustrated. I saw a frustrated woman that finally let her kettle pop blow
and she just had to go tell her buddy, right? Sort of like, was it Jay Kwan back in the day,
04, her buddy getting tipsy? Her buddy in the club, right? Like she wanted her buddy to know.
She's going to let everybody know. And it started with Liz. Let's discuss my process.
Hey, the summer, the temperament gets a little, you know, things get hotter. That temperament gets a
little shorter. Let's say that, you know, everything gets a little bit more abrupt and a little bit
more angry and a little bit more, I don't have time for this. So I'm interested. You didn't share
this with me. Yeah, because it is always fun, right? Because now she's got to go just dirty or
air her dirty laundry, what we say, right? She's, she's got to blow her kettle. She's got to
get all this frustration. So what's she so frustrated about? Well, she's going to discuss
her prices because she doesn't understand how in 2026, so many people expect 2000 prices.
So I'm surprised in 2026, you haven't looked around and understood the economies quite a bit
different than it's been, you know, like, that's sort of the first time when I go through this,
I go, Hey, I appreciate you, you know, like, there's so many people and she'll get into she's one of
theirs. No, you're worth I found mine, right? She's that you can already know where it's headed.
But you go, you're going to put out on social media to tell people
like, Hey, these are my prices. And it's not the way it used to be. He's such a strange way. And
you go, her kettle popped. Yeah. And, and, you know, I'm sure you'll read a little bit more of
what she said. But I think there comes a time of I've never really seen that work on social media.
And, you know, this is sort of the problem that I think festers on Facebook. I'd say Facebook's
probably the biggest place you see this type of boiling over, right? Like, I'm going to,
I'm going to let loose and I'm going to write this big post and I'm going to say all of these
different things. And I just, you know, I would root this on if I thought there was a win. I just
don't know what the win would be. It's like, you can't create a win here. It's like you and I discuss
when people send out price change letters. You know, what, what's the point of doing all this?
What's the point of going through and telling everybody all like, there is some validation to,
you know, maybe an email or a letter, I could see that. To me, this screams, which is just why
we bring it like I go, Hey, if you're young and you've been, you know, trying to get into this
business is something like, do not see this and think that you should ever go yell out to customers
or prospective customers and tell them what your thoughts are. Right? Like, there's a point of where
you go, my thoughts should be my thoughts, right? This recent book I started listening to called
Principles by Ray. Oh, God. Yeah, yeah, that guy. What was he started? Brookshire Hathaway?
No, no, no, Ray Dalio had a had a hedge fund. He's like one of the top hedge funds ever.
I thought that was what it was. Brookshire or something. No, but here's Warren Buffett. Oh,
my bad. So it goes and competes but same guy, right? So he talks about transparency and how
far you should be transparent as a company. He had to learn a lesson, right? He was openly
transparent at the beginning until he realized, Hey, there's not everything that needs to be said
while you're still openly transparent, right? Sort of what the lesson seems to be here, right? Like,
if there were somebody that has an issue with some customers or somebody who wins the time to be so
openly transparent, this isn't it. Yeah, well, also, you know, if if you, you know, probably read
this girl's post, you're going to find that, you know, there's a value problem that she doesn't
she sees that she does all of these things and people don't want to pay for them, right?
You know, I'm sure she's somebody that creates content. I'm sure she's somebody that
has certifications. I'm sure she's somebody that tries really hard. Am I pretty accurate?
Yeah, it's funny because she even goes she goes, here's what many people don't see, right? And
then she goes through all the five years experience. I'm not just somebody spraying syrup. I wake up
early, you know, dot dot dot. So you mentioned and and the word value. I love that you brought
that up because it's exactly what when you read the second and that's just one page. The other page
goes into her perceived value of what she perceives is valuable in the marketplace, right?
Once again, this is not to pick at somebody is for an education lesson. We just get hit up all
the time of questions about business. There's so many young people coming into the business.
There's plenty of people have been in business a while, they still don't do everything they probably
should. So this is just a good time to go through it and and her value what she believed was a
perceived value. She says, do you know another local detailer creating content like this every day?
Content Nick, you nailed it, right? Do you know another local detailer creating content like this
every day like the value that a customer is going to pay for you to clean their car? She has this
idea that well, the content that she puts out on the social media has a value that's attained
to the price tag of her scrubbing carpets. This this is just ironically if you just say it like
we go say it out loud, right? Like she believes and this is once again not to come at her,
but this is just a psyche of what a detailers in 2026 I'd like. Okay, I'm putting out
content, not necessarily of the educational video, not necessarily great marketing. I said,
he's just quote unquote content. Yep. Every day, every week. And so my prices should be valued on that.
Yeah, no, I mean, you know, you'll see the same things with these is like I have certifications,
I make content. That was her second one. Yeah, you know, of another detailer with
certifications. Yeah, and let's talk about all of it, right? Where, you know, you as a business
are making the choice to make content. And essentially, you're probably doing that because
you think that's going to bring customers, right? Fair assumption, not really what happens for most
people, by the way. Usually, the content is not highly produced enough, it's not thought through
enough, it's not professional enough, because people don't really know what it costs to do all of
those things. But we have other people on our network that do great with content. But what you
notice is they bought a camera, they edit their video, they are very direct and to the point,
they're, you know, they may even put their phone number in there, they make sure that they say,
hey, come talk to us, hey, we'll take an as we'll give you an estimate. My guess is as hers is just
showing work. That's not really high value. The other thing is, and I want to get something out
of the way about certifications. If somebody doesn't fail the class every time they hold a class,
you're not certified in anything. You just attended a class. Nothing wrong with that.
