The Guide To Detailing project started mid year 1999, shortly after I launched the Autopia Car Care (e.g., autopia-carcare.com) store. At the time, it was my premise that ecommerce sales could be greatly increased through education. It's a concept that was unknown then, but now expected. My early car care and detailing articles were short on content and images, but at the time the only other site with any detailing information was web-cars.com, which started around 1996.
One of my favorite moments from that early period was in the planning stages of the Autopia Car Care store. I was looking for car detailing product suppliers and was being turned down left and right. It seems that few people had any belief in the Internet as a sales medium for car detailing products (boy, were they ever wrong). Anyway, one of my calls offered a recommendation to call Classic Motoring Accessories in Tampa, Florida, which I did.
On my call to Classic Motoring Accessories (makers of the Blackfire and Eimann Fabrik brands) I was greeted by the founder, Terry Freiberg (now retired), who reminded me of Hanna-Barbera's Yogi Bear character. When I explained to Terry what I wanted to do -- selling detailing supplies over the Internet -- he gave me a big Yogi laugh followed by a quip related to why he thought it was a stupid idea. By the end of the conversation he agreed to be my supplier, but only if my first purchase was at least $5,000.
The first six months of operating the Autopia Car Care store were all about creating product descriptions, taking pictures and developing a relationship with my new customers, which I was cultivating from car forums, like Porsche Pete's Boxster Board and Rennlist. It was through these early interactions with car forum members that I began to see the same questions asked over and over again. To relieve myself of the repetition, I added a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section to Autopia Car Care, called Guide To Detailing, and featured it on the home page. As the FAQ section grew, so did the volume of information on each topic.
Around the September, 1999 time frame I received an unexpected call from Terry Freiberg at Classic Motoring Accessories. Terry didn't mince words about the purpose of his call, and explained that he was wrong about the Internet. Not only had Terry watched my new business grow, but he was experiencing a sharp decline in his own catalog and export business. Terry got right to the point and asked me if I would assist Classic Motoring Accessories in developing their own web site.
I'm not sure why I entertained Terry's request, but in the end it seemed to work out. After all, car care and detailing were not my line of work; it was my hobby. I was still working full-time as a VP of Information Systems for Sony Pictures Entertainment. Terry's offer was very generous, and for the next three years we were joined at the hip.
Terry decided to call his new website Proper Auto Care (e.g., properautocare.com) after his catalog. It was a great idea, because his catalog, which went out to some 30,000 people, was the perfect vehicle to launch his new website. And launch it did! The first full year of sales on properautocare.com astounded all of us.
The work on Guide To Detailing continued at a fast pace while properautocare.com was being built. I knew I was on the right track when I received a call out of the blue from Sal Zaino. Sal, who I had never met, came across as very brash on the phone. In fact, I think the first words out of his mouth were something like "You'll never have a product as good as Zaino Z-5... let me tell you why." After explaining the Zaino Show Car Polish facts of life to me, Sal proceeded to tell me why he called. You see, Sal had read my Perfect Shine article, where I explained that Klasse All-In-One should be applied in an up and down pattern (vs. side-to-side down the length of the car) and was furious. He seemed to think those instructions were the exclusive territory of his Zaino Z-2 and Z-5 Show Car Polish products. I later discovered that many industry leaders were following my writings.
At the same time that Proper Auto Care was being developed, I also launched the first Autopia forum. I'd say it was a dismal failure, because it was so pitiful to use, but it had a pretty loyal following of 25-30 people. In it's first incarnation, the Autopia forum was hosted on Bravenet.com, using their free threaded BBS system, which was simply horrible to use. In March, 2001, I purchased the autopia.org domain and began hosting the Autopia forum on the vBulletin forum community software. A huge improvement.
Little did I know, at the time, that the Autopia.org car detailing forum would become the fuel for nearly everything I put in Guide To Detailing. Many of the threads created on Autopia.org became topics for what would become the first ebook version of Guide To Detailing, which I published September 12, 2001. That same month I made an agreement with Classic Motoring Accessories to stop selling product on my Autopia Car Care website and direct all of my traffic to properautocare.com, a decision that would later haunt me.
I sold more than 2,000 copies of the first version of Guide To Detailing and donated half of the proceeds to the 9/11 Relief Fund. A short time later, I was activated back to active duty with the U.S. Navy Reserve in San Diego, California, and began working days for Uncle Sam and nights on Autopia.org.
Then, the unthinkable happened.
Out of the blue I received a phone call from Terry Freiberg at Classic Motoring Accessories letting me know that he was ending our financial arrangement. In essence, Terry and his wife Jan felt that they had paid enough for all of the assistance launching their successful web business and sending them volumes of web traffic. I was stunned.
I'm not one to fight such things, because in the end it just creates enemies ad shortens your life. What I did instead was ask Terry for the rights to a product brand name he created called Sonus. Terry, in one of his better moves, created a product called "Sonus Acrylic Spritz", a detailing spray he branded for use with Klasse. I thought it was brilliant because the Klasse product was very popular and it was missing a detailing spray from its line-up.
I was shocked when Terry agreed to my request to transfer the Sonus brand to me. I saw the full potential of wrapping a product line around the Klasse Car Wax (Sealant Glaze) and Polish (All-In-One) system, and evidently, Terry didn't. Within a week I had developed a complete marketing plan for a full line of Sonus products.
Now cut off from my income stream, Classic Motoring Accessories left me no choice except becoming their competitor. So, I went back to the phone again to establish relationships with suppliers. Only this time, I decided on a different approach. The Internet was already becoming crowded with U.S. brands, so I decided to specialize in European brands and to build my Sonus brand around this model. At the same time, I re-wrote Guide To Detailing and made it a give away.
For the next year, I worked all day at my Navy job, then came home to run the newly re-opened Autopia Car Care and continue to revise Guide To Detailing. Between 2002 and 2004, Guide To Detailing was revised three times and downloaded by more than 100,000 car enthusiasts. In the early part of 2005, I made the last major revision to the book and published it on this website, guidetodetailing.com. Many minor revisions have been made since then, mostly to highlight new product development in the Sonus line and the Ultima Finish Care product line.
Now, in 2010, I have a renewed sense of purpose for Guide To Detailing. In addition to revised chapters from the original ebook, I plan to publish an ongoing blog, detailing product reviews, and produce the largest catalog of detailing products and supplies in existence.
Guide To Detailing has a bright and exciting outlook going into its second decade helping car enthusiasts make their cars shine!
