Another year, another awesome new member is welcomed to the Detailed Image Ask-A-Pro Blog! We are extremely excited to finally announce a new author, Joe Metlow of Next Level Detailing. Joe was born and raised in Chicago, IL and his love for cars started at a very young age. From helping his father and grandfather detail cars, to now owning his own business, Joe has really made a name for himself. So much so, that he has been featured on Velocity Channel’s show Competition Ready!
Joe is extremely excited to share his detailing knowledge with everyone and help answer detailing questions for all of our readers. Joe has a few product reviews, along with some how-to articles that you will be seeing shortly. Check out a teaser photo from Joe’s first article below.
Joe was also kind enough to give us a quick write-up on how he got started detailing, some information on his detailing business and some of his interests outside of the detailing world. Read more directly from Joe below:
My name is Joe Metlow I grew up and live in Chicago, IL. At a young age I was always fascinated with cars. I come from a car enthusiast family and my grandfather owned and ran a bodyshop. My father was always around cars growing up as well, so the car bug was naturally given to me. My detailing started around the age of 15, working for my father selling rv’s and car. My brother and I would do the detailing, or what we thought was detailing at the time. At that point I never would have thought detailing was going to ultimately become my profession. As I got older I had a partnership with a dealer lot and that is actually where I really learned how to detail. I also sold cars for 3 years and at that time I detailed these cars as well. During this time is where ultimately I found a love and passion for detailing. I knew I developed a passion for this when buying new cars excited me, not necessarily to sell them, but to start detailing them. Every car I worked on I continued to get better and taught myself how to machine polish etc. When I first started machine polishing and spent hours on what I thought was a good job, the following day when I pulled it out in the sun it was filled with swirl marks. These early detailing failures are what drove me to get better.
I began mobile detailing, but in Chicago that is a seasonal thing so I always dreamed of a shop. In late 2014 we opened Next Level Auto Detail! A real dream come true for me and I was now doing what I love full time. When I think about where I started in detailing to where I currently am, it still amazes me and detailing kind of chose me in a way.
Every year we progressed as a shop and this year was particularly exciting for Next Level. Our skills were noticed and I was hand picked for the Velocity Channel’s show “Competition Ready”. I was lucky enough to be featured on 2 Episodes and detailed some very prestigious cars. I also worked with the best detailer’s in the country, it was an amazing experience and I had some of the most fun I have ever had. I also met new people that I will now call friends for a lifetime.
My hobbies outside of detailing are any sports really, ping pong, I love to play and watch basketball, however being a full-time detailer there is hardly enough time to play as much as I would like. I also love anything car related from drifting, racing, building, car painting, mechanics, racing games, I love it all. I also have a daughter and taking her to the park is fun as well!
I really look forward to joining an already amazing blog. Detailed Image has helped me grow as a detailer and are such a big part of what I have been able to accomplish. I’m very excited to join the DI team as I am always looking to help people do what I love, hopefully I can do that with some of the articles I write! I mean what can be better than writing detailing articles and helping people while doing it? I’m ready and very excited.
Let’s all give Joe a big Detailed Image welcome to the Ask-a-Pro Blog below!