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Life: It's in the Details

Blake Soni Rides Mobile Detailing into His American Dream

Article by Melinda Gipson

Photography by Melinda Gipson, Blake Soni

Originally published in Leesburg Lifestyle

Blake Soni owns and operates one of Loudoun County’s fastest growing small businesses: Huck and Company Mobile Auto Detailing (https://www.huckandcompany.com/). The company, which Blake started as a side service for friends and family, initially was founded on our area’s time-honored appreciation for quality automobiles. But Blake’s obvious mastery of leading edge automotive technology rapidly combined with the pandemic-led explosion in demand for delivery-based convenience services to create a rapidly-expanding, full-time concern.

Detailing, for the uninitiated, can range from restoring a soccer mom’s minivan interior to “like new” condition all the way up to correcting and polishing the paintjob of an Aston Martin to a showroom shine before applying a ceramic coating to ensure long lasting protection. Blake’s business caters to anyone looking to protect their automotive investment.

Ironically, one notable downside of our society’s recent drive-to-convenience is the habit of running your auto through the drive-through car wash. This seemingly easy solution for “keeping your car clean” displaces at-home hand-washing and comes with a high cost. “Once you start to notice what the car wash is doing to your vehicle – you start walking by and seeing all the swirl marks in the paint and scratching – that’s when you begin to wonder what kind of damage it is doing to your car,” Blake says. And, whether you drive a Tesla or a Honda Civic, “your car is a major investment and you want to protect it.”

It's this attention to detail that marks Blake’s best customers. In his business, true protection comes in the form of high-tech, chemically engineered ceramic coatings. These coatings are essentially making traditional carnauba waxes (“wax on, wax off”) a thing of the past.

A ceramic coating is an extremely durable, hydrophobic (think water beading up) layer that is applied to your vehicle. It is resistant against surface level scratching, UV rays, bug/bird etchings, water spotting, and industrial fallout such as dirt, debris and metal particles. As a bonus, these coatings also make maintenance washing a breeze and keep your vehicle shining like new for years to come. It's just not the kind of thing you can apply yourself.

Blake is professionally trained to apply these high-tech coatings and is a certified installer for Adam’s Polishes. He explains that the process of applying a ceramic coating begins with a thorough wash to remove the initial layer of dirt and grime. A clay bar or mitt is then used alongside a lubricating spray to remove additional debris that is embedded in your auto’s paint – something a basic wash was never designed to address. After the surface of the paint is clear of debris, only then can he begin the correction and polishing process.

This process involves buffing and polishing out surface level scratching, swirl marks and other impurities in the paint of that have not gone through clear coating, transforming the paint to a mirror-like shine. Once the paint is as good as it can possibly can get – on the order of 85% to 90% better – he will then seal it all up with a ceramic coating. His longest lasting ceramic is rated for approximately 9 to 10 years with proper installation and maintenance.

Because we find expertise of any kind fascinating, and the whole field of ceramics a little confusing, we asked Blake to take a deeper dive. He explained that silicon dioxide is technically the chemical that makes a “ceramic,” a ceramic. But even among silicon dioxide “ceramic” products there are different qualities and consistencies and a range of different manufacturer claims regarding length of protection. That makes knowing what to look for in a brand of ceramic the key to its value. In general, the potency of the silicon dioxide is essentially what dictates the length of protection the coating can provide. The higher the percentage of the chemical, the longer the protection it provides. However, the higher the percentage, the trickier the process of applying it becomes.

As noted earlier, Blake uses a line of products from Adam’s Polishes and is a certified installer of their ProLine (Professional Grade) Graphene Ceramic Coating. Because not all ceramics are created equal, “In the automotive industry we’re all guilty of overusing the term ‘ceramic.’ You can buy two- to three-month ‘ceramics’ that come out of a spray bottle, but they're so diluted that they're not a true ceramic. True ceramics lasting 7 to 10 years come in drip form, in small vials. Those are true ceramic coatings,” Blake explains.

Blake even uses interior ceramics that protect from wear and tear by dogs and kids, though he allows nothing really keeps canine nose prints off glass. We mention dogs because the company itself was named for Huck, Blake’s first rescue out of college. And, each of his tiered detailing packages are named for his current canine cadre. The “Huck” is naturally his highest end package as already described, while the “Maya” package is a mid-tier, one-time, full interior and exterior reset. Last but not least, the “Finn,” a regularly scheduled, bi-weekly maintenance package providing an interior and exterior touch-up, is “really taking off,” Blake says, which is why he is actively looking to expand. Look for a big leap up to a Brick & Mortar studio to handle more than one vehicle at a time in the near future.

One of the challenges in providing a convenience-oriented service to others is that the work often expands to be more than “full-time,” meaning Blake has had jobs go well into the night and that often expand into weekends and holidays. His adjustment to work-life balance will become even more important when his wife Alex delivers their first born later this summer.

While Huck was his first true family member, and though he’s gone now, Blake says, “We would not be the same family we are today without him.” It’s evident after a few minutes with Blake that he’s proud of what he does and how he does it. He says he’s constantly reminding himself, “always be the type of person your dog thinks you are.”

“Always be the type of person your dog thinks you are.” -- Blake Soni

Detailing demands passion, experience and diligence, qualities that he also applies to his work as a certified riding instructor through the Yamaha Champions Riding School (where he is a 3C certified coach) and the U.S. Motorcycle Coaching Association. “The motorsports community brings me a lot of joy and fulfillment, [but] I am a dog person more than anything.”

From an outsider’s perspective looking in, it seems that Blake has found his “American Dream.” He’s doing everything he loves with the people – and dogs – he loves doing it with. In Blake’s case, that comes with a cool garage and even cooler bikes (he owns a Ducati, along with a couple others), and a job that makes him and his customers proud and happy. “I have a pretty big vision for [Huck and Company] and am excited to be doing what I love full time,” he says with a grin.

See https://www.huckandcompany.com/, call 941-320-9993 or email huckandco@gmail.com.

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