But I'll ask this question, when's the last time you walked into your mechanic and go,
I'm bringing you my Ford Bronco, can you show me all your Ford certifications?
You don't say that. What about the body shop? Because they have body shop industry standards,
they have, you know, Ford and Chevy and all these other stand. Did you ask for those certifications?
No, you didn't as a customer and we've all frequented those places. If you don't ask for them,
why would your customers care? Right? How about when you need your washer and dryer repaired or
whatever, do you when a guy walks in, you go, Hey, I got this Maytag, are you Maytag certified?
That's not what you do. You say, can you fix my dryer because I can't dry my clothes.
The other thing is
value is dictated by the market, not by our opinions. So if there's somebody listening to this,
that for a five year coding struggles to get $1,500, but I don't struggle to get $2,500,
there's a couple things to play. Maybe I'm in a different marketplace than them.
Or the perceived value I give to my customers is perceived as 2,500 and what your perceived
value is 1,500. Because you could see this all over Vegas, you could see it all over Tulsa.
If you and I opened a hyper clean shop in Tulsa, it wouldn't take us very long to be priced at
the highest part of the market. Matter of fact, it would happen day one. And we know exactly how
to get those customers, we know exactly how to bring them in, and we know exactly how to present
the value that we want to charge. So stating things that you do, which is largely busy work,
is not actually value in the marketplace. And what is uncomfortable to say is your ability to
market and then sell the thing you're trying to do at the price you're trying to do it,
is how you actually get the value quote unquote that you're trying to get. So if I'm a better
salesperson than you, my tickets are automatically going to be higher. I could have worse service,
I could provide worse products, I could provide worse results, and I'm just going to get higher
tickets than you, because I have built my career on being a better salesperson than you.
So that that's all true. You know, just throw out the question and your opinion in my opinion,
like, then how does somebody get off track like this? Well, I think there's just a lot of misinformation
of what it number one takes to run a business, the skills that are important to run a business.
There's a lot of people that think detailing skills are more important than marketing and
sales skills. And I can tell you when you run a business, marketing and sales are way above
your skills as a PPF person, as a tent detailer, as a, you know, whatever. We have a
body shop here that does, you know, is the only shop that you can take a Bugatti. You walk into
that shop, it's not the nicest body shop. But Bugatti saw their work. And then I asked the owner
who I've known a while, I go, how'd you get the Bugatti thing? He goes because everybody else was
unprofessional to the guys when they came and certified them. And I'm like, he's like, there's
nothing special. It's just a car. But his interpersonal way of handling these these C suite executives
at Bugatti was infinitely better than the other 10 body shops that were that were actually probably
better picks for Bugatti with the image of the building, the image of everything. Well,
guess what? They weren't as good talking to these people. And so he's been doing work for Bugatti
for like 10 or 12 years in town. And he's like, dude, I just have a good relationship with the
people at Bugatti because I treat them well. He goes, everybody else treated them poorly was
unprofessional, whatever. So I think the way we get off track, and this is something that those of
you that have talked to me privately about your business and needed help or whatever. I think a
lot of it is not only lying to ourselves, but we have allowed the the world to lie to us about
what matters in business. And I think that's probably the foundation of the problems is like,
you go on the internet and somebody goes, you got to create content for your business, right?
That shit's everywhere. Name the person. They all say it. That is literally like 10% of the story.
But if you take that as the whole story, you just turn your phone around and you're doing all these
things and it's not professional looking. And so nobody's going to bring their high end Mercedes
to you because the guy that told you to create content didn't give you the full playbook of
what does it look like to bring in a high net worth individual? What would they really look at?
Well, they're not going to look at that cell phone video and go got to go there.
But you created content. So you actually did do something. You just didn't do it at the level
because the person you listened to just said, make the content. So I think it's just it's not
misinformation as people are trying to mislead people. I think a lot of this has been give 10%
of the story and act like it's the whole story. And I think you and I have learned those hard
lessons. I'm not saying this towards anybody else. It's like, you know, you can see this with
marketing companies in our industry, website companies in our industry, it's like there's a lot
of 10 and 20% of the story. And then the really important 80 to 90% just doesn't get talked about
because it costs a lot of money. It costs a lot of effort. You have to be on a certain level.
You got to do things a certain way. And it's really it's really inconvenient to their business
model to tell you the actual truth. So, you know, a word that you and I talked about, you know,
years ago is aesthetic, right? I'm not much one for aesthetics. Right? Like, pretty basic,
pretty plain, everything with the beautification that's been on you, right? You've been the
aesthetic guy. I read this and where she goes, you know, another local detailer with a fully
equipped detailing van. Yeah, I know about 1000 of them in your area. There there is though this
idea that there's not a right or wrong. I just want to toss it up to chew on in a
sec in a sense is how far is aesthetics of a van that important, right? Like, if we're looking
at it and this is where everybody can value their own opinion, right, this really isn't a right or
wrong. This is one of those community chew on questions, right? Like, how far do you need to
go? They're people that really value to them. And they said, you know, you see, they open up the
doors in this beautiful array of organization. I'm like, Damn, I was using a milk crate. I have to
time I'm digging for my brush and you guys already know what my towel, my towel so you know, the way
my towels go. That's the way it acts. That's the way I operated. I'm saying you should do it. It
wasn't good. I'm telling you the aesthetics and the way I looked, not great. How far do we value
the aesthetics of a van and their organization of it all, and that a customer should then pay,
was it extra? You don't know, like, why should somebody pay you just because your van looks
great? I had somebody in my neighborhood, we made a couple weeks ago, I kind of did a rubber neck.
