Detailer keeps the shine on show’s featured cars, trucks
BY MAUREEN O’DONNELL Staff Reporter/modonnell@suntimes.com February 10, 2013 7:24PM
Erica Cervantes polishes cars at the Chicago Auto Show. Chicago Sun-Times media photo by Maureen O'Donnell.
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Updated: March 13, 2013 6:11AM
She may not be a Detroit designer, but Erica Cervantes has a key role in making cars look good at the Chicago Auto Show.
Armed with a clean rag, a squirt bottle of glass cleaner and a fluffy duster, she patrols the show, never stopping, polishing cars until they gleam, and ridding them of the fingerprints of the curious.
“They touch the dashboard, the radio,” she said, “inside the windows, especially [in] the back.”
On Sunday, Cervantes, 21, buffed out enough fingerprint whorls to make a whole season of NCIS and CSI.
Good-natured visitors asked, “My car’s in the parking lot — you wanna do my car?”
Cervantes, who works for Professional Detailers, has been working the show for four years. She likes “Seeing new faces, everyday.” She also enjoys driving the cars onto the show floor.
The only bad time was when someone left remnants inside a car that appeared to be from a dirty diaper, she said. “Disgusting.”
Working the Auto Show has given her a glimpse of gender-based psychology, she said. “The men are always excited, and the women are always walking around, dragging their feet.”
