Cam Watson – Custom Car Care Wagga

Founder | Master Detailer | Paint Correction & Ceramic Coating Specialist

From an Eight-Year-Old Washing Cars to More Than Half a Lifetime in Business

For Cam Watson, detailing started long before it became a profession.

Growing up in Wagga Wagga, Cam first caught the detailing bug at just eight years old, washing and vacuuming his parents’ cars, applying Turtle Wax to the paintwork by hand and soon doing the same for family friends to earn pocket money.

What started as a childhood fascination with making cars look their best eventually became a career and then a business that Cam has now spent more than half his life operating full-time.

At 14 years old, Cam purchased his first machine polisher and began taking his interest in paintwork and vehicle presentation to another level.

By his early twenties, detailing was no longer simply an interest. After gaining professional experience within a dealership environment during 2001 and 2002, Cam recognised an opportunity to create something different – a specialist detailing operation where workmanship, preparation and attention to detail took priority over speed and volume.

In 2003, at just 23 years of age, he established Custom Car Care Wagga as a full-time, workshop-based business.

More than 23 years later, Cam is still here – still owner-operated, still working hands-on and still personally responsible for the standard of every vehicle that leaves the workshop.

Building Custom Car Care Wagga

Custom Car Care Wagga began in a dedicated leased workshop on Pearson Street in Wagga Wagga.

In 2004, local dealerships began engaging Cam to provide new-car pre-delivery detailing together with paint and interior protection services.

For the following four years, Cam worked closely with dealerships preparing brand-new vehicles to a standard beyond conventional in-house dealership pre-delivery processes.

The experience also provided an early foundation in new-car paint preparation and long-term vehicle protection – areas that would later become central to Custom Car Care Wagga.

By 2008, demand from private vehicle owners had grown substantially.

Cam made the deliberate decision to step away from dealership work entirely and concentrate on private clients seeking a higher standard of detailing, paint correction and vehicle protection.

Custom Car Care Wagga has remained 100% retail-focused ever since, with quality prioritised over volume.

Bringing Ceramic Coatings to the Riverina

In January 2012, Custom Car Care Wagga moved into a larger leased street-front premises, providing significantly more space along with a dedicated showroom and customer reception area.

That same year, the business became the first independent detailing operation in the Riverina to introduce professional ceramic coating services.

At the time, ceramic coating technology was largely unknown within the regional market and was not being offered by other local independent detailers.

Having already spent years preparing and protecting new vehicles, the transition into professional ceramic coatings was a natural progression.

Demand for advanced paint protection grew rapidly and helped shape Custom Car Care Wagga into the specialised paint correction and ceramic coating workshop it is today.

Fire, Rebuilding & a Permanent Home

In 2014, an electrical fault within the premises switchboard caused a significant fire outside business hours.

The business subsequently operated from two temporary locations over approximately nine months while Cam continued servicing customers and rebuilding the operation.

Rather than allowing the disruption to stop the business, Custom Car Care Wagga continued operating throughout the transition.

In 2015, the business relocated to its current workshop on Dobney Avenue.

Ten years later, in 2025, Cam purchased the premises, giving Custom Car Care Wagga a permanent home and securing the long-term future of the workshop he had spent decades building.

International Training & Industry Experience

As Custom Car Care Wagga developed, Cam continued investing in his technical knowledge and gaining exposure to the detailing industry beyond Australia.

Between 2011 and 2019, he attended multiple SEMA Shows in Las Vegas and was selected to work as part of the Official Detail Crew at SEMA 2013.

In 2014, Cam travelled to California to attend Meguiar’s NXT Advanced Paint Correction & Sanding Training at Meguiar’s headquarters in Irvine.

The intensive program was led by internationally respected paint correction specialists Jason Rose, Kevin Brown and Jason Kilmer, further developing Cam’s technical knowledge of advanced machine polishing, sanding, defect removal and modern clear-coat refinement.

Between 2015 and 2025, Cam also participated in multiple Modesta Pluscon events across North America, Europe and Asia, maintaining direct exposure to evolving coating technology, application techniques and international detailing standards.

A Decade Leading Modesta Australia

In 2015, Cam’s experience with paint preparation, correction and ceramic coatings led to his appointment as Australian Distributor for Modesta Ceramic Coatings.

Over the following decade, he played a central role in establishing, developing and supporting the professional Modesta installer network throughout Australia.

His role included installer certification, advanced application training, technical mentoring, product support and business guidance.

Throughout those ten years, Cam continued operating Custom Car Care Wagga as a full-time, active detailing workshop.

He remained on the tools – preparing, correcting and coating vehicles himself while applying the same products, techniques and processes he was teaching to professional detailers around Australia.

That distinction remains important to the philosophy of Custom Car Care Wagga today: experience comes from doing the work.

Returning the Focus to Custom Car Care Wagga

In late 2025, after a decade of national distribution, Cam made the deliberate decision to step back from the Modesta distribution role and return his complete focus to Custom Car Care Wagga.

By this stage, life outside the workshop had changed too.

With a wife and three young children, family had become an increasingly important priority.

Rather than continuing to divide his time between national distribution, installer support, training, international travel and operating his own workshop, Cam chose to concentrate on the business he had started at 23 – while creating a healthier balance between business and family life.

Today, Custom Car Care Wagga remains deliberately small, specialised and owner-operated.

There is no production line and no focus on pushing as many vehicles through the workshop as possible.

Cam personally performs the work, with services centred around:

• Professional ceramic coating application
• Advanced paint correction and paint refinement
• New-car preparation and protection
• Premium automotive detailing
• Long-term vehicle preservation and maintenance

The focus remains where it has been since 2003:

Give every vehicle the time, preparation and workmanship required to do the job properly.

Recognition Along the Way

Over more than two decades, Custom Car Care Wagga and Cam’s work have received recognition both locally and within the professional detailing industry.

2005 — Wagga Business Chamber Winner, Best New Business

2012 — Wagga Business Chamber Finalist, Best in Business Innovation

2014 — Wagga Business Chamber Finalist, Outstanding Small Business

2014 — International Detailing Association, Detail Shop of the Year

2025 — Wagga Business Chamber Finalist, Excellence in Micro Business

More Than Half a Lifetime – And Still Hands-On

Custom Car Care Wagga isn’t simply a business Cam owns.

It is a business he has personally built, operated and worked in full-time for more than half his life.

The story started at eight years old, washing and vacuuming his parents’ cars and applying Turtle Wax by hand.

At 14, he bought his first machine polisher.

At 23, he opened Custom Car Care Wagga as a full-time professional detailing business.

Since then, Cam has prepared thousands of vehicles, introduced professional ceramic coatings to the local market, rebuilt the business following a workshop fire, undertaken advanced international training, worked at SEMA, spent a decade developing and supporting a national ceramic coating installer network and eventually purchased the workshop Custom Car Care Wagga calls home.

Today, at 47 years of age, that same interest in improving and protecting vehicle paintwork that started as an eight-year-old with a bucket, vacuum and tin of Turtle Wax remains at the centre of what he does.

The equipment, products and technology have changed considerably.

The obsession with doing the job properly hasn’t.

The Custom Car Care Wagga Philosophy

Precision over volume.
Preparation over shortcuts.
Longevity over hype.

Every vehicle is given the time, process and attention required to achieve the standard expected from Custom Car Care Wagga.

After more than 23 years in business and almost four decades of hands-on experience, the philosophy remains simple:

Do it properly. Don’t rush it. Let the result speak for itself.

Not all detailing – and not all detailers – are the same. Neither are the results.