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Saving $Thousands with a Pro Detailer's Guide to Perfect Car Care

by Anthony Baker; co-published with DRAWS Publishing

196 pages; black coil; catalogue #99-0081; ISBN 1-55212-331-6; US$23.50, C$27.00, EUR19.50, £13.50

For restoration, protection and increased value, "Saving $Thousands with a Pro Detailer's Guide to Perfect Car Care" is the ultimate car detailing book for novices and enthusiasts.

Read more!

about the book      about the author      index      sample chapter      reader comments      catalogue info

About the Book Want to fall in love with your car again? Fall in love with the look, the smell, the feel, the knowing of every inch of its cushy fabric and rigid steel? Want to drive in it and bask in its luxurious exhuberance forever? And then, when you think you've experienced it all, be back in the driver's seat again and again? Endlessly? No problem, but first instruction and a cleaning routine that will make and keep your vehicle the beautiful piece of machinery it was intended to be. Saving $Thousands With Perfect Car Care begins with an introduction and vital information on the different types of surfaces you will be cleaning and the substances that contaminate these surfaces. Necessary science and quality measures are introduced to ensure safe cleaning at all times. There are big jobs as well as small but the large jobs are better understood as necessary ingredients to successful and profitable car care. Fittingly, these jobs are then itemized under the heading of, "Minimum Required Services" (M.R.S.). The M.R.S. is explained as the care required to keep your vehicle as risk free of damage caused by neglect as possible. Then, calculate the dollars you are saving with the M.R.S. savings chart. Next, a maintenance program suggests several ways that you can tailor make an agenda to suit your schedule and availability for car care maintenance. Finally, an extensive rundown of all equipment, tools, supplies and chemicals will leave you looking in the right places for the right prices. In Chapter Two you will learn the most insightful step in car--the interior clean up and exterior wash, or simply, "the wash." Meticulous care has gone into this chapter because this is where all vehicle ails are diagnosed and cures prescribed. The often-known complexities of a safe and proper wash are made simple with a breakdown of the fourteen steps involved. The section-by-section technique of my five-step car wash provides a 99.9% guarantee to a safe wash every time. Fittingly, the easy to grasp concepts will enable you to wash your car professionally in just minutes. For every job there is a technique. Read on for interior wipe down, vacuuming, and window cleaning techniques. Then learn how to clean your wheels in a complete wheel-cleaning guide. Next, rags and chamois become extremely diverse with the use of folds during use and proper care after use. Included with the wash from time to time, the chrome clean and vinyl top clean are also made safe with easy to follow cleaning approaches. And when certain steps during the wash consistently bog you down, let the "Interior and Exerior Wash Timing" chart show you where you are going wrong and what you can do about it. Then move on to an item of great benefit to any car owner with a garage. Converting the garage into a wash bay is done easily and provides you with indoor advantages that can make a remarkable difference in cleaning pleasure. Explore the minor renovation suggestions and consider the inexpensive construction of a movable plastic wall that will enable you to wash your vehicle(s) every day of the year. Finally, the shop vac, the most verssatile piece of equipment in auto care, is exposed of its many uses. Use superb techniques of water and dirt removal as explained and illustrated. There will be no more problems with dog hair and nasty fragments caught in carpet fibers. By now you will have noticed special features as you have read. Seventy-four "Trade Trick" markers and multiple "Note" markers are dispersed throughout the book to let you in on the easy way out of cleaning difficulties. Also, "Cautions" are placed to warn of possible cleaning dangers for the protection of you and your car. All these, of course, come from my trials and errors and are given freely to you for the cleaning peace-of-mind we would all like to have when protecting and preserving our car. And so... Chapter Three takes you into the depths of an interior shampoo with detailed illustrations, a handy one-glance breakdown of the shampoo order, and complete step-by-step instruction that leaves nothing to chance. The relationship between dirt and interior fibers is discussed as well as a system of soaking, agitation and extraction. Other illustrations show the logical orders of shampooing any type of vehicle, large or small, two-door or five-door. There is instruction for very soiled interiors; for the catastrophically dirty, the radical shampoo; for leather interiors, a special process; and of course, the delicate shampoo for lightly soiled or sensitive fabrics. Extraction of dirty, sudsy water naturally becomes the next order of instruction with emphasis on key extraction processes and techniques. Following exraction comes a technique called "flushing," where the use of water and extraction drastically reduce the cleaning time and increases the effect of total dirt removal from any vehicle. Keeping in line with the shampoo theme, a method of shampooing the engine is written in this book to be understood by all. This important and often feared step to total car care not only carries you through the job with certainty, but it continues through to the engine painting and dressing after the shampoo. Remember, anyone can do this. That means you too! In Chapter Four the pinnicle of automotive detailing is exercised. The fine detailing of your interior is demonstrated with illustrations, a handy one-glance order of operations, and instruction that leaves no corners untouched and no surfaces unwiped. Many tips of the trade are revealed to make the job quick and to make your interior look trick. Following that is information on selecting and applying the right dressing for your interior leather and vinyl. More tools of the trade as options are looked at. In Chapter Five, the exterior of your vehicle is placed under scrutiny. A most comprehensive look at all of the many paint hazards dutifully informs you to protect the paint on your car. Hazard prevention is clearly shown to be a highly demonstrative element in paint care. Education is then directed towards the use of polymer-resin paint sealing products and the use of them as a way to fight the hazards that endanger most cars every day. Their important role in paint protection brings out instruction on purchasing, vehicle preparation, application, removal, detail and streak removal. With this instruction, diagrams are used to show how paint oxidation and road film is removed during the process of paint sealing. The alternative, wax, becomes the next order of instruction. Again, purchasing, application, removal, and detailing are fully described. Carrying on with paint concerns, you will be shown techniques on how to remove foreign residues or acid rain marks. You will be shown how the proper use of rubbing compound can safely remove a scratch or a scuff on the paint. Since machine high-speed buffing is highly and unforgivingly risky - one mistake could cost big money - my techniques of paint restoration and protection done by hand are equally effective. My first two of many years in the business proved to me that the hand is more sensitive to the finer finesses in paint care than the machine will ever be. Finally, a few techniques are revealed that show how exterior paint touch ups can add beauty to the car even if they are not professional. This shows to be a handy "sale time" fix that can put a lot of extra dollars in your pocket. Included are some interesting exterior painting solutions. In Chapter Six, entitled, "Value," you will learn not only how to keep a vehicle valuable, but also how to make a vehicle valuable converting up to the thousands of potentially lost dollars into saved dollars or earned dollars. You will learn 33 ways to ensure that your vehicle keeps its original gleam and luster, and as importantly, its highest possible market value. If your vehicle needs to look new for a sale or trade-in, you will partake in a 38 step process of cleaning and detailing that encompasses every bit of knowledge you'll gain from this book. Over all, under 77 headings and 241 sub-headings in this book, you will find serious instruction, priceless information, and appropriate doses of inspiration that will keep your wheels rolling with beauty and your pocketbooks enlarged with savings. Here it all is, right now for you!

