(503) 231-4945 1613 SE 6th AvenuePortland, OR 97214
Fanatical. Obsessive. Compulsive. These are the qualities to look for in an auto detailer, and they’re the qualities that perfectly describe Mark Haffey of “Details by Mark”. A Portland native, Mark has been in the business for 24 years and owned his own shop for 10, but his roots go back even further. “I like the feel of a clean car, and started out cleaning my parent’s cars at age 6.” Years later he offered to clean the cars of two counselors in exchange for their services. He did a great job, word-of-mouth created buzz, and he was off.
Mark and his team consider themselves craftsmen and artists. “98% of the companies in this field are fly-by-night production shops, employing cut-rate labor and cranking out cars as fast as they can,” but Mark’s 3,000 square foot shop concentrates on quality, delivering only 2 cars a day on average. He was recently faced with redoing a car that had been worked on by a production shop, and it took 7 ½ hours just to polish out the swirls in the paint before he even started removing the wax on the rubber and gaskets. “You’ll spend money, but it’s worth it,” he says. “Quality service maintains the quality of your vehicle.”
Detailing means more than just a really good car wash. For a typical car, Mark’s team starts on the interior by cleaning the door jambs, trunk jambs, and seatbelts. Then they completely remove the seats, center console, and sill plates for more thorough cleaning and easier access to the carpet. The carpet and upholstery are cleaned with an extractor (Mark’s is one of the only shops in Portland that has one) that actually pulls the dirt from the material. They remove and clean the spare tire, and clean the headliner, dashboard, and doors using non-toxic, non-corrosive cleaners throughout. “Not only does this not leave a smell, but petroleum-based cleaners can leave a film on the car’s glass as they evaporate” Mark says. They then make sure the car is completely dry and aired out. Moving to the exterior, they clean the engine (using a power washer and toothbrush), wheel wells, wheels, and gaskets. They remove and clean the license plate, windshield squirters, wiper arms, and as many trim pieces as possible. They take care to mask every bit of rubber, plastic, and non-removable trim left on the car, a process which can take over an hour by itself. Finally, they polish and buff the exterior to a mirror-like finish before reinstalling all the parts and returning the car.
Mark’s team concentrates on restoring and rejuvenating a car, returning it to its original showroom finish. They make sure that the plastic, cloth, or leather are cleaned perfectly, and not “dressed up” with extra chemicals to make them look clean. “There are several reasons,” says Mark. “Those kinds of dressings pollute the car and detract from the original look, in fact most of the newer materials are supposed to look matte instead of shiny so the dressings make no sense anyway. They attract dust and look blotchy. Finally, some dressings can penetrate plastic surfaces and actually damage the foam structure underneath. Our greatest compliments are when a client says their car ‘doesn’t look detailed’ or it ‘looks honest’, meaning it looks clean instead of made-up.”
Many people think of auto detailing as a luxury service, and Mark does indeed work on cars ranging from a $180,000 Mercedes to a rare Italian Facel Vega. But he says “you can’t pre-judge who wants detailing services based on the price of the car. Our bread-and-butter work is the more basic cars- Toyotas, Subarus, and Volkswagens, average cars that people want to take care of. Someone once spent $3,200 with us on body work and detailing for a 1999 Subaru to meet German import qualifications.” Interestingly, though, Mark has only done 1 Hyundai in his career.
Some of the services Details by Mark provides are mold and mildew repair from water damage, vintage and specialty car detailing, paintless dent removal, windshield repair, upholstery and leather repair/replacement, and timely body & paint repair. “Many of our clients have their cars detailed prior to selling them. This is less extreme than our top-of-the-line service, but it only costs a little over $300 for an average car and can add between $1000 and $1500 to the final sale price.”
When asked for the biggest tip he could give clients to make their detailing experiences better, Mark said “Bring the car to us empty! We’ve found stuff like dog poop, bags of rotten food, a 9mm pistol, even $200 in quarters dumped loose in a center console. Things like that can really slow down our service or even be embarrassing to the client.” They returned the quarters, by the way. In very clean bags.