I was like, Damn, that fan looks awesome. Like he was pulling in my neighborhood to clean somebody's
car. And I was like, Shit, wow, like, everything designs. I think I think a lot of this is
individual. I took my lessons from being in high net worth neighborhoods. And the higher I went up,
the more unlabeled vans and trucks I saw. So I just kind of followed along because I didn't
know any better. I didn't know what I was doing is, you know, I was just getting into those
neighborhoods and I go, you know, there's not a lot of colorful, cheesy vans in here.
There's not a lot of stickers all over people's trucks. Now, you go to middle class areas,
you'll see a lot more of that, right? You'll see a lot of marketing done to entice those buyers to buy.
So I'm with you, I don't think it's right and wrong. I think what would make it wrong from a
business piece of advice. There's a lot of people that owe a lot of money on their vans.
And I go, but you're working like the first two or three days of every month just to pay your
note on this van. That's going to be tough to overcome for a lot of people, not all people.
There's a lot of you that can do that. There's also a lot of people in the other ring where
it's amazing how many of these vans and setups come up for sale. I'm going out of business.
I'm shutting my business. I love the ones. I decided to go a different route. No,
you didn't decide to go a different route. You didn't make it because if you're making
shit tons of money, you wouldn't decide to go a different route. Never, you never heard anybody
make a million dollars go. I'm going to go a different route now and start hawking stuff on
Facebook marketplace. That's just not what happens. So I don't think it's a right and wrong. I think
some of the setups I've seen and how it's drowned businesses, that is just fiscally wrong.
But to think that your van or your truck is providing an exceptional amount of value to
the customer themselves is not true because they don't care if you're disorganized in your van and
you work slower or whatever. You shouldn't want to do those things. You should have a process
down that makes things more efficient. But I can promise you, they're not staring in the back of
your van in high net worth neighborhoods. They got other stuff to do. But again, if you are
going after a lot of middle class clients, they might look back there. They might come out there
and flop the old lawn chair down and watch it. Never had really high net worth people
even want to be outside while you were doing your code. They don't want to hang out in your shop,
right? Like you and I have talked about this before. We've seen a lot of people do a lot of
damage to their business putting a ton of money into their shop. Got this great lobby. I got this
great shop floor. I got this great and that stuff's awesome. I mean, you and I love to see it. I mean,
I'm like everybody else. I'm like, Damn, that's a cool shop. People with a lot of money don't want
have a trashy shop. There's a balance. But to think that that's providing massive amounts of
value to a consumer, that's not what value is. Could it be a small part of all of it? Sure,
but it's not the major driver of it. And there's some customers that might even see that and go,
Oh, that's why you charge what you charge. Good point. Not about your work, not about who you are,
not about anything else other than just seeing how much stuff you got. You go, Wow, that's why
they charge. Like, I know there's some people. So I'm paying for all that bingo, right? Bingo.
Um, you know, so if summer heat has you thinking through things,
uh, as it definitely had her thinking through, here's what you need to land on. You need to land
on value. What value do you bring to the table? Right? Because people are they're searching. We
know it. You everybody knows they're searching. Why car detailing cost what it cost? Well,
you get to answer that question based on what value do you bring to the table?
Not for us to answer for you to answer the listener. What value do you bring? That's when
you're going to find when people search why car detailing cost what is cost, the value that you
have. Now for me, my value, right? As everybody's, well, what does that mean? Well, for me, mine was
always convenience, right? My slogan, we shop, what are you shop? Why we shine? That was for
auto spot them all for going to the, the, the Warren clinic and the Warren place and the
cricket, all the different oil companies that we used to service was you work will wash, right?
Like I always, my value in a sense to the market was convenience. I put myself where a lot of
people were so they didn't have to go do something else and they can get their car clean. That's
value. That's real value. Yeah, I there's no question. I mean, if you're mobile, there's one
reason to hire a mobile detailer and that's convenience. That's that's the top of the list.
Everything else is a real how you frame the narrative as a business, right? Like
one of the things that that made us really take off is like, I just told people, you know, give
us a key to your car, give us a garage door opener or your keypad and we'll come to your house and
we'll do it, you know, if you have three cars, we'll do your two cars while you're at work and
we'll come back another day, do your third car because I just kept building around the same area.
So the big thing for me was that you could trust me more than most people, right? Which is like,
you know, not even a skill thing. It was more just, you know, we're wearing polo shirts. We're,
you know, we're cleaner. Our trucks are sparkly white. Like, hey, we're just we kind of got this
handled. And so my sales pitch, even to this day, is set it and forget it, basically, like you get
on our schedule. Now again, for coatings and one off services, it's a different, you know, thing.
But this is where all this stuff becomes easy. As you go, once I got somebody on maintenance,
I knew I could get them on everything else. I told people this before your guy or gal if they're
struggling, you got to make it easy to get in the door. There's a lot of people that are trying to
get in the door with a $1,500 service. Man, you have to have a serious reputation for that to
be the base of your business. That's a very easy thing for me to do now. It'd be very easy for
us to launch that in Tulsa if we had a hyper clean shop because we we know how to talk to people and
we have look a lot of it is we're of a certain age, we're just more trusted. Right. I mean,
it's going to be hard if you're 2223 for everybody to trust you because I've been there.