About the Author

As an automotive detailer for more than 14 years between Southern Ontario and picturesque British Columbia, I have traveled a full length of terrain in the automotive cleaning profession.

I've studied the atmosphere, the earth, the the sky elements that come into contact with cars and trucks on today's streets, roads and highways. Perhaps the most dangerous element to the automobile, man/woman, has most significantly inspired my research and development.

Resultingly and painstakingly, I have developed proven cleaning techniques based on science and logic, and have written them into a format that presents itself well to both the novice and the enthusiast in car detailing.

My techniques were largely developed on the job where I used them in training sessions with fresh, young detailers as well as in the sharing and collaboration of new ideas and discoveries with other pro detailers. For me, the ideas rehashed and converged, were the catalysts to better, quicker cleaning.

Then I come to the issue of money. Let's just realize the thousands of dollars to be saved and earned in car care and leave it at that.

Proudly, I present the most complete guide ever written for the "know-nuthin's" in car care and the people who know it all but want to know it all better, and all the folks in between. Welcome to a dimension in car care that makes your step into the millenium even more profitable and enjoyable.

Sample Chapter

NOTE: If your vehicle has only a carpeted floor or only fabric seats with a vinyl floor, do still follow this shampoo order as set out omitting the steps that do not apply.

A 1 2 3 Driver Seat (Refer to diagram)
Dip your wash mitt into the pail full of shampoo mix. Let it get soaked, then lift it out of the bucket and let the excess water drip off momentarily.....

