It’s been another summer of orange cones, but the worst aspect of road construction is just starting. The jackhammers have stopped pounding, the rubble has been cleared away, and now the asphalt trucks are lining up along the highways. Ugh! Fresh tar. Drive over a newly paved road and you spend hours cleaning tar off your wheels and tires. The good news is that regular detailing of your tires and wheels will prolong their life and keep your vehicle looking sharp.

How to detail your wheels and tires:

• When washing your vehicle, clean the wheels and tires first to avoid overspray or grime from getting onto clean panels. Use a soft bristle brush and separate wash and rinse buckets.
• Select a cleaning product appropriate for your wheels. Coated, painted or anodized wheels can’t handle chemicals as harsh as roughcast aluminum and chrome. Check product labels and if in doubt, use an all-wheel product.
• Brush selection is important. You want to remove the grime without scratching the wheel finish. Start with a stiff bristled brush to remove baked-on grime, then finish with a feather bristled brush to protect the finish. Tires require a stiffer bristle and some good old elbow grease. Scrub off built up cleaners which can make your tires look brown and worn out.
• Don’t let cleaners dry out. Clean wheels and tires one set at a time. After washing, rinse with a strong jet of water.
• Dry wheels to remove any last vestige of brake dust and to prevent water spots. Designate special microfiber or terry cloth towels just for wheel and tire cleaning. Don’t use the same towels on other parts of your vehicle.
• After they’re dry, wax your wheels with a high quality wheel protectant to seal the surface. Apply with the applicator and buff. The wax will give your wheels a new car shine and help prevent brake dust from adhering. It will also save on maintenance. Between waxings a good shot of water should keep your wheels clean.
• To make your tires look like new, apply tire dressing in multiple thin coats, allowing plenty of time to dry between coats. Tire dressings help prevent drying, cracking and fading. But avoid products that contain silicone which can deplete rubber’s natural protectants and cause tires to age prematurely.

Tags:   auto detailing · Auto Detailing Products · auto detailing tips · tire detailing tips · wheel detailing tipsNo Comments.

If you haven’t joined The Total Pros National Car Club, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. Headquartered at The Total Pros state-of-the-art training center in Oceanside, California, just north of San Diego, the club was formed to bring together motorheads of every make and model! Our goal is to help our members with all their vehicle needs, whether you own a car, truck, motorcycle or motor home. Our membership includes men and women and runs the gamut from young to old. Our owners drive everything from hot rods to big-finned Chevies, from Ferraris to Volkswagens, from classic beauties to today’s showroom standouts — and everything in between. What binds us is our love for anything that goes ZOOM!

As a member of The Total Pros National Car Club you get:

• Auto Knight roadside assistance with unlimited service calls 24/7 365 days of the year, including towing up to 150 miles, dead battery start, flat tire change, vehicle unlock, 3 gallons of rescue fuel if you run out of gas, and trip routing assistance. Response time is usually 30 minutes or less!
• Firestone Service Centers savings include $18.99 oil changes, 10% discount off the retail price of Firestone and Bridgestone tires, discount rates for tire mounting and balancing, and 10% off vehicle maintenance and repair services.
• Meguiar’s car care products discounts include 10% discount on all Meguiar’s products offered by The Total Pros, 5% shipping discount, and access to Meguiar’s do-it-yourself hotline.
• Special Total Pros benefits include access to The Total Pros Help Line, 20% discount off all Total Pros training programs, and 20% discount off all Total Pros training videos

We’re adding new retailers and vendors every month, so members can expect additional discounts and savings on a wide range of automotive services and products in the future. But the best part of joining The Total Pros National Car Club is the opportunity to share your love of cars with fellow enthusiasts — and The Total Pros professional auto detailing team. As a member you can tap into our team’s 100 years of combined experience in the auto care industry. We’ll be happy to answer your questions about vehicle maintenance and care, do-it-yourself car care, auto body and collision issues, new and pre-owned vehicle sales, insurance, roadside assistance and more.

To find out more about The Total Pros National Car Club, visit The Total Pros website and join today! 

Tags:   car clubs · Total Pros · Total Pros National Car ClubNo Comments.

Scratches happen. Clear coat peels. Color fades. Rust attacks. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if cars kept their glossy, showroom shine throughout their lifetime? Unfortunately, modern paint technology is good; but it’s not that good! However, regular detailing can correct and repair scratches, nicks and other problems and bring your vehicle’s finish back to that beautiful, deep, clear gloss it had the day you brought it home. The Total Pros intensive one-day Paint Touch-Up class can teach you how to repair common paint damage problems like a pro.

