How does a hack do it?

thedetailer · 11-01-09, 11:06

While polishing...how are swirls put into the paint? Not enough product? Not working the area long enough? Working it too long?

I never seem to have a problem. I just want to know what makes a hack...a hack

Superior__Shine · 11-01-09, 11:51

Say....... Your a detailer for a dealership. You get put on a car. It needs four hours of work and the manager gives you 1/2 an hour and he has supplied you with the cheapest and worn out products you have ever seen.

Give that a try.

The Enforcer · 11-01-09, 01:07

also....a lot of hacks like to use a real aggressive pad/polish combo......like diamond cut or 105 and wool.....and then cover its swirls and holograms up with a glaze or filler. it looks good at first....then a week later it looks terrible because the filler has left the surface.

thedetailer · 11-01-09, 01:11

Basically....a hack detailer is one that doesn't follow through the job to completion. Say...the car needs a two step and the detailer chooses the 105 and wool...but doesn't follow that up with...lets say...205 and a white LC?

Darkstar752 · 11-01-09, 01:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by thedetailer

Basically....a hack detailer is one that doesn't follow through the job to completion. Say...the car needs a two step and the detailer chooses the 105 and wool...but doesn't follow that up with...lets say...205 and a white LC?

Yea. Usually they just fill it in with a glaze and it looks great for 2 weeks, then, it's worse than it was before. Hack detailers generally have no idea what they are doing.

The Enforcer · 11-01-09, 02:12

i think hack detailers do know what they are doing to some extent.....they could make a car look flawless and correctly detail car if they WANTED to, but they chose to skip steps because they concentrate more on quantity than quality, and try to make a quick dollar.

Scottwax · 11-01-09, 02:36

Wool pad at 2000 rpms to apply a cheap cleaner wax. Washing the car prior to waxing is optional.

SoCalB6 · 11-01-09, 02:43

I was thinking something about this a few days ago too. When we polish a car we know what we are trying to accomplish. When a hack "polishes" something, I wonder what they are trying to accomplish. I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that everyone who sets out to do work on anything is expecting to get a better outcome than what they started with. So, why would someone take a fairly flawless car (new car, fresh from the factory) and hit it with 4 ply and 3M EC and consider it done? I could maybe see a rookie or whatever do one car, pull it into the sun and then go, ewwww, but why is this happening time after time though?!

A long, long time ago I used to get my car washed at a "detail" shop. I would always see someone with a buffer and wool hitting a car. At the time, I didn't give much thought to it other than, "maybe my car could use that." Looking back on it now, I just think... I wonder what that guy with he polisher was trying to do, or if he truly knew what he was doing by polishing.

Anyway, to the OP... Hacks don't like to finish down properly. I don't even think they know how to. Simple lack of education, imo. Using to aggressive of a combo will leave swirls, hazing, holo's, and trails.

The Enforcer · 11-01-09, 02:44

i actually had a meguairs DEALER tell me that all i need for a flawless finsih is diamond cut M85, followed by MEguairs machine glaze M3. that right there was beyond belief for me, that someone selling this stuff would recommend such a thing.

SoCalB6 · 11-01-09, 02:49

^ I think it was Porta that said that a detailer around his part of the world would use M85 only. On some paint it *might* be possible going all the way down to a red/blue or gold pad on some paints like Audi. I have never tried it but it sounds like a time killer later on for me.

Jakerooni · 11-01-09, 03:38

Hacks make it look good for the moment. Most are taught (by other hacks mind you) to wool it with compound. Wax it, and ship it. There was one dealership I worked for back in the early 90's that did try to make it a rule that black cars would get a once over from a foam pad after the compound to remove the swirls LOL...

But just go into a dealership set up. Dirty pads, towels on the floors, no idea what the products they use actually do, etc etc etc...

bufferbarry · 11-01-09, 04:35

I don't think we as detailers should bash a detailer at a dealership. While yes some are not trained properly, Mostly you have to factor a lot of things in here. One as a dealership you need to turn cars fast to make money. The faster the turnaround the faster the dealership makes money. Now this is where it falls into service and cleanup. We will focus on the clean up here. Ill bet some guys do care. The problem here is that, there not getting paid for perfection. There getting paid for a shiny clean car. Thats the bottom line. Now Onto the hack stuff. How are swirls put into paint? Well the old saying is you need to put scratches in a car to get them out. This applies by when you level a finish your gonna get marring. Once the paint is leveled it will have wool markings in the paint. this is how you get wool marks that are like swirls. Think of it like this picture a mountain side. YOu need to come in with a bull dozer to level it. Now once its leveled you need to set the foundation. The foundation would be to refine it. This would be to remove the scratches that incured from the wool pad. then at this point the ground should be looking flat and ready to be beautified. Now to make it nice you would polish the paint. Once polished you would wax or seal it. Take this picture below. here you would think that someone hacked this car. When in all actuallity this was compounded really hard with wool. This is what a heavy compounded car should look like.

Now in this picture look at this camera flash once the paint was refined all the wool marring is gone, Granted there is a few deeper fids that couldn;t be removed with out harming the clear coat. There are a few holograms from the foam in this picture. Now thats ok because its only been refined at this point and not polished.

Take notice in this picture ths camera flash. No holograms or wheel marks, The depth and clarity is restored.

This is working all the steps. Now people who hack stuff up don't work all the steps either by lack of exsperiance or pure lazyness. I hacked cars for years at places. NOt because I wanted to, but because its what I was paid to due. So you can call me hack if you want. lol same concept with wetsanding. Kinda weird how you sand paint to get out scratches? Again you have to put scratches in a car to remove them. Now you should understand how you get scratches from compounding. That is if you understand all my jibberish!