Detail Brush Techniques

Jam and Twist
	In places such as corners, you can use your detail brush with a twist to remove dirt. Simply jam the bristles into the corner and give the brush a twist. The bristles will in effect dig into the dirt and pull it free. Use some force when using this technique so the bristles are in fact reaching the depth of the corner. Do this a number of times until the dirt is gone. You can use this technique with a spray of vinyl cleaner if the dirt is stubborn but you may be left with a less problematic residue to deal with.
Strike and Thrust
	You may remember this technique being used in Chapter Two for vacuuming. It is used with the same idea here. This technique works well on tiny letters or grooves such as on a radio dial. A normal brushing may not remove dirt that is too well lodged. By striking a surface with the bristles of the brush and thrusting the brush to one side upon contact will impact the dirt with the force needed to remove it. This method also removes dirt from corners. You don't always need the side thrust. Often the impact of the initial strike will loosen the dirt.
Brush and Vac
	You may come across a felt surface in a dash pocket or another delicate surface that is hard to reach with a detailing cloth or vacuum. Places such as these usually contain dry dust or dirt particles. Turn the shop vac on and hold the nozzle over the opening or as close to the surface as possible. Stirred up dirt or dust will be sucked out by the vacuum. Use your detail brush to loosen dust and dirt while keeping the vacuum over the opening. You may have to alternat brushing and vacuuming until the dirt is removed.
Tooth Brush
	The methods you use for brushing your teeth will work on your interior surfaces as well. Scrubbing may be needed for patterned trim or irregular surfaces. You might choose to scrub an area on your steering wheel to loosen skin oil. You might scrub a filthy set of instrument panel windows. Feel free to scrub wherever and whenever you please. Most detail brushes are soft enough for any interior surface.

"Car For Sale" Clean Up Steps

1. Start the engine so it can warm up for the engine shampoo.

2. While the engine is warming up, try to accomplish these three things:
    a) Vacuum the interior of your vehicle, then change the filter to the wet vac filter.
    b) Clean the wheels in preparation for the exterior wash. See "Cleaning Wheels" in Chapter Two. Remove all break dust from wheels.
    c) Make preparations for the exterior wash.

3. Shut off the engine and prepare for the engine shampoo. See "Engine Shampoo" in Chapter Three. Cover the distrubutor with plastic and plug the air intake valve with a rag.

4. Apply engine shampoo to the engine and also the complete area around and including the door hinges. The rear door hinges (if applicable) should be accessed from the open front door with the rear door closed and also from the open rear door with the front door closed. After the shampoo there should be no oil, grease, or dirt around the whole door and the cavity it takes up in the closed position.

5. Close the front hood. As the engine shampoo does its work on the grease for at least ten minutes, you have time to do two things:
    a) Vacuum the trunk area if youhave not yet done so.
    b) Clean all the chrome on the vehicle. Read up on "Chrome Clean" in Chapter Two.

6. Lift the front hood and wash the engine and its compartment. Also wash the door hinges.

7. With the power washer or pressure hose still at hand, close the front hood and pre-rinse the vehicle for the exterior wash. This pre-rinse should include a very through rinsing of fender wells as well as all visible parts under the vehicle. Clean the fender wells well. Use a course hair or wire brush if you have to. They need to be clean enough to accept paint.

8. Next go straight to the vinyl top clean and clean it as described in "Vinyl Top Clean" in Chapter Two.

9. When the vinyl top is clean, wash the car. See "5 Step Car Wash" in Chapter Two. Take note of these things:
    a) Concentrate on removing chrome clean and vinyl top clean residues.
    b) Remove bug residues, tar, tree,sap, etc...

Reader Comments

"I knew nothing about car care until I came across Anthony Baker's book. I thought people who said 'detailing' were misusing the word 'detail.' I had no idea how much money I could save until I read PERFECT CAR CARE. Great book."

"An encyclopedia of detailing techniques...with Anthony's methods you can transform that clunker into a classic!"

"I was very happy to receive the book and to know that he successfully completed the great job. Honestly speaking, I'm not so familiar with car things, however, I could see how well-done the book was as I read through it. It's a surprisingly detailed and professional writing, yet, not so difficult to read even for 'damnies' like me."

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