Hello Kansas City, welcome back to the Bespoke Automotive Refinement Podcast, your number one go-to for all of your Kansas City car detailing needs for paint correction, ceramic coating, car detailing, and honestly to have great conversations about cars. Tonight we have the owner and founder of the Bespoke Automotive Refinement, the number one Kansas City car detailer, and that is Thomas Till. Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you so much for having me on. I just love coming on here every week and talking about cars and Kansas City car detailing. Alright, today I’m going to be asking you some questions about detailing.
Are you ready? I’m ready. Why do cheap ceramic coatings always come back to haunt people? It’s like asking someone why cheap nails would come back to haunt someone. It’s just low quality.
The coating may strip off. It may not actually be a coating. They could have just put spray wax on the car.
Actually, that’s really the biggest reason. If they put spray wax on the car and told you this is going to last for five years and it only lasts for six months, two years in, your paint’s gone and you now have a vehicle that has a very poor looking paint job. Number two, what does paint correction actually mean and why do most people get it wrong? Because you’ll see somebody and you’ll be like, that’s not a paint correction.
It’s polishing. I mean, a paint correction is correcting what is the contents of the clear coat. It’s actually removing the defects in the clear coat.
Where people get it wrong is they think that polishing the paint with filler polishes is a paint correction. Well, that’s filling in the defects. That’s temporarily making the defects go away.
But that may only last for a few months. The car that’s in our garage right now that I’m working on is exactly what happened. They painted it and then they hit it with filler polishes and it probably looked phenomenal for a short period of time.
And then once the filler polishes broke down, it looked like crap again. What’s the most satisfying before and after that you’ve ever had? I worked on a Veilside RX-7. It’s a Veilside Fortune.
It’s black on black and the car was completely gutted. So it didn’t have an engine in it yet. It didn’t have a transmission or an engine or an interior.
This car literally just rolled into my shop and it had been painted. And then the painter had wet sanded the car and then just quickly compounded it. But then everything in the shop was seized by the U.S. government.
So this car was bought at auction and it was basically painted but not corrected. So I got to be the one to sand it down and completely refinish it and that was the most satisfying job. So definitely that one.
How do we protect cars through harsh Kansas City weathers and winters? Kansas City ceramic coating. Not for real. The wax that they put on your car at the car wash or the ceramic coating that they put on your car at the car wash, it’s a synthetic form of a coating.
But it’s the equivalent of them putting a bag bomb on your car. They just put bag bomb on and it’s like, okay, this looks shiny temporarily. Well, that’s actually going to draw in salt and contaminants.
And it’s not a true coating. It’s just like a feel-good coating. It doesn’t really work.
The best way to protect your car is to do a true ceramic sealant or a true ceramic coating. And then I feel like if you were on our maintenance plan, having your interior cleaned out regularly so that the rock salt and everything didn’t get pushed into the carpets of the car and scratched up the walls, anything that would ruin your vehicle on the inside too, you would make sure that it maintains well. That too.
Absolutely. What’s one product that you swear by that most people overlook? Isopropanol alcohol and water mixture. Because it literally cleans anything.
It cleans chrome. It cleans glass. It’s like, I don’t think I’ve used glass cleaner in five years.
I don’t use glass cleaner. I use alcohol, water mix. Next question.
What’s the biggest misconception people have about mobile detailing? That you can call someone the day of and they’ll come wash your car the day that you book with them. I get that a lot. It happened literally twice today.
Like, hey, I want to get on your schedule today. Like, I’m booked out. Yeah, like I’m booked out for two weeks.
People think this is like the equivalent to getting your hair cut. Like, oh, I’m going to call my barber and tell him to squeeze me in today. What? No.
It’s best to be on the maintenance plan and then even regular washing. Exactly. How long should a true professional detail really take? Now, the first time I had it done, I thought it would take, I don’t know, 30 minutes.
Because that’s how long it takes to go through a Charlie’s. But, you’re actually like cleaning the vehicle. So, how long do you think a detail should actually take? Three to four hours.
Sometimes it can take up to eight, depending on what you’re doing. Yeah, if you’re polishing paint, it’s going to take up to eight. But, you know, if you’re hand washing it, you’re actually making the car look good, three to five hours.
Next question. What’s one detailing trend you wish would just go away? Hmm. One detailing trend I wish would go away.
Why do they always sell, like, fake things? And you’re like, that doesn’t really do anything. I wish they would quit putting the word ceramic in everything. Like, ceramic tire shine, ceramic glass clearance.
Like, they use it as a word, but, like, it takes the meaning away. When they put ceramic in everything, and then you, since someone calls me and asks for a quote on a ceramic coating, and I quote them $800, and they’re like, ooh, I was throwing a quote for 20 bucks. It’s like, you’re putting snake oil on your car.
Like, what I’m applying is something that’s chemically bonding to your clear coat. So, like, I wish they’d quit putting the word ceramic in everything. Now, before we finish, give us a little bit of a rundown of what a maintenance plan looks like.
If somebody wanted to get on it, how would they be part of your Kansas City Car Detailing Maintenance Package? Well, basically, you get on our Kansas City Car Detailing Maintenance Package plan, and then your vehicle will get detailed either weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, and we will come to your house, and we will do a full exterior wash, and then a full, excuse me, a partial interior detail. So, we’ll vacuum it, we’ll wipe everything down, we’ll make sure that the car looks clean, and we maintain the cleanliness. So, the initial first detail is pretty thorough, and then after that, we just maintain your car for you on a weekly, monthly, or bi-weekly basis.
So, if somebody wanted to get a hold of you to learn more about your Kansas City Car Detailing Services and Kansas City Car Detailing Packages, how would they go about doing so? The best way to get a hold of me for any Kansas City Car Detailing Package or service is to call 620-282-0402. You can also go online to BespokeRefinement.com, and there you can check out a list of all of our different Kansas City Car Detailing Packages and Services that we have to offer the Kansas City area.