Last year, he even helped detail the first Air Force One jet, an airplane used by Presidents Eisenhower through Nixon. The Boeing 707-120 is kept at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

"The weather conditions there can be harsh, and the plane is left out in the open," Pena said. "We had a team of 42 detailers working to repair the paint job, but I was the only one chosen from Texas."

Pena, 44, has worked on autos since the 1980s and is considered a "Master Detailer" by a professional training program based in California. At one point he owned a brick-and-mortar auto detailing shop near the Galleria, but he sold that enterprise in 2001

Basically, I had spoiled my customers before that," Pena said. "My company was built as a mobile business, and that's what they'd become used to."

Pena said some of his earliest memories involve washing his mother's Ford Pinto in the family's driveway when he was 6.

"Back then I used Ajax or Borax, anything we had under the kitchen sink," Pena said, laughing.

Today Pena uses a line of professional products from Maguiar's. Because professional-grade creams and waxes easily can run $30 to $40 a bottle, products are one of his biggest operating expenses, Pena said.

"Sometimes I'll be asked to test out products," Pena said. "Then I'll get bottles with no label, or labeled Brand X. The manufacturers know I'll tell them what I really think."

"There are a lot of detailers around," said Kevin Pooler, owner of the Porsche 911 GT3. "And a lot of carwashes. But when you go to a carwash, after a while you can see swirl marks in your paint. Not with Michael. With him, once he's done, your car looks brand new."

Another of Pena's biggest expenses involves labor. Currently, he has two full-time assistants and close to 100 clients.

According to him, the worst thing Houstonians can do is neglect to wash their cars. He cited one hotel guest who had parked near a construction zone here last year and didn't realize the crew had sprayed paint and varnish onto it.

"When he took it through the carwash, he could see where it'd been contaminated from construction overspray," Pena said. "The construction company paid me to go all the way to his home in Midland,Tx to get rid of the mess for them."

Recently, Pena traveled to the Texas Motorsports Ranch in Angleton to detail Porsches for the 2012 Porsche World Roadshow. That job involved detailing some 42 cars driven by Porsche enthusiasts around a two-mile track.

"I like all cars, but there's something about the classics," Pena said.

In addition to Porsches and Jet Planes, Pena has detailed motorboats, ambulances and recreational vehicles. Along with detailing the old Air Force One at the Museum of Flight, he also helped restore a B-29 bomber as well as 4 other planes.

"It's all about the process," Pena said. "Detailing is a series of steps, and the final step is getting the most brilliant shine we can. That's what we work toward.