Hey folks,

I just bought my airline tickets, and will be arriving late Thurs night after the welcome dinner. I'm looking to host some detailing events/demos throughout Friday and Saturday. I'm hoping it's not too late to schedule something, although I know we are only a month away.

I will be there promoting my VacuCams, including the new VacuCam Mini, my How-to DVD on using the Porter Cable Polisher (hands on learning), and will have my detailing tools to show and repair anybodys MINI that's got issues (sorry I can't do paint touchups or dent/ding repair). I will also have some product for sale there as well. Please PM me if you would like to schedule some time with me. Since I'm flying in , no MINI for me, but maybe I will have a counterfeit again.

Richard

 

Looking foreward to seeing the Cam first hand. Still trying to figure out what recorder I want to use with it.
Jim

 

Glad to see making the trek. I'll be there for a detailing event and demo for sure. This is the first car I have ever waxed (I am close to 30) and I would not have such a shiny car w/o the help from the forum. I am a bit intimidated of the polisher, so maybe this will get me over that.

 

Great It wouldn't be the same without you

BTW,

How's the DVD from last year coming?

Steve

 

Hey Sagworks,
The polisher is nothing to be intimidated by. Once you try it for 5 minutes, you'll see it's a piece of cake, and no offense to other MINI owners, but I'm pretty certain, I can show you who uses one and who doesn't in their car care regimen as we survey the cars in the lot. I did this at AMVIV, and practically every car was heavily swirled out. (and beware, even if the sun isn't shining, I got my dual xenon "swirl finder light").

The pressed DVD's are arriving from the manufacturer on Monday, so you will see these on NAM shortly, We've sold about 100 copies in the past month, so it's doing pretty well. Got tons of testimonials already.

Hey Steve!
Thanks for the welcome. Hows the DVD?? Hmmm. It's a sad case. I think I failed NAM on that one. I got lots of good documentary footage, but nothing spectacular. As controversial as Outmotoring.com's short video was, they had the courage to take a stab and get it done, while I languished away behind reams and reams and reams of raw footage. Best not to expect it anytime soon, sorry to say. I'll be present this year with less stress, no article to write, no photos I MUST take, just plain old fun detailing MINIs and selling/demoing my VacuCams--atleast that's my planned agenda.

 

Yay, Richard! Glad you're coming to MOTD-2006! Need a black MCS as a demo? I'll be at Cabin #429, same as last year. Please come by and say "hi!"

 

Thanks!!!

You know I do!! Funny we're neighbors but we have to go all the way to the Dragon to meet up.

Richard

 

Richard, seriously -- if you'd like to use Wanda for anything, please let me know.

Yeah....it's strange, but my travels keep me out of town for most of our c3 events! I'm so glad you can make it to the Dragon! See you there!

 

Richard, I will be there for one of your detailing sessions

Mark

 

Alright!! Make sure to let me know who you are!! I'm looking forward to finally meeting you!

Richard

 

We frequently have a different take on solving a finish problem on the detailing threads, but I've learned a lot from you.

I'll drop by and say 'Hi'... maybe let you take me for a run down the Dragon in Jango! It wouldn't be fair to deny a guy who traveled all the way across the country at least one run on the Dragon, would it?

 

Heh heh, thanks! You know we believe in the same final result, so whatever levels of "analness" we use to get there as long as the techniques are sound and products are good, shouldn't "reaaaallly" matter in the long run.

I've learned a lot from you as well, so I look forward to meeting you!

Richard

 

Hey Richard,

Wanted to thank you again for doing some emergency detailing on my PW at AMVIV on Sunday so I could get some graphics on. If you want a demo on the powers of your tools, feel free to work on my car some more . Seriously though, I may be interested in having you work a little more on the brown spots if you have any open time on Friday. Saturday I'll be at the autocross so we probably won't be able to meet up. Thanks again so much for you help in Vegas. Safe travels!

matt

 

Don't worry, I'll be the one holding my sweeties hand, and walking Ruby

Mark

 

What is your VacuCam Mini all about?

 

See my vendor announcement
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=64182

Essentially it's a smaller, less obtrusive version of my VacuCam micro camera systems. At the Dragon, I'll be previewing a higher resolution, super low light setup for the next generation of VacuCams. They will cost more than the present cams but less than what's available on the market. They also won't replace, but rather complement existing camera systems.

I've hooked up with m7 and will be sharing a tent with them, so look for m7 and you'll find me.

 

That's great to hear about the updated camera. I would highly recommend the Vacu-Cam setup. For the cost, it's a neat system. We used it to shoot the "Tame the Dragon" DVD at last year's MOTD and it worked great. I had a lot of fun finding new places on the car to mount it.

 

Drats! I just ordered the three camera system a couple of days ago.

 

Why drats??

I can substitute one of the camera with the VacuCam Mini if you want. Or iIf you're feeling bad about the next gen VacuCams, don't. I'm still a year away from launching it, it's still in development, and you can be certain, that each camera will cost a lot more than they do now. For instance, my lowest cost on the development cameras cost me a little more than 3 times of the current VacuCam. You will be able to use the same mounts, and switcher. The cabling will change a bit since the ones I'm testing don't have audio capability, just video.

By then, you can opt to upgrade, which is really why I've been developing them, so my existing customers have an upgrade path.

Just a couple of notes: I previewed at last years Dragon my VacuCam Mini and I just launched it at this years AMVIV. It took that long to make it into a production ready product. I "may" offer some type of upgrade allowance for existing customers, I can't guarantee it, but the last thing I want are any unhappy customers feeling like they got jilted.

Richard

 

Oh, I don't feel jilted. I didn't have any idea you had this MINI cam coming out. I'm am interested in knowing the difference between what I bought and what the new MINI Cam can offer. What advantage is there with the new MINI cam? I'll come find you at the Dragon as i would like to see the cam.

On another note I have the convertible. I need to find a mount for my Sony camera and was thinking of mounting it on one of the roll bars (No rolling here so should be safe). Any suggestions?

 

The VacuCam MINI is the equivalent of the VacuCam1B but in a smaller form factor. About 1/4 of the size. It's less obtrusive when mounting on the windshield, thus offering even more mounting options, but because of its smaller size, the holding strength is a fraction of the standard model, thus I don't recommend it for outside of the car use. The camera portion is identical, it's just the mount that's been "shrunk". I know many people have mounted their camcorders on head rest mounts for both keeping their camcorder stationary and the option to shoot directly from the camcorder. Bogen makes a clamp that will mount any camera/video camcorder on tubing up to 1.5" thick. It sells for around $80.

 

My Itinerary has just changed. I am now flying into Knoxville on Tuesday night, so I will be available to detail any cars on Wed or Thursday now in addition to Friday and Saturday.

PM me if you're interested.