Working side-by-side with our professional auto detailers and conditioners, we’ll show you the latest professional techniques to repair chips, nicks and scratches. In The Total Pros state-of-the-art training facility, you’ll get hands-on practice using the airbrush, flow pencil and squeegee techniques used by industry leaders.  Our experts will also show you how to perform micro repairs on a variety of surfaces.

You’ll have an opportunity to try-out the latest mobile technology and computerized color matching. Learn the trick to precisely match manufacturers’ new and customized paint colors, one of the real challenges in auto paint repair today. Computerized color matching removes the guesswork and allows you to make a perfect paint match — and perfect repair — every time.

As will all Total Pros training classes, you learn to detail like a pro from experienced auto detailing and auto reconditioning professionals. Our experts demonstrate the professional techniques they use every day in the industry. They share with you tricks of the trade learned from years of experience. Then they coach you through each step in the process so that you gain the hands-on experience to produce the professional auto detailing results you crave. At The Total Pros Paint Touch-Up class, you’ll gain the confidence to repair minor paint problems in a professional manner comparable to body shop standards. Click here to request more information on Total Pros Auto Detailing Training Programs and to register today.

Tags:   auto detailing · auto detailing class · auto paint repair · auto reconditioning · auto scratch repair · paint touch up classNo Comments.

Bird poop. It’s one of the hazards of summer. No matter how careful you are not to park under trees, an errant bomb drop from a bird in flight can wreak havoc with your car’s paint job. Meguiar’s ScratchX and a lot of elbow grease can remove bird dropping etchings, as well as scratches, swirls, water spots, scuffs and mars. ScratchX is the most effective way to safely remove etchings and fine scratches either by hand or with a dual action polisher.

ScratchX uses diminishing abrasive technology to remove scratches without damaging paint or clear coats. Because modern clear coats are harder than traditional paints, defects may be harder to remove by hand. You may want to use a dual action polisher to speed up the repair process. Scratch X is a wipe-on, work-in product. Apply with a clean foam applicator pad and don’t spare the elbow grease.

To remove a bird dropping etchings or minor scratches:

• Work a small area at a time, no larger than 6 inches by 6 inches.
• Apply ScratchX using an alternating combination of circular and straight-line movements.
• Work in against the finish until the product just begins to disappear.
• Re-apply ScratchX and repeat the above steps 2 to 3 more times until the desired result is achieved.

As you work in ScratchX, microscopic abrasives gently abrade the surface, removing small particles of paint. As you continue to work in the product, these diminishing abrasives begin to breakdown. As they breakdown, they gradually stop abrading the finish and begin to polish it to a clear, high gloss. It’s this breaking down that makes it necessary to re-apply and rework the product several times to completely remove defects. However, Meguiar’s unique diminishing abrasive technology also allows you to work out defects without scratching the finish.

Tags:   auto detailing · Auto Detailing Products · auto detailing tips · paint repair · scratch repairNo Comments.

Have  you checked out this show on the Speed Channel yet? Comedian Alonzo Bodden hosts 101 Cars You Must Drive. The next episode airs at 9 p.m. (Eastern) tonight, but episodes repeat, so check your local cable listings and set your Tivo or recorder.

A winner of the Last Comic Standing, Bodden takes you for five rides per episode. You get to see the good, the bad and the ugly churned out by the automotive industry. Not all the cars shown are dream cars. Bodden drives the industry’s lemons too. “I literally have driven everything on the show from a Ferrari Dino to a Ford Edsel. So it’s not all exotic cars or beautiful cars or dream cars,” says Bodden. “There are a few dream cars and a few — I don’t know if we’d call them nightmares — but let’s just call them automotive mistakes or hard-to-believe cars.”

A former stealth fighter mechanic and gearhead himself, Bodden knows his cars but delivers his hilarious assessments like he was working a comedy club. His improvisational skills make for entertaining viewing. The series is an abridged version of the book 365 Cars You Must Drive and uses a six degrees of separation formula to link the five cars showcased in each episode. One episode featured Italian cars; another, cars named for birds like the Studebaker Golden Hawk and Ford Thunderbird.

Like fellow comics Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, David Letterman and Tim Allen, Bodden collects cars, though he says he has a long way to go before he’ll be in the same league as his more famous peers. He calls his collection, which includes a Hummer and a Mini Cooper, his “Jay Leno starter kit.” His prized “road trip car” is an Alpina B7, but his pride and joy are his Ducati and Triumph motorcycles. Bodden is already planning a sequel to the series: 101 best places to ride your car or bike. I can’t wait!

