In the spring of 1993, I embarked on the first step of what would evolve into a thirty year odyssey into the very deep rabbit hole which is automotive detailing. This journey began with the purchase of my first car, a 1989 Suzuki Swift hatchback and I was determined to enhance it beyond it’s condition at the time of purchase and keep it looking great. My passion for automotive detailing was ignited at that point and the journey began.
Shortly after acquiring the car I had the privilege of meeting a professional detailer responsible for maintaining my father's company cars. Intrigued by what he did, our initial encounter and subsequent discussions marked the genesis of my enduring fascination with automotive detailing, a passion that would become as central to my life as martial arts and philosophy was to Bruce Lee my idol and hero.
Detailing became a source of fun, gave me purpose and a relentless pursuit of perfection. As the saying goes, the journey itself often holds more significance than the destination. You may never achieve perfection but getting very close to it sure makes all the effort so worthwhile. Over the years I have devoted so much time to continuous research, experimentation with over one hundred and sixty brands of products tested to this day plus the fulfilment of a goal - to buy my first ever dream car which I had wanted since 1979 after watching Mad Max as a six year old, either an XA, XB or XC Falcon two door coupe.
I ended up buying a 1972 Ford XA Falcon Fairmont two-door coupe with a 351 4V V8 engine with a racing camshaft, new C4 Transmission, hurst racing shifter and some nice wheels and big wide tyres. A few years later the journey of constant testing led me to embrace the digital age, opening doors to a vast online community of fellow enthusiasts and experts from around the world, sharing insights on forums like Detailing World, Autopia, Detail City, and many others where some great knowledge was gained. This is where I shared some of my best work during the 2000’s.
A commitment to self-improvement and the technical aspects of detailing culminated in my professional entry into the field. Slowly I began to develop a forward-thinking mind and this showed in my ability to foresee a number of products well before their eventual release. Such as microfiber polishing pads which in 2002 I envisioned we would be using within several years. They were already in use in the OEM world and I adopted them as soon as they hit the market in 2011. I was one of the earliest in the western world to discover and embrace denim and velvet pads that had been in asia for many years as well as rinseless washing in 2002 and ceramic coatings in 2008. I’ve not always been the first with new tech but most certainly one of the early adopters of any new technology that provides many benefits and allowed detailers like myself to do things we could not before.
In 2011-2012 I was fortunate enough to contribute to a leading crash repair industry magazine, writing articles on the subject of polishing including the use of long throw polishers when they first came out. These articles I wrote led to the opportunity to test polishing machines and products for a few power tool companies. Among my visionary mind’s concepts, one stands out over all. My vision back in 2006 that the future of random orbital polishing was with variable orbit stroke polishers. Three, four or five orbit sizes on one polisher. It would take a decade for the first variable orbit polisher to be released to the market despite my attempts to get it made some years prior.
From my humble beginnings in a garage in 2006, I got to expand to a one thousand square metre workshop in 2007. Notably seven years later in 2014 I achieved the distinction of being the world’s first pro detailer invited as a guest speaker on the very first auto detailing podcast show. Today it is time to give back to my industry which gave me a purpose in life, an income stream and some good friends and many opportunities.
Happy Detailing everyone
