For someone who loves their car, you sure picked the wrong state to live in. Every mile you drive on Minnesota’s gritty, salty roadways amounts to serious damage to your paint job. If you bought it used, you may not even know how sleek and lustrous your car can actually appear!
It’s little wonder why Humble Crew Detailing is doing so well here. Once their guys have worked their magic on a car, truck, SUV or motorcycle, it looks like it has been exclusively driven on velvet.
“I don’t like to brag. It’s right there in my company’s name,” said Jesse Xiong, founder of Humble Crew Detailing. “But I do take great pride in our clients’ reactions, which usually fall into two categories. The first is total satisfaction that we have delivered exactly as promised. The second is total surprise, because they weren’t aware just how immaculately we can restore any vehicle’s interior or exterior. They usually ask for reassurance that we didn’t mistakenly give them the wrong car. Once they get it, they start snapping photos. And once they get in, they start smiling even harder.
“I have always been a car enthusiast. You can imagine which toys were my favorites when I was a little boy. And as the oldest of five brothers, I grew up spending a lot of time playing Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, and pretty much any other racing video game we could get our hands on.
“The majority of my jobs prior to founding Humble Crew were in sales – most recently mattresses, which are important but admittedly not very fun to look at all day. At least mattresses were good to me. I saved up enough money to buy my first sports car because of them.
“I loved that Miata to death, and developed a borderline obsession over making it look as pristine as possible. I started studying car detailing videos on YouTube like it was my second job. Thanks to a certain event that transpired in early 2020, I no longer had a real job to distract me from that passion.
“Once I had run out of ways to beautify my Miata, I moved on to my wife’s car. My friends’ cars followed not long thereafter. Soon I had acquired the tools, knowledge and connections I needed to make a serious go of it. With a little luck, a whole lot of faith, and even more first-rate workmanship, Humble Crew grew into a full-blown auto detailing center.
“Short of replacing its parts, our team does everything we can to enhance a vehicle’s aesthetics. That begins with paint protection film, or PPF. It’s a clear vinyl barrier that shields a vehicle’s front or whole exterior against rock chips and other sources of abrasion. Older PPFs had a tendency to yellow and crack with age, but the technology has come a long way since then. Our PPF treatments aren’t just resistant to sunlight. They are actually mended by it, because heat causes them to self-heal from abrasions.
“It’s best to put PPF on a vehicle when it is brand new – or, alternatively, after our paint correction service has made it look brand new. First, we buff scratches, water spots, spoil marks, bug etches and other larger defects out of the clear coat. We then rub the vehicle down with clay bars, which eliminates hazing and creates a jewel-like finish. The end result is indistinguishable from a mint condition paint job, and so durable that I confidently warranty it for seven years.
“Our paint correction service will dramatically revitalize any vehicle’s appearance, and it’s even more potent when you follow it up with ceramic coating. That’s where we chemically bond a rugged, transparent quartz shell to the entire exterior. It acts like the teflon on a nonstick frying pan, and makes it a whole lot easier to clean dirt, salt, tar, bug splatters and bird droppings off your car. Better yet, you won’t have to wax your car once you’ve had it ceramic coated. A normal wash is all it will need in order to regain its full glisten.
“Humble Crew doesn’t offer car washes. Our exterior detailing service is too thorough to be likened to something you could do with a hose. We clean every square inch of the car’s exterior by hand, using a series of buckets to ensure we don’t mar the paint with one spec of grime. After we have removed all embedded debris from the paint with clay bars, we finish it off with iron decontamination. That dissolves brake dust, rail dust, and other ferric particles which create the appearance of rust spots in paint.
“If you want your car’s interior to match its exterior, we’ll detail it just as meticulously. A level one interior detailing includes thorough cleaning of the seats, carpets, mats, vents, dashboard, steering wheel and wheel column. A level two detailing goes even further with shampooing, steam cleaning, and hot water extraction. It banishes odors, rejuvenates leather and soft plastic surfaces, and eliminates stains, heavy soiling and dog hair. Both levels of service require at least a day, and you’re sure to appreciate where all that time went.
“I know firsthand what it’s like to have a car you take pride in and less money than its upkeep deserves. That’s why I founded this business with a simple concept: to make professional-level detailing available to everyone, no matter their budget for vehicle maintenance. Whether you have a few hundred dollars to spend or several thousand, we’re going to set your expectations high and still surpass them.”
Humble Crew Detailing is located at 1313 Osborne Road NE, Spring Lake Park. You can learn more about their services and request a free quote for any combination of them by visiting humblecrewdetailing.com.
"I do take great pride in our clients’ reactions, which usually fall into two categories. The first is total satisfaction and the second is total surprise, because they weren’t aware just how immaculately we can restore any vehicle’s interior or exterior."