My name is Coleton Guerin, I own and operate Clear Detailing located in Northern Colorado. Since I was young, cars have always been a huge part of my life. For as long as I can remember I’ve had a true passion for anything with four wheels, but my obsession began with hot rods. I spent a lot of time working on cars with my grandfather and uncle who own Flashback Hot Rods where they hand-built everything from 1932 Fords to chopped 50′ Mercs. Over the years my passion for cars grew, but as I grew older the poster cars switched from hot rods to everything luxury and exotic cars.
In early 2014 I caught the bug for detailing. A friend of mine wanted to clean up our cars for an upcoming event. Before I knew it he had baskets of towels, dozens of products, and polishers laid out all over my garage. I thought to myself, “Well he may be a little bit overkill.” Oh was I wrong, after we polished every surface on the vehicle I was absolutely hooked. That night I immediately started researching buffers, polishes, towels, and chemicals for myself. Fast forward to September of 2015, I decided to turn my detailing passion into an actual business.
As time moved on I had learned some basics of detailing, such as paint correction, interior detailing, and proper washing techniques. Detailing quickly became an obsession, as I was not only cleaning our personal vehicles, but I was also working on friends’ and neighbors’ vehicles. During this time I had created some business cards to hand out to friends, family, and neighbors as a small side business.
In September of 2015, I was called by Jon Fruend, the General Manager of our local Audi dealership, as a last-ditch effort to fix a car the dealership was ready to repaint. It was a black 2016 Audi A6, which was brand new at the time. The paint was completely trashed. The paint was covered with water spots, tree sap, scratches, and buffer trails. After 30 hours of compounding and polishing the paint, I returned the vehicle to the dealership. This car had been sent to numerous detailers before I got my hands on it, but I was able to get it to proper showroom condition. Jon was blown away with the transformation this A6 had gone through. He proceeded to tell me, “You are a magician” and quickly asked if I would be interested in doing more work for the dealership. At this time in my life, I was attending business school at the University of Northern Colorado and working two jobs. That day on the way home from the dealership I called and quit both jobs in order to focus on detailing full time. I knew this was a risk, but I had a true passion for detailing and was ready for a change, plus I knew I would get to work on some incredible cars along the way. Jon is a truly unique GM. He has a true passion for cars, an eye for details, and a very unique taste in building exclusive vehicles. Jon invested heavily in me and my detailing, had me paint correcting and coating brand new vehicles for the showrooms of Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen. Working with Jon and this dealership gave me the ability to make my passion a legitimate full-time business venture for me. I was able to grow a sizable client base, learn to better execute details, as well as to hone my process and techniques as a business owner/detailer. Since working with the dealership my business has evolved into focusing on a more one on one customer approach.
As we know 2020 has been a challenging year for businesses and everyone around the world. That being said, I am excited for the new challenges and journeys my business and I will undertake during the second half of 2020. I am currently working on building my dream detailing facility that will hopefully be done in July of 2020. I am also excited to be apart of this blog, creating and learning how to get that much closer to the “perfect” detail.
Stay tuned to the blog over the next few days, for the first article from Coleton … below is a little teaser!