So I think the big thing for me about value, it comes back to how you talk to people, how you
present yourself. And for everybody that hears me talk on here, I want everybody to understand
something. I was horrible at talking to people. I was a more shy guy when I started my business
and realized I couldn't get anywhere being that way. Because before that, I worked for people.
So they just said, Hey, there's this job over here. Can you go do it? And I was like, Yeah,
see you. I mean, you know, put your headphones in and go to go to work. Like I didn't have need to
have any real interpersonal skills because I wasn't dealing with customers. And so it is developed.
And, you know, you see a lot of people in our network, you and I could point to shops in Arizona
and on the East Coast and in the Midwest, where guys on our in our network are just killing it.
All of them share one thing when you talk to them. They're good to talk on the phone with even just
between like you and I talking to them. And then you have other people when you talk to them on
the phone, you go, Oh, well, this is the struggle. I get you can't say it that way. But I'm saying
it to all of you like being good on the phone, when you're a service based business,
it's going to give the perceived value much higher than the person that struggles on the phone.
Like if you don't know how to properly and professionally text. And you think how you talk
to all your buddies is how you're going to send a text to a customer. That's why you see this really
funny thing where people are like trying to automate all of these texts. And it's like,
Hey, man, dropping off your card text, you got an appointment tomorrow text, that kind of stuff
can be automated. But when Johnny starts asking a bunch of questions, he's going to want professional
human text messages and calls and emails. And so part of what I think was just a leg up for me is
once I realized I needed to get better at talking to customers, I didn't know any way to learn but
the professional way to learn. I didn't I didn't know how to learn other than like, I don't know,
people that like did sales scripts and stuff like just to professionalize myself because I just
wasn't naturally good at it. And I think there's a lot of people that think my skill set is going
to bring customers into an extent that'll happen after you get momentum. But the truth is, you
can get a lot a lot higher ticket from people if you just know how to talk on the phone.
And I don't think people really want to hear that. And I also don't think people want to admit to
themselves. They're not good to talk to. I mean, it's a hard thing to hear.
Oh, I'm curious. Were you ever bullied as a kid?
Not really. I mean, I had
You were the bully, weren't you?
Yeah, Nick was the bully.
I mean, like sports stuff. I mean, I guess like, you know, locker room, you know,
on the field, that kind of stuff, but nothing like nobody like I don't really actually even
understand today what is considered bullying because it seems like everything's bullying.
So maybe you and I in our life had been bullied, I guess. I mean, I don't I never felt bullied,
I guess. I consider myself bullied. Oh, yeah. I don't think that's true.
I wear it like a coach. I was bullied.
You want to talk about your trauma? That's the new word. I got to talk about my trauma.
No, I like with you, right? Like sports and stuff, people would joke around with you.
There was one time I got in a fight. I think it was sixth grade. It was about the only time
after that people didn't really mess with me and I didn't win the fight. Trust me.
Yeah. I got in scrapes and scuffles. I mean, I just don't consider that bullying.
I just agree. Maybe because we get to a point where like, Hey, this ain't gonna happen.
And then we weren't going to let it happen. Right? Like that's what I think of it. And
or maybe we just blow stuff off because we are already playing sports and people give you a
hard time. People say a lot of mean shit when you play sports. I mean, I don't know. I mean,
coaches say mean stuff. Players say mean stuff to each other. Like I that's why I say I'm not
even trying to be like make a joke of it. I don't even actually know what what is considered bullying.
But no, I was never but I got my fair share of scrapes and you know, drawing the line in the
sand. Hey, you're not going to do that. You're not going to throw the ball at me like that.
You're not going to do this. Yeah, I mean, that should happen.
I really don't think I was bullied as a kid. I didn't think I got bullied until I was actually
in business. Have you ever do you think you ever got bullied in business, especially as a young
detailer question? Yeah, one that you and I definitely hang out like we were bullied a long
time ago. Hey, let's just let's just say it like, there wasn't as much out let's go 2002 when I
started a couple years later, when you start right this is this is a long time ago guys.
Like, so there was not near the development of everything. You didn't have all the different
stuff, right? Like it was very, very basic and all good. But but we were bullied. We were you
were a detail that walked into a shop, a detail, you know, like a place to buy or for me, I had
people that would drop it off. So I always bought from well, either fine airport parking, because
they were a distributor for carb right, they let me buy stuff. I knew the owner Mike fine,
he just let me get it at that price. It was a great deal. After that, that kind of fell through
with them and carb right. I was using a guy just because he came up and showed up like he showed
up he knew where I was going to be on Fridays, and he would always stop by.
