Craigslist

During phone or email inquiries from our prospective clients, a never-ending question is put to us, as all detailers are:

What do you do for a specific detail (package)?

The trouble with that open-ended question is that every detail is bid according to how long the multitudes of details have taken since 1986, their issues used as baselines. Typically a standard detail of ours starts at 5 hours and can take more time depending on issues that are prevelant on the vehicle. In those cases it is better to deep clean or intensely polish those areas and the original bid will not provide enough time to perform the depth and quality of work that is required.

The reason for that previous paragraph is that there is a discrepency in what the inexpensive car washer detailers are advertising and the actual results based on using lighting sources to verify the LEVEL of work. If you are working in the shade, everything looks good! Just wiping a glossy product over your vehicle's surfaces does not equate to detailing nor protecting properly. It's basic window dressing and can cause more damage due to underlying neglect.

The difference between our detail packages and theirs?

We believe that we are being hired to clean and polish specific areas on the vehicle as properly as they require to safely return them to "in new" condition or as close as safely possible. Examples of this would be machine polishing the exterior glass instead of just an aerosol cleaning agent and a towel. Using a toothbrush, a carefully taped off thin paintbrush and using these tools to clean grooves and other tight locations all over the vehicle during the initial washdown. This is how it can take up to 4 full hours to initially wash a vehicle from front to back if in neglected condition, although typical is 1.25 - 2 hours on details over 5 hours!

The detailers with Quality & Integrity will always provide visible proof to prospective clients and the internet has given their inquiry total privacy. You can see & compare long before we meet.

Look for before and after photos on every website or online ad. Everything looks good in the shade, even with oxidation. Do they use a lightsource when polishing your vehicle? The size of the sun reflected in the paint is a fantastic way to discern how accurate the detailer actually is. The smaller and more defined, the better!

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A #1 issue are the car washers claiming to "Clay your car to perfection, then apply a "glossy" wax.
What about polishing your car to perfection? What type of "detailer" would abrade the paint or clear on your vehicle's surface and then HIDE the damage by applying a quick wax?

The red truck photo below is from a car wash type detailer who posted on Craigslist 11/15/2010, comparing himself to our work. The photo he used as the comparison below clearly shows a terrrific level of swirl and micromarring. Anyone interested in calling this company can do so at 888-334-4378. Ask for Brian Eggert of Napa, California.

He rotates through his business names and phone #'s monthly.

Brian Eggert is not affiliated with me in any way, shape or form. He copies my ads, constantly, or wildly mocks various sentences. His newest effort to copy is to say "customized professional detailing since 1986". Fact: Brian was a high school freshman then, if Napa was a 4 year HS, basically 14 or 15 years old. Our favorite is his claim that he has detailed over 70,000 vehicles in his career. (365 * 6 (a day)* 20 (years) = (only) 43,800. The top 1,000 detailers in the world work on 1 vehicle/day average over 250 days/year, or aproximately 5,000-6,000 over a 20 year period. It's clear to everyone that his numbers are wildly askew from reality.

An extremely odd thing about this person is his constant ranting about how a high end detailer does the best work, but touting himself as a high end detailer who does cheap/inexpensive work. It just boggles the mind.

About the photo below:
Reflective at the edges doesn't count. You cannot see a rainbow dead ahead because of light refraction in the air, but it looks great to the edge. Your eye and the camera eye can clearly see the intense swirls and micromarring at the edges of the sun's reflection. What this shows is that a high gloss wax product was probably used, this would typically have an application life of about 30-60 days or potentially only 2-4 car washes before the marred surface shows itself on the whole fender.

Another attack by Eggert is this old car he claims a "high end detailer" wanted to charge for a multi-day but "he" could do it in a couple of hours. Since I hadn't any idea how you can do such work, I experimented on our family's ancient Volvo in October 2010. I found that you can do it like he has shown if you just polish it with Finish2000 or Turtlewax. Here are the two comparison photos.

The first clearly shows a heavy coat of oxidation on a burgundy old vehicle. Or is it?
Just how old the paint finish is can not be decided as yet, but the next photo appears to show a paintjob that could very well be only 20 years old, not color sanded after the repaint and
when this person finished his waxing the orangepeel and remaining oxidation is clearly evident.
There is absolutely no quality of reflection of the surrounding house or trees.

And here is our comparison. This Volvo has been sitting in the fog of Daly City for over 20 years.
The rear deck shows a paint thickness of 67mics, no clearcoat. The white area in the middle (primer)
is caused by years of oxidation now being worn away.

The above Volvo required 5 minutes to appear to "remove the oxidation" on that decklid.
We used a polishing foam pad and Finish2000.
No heavy polisher, no polish or compound. There is a mild level of definition of reflection, however Volvo doesn't usually leave orangepeel of any magnitude after it's initial painting, nor was this vehicle ever repainted.

This is not detailing, it's a lie. The oxidation was not removed, it was waxed with one of the cheapest synthetic waxes of all time. It will not last much more than 4 months as the oxidation continues to eat away at the underlying paint.

Any detailer you might encounter who believes that the work above is satisfactory, is lying to you.
The "wax" has been spun into the oxidation in such quantity that it appears to be mildly reflective.