Tags:   auto cable shows · auto shows · auto TV showsNo Comments.

It’s a motorhead’s dream come true: access to a stable full of the world’s hottest (and most expensive) luxury sports cars without having to shell out the impressive number of greenbacks it would take to purchase them. Imagine picking your date up in a Lotus Elise tonight, then cruising down the coast in a 1965 Corvette tomorrow. Want to take a Ferrari 348 out for a spin? No problem, just call the club.

Exotic car clubs are springing up across the country. Kind of like a country club built around cars instead of golf, they offer members the chance to drive some of the world’s most luxurious sports cars. Generally based on ride-sharing or fractional ownership, these clubs offer high-end sports clubs for their members to drive. A typical annual membership fee can run $250 and up, plus the usage fee which varies by car. At one auto club, spending the weekend behind the wheel of a 1997 Corvette will cost you $250. Trade up to a Ferrari and you’ll have to dig deeper to come up with the $800 required to call it yours for the weekend.

Even at those rates, exotic car clubs say their members are saving money compared to the cost of buying, maintaining and gassing top model sports cars. Annual maintenance on one of these babies can easily run $15,000 or more. The average length of time most members drive club cars is about 30 days a year. At one club that would run you a little over $5,000. Not too bad actually when you consider the cost of buying and maintaining a sports car of this caliber.

With purchase prices starting at $60,000 and climbing, more sports car fans are turning to car clubs than buying their own. A website dedicated to exotic car clubs lists 30 car-sharing clubs in 17 states (including California) and 4 foreign countries. Many clubs have seen noticeable growth in recent months which they contribute to the slow economy. Sports car enthusiasts would rather rent a pricey car from a club than buy it.

Tags:   auto detailing · Auto Events · car clubs1 Comment

In our last post we talked about Meguiar’s superior buff pads. While pad quality is important in obtaining the professional auto detailing results you crave, it’s proper technique that will give you the deep glossy shine that defines a truly professional detailing job. My dad always used to say the best tools in the world don’t make a craftsman. It’s technique and skill that define a true craftsman.

Skill comes with practice. But here’s the thing, if you practice a mediocre technique, you’ll never get more than mediocre results. If you want to get superior, professional auto detailing results, you need to learn state-of-the-art techniques from experienced professional auto detailers. That’s why The Total Pros offers professional auto detailing training classes. In our state-of-the-art Training Center, you learn professional auto detailing techniques as you work side-by-side with our highly skilled professionals. There’s no better way to learn than by doing, my dad always told me. We agree. We show you how it’s done, then coach you along as you try it yourself.

If you want to learn how to use Meguiar’s buff pads correctly, sign up for our comprehensive one-day high-speed buffing class. It’s high speed buffing that will give you that beautiful, glossy shine that will make your ride the envy of your buddies. No other tool can produce the same amazing finished results as a high-speed rotary buffer. We teach you proper technique, talk about pad choices and the correct chemicals to use. There are a lot of misconceptions about using high-speed buffers, so we’ll make sure you come away with a clear understanding of when and how to use them. Best of all, you’ll get plenty of practice and gain confidence using this essential piece of auto detailing equipment. Click here for complete information and to register for The Total Pros High-Speed Buffing Class.

Tags:   auto detailing · auto detailing classes · auto detailing tips · buffing tips · high speed buffing1 Comment

Meguiar’s is coming out with a new washable version of their superior, durable Velcro-backed Soft Buff Pads. In the latest Meguiar’s newsletter, reviewer Tim Lingor took the machine-washable foam pads out for a spin.

You’ve seen buff pads after use. They’re dark and grimy. After detailing his truck, Tim popped the pads into a standard household washing machine, added a capful of Tide Free, and ran the pads through a normal wash cycle. (Any household laundry detergent will work. I’d give preference to the fragrance-free, bleach-free brands because they won’t leave extra chemical residues on the pads.) The finished pads came out looking clean and bright as the day Tim took them out of the package. A spin in the dryer and they looked good as new and ready to use. Check out Tim’s complete review of Meguiar’s Soft Buff 2.0 pads with photos on Meguiar’s Online forum.

