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Hi, my name is Stu and I am an Addict

3K views 15 replies 13 participants last post by  Prestige car care shop 
#1 · (Edited)
In 2013 I purchased the first car that I actually wanted to look after, a 2004 Nissan 350z GT Coupe. I can now look back and recognise, this was my first mistake. The gateway.



My second mistake followed hot on the heels, nothing too serious, certainly nothing my innocent mind considered to be risky, I started hanging around the 'Detailing' section of the 350Z owners forum. Just reading things. Sometimes watching things. My third mistake was finding the superb AMMO instructional videos on YouTube. Little did I know, that these three seemingly innocuous activities were the introduction of something highly addictive, expensive and a huge thief of my time.

Needless to say, it wasn't long before I found myself spending my weekend mornings round the back of the house, washing, drying, waxing, away from other humans, indulging in my habit. Then, after all that, standing back and admiring it. Worse still, I started taking pictures to share with strangers on the, internet.

At first they were nice pictures, the ones car enthusiasts and the 'norms' could appreciate, albeit whilst being slightly bored. But this wasn't enough. I wanted more, I wanted pictures like I'd been secretly browsing on my iPad late at night, pictures of something called 'beading'.



And soon after, beads on paint wasn't enough, I wanted beads on metals too.



Before I knew it, I was into 'arty' beads, with shallow depth of field and a boutique detailing branding in shot.



It wasn't much later I realised that owning a car with grey paint was sort of cheating. Grey hides so many defects, so much traffic film, it looks good just clean, and that's just not enough for an addict. Is it? Anyone can make grey look good from 6 feet.

So I went for something in gorgeous mica WR blue.



And so it started getting worse, more washing, more waxing, more photos of more beads. Just this time in blue.







Anyone who's looked at pictures on the internet will tell you, sometimes photos aren't enough, you want to see video action of the wetness too.



By this point, I thought my addiction was fully formed. No further depths of detailing could be plumbed in my hunt for the perfect finish. I'd done three bucket washes and chemical waterspot removal and clay barring and sealing and waxing, but... By sheer coincidence I ended up doing a few days work at a local detailer, nothing technical, a bit of washing, a little hoovering and the occasional glass clean. But being inside a professional detailing workshop showed me a whole new world of machine polishers and ceramic coatings that I'd only read about. Best of all, a full on professional to show me the starting lessons on polishing paint by machine.

Before I knew it, I was hunting around my car with a Scangrip SunMatch 2, looking for tiny defects, like some crazed lunatic seeking evidence of chemtrails or conducting flat earth experiments.







The culmination of all this work (not by me sadly) by a skilled professional, left me with paint like this.





And a car that looked like this



Now that I've seen the correction a talented detailer could achieve along with the protection and gloss of a ceramic coating. I've come to accept that there is no way back to being a drive through car wash kinda guy, so I thought to myself,

"You know what? It's time to stop fighting it, just embrace this addiction, sign up to Detailing World."
 
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