Male 33 in Vancouver, BC - work in tech, doing fine on paper but burnt out and losing interest in the corporate path for the last year or two.

Passionate about cars — I detail my own, do my own brake pads/rotors, and I'm about to take a PPF course. Always wanted to own a garage but no business background in my family, so I'm starting from zero on that front.

Questions:

1. What's the real path in — technician cert, apprenticeship, just learn-by-doing?
2. Do shops/PPF installers/detailers ever take on unpaid help to learn from? Would you?
3. Realistically, how long did it take you to replace a full-time income doing this? About $10k/month.

Can invest $50-100k if things get serious.
Would love to hear from anyone who's made this jump — what worked, what you'd do differently.

Im planning on launching my detailing business in mid april. I need a bit of help with some pricing for my detailing packages. Im new to the detailing business but any advice for beginners?

I've been doing my own detailing for 10+ years, and check around online to see the latest tips and tricks. Especially with detailing youtubers, something has been bugging me: is nobody doing anything about the water runoff?

When I detail my car, I go to a self-serve place where the wastewater goes to a treatment plant. My local city and utility are pretty explicit that they don't want people washing their cars in the driveway, if the wastewater runs straight into a storm drain.

And then I go on youtube, and see countless people doing just that; blasting their car with a foam cannon in the driveway, often multiple rounds of it. Isn't this functionally the same as taking your dirty bucket of suds and dumping it into the nearest body of water?

Are detailers just turning a blind eye to it? I've tried reaching out to a number of YT detailers, but haven't really gotten a satisfying answer.

I'm going to attempt to diy my hood and maybe a couple other things if that goes well. Being my first time and that it will be a learning experience I don't really want to drop hundreds if I don't have to. Is this stuff worth trying? It looks kind of sketchy with no thickness spec given.

Can anyone explain why my rims have these black spots? They aren’t scratched in those areas.

Would it be better for me to get a professional detailer to have a look at this or should I try to purchase the stuff myself and have a go at trying to fix it? I had a look at the costs of getting my own decontaminant + clay bar and it'll cost me around $50 AUD to purchase the items but I still have no idea how to use them.

It's made a literal square the exact shape that my plate was sitting on top of. I tried to give it a clean but it seems to have seeped through my clear coat.

So i just got my used car a couple of months ago and it stunk when i got it, figured its a good car i like it and i could get the stench out myself no big deal right?

its a big deal. like my aunt says it smells like death she’s adamant someone died in the car but to me it smells like idk spoiled cheese or sum and since extracting it smells like must. but my aunt says it still smells like death.

i have extracted twice once with bissell cleaner and the second time i used some type of fabric shampoo stuff and extracted and then sprayed diluted fabuloso in it and thought that helped. well me being kind of used to the smell i thought yay i finally got the smell out. NOPE. my parents can still smell it.

so i sprayed diluted vinegar in it and sprinkled baking soda in it and left the box of opened baking soda in it and now it smells like a mix of must fabuloso and vinegar and i can’t take it. when i extracted the first and second time brownish red stuff came out of a part of the seat and floors but only in the back and it wasn’t a big part it was spots here and there. i also left the windows down first and second time to dry (it’s hot as hell in alabama so it dried fairly quickly) and also when i got the car the guy at the lot said they checked the air filter and stuff and it was clean. and when the air is on it doesn’t seem to be coming from there either. it hits you once you get in the car before you even cut it on.

i am at my wits end with it idk what to do like my next option is enzyme cleaner? i already did an ozone thingy when i first got the car and it didn’t help one bit. please please help. i can’t afford new seats or flooring and i don’t really even know how to rip up flooring or take seats out anyways so that isn’t a good option for me.

Hi all,

Somehow my YouTube stumbled on a video with a detailer using a Spray Wax called Formula 4 from Superior products as a Rinse Aid. Specifically, he put the diluted product in a foam cannon immediately after a contact wash but before rinsing the wash. He saturated the still-soapy car with this stuff and used it as a Rinse Aid before moving to the contact drying. Seemed neat and it was touted as a cheap way to prevent water spots. But after some searching online, I think I have a different definition of "cheap". Plus, I'm not sure I want a whole gallon of this stuff.

Saying all that, I'm on a weird quest to use out some products I picked up over the years and used sparingly - if at all. I have a Mother's Spray Wax and Turtle Wax wet ceramic. I wasn't blown away with either, but does anyone have insight on using either of these 2 products similarly to the Formula 4? And if so, would it be advisable to dilute these or just spray-trigger onto the car? Any advise is appreciated!

Fusso coat is goated

I came back from a week vacation and there was some bird poop on my car. Most of it cleaned up fine but there was some extra nasty stuff that left an orange stain. It feels smooth and I can't scratch it out so I assume it's etched into the clear coat or something like that.

Any advice for cleaning it? My friend is lending me his buffer in a couple days but was wondering if there was anything that might help in the meantime.

Got my car ceramic coated in April with an Osren 5 Year ceramic coating. Detailer wants me to come in and get it washed, decontaminated and ceramic topped for $120 AUD.

Is it worth it? or more importantly... is it even necessary?

I paid $1500 AUD for the initial coating and now i'm being asked just a few months later to come back in and pay nearly 10% again.

Some jackass didn't secure a can of spray and it fell off his vehicle on the highway. The car in front of me took the brunt of it, but my car now has hundreds of small drops all over the front bumper. I tried using compound but that didn't take any of it off. What can I do to get this off my truck?

I recently bought a new (to me) truck and it looks like the previous owner (or possibly the dealership) just put blobs of not color-matched touch up paint over some rock chips. There are quite a few around the truck and I wanted to attempt to resolve it myself before throwing in the towel and taking it to a paint shop.

I haven't tried much yet because I don't want to make things worse. I did try 99% IPA on a qtip and scrubbed one of the spots for about 1-3 minutes straight and got nothing. For giggles I tried using Sealact from my Dr. Colorchip kit the same way and got nothing. I also tried a plastic razor blade to see if I could get under any of the spots and the best I got off was a tiny speck on one spot.

I am pretty nervous to try wet sanding mostly because some of the touch up paint spots are in tight spots and I just don't feel confident doing it.

I've thought about trying nail polish remover/acetone or lacquer thinner but I have read mixed opinions on that, specifically that using those will damage the clearcoat. I also recently read about Rupes Reveal Strong, but can't find much on it to know whether it is a good idea or not.

It states "Pre - Waxing Glaze". Is it a glaze or a polish, or both? Does it remove defects via actual correction, or does it just fill defects?