You know, at first, I just start buying a couple things. But it eventually got where, hey, man,
you got to buy this and they would really the premise of most companies operations or what
standard operating procedure back in the 2000s or so to speak, was we're going to bully each
person into buying everything from us. Well, here's the deal was a hard sales world. You don't
you don't see a lot of people. You know, you could call them boiler rooms. If you guys have never
seen the movie boiler room, that'd be worth a watch. But yeah, man, I mean, when I got when I
got into business. Yeah, I mean, look, I got bullied by customers that talked me into doing
jobs I should have never done. Distributors and chemicals. Hey, you need to try this. You try
it. It was horrible. Early spray waxes. I got bullied and I mean, I tried to make those things
work as early spray waxes for years. They had no business being in my hands. Because remember
that big oil separation you'd get shit with smear everywhere. It's like dude, it was easier to wax
a car dust. Yeah, like the worst for me was the dust. I was watching like, like, talking about
towel clogging. Yeah, horrible. Number one towel clog was those shake up waxes. Oh, they were
horrible. And you know, so yeah, I mean, I think and look, a lot of you still today, you know,
are being bullied through a screen. You know, you're somebody's telling you you have to use
this thing. And so yeah, I mean, early on ceramic coatings, I know this is where we're going next.
I mean, yeah, there was a lot of companies saying you have to do this and you have to do that. And
in some cases, they were right. In some cases, you got you got severely bullied. I mean,
it just is what it is. I think the average detailer I know I put myself in there. Most of us without
we don't understand it. Right. On that side, we don't get it. On this side, as as as manufacturers
of products, there comes a point where we're starting to go, well, we definitely don't believe in
bullying a because we don't have everything. Right? Like, we don't. That's why I sort of
why I brought up there's so much out there now. So many different things. I think internally,
we're talking about where we try and like fill in our gaps. Yep. You know, that was stack. That's
awx. That's juice. Right. These, these are okay. Well, we see in the market that this is a product
where where in our lineup do we not fit what people are looking for our needing. And we
fill that gap with a product. Now, let's let's take on the other side, right? Like,
when somebody has an issue. This kind of comes into your lap. You're the guy that gets to handle
the issues now. Thank you very much for taking that off my plate. Appreciate that. Probably better
for the customers too, though. Yeah, I would say my daily life at VR is a little bit
more connected to maybe some things they're going through. I would say this. Yeah, it's not a good
or a bad thing, but daily connection to what they could be going through is probably a positive
much better. You have much more information for that. And so you had a conversation last week and
and I want us to go through it because let me say it this way. I've had a lot of conversations
for at least the last year. It's not just last week, right? We have a massive amounts of these
in a good way, not a bad way, by the way, of these conversations of hey, this is what I'm
seeing on this type of car. We've come across a lot of things with with Chevy and Ford and
how quickly they were shipping cars and maybe we had some paint curing issues. And so there's just
been a lot of those things over the last 12 to 18 months that have been really fun to talk through.
So let's go over. I know you're right. We get them all the time, but there's one in particular
last week. And it's not necessarily last week's conversation because you had it three weeks ago,
you had it two months ago, you'll have it next week and you'll have it in three more weeks,
right? Oh, yeah. But but it's about, you know, our ceramic coatings and when there's an issue,
putting it onto a car, a truck paint, you know, fill in the blank, there's an issue. Now,
does it happen very often? No, no, it's really not. You go to a hyper clean specialist group.
Yeah, for the thousands of coatings that we have that we send out, you know,
monthly, it's very limited. But look, we all run into stuff. I mean, that's the way to say it. Like,
I run into stuff. Guys, I ran into something. I said I was coding a bunch of vehicles last
Monday with my team, ran into a couple things had to make some adjustments. Like it's just,
it's just nonstop when you're working on so many different paints and so many different
things and prep work and all that stuff combined, you can you're going to run into an issue or two.
And in order to fix those issues, we've filled in the gaps, right? We tried to work on, okay,
if we know that there's an issue around like you mentioned Ford paint, my issue a long time ago,
everybody knows GMC black, right? So years ago, I developed and worked on stuff to fix
that problem. You know, now we've developed an even better system, much more efficient, much
better at really most all paint. But it starts with the system. And I know not everybody loves to
be in a system. But it really is the reason to because if you got problems, well, the way you
solve the problems is you can alleviate variables. That there's the there's sort of the first step.
Any issues, you basically start backtracking. Then we try and alleviate what could have what could
have caused the issue. Sure. So let's first start. We're going to say that we're having ceramic
coating issues on paint. We would first back to all the way to well, what did you use to wash the car?
What did you use to polish the car? Yes. There's there's really where you start because wash
come on guys, how you not go with cleanse? I'm not sure. Yeah, I mean, it's okay. Yeah. Okay,
you know, yeah, there is a
one of the things manufacturers when I was first installing coatings were not very good at telling
me and I kind of had to learn the hard way because they weren't good at explaining it because come
to find out most those people never detailed a car. I didn't know that at the time.
Because everybody presents themselves like they know what they're talking about. That's just the
nature of a salesperson, right? Is and when we were talking about bullying earlier, we've never
been these people that say, you know, this is the right way, right? That that's sort of the
way it was always presented. And it never really sat well with you and I, which is why we don't do
things that way. The way it should have been said is kind of what you alluded to. When you run into
issues, and you didn't you, you don't use our system, it's very hard to track what could be going on.
Because you've introduced, maybe you use the soap that has, I mean, you know about you know this
better than anybody, maybe it has actual silicone in it, which is going to make everything down the
line way harder. And it's going to get into the pores of the paint and it can create all kinds
of issues that you're unaware of. And it's not just things that say wash and wax on them. This
could be something that somebody's selling you to say is this is a prep soap. It's like one of the
things we found out about ceramic soaps. Most ceramic soaps being sold are just high pH soaps
that unclog coatings. They don't actually have any protection in them. How many of you knew that?
