Some nostalgia here...hope you all enjoy this post.
[header=Reliving My Passions][/header]
Fun fact: My first word as a baby was not “
mom”, nor was it “
dad;” it was actually “
car.” Being a difficult baby for my parents, I would not fall asleep in conventional ways like in my cradle. Instead, I indirectly commanded my dad through pouting and crying to take me out and make me fall asleep. My dad decided to drive me up-and-down the 401 Highway in my mom’s early 90s Honda Accord.
Now establishing that context, and growing up in the Fast and the Furious, Gran Turismo 3, and Forza Motorsport era, I fell in love with modifying cars. Going to local car shows with my dad — I will preface he’s not a car enthusiast and would take me for my enjoyment and to bond together — and seeing all the modified cars and how pristine some of the cars’ paint jobs were, I started getting interested in detailing and how to upkeep a car’s paint to achieve a mirror, swirl-free finish…I learned the hard way however. I learned how to do through osmosis in my early actions of doing everything
wrong…let me explain the context.
In 2009, I turned 16, I got my drivers license, and was going to inherit my mom’s company car that was coming off a lease. Her company had a great deal for executives where after the 2-3 years of usage, the lessee (my mom) could purchase the car outright, the kicker, for a wicked deal (we’re talking a quarter of the MSRP new)!! So it was a
no-brainer to buy this mature-driven (my mom won’t like me calling her that fancy word for old person
), low mileage (30k kms // 186xx miles), and a $50k CAD vehicle for like $15k CAD.
So anyways, that car was a
2008 B8 Audi A4 Quattro, which to this day, I believe is the best looking and most timeless generation of Audi A4s ever created! Like most car enthusiasts, I had an Excel spreadsheet of mods planned for the A4 like a Rieger body kit, Euro headlights (clear reflectors), an RS4 honeycomb grille, some Vossen Concave wheels (remember those back in the day?!), and some APR engine bolt-ons:
So with my mom being the original lessee of the car in 2008, and timing approaching that 2-3 year window, this would have been my first car when I graduated high school, as a 1st year University student. Leading up to that, I “
assumed ownership” by demonstrating ownership tendencies, like filling up the car with gas, and most importantly, keeping it clean!
Remember I said above that I did everything
wrong? Well we pick back up here now. So to keep that B8 A4 clean, I would usually take it to the local coin-op self-serve car wash. I had no detailing tool arsenal and so I utilized what was available at those wash bays…and so those of you who can gather what’s coming next,
YES, you are thinking correctly…I used
THE BRUSH OF DOOM!!
I know, I know, but spare me the tomatoes and pitchforks, because I was inexperienced and uneducated like many who first start taking an interest in detailing.
The A4 would always look spotless from afar, especially being an Arctic White Metallic paint, however in the sunlight close up, you would see these cobweb-like scratches, and even deep grey scratches all over the paint?! I was dumfounded to say the least. How is it that those individuals at the car shows are able to have mirror finishes with no cobweb fine scratches (I eventually learned these are called “swirls”), and I’m struggling even seeing the true Arctic White paint that my soon-to-be Audi A4 has?!
I took my curiosity to the drawing board and started my homework on researching everything there is to know about detailing.
Sadly, in late 2010, my mom and the A4 were t-boned (she’s OK) nearby our family home by an individual on their cellphone. Keep in mind that we were only a few months before the B8 A4 was off the company lease, and she'd buy it out and gift it to me for my first car, while she would then get her next company car. What a shame that day was; as glad as I was to hear my mom was OK, I embarrassedly admit that my 17-year-old self was first concerned with the car (I guess my excitement and selfishness initially overpowered the love and wellbeing for the person who brought me into this world…major SMH).
Anyways, in 2011, she ended up getting another B8 A4, a 2012 model, identical spec, as her company car, and another 3 years had to pass before I got that car (FYI we still own this car in our family).
