MORGANTON, N.C. — A Burke County detailing business, Visual Perfection, is being featured on the History Channel's "Dirty Old Cars."
What You Need To Know
- Morganton business owner Jamie Buchanan made his History Channel debut this week on the new series, "Dirty Old Cars"
- Buchanan owns Visual Perfections in Burke County
- He started washing cars in his grandfather's driveway at 15 years old
- Episodes air Wednesdays at 10 p.m.
Jaimie Buchanan, 50, started cleaning cars in his grandfather's driveway when he was just 15 years old.
“Just the satisfaction of doing something for someone else but giving a great product at the end, that’s kinda where my love grew because people appreciate that," Buchanan said.
Buchanan said he would clean his coworkers' cars after work, and put in more than 100 hours a week. He would charge $15 for a full detail.
Now 30 years later, he has his own detailing shop in Morganton called Visual Perfection.
"I put in a lot of hard work over the years, and the business just kept on growing year after year," Buchanan said.
He was contacted to be on the show through a group of detailers from around the world.
"Producers reached out to us on a Thursday and gave us 36 hours to record a video and send it in," Buchanan said.
His business was selected, and it was a few months of back and forth contract talk before they began filming.
"They were here for about eight weeks. We worked about 16-17 hours a day for six days," Buchanan said.
In his three decades of cleaning cars, he has seen everything, including rat-infested cars. But, he says the toughest job was cleaning a car that a mother had given birth in the passenger seat.
“It was rough! I’m being serious as can be! No lie, we’ve done rat-infested cars and the baby was the worst, the worst,” Buchanan said.
The show will give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at Buchanan's hard work. Everything is done at his shop with lots of elbow grease.
"It was so fun! We loved doing it, all the hard work and long hours was worth it. We were very fortunate and we would do it all over again," Buchanan said.
The show airs Wednesdays on the History Channel at 10 p.m.