James Anderson begins the process of detailing a car. Anderson first started cleaning vehicles when he was 10 years old and washed his dad’s semi tractor.

James Anderson’s attention to detail can be seen every time a person walks into Juba’s and sees the beautiful chalk drawing the artist creates every few weeks.

It is not the only vocation where Anderson uses his skill to enhance the beauty of what he is working on.

Anderson, who works for the city of Blue Earth Mondays through Fridays, spends his weekends detailing cars and calls his business Anderson Auto Detailing. He and his wife, Ann, live in Blue Earth and have three boys.

“I started washing my dad’s semis when I was 10 years old,” Anderson says. “I would wash them right out on 14th Street, which is where we lived at the time. I would take a garden hose, a bucket and a brush and start cleaning.”

He shares that his mom would always tell people that his dad never left home with a dirty truck.

“I would even wash my BMX bike when I was a kid,” he adds. “I guess I have always been a bit of a neat freak.”

While Anderson may have started out by washing his father’s semis, he says his first actual business was started in the 1980s.

“A buddy of mine and I had a business after we got out of high school called Custom Car Care,” Anderson comments. “It was located just east of Blue Earth.”

According to Anderson, they stayed pretty busy detailing cars.

“But then my friend went to college and I went to work for Hi-Way Ford in town,” Anderson remarks. “I detailed used cars for Tom Miller at Hi-Way Ford for 10 years and was still doing detailing work on my own on the weekends.”

Anderson credits a fellow employee he worked with at Hi-Way Ford for teaching him many detailing tricks of the trade that he still uses today.

“I have met some amazing people and been able to detail some really neat cars,” he says. “I have detailed Corvettes, BMWs, a Mercedes Benz along with some classic cars like a 1957 Chevrolet Nomad Wagon.”

He says one of the coolest cars he detailed was a 1934 Ford street rod.

“It reminded me of the 1933 Eliminator Coupe that the band ZZ Top had,” Anderson says with a smile. “It was a bright red car and one of the coolest cars I have worked on. It was also a car I had to be very careful with while I was working on it.”

Another one of his fondest memories deals with something lost that was found.

“A grandfather and grandmother took their grandchildren for a ride in their car and the grandmother sat in the back seat of the vehicle with the grandchildren,” Anderson tells the story. “When they got home, the grandmother discovered that her diamond ring was missing. They searched the car but were unable to find it.”

Later, Anderson shares, the couple brought in the car for detailing and shared with him the story of the missing ring.

“I vacuumed the car very carefully, but I didn’t find the ring,” he comments. “I looked at the back seat and began to wonder if the ring had fallen into the area where the seat belts came through the seats.”

Anderson decided more investigation was needed.

“I decided to remove the back seat completely,” he explains. “I got the seat out of the car and went back to check on what I could see.”

That was when he noticed something shining amongst a bunch of dust and debris.

“I reached down and sure enough, it was the ring,” Anderson says. “I still remember the look on the grandmother’s face when I was able to return the ring to her.”

Anderson says the average detailing job takes 10-12 hours to complete.

“It can vary depending if they also want the engine detailed in addition to the interior and exterior of the car,” he explains. “It can also make a difference on how dirty the car is.”

Anderson goes through many steps when detailing a car and usually begins with washing the exterior of the car and then opening all of the doors and the trunk to wash the door jambs and the inside of the trunk.

“Then, I vacuum the inside of the vehicle and the trunk before I shampoo the carpet and the seats,” Anderson says. “Next, I wipe down the doors and the interior and once everything is dry, I vacuum again.”

He will continue by washing the inside of the windows before starting on the exterior.

“I will buff out the scratches and do some touch-up painting of chips if the customer wants me to do it,” Anderson comments. “Buffing will remove the oxidation and will bring out the color in the car.”

The next step he takes is cleaning the wheels, shining the tires and waxing the vehicle.

“A complete job will usually run around $150,” Anderson shares. “Sometimes it may be more or it might even be less. I always look at the car and give the customer a quote based on what I see. But, like everything else, costs for the supplies I use are rising.”

At present, he doesn’t own a garage to do his work.

“I am able to work outside most of the year and I have an inside space I am able to use during the winter months,” Anderson says. “Someday, I would like to have my own shop to work in.”

Anderson’s work has not been limited to cars, pickups and semis.

“I detailed a tractor one time,” he recalls. “It was an old International and I mainly buffed the paint and cleaned the interior.”

Before he is ready to return the vehicle to his customer, Anderson does one more inspection of his work.

“When I think I am done I look and I sometimes will see one little thing that I just have to go back and fix,” he says. “It’s important to me that I make sure the job is done right before the vehicle leaves.”

Anderson notes he looks forward to working on each vehicle he is hired to detail.

“I enjoy what I do and I love to see the people’s reactions when they pick up their car,” he concludes.