I then got a brand new 2011 VW Jetta 2.0 as my first car, and really learned detailing on that car first.
I spent 100s of hours researching detailing websites like
AutoGeek and
AutoGeekOnline,
Autopia, etc., looking at tons of threads on product reviews, client car detailing jobs, and how-tos, and slowly built up my detailing arsenal with some of the best products money could buy.
If you recall in
Update 3 in my journal, I reference my good friend,
Wes Robles, owner of Orion Detailing, who really inspired me to get interested in detailing, become an entrepreneur and start my own detailing business called
Shined and Refined Detailing, and build out my detailing arsenal with the best available tools and products at the time.
I love detailing so much because of the attention to detail it requires, the understanding of risk management for minimizing the instilling of swirls, and preserving an immaculate finish for a vehicle’s paint. When I started my business, those reasons were magnified tenfold because of the reactions I would receive from my clients, many of whom earlier on were my fellow neighbours, and them saying that (their car), “
It looks better than the day I got it!” That was enough for me to endure the long hours, putting my body in weird positions and exposed to cleaning product chemicals.
Enjoy some photos from my very early days of detailing:
Detailing, and getting really good at it, allowed me to afford modifying and converting my 2013 Subaru STi GRB into a full-blown street-driven racecar.
However, in 2019, I was at a crossroads: I had been doing it leisurely as a sole-proprietor for over 6 years out of my parents garage and occasionally mobile, while still being rooted professionally in the insurance industry for 3 years full-time. I had to decide which career path I really wanted to pursue. I remember my dad mentioning that as cool as it is to be at the detailing skill level I was at, where I would be detailing Ferrari 458 Speciales, 911 GT3RS 997s, track-prepped Subaru racecars, and many other iconic exotic cars, it would be a taxing life on my body, and that I could build a really great life by pursuing an office job in the insurance industry — an industry built on trust and relationships, two things which are very important to me. In hindsight, I sometimes think, “
What if,” because the goal would’ve been to scale the detailing business up, where I would lease and one day own a commercial space, hire a team of detailing professionals, and just leverage my people skills and networking abilities to bring the clients and their cool cars in, and have my skilled detailers clean the cars. And who knows if more money would have been made doing that, vs. the great career I am still building in the Canadian insurance industry. I think it’s important to allow these thoughts in for self-reflection, but to allow them to leave my headspace, as life is about moving forward, and the fact that
it’s never too late for anything!
Which is why, I am very excited to share with you all this.
So hanging up my detailing business in 2019, and having moved out of my parents home and now living in downtown Toronto for over 6 years, finding the time to detail client cars, heck, even cleaning my own cars, is a big challenge, given how busy and involved I am in various things of giving my time to helping others. So usually, I would have my cars detailed by other professionals, and maybe the odd time, I’d wash my cars myself at my parents house…again very rarely did this happen. Every time I did wash the cars, it evoked so much nostalgia and joy from those golden era days where I would be
man-and-mitt, unified by soapy water and pruned fingertips.
With Project Sky taking a break due to the significant big costs required at the current stage (approx. $20k rollcage, $20k paint job, $30k carbon widebody kit) and with Project Luna remaining indefinitely stock, I realize my Youtube channel content will be
limited.
That is why
moving forward in 2026 and onward, I will be taking an additional direction to content creation by bringing my detailing skills back and sharing Steven-Spielberg-esque detailing content with you all…how cool right?!
I will elaborate further:
This idea was inspired by my friend
Mike@Chromatic Garage, who makes in my opinion, the best produced automotive detailing content in the world, oh and the fact that he’s a 1-person team makes it that much more impressive. When he detailed and filmed a video for Project Luna (see Update 5), I thought to myself, “How cool would it be if I was the one washing my car, and having someone film in a similar, Steven Spielberg-esque way?!” Well, I reached out to my buddy
Justin Liu @Chuio Media (see
Update 15 Link), who has shot several great videos for Project Luna, pitched him the idea, and got his buy-in.