Meguiar’s is constantly improving its product line which is the reason The Total Pros is proud to partner with Meguiar’s. As Meguiar’s exclusive distributor in Southern California, The Total Pros is your first source for Meguiar’s quality auto detailing and auto reconditioning products. Meguiar’s buff pads have evolved over the past 20 years. Durable pads with built-in backing plates led to Velcro versions that make changing pads a snap. Multiple pads with Velcro backings that adhere to a single plate allow you to switch pads in seconds and maintain focus on your detailing job.

Meguiar’s new Soft Buff 2.0 Pads take buff pads to the next level. The new pads are as durable as ever and machine washable. The 7-inch size is compatible with both dual action polishers and rotaries. The new pads fit Solo backing plates perfectly. A laminate is used to attach the pads which prevents product from wicking through onto the Velcro, a nice improvement. Meguiar’s Soft Buff 2.0 pads are available in cutting, finishing and polishing pads. Watch for them in the new product section of The Total Pros website.

Tags:   auto buffing pads · auto detailing pads · Auto Detailing Products · auto detailing tips · Meguiar's soft buff padsNo Comments.

If you’re looking to grow your auto detailing business, adding windshield repair services can increase profits with minimal investment. Windshield scratches, chips and cracks are among the most common problems faced by car owners. The ability to offer windshield repair services to your customers will earn customer loyalty and generate new referral business.

A small piece of gravel hurled into an automobile windshield by a truck tire spinning at 65 mph can do aggravating damage and place the integrity of the windshield at risk. A chip or crack in a windshield is more than a cosmetic issue, it’s a safety hazard. In the past, a damaged windshield necessitated a costly replacement. With modern technology, damaged windshields can now be effectively repaired.

The Total Pros offers an intensive one-day Windshield Repair Training Class at our state-of-the-art auto detailing training facility in beautiful Oceanside, California, just north of San Diego. During class you’ll receive comprehensive training from our auto reconditioning experts in the full process of windshield repair. You’ll learn how to fix star breaks, bulls-eye breaks and long cracks. If you’re looking for a great add-on service that will help grow your detailing business, sign up for The Total Pros’ Windshield Repair Training Class today.

The Total Pros also offers intensive one-day classes in paint touch-up and high speed buffing. As with our windshield repair class, these classes teach you the professional tricks and techniques used by expert auto detailers and auto reconditioners. All Total Pros training classes emphasize the value of hands-on learning. In our state-of-the-art training facility, you use professional products and professional equipment while working side-by-side with our auto reconditioning experts to learn and polish your skills. Visit The Total Pros website for complete information on all our professional auto detailing and auto reconditioning training classes.

Tags:   auto detailing · auto detailing classes · windshield repair · windshield repair classesNo Comments.

When you’re detailing your car, cleaning the glass is like putting icing on a cake. It’s the last thing you do, but it makes the finished project stand out. Nothing makes a beautifully detailed and buffed finish sparkle like clean, crystal clear windows. And let’s not forget the safety factor. Clean windows improve visibility.

There are two schools of thought on window cleaning: those who like to do all the inside windows, then the outsides and those who like to move around the vehicle, completing one window at a time. Each group swears their method is more efficient, but the bottom line is either method will provide the same results. It’s really a matter of personal preference. 

When it comes to the actual cleaning, however; the technique, products and supplies you use to clean the glass in your vehicle will make a significant difference in the professional quality of the finished result. Follow these tips to put that final sparkle to your next detailing job:

• When cleaning or detailing your vehicle, always do the glass last.
• Work on dry windows out of the sun. Sun can cause glass cleaners to evaporate too quickly, leaving an unsightly residue.
• Never use household glass cleaners like Windex to detail windows. Most contain ammonia which can dry out plastic, rubber, vinyl and leather. Products containing ammonia should never be used on tinted windows. Water alone will not cut through stubborn spots or bug residue. Always use a glass cleaner specially formulated for auto window detailing like Meguiar’s NXTT Generation Glass Cleaner.
• Use a microfiber towel to clean and buff. Microfiber is engineered to prevent lint. Its high absorbency prevents streaking during cleaning and buffing. Moisten the towel and apply a gentle scrubbing motion to remove debris and contaminants. To fully clean the glass, use long, sweeping strokes with a moist towel to wipe entire surface vertically, then horizontally.
• Buff away remaining moisture with a dry towel.
• Remember to roll windows down to get the upper edges.
• When cleaning the lower edge of the inside front and back windows, holding the towel with the back of your hand may produce better results.
• Don’t forget to check the wiper blades as you wipe them off. Replace when they show signs of wear.

Tags:   auto detailing · auto detailing classes · auto detailing tips · auto windshield repair class · glass cleaning tipsNo Comments.