- My name is Dereck Beamis.
I am an auto detailer.
I was thirteen years old,
there was a car wash walking distance from my house.
And so I started working there (gentle relflective music)
driving the cars that came out of the wash tunnel.
And there was this guy there, a detailer,
name was Kerry Sliker.
Watching him work his magic on those cars,
it made them look spectacular,
but more than that,
he liked what he was doing.
And his clients that came to pick up their
cars they were always happy about what they saw.
It could've been this old messed up car
and he'd bring it back to life.
A beautiful, shiny, and had all this depth
and gloss and the chrome looked new,
and the interior smelled fresh, you know.
It was those things that
I think kinda turned me on to
the whole idea of detailing,
and making a career out of it.
It was neat.
Our job is to take things to the next level.
To places that our most clients don't understand
until we show them, hey your car can look like this,
we can do this with it.
They walk out and they see it they'll,
then there face lights up, they're excited you know,
'cause some of these cars
that we get to work on
are pieces of history.
You know sometimes they're one-of-one.
Sometimes they're things that performed acts
that changed automotive history.
Whether it being the racing stuff,
or we get our hands on that stuff,
to be able to make it perfect for them,
as good as it can be,
that's a great feeling.
(leaf blower)
What's important to me when I wash a car?
Making sure that the first step of the
car which is the washing
is done very well,
because if it's not
following on to the next step which is the
prepping and the decontamination side,
if there's still dirt on the car,
you're inflicting more damage.
So once the washing is done,
till we evaluate the paint,
then we start it with decontamination with clay.
So what that does it removes the bonded
contaminates which are all the little
bumps and pollutants and things on the paint.
Clay removes that.
And you make a determination on the
paint correction side.
Which is removing what's called the below
surface blemishes, the minor scratches,
the major scratches.
Water etchings, you know, bird poop stains,
all that stuff.
And so, you do test spots
with product,
pad,
polish, compound,
to see what's going to produce the result that you want.
Sometimes it's a multi, multi step process.
And once you do that,
you've accomplished this beautiful
perfect finish all over the car,
then you want to protect that so you get into a sealant.
And that's you know, either your favorite waxes,
they have polymers now, they have Carnubas,
and there's all kinds of different stuff out there.
And then interior engine work,
and then bright work, trim work, the whole thing.
What made me a good detailer was my mom.
Somehow she figured out that I function best
if I have a system.
So I had a very regimented, structured upbringing.
And I think that led into
the methodicalness of my detailing.
Well I do cars anywhere from a Gremlin, to Bugatti.
The high profile cars that I've done and one that
I've most proud of I should say,
is called the, The Imposter.
It is built by Chip Foose,
and it competed for the Riddler Award,
at Autorama in 2015,
and it won.
For those of you that don't know what the Riddler Award is,
is everyone from around the world compete,
for the best best hot rod in the world.
And that's The Riddler.
Chip Foose and his team, amazing, amazing people,
they created and designed and fabricated
and it was a piece of art.
The opportunities I've been given,
it's, it's amazing.
For just some street detailer from Huntington Beach,
that's what we called ourselves you know.
We get to do some neat stuff.
I'm very fortunate.
We put like the cherry on top of all
this beautiful stuff, right?
And we get to help make it just look perfect
and glimmer and shine and look its best.
That's,
that's special.
If that thirteen year old version of me could
see me now,
what's been accomplished,
what we've done, the things I've got to do,
the things I've got to see,
he'd be proud.