Like that's what makes ceramic snow a little bit more rare than most people think is that when you
actually dig in and test some of these ceramic soaps, the way they're getting the water behavior
is they're hoping you have a product on the surface. They clean it with a high alkalinity soap,
and then the beating happens much quicker. And you go, Oh, look at that protection that was left
behind. No, it's actually just a high alkalinity soap that you would if you use cleanse you get
the same thing at times. If you had like a ceramic coating on the car. So
you start with a soap that could screw up your process. But here's where we find we get into
this weird space. The problems that I'm seeing coming out of the compounds one steps and polishes.
I cannot reiterate this enough. Many of the most friendly to use have insane amounts of oil in
them. That's why you can sit there for hours on the same spot and nothing bad happens.
Like literally nothing bad happens. But then when it's tough to wipe off, you just go, Well,
this is tough to wipe off. It's like, No, it's the oil making it tough to wipe off. And there's
some other chemistry bits in there that's making it tough to wipe off. But that's the real root,
real reason that so many of these systems being so insanely user friendly, they're getting that by
oil content, not by things that make everything down the line more positive. So one of the first
things that we see is that especially when you're working on soft paint, that oil content is going
to become a problem. If you don't do this next step as thoroughly as you need with a product like
white. And again, in the prep white world, not everything's created equal. Because this may be
something that's an outdated formula that was not used to dealing with all of these high level
oils. So they don't have a lot of things to combat a lot of heavy oil because that's not when they
formulated it. Like I can think of three or four prep wipes that were good prep wipes for a long time,
like really good products that I've used that when tested today with heavily oiled compounds,
polishes and one steps don't stand a chance to prep the surface. And they were all from reputable
companies that are still selling them today. And nobody did anything wrong. They just developed
those products at a time when this wasn't a part of the ecosystem. So why in your opinion, why do you
think now people are drawing the line on what they use for panel prep? It's, it's something I just
don't think I speak for myself, which I think is the best place to speak from is like, a lot of
companies have done a very bullying tactic to say you got to use our stuff. And so people rebel
against that. Right. And it's, it's probably what I did, you know, when how it was presented to me,
you know, I'll be fair about it. I mean, there's just some of the shit just rubs you the wrong
way. Like we're all human, right? You're just like, why are you coming at me? I figured out my way.
Yeah. So, but then the thing that we've run a lot, we've run into a lot over the past couple years
is are you using enough of it? Like this is not a step to skimp on. Right? Like, if you have a,
if you've decided to go with a very heavy oil polish, and then you combine it with you're using
a product that's not even designed to take a bunch of heavy oil out. And then you lightly missed it
on. And what universe did you remove all that stuff from the car? You didn't. Right. So then what
happens is you got all this oil left in really soft paint, especially you go to lay name the
coating, our coating, anybody's coating, and you start to see weird reactions. You're like, well,
it's never done this before. And I go, this ain't before. This is this car in this moment,
in this process. So one of the hardest things in taking these calls and all of you that have ever,
you know, been on the phone with me is like, there's two things I'm going to start with our system.
Did you use enough panel prep and really get the car clean? And are you laying the coating on
thick enough 99% of problems? That's fixed right there. There's another 1% that we backtrack to
this polish they use this compound one step they use combined with the panel prep
they use and you go, but this is never going to react right with everything you used. And
I think companies I wish they would have said what I'm about to say. It's very hard for me to
troubleshoot when you're using this compound from this company, this polish from this company,
this panel white from this company, and then our coating. So if you ever run into issues,
I'm not saying I can't give you some ideas. But that's really what companies did a poor job of
is like, you got to understand something guys, I don't know every product on the market, and I
don't use every product on the market on a daily basis. So I don't know what you're actually going
through because I can't troubleshoot any of it. And so it's more about being able to help somebody
than the kind of bullying tactics you and I experience is like, the way it should have been
said is, when you use everything off my truck, so to speak, I can help you troubleshoot stuff.
If you got three things off my truck two off that guy's truck seven off that guy's truck,
but I really can't help you. It becomes really like throwing darts at a dartboard like,
we're gonna have to try 50 things to get there. So that that's really what I wish everybody would
kind of, you know, grasp or would have been said better to somebody like myself is like,
very hard to troubleshoot man, when you got this brand of compound, polished,
this panel white, I mean, there's just there's so many variables, it's almost impossible.
So what are some of the issues that people are seeing, you know, from the coatings and then
when when you're talking through them on the on using wipe and how little are they using and
how much should they use right like really walk us through how how heavy should we apply.
My wipe drips off my car.
Like when and by the way, if I have a soft clear coat, it's gonna drip off the car.
Oh, why? Why more soft you spray? But what's the
it's easier for things to be clogged and you know, it's a more receptive surface,
right? Like that that's part of the reason that you have trouble getting the finish that you want
is because you're having to manipulate so many things on a soft clear to get it to finish down.
Well, you talked about GM black, right? It's the one everybody would talk about. But you can run
into this even on your Jeep, there's some Jeeps that are pretty soft. Jeeps are bad too. You know,
but you can go to something like a Subaru and you go, this is a breeze. You know, you go to a,
I mean, I remember the e 39 m five was like the hardest clear coat in the world. And it's like
nothing gave you trouble except removing scratches. Once you remove the scratches,
like you could do whatever you wanted to the car. Like that. So you have a more
permeable surface, right? It's easier for things to penetrate into a soft clear, which is why
it's very tough for people to get that high level of finish when they first start out
learning the details because like, get all those little tick marks and you get all the
all kinds of shit going on. And so details. But we've also seen, you know, certain Ford paints
react really, really weird. And and we've had a run in dirt nibs on escalades and things like
this, like they're just going to come across stuff. You're just going to have these moments in time
where you're just like, why am I seeing this? What is going on? But when I wipe a car down,
and I don't care what clear coated is, I'm going to have a ton of wipe on the surface.
