Car Care
Griot's Garage
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When I was growing up, I was always out in the garage creating something. So I like to say I have been "Having Fun In My Garage" since I was 5 years old. The earliest project was putting Sandy Koufax's baseball card in my bicycle spokes so it sounded like a motorcycle…or maybe it was painting a thin red stripe on my tires to make it look like the Pontiac GTO's! The garage project list was long. I put wheels on my Estes rockets and created the first "rocket car" in the neighborhood… which led to trying my hand at welding up my own go cart frame. By the time I left for college, the garage had seen 3 automotive paint jobs, (complete with massive overspray over everything) one engine pulling that nearly bought down the rafters (a 2x4 brace fixed that), brake jobs (got it right the second time after the brakes failed), roll bar installation (safety first), and tune-up jobs on my friends cars. (My friends were all thumbs and thought a wrench was something you chased in Disney's Pirates of The Caribbean). My parents were saints and very understanding of all this and only had to take me to the emergency room once. They let me create, live and learn a craft.
Online Catalog
Griot's Garage started out, quite conveniently, in my garage back in 1988. Being frustrated at the lack of high quality products to set up the perfect garage, whether that included the finest car care to take care of my vehicles, or a concrete floor paint that didn't lift up when you drove over it, no one was offering it. Two years went by and I said, "I can't believe no one else is entering this market! Everyone seems to be excluding the guy that eats, sleeps and squanders his hard earned cash on cars... and there is no one there to offer high quality products to fan the flames of his passion!!!
So here we were, in 1990, selling everything an automotive enthusiast would want and items that they didn't even know existed! So in October 1990, we introduced to the catalog buying world, the first padded lay-down creeper. You probably find this hard to believe, but 19 years ago uncomfortable wooden creepers, with steel wheels that wouldn't roll over anything, was the norm! We also offer non-lifting garage floor paint, environmentally friendly car care, and unique, quality tools from Europe that were unavailable here in the States.
From the very beginning, we focused on quality. We had a lifetime guarantee on everything we sold so everything, and I mean everything, had to be well made. If the idea was good, but fell short on the quality, we would ask the manufacturer to make improvements to the product. When it came to our car care products I decided early on that we would make our own. That decision continues today from product development through bottling. That is how we control the quality of our car care that arrives in your garage.
This constant "strive for perfection" came from my father. I remember he gave me a clipping as I was putting together my very first catalog with a quote on it. The quote was from Sir Henry Royce, co-founder of the Rolls Royce Motor Company. "Take the best that exists and make it better. If it doesn't exist, create it. Accept nothing nearly right or good enough." This quote has appeared in every handbook we have ever produced. This is the Griot's Garage character and mindset of everyone that works here, too. It set our compass towards running a successful business as we strive for perfection in everything that we do.
Detailer's Handbook
Click here to open a Detailer's Handbook version in Adobe PDF format.
For More information, go to Griot's official website.