The idea initially was just to recreate
Mike@Chromatic’s video but have me washing the car. That shortly evolved to us actually doing a masterclass video on how to properly wash your car, where I share with the world all of the various skills I have learned over the years. It then further evolved, to where we are currently exploring, which is to also do cleaning videos of some of the coolest and most unique Euro cars in the Toronto and surrounding areas, but to make it more personal, they are owned by my friends! Doing it this way adds a more personal touch, because I have a
MASSIVE network, thanks to my insurance career, but also my genuine approach to being a good person, and immersed in the local car community. I will credit building my 2013 Subaru STi named Project Gabby, as well as Project Sky and Project Luna, because those builds have inspired others and created so many friendships through, that it has allowed me to build a wicked reputation and personal brand for myself, as one of the good and kind people in the local community…so yes, I have some friends that have some very sweet cars, and I will be thrilled to wash them in an aesthetically appealing way that will be perfectly captured by my good friend Justin.
To make the detailing video series even more personal, I will be co-directing and co-producing the series, which means I have full control over the audio selection. Why that is important is because I love hip-hop and rap music…but don’t worry, you will not be hearing any of that in these videos. Instead, what you will be hearing is what inspired my love for hip-hop and rap music, and that my friends is jazz music.
Jazz music saved my life. It has allowed me to be a calmer individual; it has allowed me into places and experiences, as well as conversations I would not have been privy to; and it has allowed me to appreciate how beautiful the 60s to 90s really was...God only knows what I'd have been doing if music wasn't as big of a part of my life as it is (don't worry mom, I was always a good kid). Jazz has also opened my music palette to Motown, R&B, and other great genres, where the messaging was built on meaningful concepts like love, compassion, and being a hopeless romantic.
Over the past decade, I have built my music collection through buying songs to this date on iTunes, and scouring discogs for the rarest CD jazz albums from artists around the world, especially Japanese musicians like
Ryu Fukui.
I do not plan for my channel to be monetized, mainly because I do not wish to disturb my viewers’ experience with an ad, but also because these videos will utilize copyrighted music that will prevent me from generating revenue.
For those of you who like hip-hop and rap music, many of the beats you hear today by legendary producers like Kanye West, The Alchemist, Hit-Boy, Daringer, Conductor Williams, etc., are sampled by original works from the 60s-90s eras where those groups had live bands create those melodies. In this detailing series, you will be hearing my curated selection of beautiful original songs, where you likely will say, “
Hey, I know that beat?! Isn’t that from 'insert newer version of song'?” And the answer will be,
YES, you’ll hear songs that were sampled by Jay Worthy, Westside Gunn, Kanye West, Larry June, Premo Rice, and many more artists.
The purpose of me doing this is because I want to share my love and taste for quality music with you all to broaden your musical palette, and show some love to the originals who paved the way for much of the music we listen to today. These songs will invoke goosebumps and all kinds of emotions, and will be nice to keep on in the background while you work…at least that’s what I plan to do.
Anyways, I appreciate you all taking the time to read my above monologue where I poured my heart and got really personal with you all about my love for detailing, jazz, and the life journey they have brought me on.
Now, I am proud to share with you all the first video of my
Detailing Series —
A Masterclass of How To Properly Wash Your Car — followed by some photos captured from the video shoot.
Be sure to subscribe to my channel, and share my channel with anyone you know who are interested in detailing content!
It’s surreal that this next photo was taken at the same location (University of Toronto Mississauga Campus by the library) over 13 years ago:
Finally, the list of cars owned by my personal friends that will be featured in my
Detailing Series include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Lamborghini Diablo
- BMW E38 L7…more to come on that.
- JDM Track-build Alpine White E92 M3
- Dakar Yellow E92 M3
- Fern Green E36 M3
- Aston Martin V8 Vantage
- Laguna Seca Blue E46 M3