And by the way, this was the same when I was using other people's product. This is not specific
to ours. It's like, I am going to take my time and get this surface exactly where like a lot of
people don't realize this. If you took a soft clear coat, and you stripped it down and you knew
it was naked, and you just coated over it. That's the easiest way to get a bond to the surface.
The minute you polish, there's all kinds of things to worry about debris, oils, compound
residue, polished residue, like, you actually have to get it back to that cleanliness that you had
earlier in the process. So like, when people go, why get a better bond when I when I polish a car,
it's like, actually, it's, there's more work to get it to bond, you could have had it bond perfectly
before the polish and compound ever hit the car. Like, people don't want to hear that.
But polishing compound put a level of risk into getting the coating to bond properly. Just think
if there was debris on your car, because that's what you're adding. I mean, abrasive, oils,
residue, it's just adding a layer of if this is still on the car, this is not going to bond properly.
And counterintuitive, but it's not counterintuitive when you say it out loud, you're taking an outside
piece of debris basically, and you're putting it on the car. You just had all the debris off the car
before you started these steps, right? So it's something that people have to think about.
That's why I take the wipe step a little bit more serious to most people is because when you know
how this stuff works, it's if anything gets in the way. So that could be many of you would never
coat over a dirty car. If you left the compound and polish on there, the coating doesn't know
any different. There's just something in the way, right? Like that's the simplest way that I can put
it. So when you guys are trying to troubleshoot things, being in the lineage of stuff just makes
it easier to troubleshoot. And it makes it almost impossible the other way.
And we do it for a couple reasons, because we go back and you go to, you know, when we started
putting on coatings and the struggles that happen and what goes on, you know, over the years, you
know, I know I would watch some people they would they would polish a car, then it turned around
to rewash the whole car. Yeah, that's how that's how I learned. Yeah, there you go. I mean, if you go
back to those old like three m compounds, you'd have to wash. When I started, you had to you didn't
have a choice. It was so dusty and shit was everywhere. You had to wash after your compound
step. Then you could do your mid step. If it was a bad mid step, it was another wash, not always,
but sometimes then you'd have to wash when you were done. Like you there was no other way,
like that there were times the cars got washed three and four times.
But even 10 years ago, not necessarily 20, right? Even five years ago, I still know people that will
wash their car after they've they've used to polish. And we're not going to say don't do it,
right? Like you did it. I've done it. A lot of people do it. Is that the right process though?
Well, you have to really work on what what are you going to be in or now you got all this water
back on. And one thing I never want to do is have a water run down the side of a mirror or run down
out of a handle or something. You don't want that. And so is that the right way? Well, some people
are going to go, Oh, I like to use alcohol and water. Yeah, here's here's another weird thing
to think about that I wasn't really even thinking about a minute ago. When you have soft clears
like GM black and I know you ran into this, there's no question you did just by the time that we
were doing all this stuff. You get a really hot alcohol mixture. And you swell that paint up
after polishing it and swelling the paint. And then you go to lay that coating down and you see
all that ghosting shit happen. For years, nobody could explain it, right? Because the people you
were talking to didn't really know much about anything. And so you started thinking about it
and you go, Holy shit, I just swelled up this GM black, I cut it, I finished it, got everything hot.
Then I took this hot alcohol made to serve made everything even more hot.
And then I went and laid coating down. Shit, but the thing hasn't even contracted yet.
Like you haven't even let this thing relax and get back to like a normal state of cool.
And, you know, it's not hot where you're like going to burn your hand. But that's,
I mean, that's what you've done. You've swelled the paint system. And, you know, all that stuff.
I would rather see people wash after compound and polish than what I see people do
with so little panel prep. Like that's a better alternative. Like if you're just so against using
a lot of panel prep, that's your call. I'd rather you see you wash the car than use a little bit
of panel prep, because a little bit of panel prep is really not helping a lot like you and or use
alcohol and water. Yeah, like you would like, don't do that either. Just just
this is the step you've come so far. Like don't let this get in the way, right? Like it's really
that simple. And I don't really liken it to cutting a corner, because I don't think people
are trying to cut a corner. I just don't think we've talked about it a lot. Like just as a whole
detailing society, some people cut the corner of cost. I do. I think with I said talking to people
knowing when they use IPA and water, I think it's a cost thing. I do. I think they look at the price
of a panel prep or look at the price of wipe and go, Well, I go down to Walgreens and give me alcohol.
I just just fine. No, no, it doesn't. You know,
you know, I hated about IPA wipes. I was going to say, but you also you got a lot more risk
of marring. Yes, you just polished. Yeah, that that was why you're gonna risk marring with an IPA.
I remember I forget what car I did. I don't know. I forget what car I did.