If this Volvo still had a suitable level of paint the proper restoration work would take 6 to 10 hours.
The finished work at that level would still require a wax process at least every 4-6 months though the wax would be continuing the incredible finish and would look like this instead:

For comparison again: Above = "High-End" detailing on a 1988 BMW M5 in 2008 (picture is of the hood)
and below = "I got ripped off" on an old car wax job. The difference in cost? The M5 was $350 for a 7 hour exterior detail in 2009. You would have to ask him what he charged for his work on this Burgundy car. Both are single stage enamel, and this car is much larger than the M5. In question, no, this owner never contacted me,
but had he, I would have to guess it's 2 full days of work to produce the results of the M5, and IF it were possible. Look at the hood gap, it is caked with red. Either that is Mr. Eggert's wax OR it is a repaint where the painter failed to tape off the black rubber seal.

From what I see in the picture below the car was repainted and would require colorsanding to smooth out the orangepeel, then compounding to remove sanding marks, then polishing to remove compounding marks. A final polish routine would bring out the depth of gloss, then 2 coats of my wax to seal and protect.

Or another takedown by Eggert, saying a high end mobile detailer tried to bid
this brand new car (just got it's license plate) as a multi-day detail.
This is a 2010 Dodge Challenger, posted on Craigslist in mid 2010.

Why would it take two days just to wash and wax it?

Notice that the ground is still quite wet.
It is a situation that all car washers face, the owner doesn't leave the keys and the washer probably has to leave for another job right away, but they want the picture! Can't move it and can't wait till the ground dries.

A clarification. Mr Eggert has used online attacks against our company and our detailing results since I started on Craigslist, SF in 2007. It has become truly disgusting to see this self-proclaimed car washer continuously lie to the public while attempting to destroy or wildly mock the truth of professional detailing.

No one cares about this person as a theoretical competitor in the sense of the word. His car washing is excellent, to be perfectly honest.
But, the car washing vs pro detailing are wildly disparate in comparison, the net goals of each are too widely separated.
All that we ask is for this person to stop the 5-10 Craigslist spams/day attempting to drown out all other competitors,
and please, pretty please (like we asked you 4+ years ago) end your online smear campaigns against your victims.

Asking him via a phone call in 2008 to please stop the "conflict situation" netted an unfortunate statement
that it wasn't him, it was his "partner". Honestly, who cares who the "invisible" partner is,
the phone #'s in the smear ads were always answered by Brian, and that was over 4 years ago at start.
4 years is a LONG TIME to constantly blame someone else yet never bother to correct the issue.
Here is just one of the Photobucket.com links (now changed (2/2012) to BayAreaDetailing), in a poor attempt to hide from the truth.
Idalia is Brian Eggert's wife.

href="http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m105/idalia35/?action=view&current=ieggert61507312.jpg"

Ergo, the CL poster in question (most likely) is and always has been Brian Eggert.

The list below are copies of Mr. Eggert's Craigslist titles from 2009 to 2012
It appears that every single ad title is written by the same individual.

It's kind of funny, kind of sad.

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When you view our list of recent details it becomes quite clear that there is
a huge difference in ultimate quality between car wash detailing and professional detailers.

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Using a lightsource is an absolute when working on painted surfaces in the shade. How do you know which polish is providing the least amount of aggression but is still able to affect the surface for the better?
Paint polishing has become scientific in the last 3-5 years but each vehicle/color is different. Clearcoats are shallower than the 80's-90's coatings were and therefore a more exact science is required to safely remove defects. (Inexpensive = Fast) And fast has to cut corners, somewhere.

It is very important to make this distinction, safety does not happen quickly, it must be planned and executed.

It is also imperitive to use a strong light to photograph just how well the polish system completed the removal of defects. All top detailers know that their reputation is on the line if they can't prove their work to knowledgable clients.

We guarantee that we will Never Cause swirls or holograms. And, we can safely remove previous swirls and minor scratches on any color. Since we always check our work with our Electronic Paint Depth Gauge before and after on ferous metal based vehicles, we can show you where issues are evident.

The difference between our detail packages is the quality of the vehicle when we arrive, and the desired level of finish on the paint or leather when we are finished.

Based on this, an Apollo Detail can be as fast as 5 hours, or a restoration level can be 1.5 to 5 days long! Even still, this is far less costly than having your vehicle repainted.

We have Three Full Detail packages:

Standard for daily drivers and excellent for maintenance. (5-7 hours)

Executive for more difficult vehicles or for the discerning owner - Vehicles For Sale or Exotic/Luxury & RV's. (6-10 hours)

Truly Stunning Detail. Astute detail processes, highest quality, proven products.
= supernatural results. (1.5 days and longer!)

We can apply these packages to one surface or the other, thereby moving beyond the initial package's ability. Examples would be heavy oxidation or industrial fallout removal, or bad spills or long term lack of deep cleaning.

Our proprietary 6-8 month Paint Sealant - Heavy Carnuaba Wax is the longest lasting of any of it's type and is quite costly, or Zymol Titanium Carnuaba, a high gloss 6 month 58% carnuaba which runs well over $1500/gallon. We only order 8 ounces of this at one time for absolute freshness and quality. We also have a short volume of Zaino wax on hand that can provide up to 1 year of protection. Zymol or Zaino will only be applied to Executive or greater details, upon request.

Advanced Services:

There are very different requirements from our clients on a day to day basis throughout the year
and we can handle it all.