Best Car Detailing: Warren Buff-It
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Warren Buff-It: He makes cars look like a billion bucks
507 W. Commercial St., East Rochester | 585-752-3850facebook.com/wmbuffit
There is no telling when the muse will strike and change the course of a life.
For Warren Mapes, the owner of Warren Buff-It auto detailing in East Rochester, she struck about six years ago over a beer with friends at Johnny’s pub on Culver Road.
There, Mapes was contemplating what to do with the rest of his life as he closed in on 50 years old. He had spent the better part of two decades working in marketing and graphic design, a fickle industry that had him hopping jobs and enduring layoff after layoff.
“I just got to the point where I was like, you know, I can’t keep doing this the rest of my life,” Mapes said. “I need to figure something out.”
To make ends meet between gigs, he fell back on detailing cars out of a one-car garage at his East Rochester home. It was a hobby he had pursued with a passion since he was barely old enough to drive, and now he wondered whether he could make a living at it.
That’s when the muse hit him.
“The original name for my business was going to be Buff Daddy — I’ll buff the junk out your trunk,” Mapes said with a laugh. “But then I was like, ‘Wait. Warren Buffett. Warren. Buff. It. Warren Buff-It!”
His business’s motto came to him in a flash for reasons that should be obvious to anyone familiar with the most famous investor in the world: “Keeping your ride looking like a billion bucks!”
“My buddy was like ‘Oh my God, there it is,’” Mapes recalled. “So I grabbed a bar napkin and a pen from the bartender and sketched out my logo.”
Warren Buff-It is symbolized by a high-speed polisher clenched in a closed fist — an image that reflects the combination of technology and elbow grease that embodies the business.
Mapes, now 53, works a few blocks from his home out of a garage on West Commercial Street that accommodates several cars. He details everything from McLarens and Porsches to minivans and SUVs and everything in between.
Speaking of everything in between, Mapes is so meticulous in his work on interiors that he has been known to remove the seats of cars to ensure the deepest of deep cleans before reassembling the vehicle.
“It’s really about honing in on not just vacuuming the car, but getting the dust in all the crevices around the radio buttons, the dust in the vents,” he said. “I had a motorcycle in here yesterday and I pulled all the fairings off, I pulled all the panels off of it so I could get into the nooks and crannies.”
On the exterior of vehicles, Mapes has a reputation for removing swirl marks by polishing the paint to a glimmering finish. He is certified in Gtechniq ceramic coating, a highly-regarded method for protecting paint.
His scrupulousness has not gone unnoticed by his customers. Online reviews laud his attention to detail and communication.
Mapes is quick to give credit to his crew, which includes his 19-year-old son, Connor Mapes, who has been learning the trade from him since the days of his father working out of that one-car garage.
“I’m building this to hopefully hand it down to him,” Mapes said. “I put all my faith in myself and it’s done nothing but grow.” — DAVID ANDREATTA
Finalists: Arete Auto Salon | Austin-Spencer Automotive | Titan Motorworks
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