Got it to where I mean, just just glass. I was like, Oh, yeah, this is so hard. Like I had to pull
every trick in the book. I used IPA marred the shit out of the car. So the next time I didn't
use IPA, I washed the car and I avoided it all. But like I that's what would frustrate me about
IPA back in the day with the 5050 mixture, even if you try to do less. You know, I remember
did you ever use the Dabba, the little squirt of soap in your IPA? I never did that. It was all
I guess I'm to the point. And I think I want to say this to your point, like guys, if this is
where you're cutting a corner and that's who you are, what I would say is my life lessons in this
business is that paying for convenience, a lot of times pays you back 10 fold.
So now when I look at a product like wipe, I'm just like, Yeah, this is too it's sort of like
revive. When people are like, Well, you know, you can't dilute it. It's like, but I don't want to do
I just want to go and put the spray and just know that it's covered like there's something too
convenience. And you know, tire dressings can get expensive and you don't use as much as you would
on an interior. So you go, Hey, man, this being dilutable and me being able to get the finish I
want, I kind of understand why this works. You know, being able to dilute things like TRX that
makes sense, right? Like there's other things I just pay for convenience. And it's not like I'm
paying $500 a gallon versus $2 a gallon. I'm talking very nominal difference. And I kind of
wish I would have understood much earlier, like there is a very, very big return on paying for
convenience. There is, there is. All right, great episode. And if those of you are watching on
YouTube, you'll see Nick and I both wearing the new hyper clean shirts. Hopefully you were somebody
that took advantage of the hyper clean shirt that was on for the July 4th sale. Great. Another
thing we started doing every July 4. So hopefully you guys took advantage of it. Will they nick if
they didn't take advantage? Will they be able to get it later? Oh, yeah, we're gonna have them
for sale. We're gonna have them for sale. This is just something we wanted to do our first,
you know, iteration of doing something with the July 4 sale just something, you know, if you order
a certain dollar amount was nice to include them. But yeah, we'll have them for sale on the site as
well. Cool. All right, so everybody go over to the hyper clean store.com. Go grab yourself a t shirt.
And we will see you inside the hyper clean specialist group on Facebook. All right, guys.
About this episode
The hosts kick off with 4th of July road-trip banter, then pivot to a detailing reality check: bugs need to be removed fast—ideally within 24 hours—because their acidity can damage paint and degrade protection. They compare wax, sealant, and ceramic coatings in terms of heat/element resistance and how much “leeway” each offers. A big focus is avoiding overly aggressive bug removers that leave residue and aren’t properly neutralized. They also warn about “ceramic” products that are really hybrids and discuss real-world coating durability differences.
In this episode, Marshall and Nick share a candid conversation about the summer detailing season, common challenges like bug removal, the importance of applying coatings correctly, and the psychological aspects of pricing and branding in the car care industry.
Whether you're a seasoned detailer or just starting out, this discussion offers valuable tips for optimizing your business and maintaining quality during hot months.
Timestamps:00:00 - Celebrating 250 years of America and holiday work habits 00:07 - Do you take days off during holiday weekends? 00:34 - Observations of quiet roads and vacant offices during the holiday 00:49 - Fireworks and safety reminders with a humorous twist 1:02 - The recurring joke about injuries from fireworks 1:21 - The humor around social media memes about firework mishaps 1:35 - Observations on the durability of fireworks and cultural memories 1:43 - The commonality of irrigation line issues and bug removal urgency 2:51 - The importance of removing bugs quickly to prevent damage 3:05 - Ceramic coating’s role in protecting against bugs and etching 4:01 - Routine and products for bug removal, including Hyper Clean Bug 4:52 - The benefits of a stronger bug remover formula and product safety 5:27 - The risks of using overly strong cleaners and proper wash procedures 6:35 - The significance of quick bug removal within 24 hours for paint health 7:23 - How different product protections (wax, sealant, ceramic) react to bugs and acids 9:50 - Variations in bug swarm severity across regions 10:17 - The acid content in bugs and its impact on paint protection layers 10:47 - Differentiating true ceramic coatings from hybrids and their durability 11:22 - Issues with lower-quality ceramic coatings and the superiority of premium products like Uno 11:52 - Market saturation and the proliferation of ceramic coatings and their quality 33:31 - The financial implications of maintaining high-cost setups and equipment 34:00 - The misconception of shop aesthetic as a major value driver for clients 35:32 - The influence of perceived luxury and branding on higher pricing 36:19 - Focusing on the core value you deliver to clients—in convenience, quality, and trust 37:28 - The strategic advantages of offering mobile and on-site services for customer convenience 38:18 - Building trust through professionalism and consistency in service delivery 39:36 - The importance of making customer onboarding simple and repeatable 40:32 - The power of communication skills in increasing ticket size and customer loyalty 42:20 - Personal reflections on childhood bullying and business challenges 44:31 - How early industry bullying shaped current practices and perceptions 45:00 - The need for professionalism over aggressive sales tactics in molding industry standards 47:02 - The shift away from coercive selling toward education and trust-building 48:43 - Handling ceramic coating issues and troubleshooting systematically 50:41 - The importance of product testing and process consistency for coating success 53:07 - Understanding product interactions, especially with panel prep and oils 55:26 - Why thorough panel prep is critical for coating longevity and performance 58:12 - The importance of accurate troubleshooting based on product combinations 59:55 - Proper wipe application and avoiding contamination/ debris for optimal results 62:22 - The critical role of cleanliness and process control in coating adhesion 64:33 - Revisiting wash procedures after polishing to ensure high-quality coating bonds 67:40 - The debate on whether aesthetics or functionality adds value in mobile setups 70:44 - The importance of branding, merchandise, and presentation in business perception
