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The Work We Do: Mike Heigh, Heigh Quality Detailing

My name is Mike Heigh. I’m from Riverhead, Long Island and I’m the owner of Heigh Quality Detailing. 

It’s spelled the way my last name is spelled, so I thought that was pretty awesome.

I’ve been detailing cars for over eight years, but for myself, this is my fourth year doing it. I service pretty much the East End and the Riverhead area.

I get off my night job at 7 a.m., then I do mobile detailing. Sometimes I have five cars and it can go all the way up to 14. We go on site and we clean the car without bothering the customer. What I would do is first is get everything out of the van. We go over the job to make sure we know what we need to do. We rinse it off, we wash it and then we foam bath it. We let that drip off, wash it off, shine the tires and clean the windows. And then we’re off to the next customer.

Also, when we detail cars we come equipped with everything that we need. We have our own electric and water supply. All I need is your car and your keys to clean you up and we’ll get out of your hair. When I do a full detail, it can take anywhere from three to seven hours. I try to get in every nook and cranny and make sure the customer is satisfied.

I work overnights in Southold from 11 p.m. to 7 in the morning and I work with mentally challenged individuals. I coach PAL Football out here in Riverhead and I’m actually going to school full time at Queens College to be a physical education teacher, to give people a positive role model to look up to. I had a few growing up and it would be good to give back.

My favorite part is seeing the cars clean and seeing the customers’ faces when we finish with their car. This is a big passion in my life and not too many people can actually say that they do what they love doing and I’m one of them.

“The Work We Do” is a News-Review multimedia project profiling workers around Riverhead Town. It is made by possible by Peconic Landing in Greenport. See more photos on Instagram.