From - Innovative Detailing of California - Auto Detailing Forum David Sylican of Innovative Detailing in California. David's passion for cars and love of family make it easy to understand why he has been so successful. David's Story My name is David Michael Sylican, born April 22, 1966 one of two children born to immigrant parents from Argentina. I was born in Hollywood California, the city where my parents resided upon arriving to the states. I have a wonderful sister named Sharon, who also lives in Southern California with her beautiful daughter Gabriella. I grew up in a household where English and Spanish were spoken, therefore I am completely bilingual. I attended school in Irvine graduating from Irvine High School with the class of 1984. Upon completion of High School, I attended the local community college to learn Business Law. I did not complete my studies, but started my own import/export business. After working with my father’s Import/ Export business for awhile, I decided to follow his steps doing my own thing. In the Late mid 80’s, I started a company “Lanar” that manufactured and imported custom and universal sheepskin seat covers from Uruguay. I did various trade shows thru out the nation, including exhibiting at SEMA back in 1984 & 1985 in Las Vegas. I sold to dealers and distributors who then resold to consumers, at one point we sold to companies such as Fedco and Kmart. I ended up selling the company and moved on to greater opportunities. In 1990 I became the proud father of fraternal twins, Tyler and Amanda. My children were born out of wedlock, and when they turned 2, the courts granted me complete custody due to certain circumstances. From that day on I had gone from being a single man to a single father, with the drive to be the best dad I ever could for my children. My kids are now 20 years old, my daughter is majoring in business marketing and her minor is PR and working in high end retail fashion. My son started taking courses in Industrial Design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, emphasizing in Automotive Design. He is currently getting his AA at the community college and working at Lowes. Then, two years ago the best thing that ever happened to me, I met the woman of my dreams. I met Patricia on Match.com, she was living in Atlanta and after that the rest is history. My wife and her family are from Brazil, so we have a lot in common and enjoy spending all of our time together. In April of 2009, we got married and now we are one big happy family. We enjoy spending our free time at our vacation home in Lake Havasu, boating and having fun in the sun. In 1986 I established Innovative Detailing out of my love and passion for cars. For over 24 years I have applied my passion, knowledge, and skills to each and every customer’s automobile that has received my service. Originally, I began my mobile detailing service, which I labeled as a “Mobile Auto Salon,” on the streets of Orange County. From there I joined the SCPDA back in the late 80’s, early 90’s, which made up a group of mobile detailers looking to form an association. In 1993, I opened a detail shop at Newport Beach’s internationally famous “Balboa Bay Club” which was home to the Meguiar’s family since the early 50’s. I was approached by the Meguiar’s company at my shop and was offered full sponsorship which included product testing and unlimited free products for years to come. As well, I had the opportunity to personally take care of Barry Meguiar’s personal vehicles and their VIP cars at their corporate facility in Irvine from 1993 - 2005. The Café Auto Spa was then built across the street from the Balboa Bay Club, and at the same time my detail shop was chosen to close. After negotiating with the owners of the Café Auto Spa, I was hired as a consultant and detailing manger to get the shop off the ground and running. My job was to train all the employees, and show the writers how to up sell the detail services. Ultimately I left the Café Auto Spa, as I realized that restaurant owners weren’t able to run a carwash/detail center the proper way. Throughout the years, I have focused mainly on my mobile services, continuing to provide top notch services to all my clients. I understand that my customer is not just looking for someone who can detail their car, but a professional they can get to know and trust. I have the passion to apply that something extra, and to treat each automobile as if it were mine, and the quality of my work shows. I have had the opportunity to work with many film production companies for pre production detailing over the years. I was contracted to detail vehicles for films such as “Fast and Furious”, “Vanilla Sky”, “NYPD” and “Discovery Channel”. One of the best jobs I ever got was in 2001; it was for the Running of the Bulls hosted by Platinum Motors….We got to detail over 75 Lamborghini’s for this event! In 2008 I was approached by The Shelly Group to take over and manage their detail center at Spectrum Collision in Irvine, Ca. The shop was in trouble and in the red, it was time to turn this shop around and make things positive on the books. After four months, the numbers completely turned positive, my contract was up and I decided to concentrate on my mobile service Innovative Detailing 100%. Because of the economic recession, I was forced to focus on reinventing myself and my whole business model. I revamped my website Mobile Detailing in Orange County and Los Angeles by Innovative Detailing, started documenting more of my work with photo’s and incorporated videos. I also started a YouTube Channel at InnovativeDetailing1 so others can view and see the projects and cool vehicles I am fortunate enough to work on. In the last 2 years due to the increasing number of failed headlight lenses on the road, I have started a sister business to solve this dilemma, www.headlightlensrestoral is my solution for this problem and I know this will be a success since safety is priority #1. I am also currently the “Resident Detailer” for www.Jaguarforums.com and often hold Cars and Coffee gatherings with fellow Jaguar owners
So that is the story behind the Cafe Auto Spa, I drive by it every single day when I am at home in Newport. They get a huge amount of traffic without question! I was turned off from it completely after seeing the drying towels and MFs laying on the pavement and then repeatedly being used on later cars.
