Had to turn a job down today - Page 2

Scottwax · 09-23-07, 04:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by themightytimmah

Scott - I would take a look at the new 1Z Intensive Polish - it claims to remove 1200 grit sand marks from Ceramiclear. It's definitely going to be my next purchase when I run out of UCCL. 1Z products are usually very dual-action friendly, too.

See if he can get carmax to cover the cost of you polishing it down - I doubt they'll find anyone in the area good enough to make it look decent with a rotary, and I guarantee they won't find someone who will make it look as good as you do.

I told him if he can't get any satisfaction from CarMax, I'd need a full day to polish out the car but can't guarantee full correction.

I'll look into the 1Z polish and also into getting a rotary and relearning how to use one. The thing is though, the black S55 I did a few weeks ago looked just as bad and the UDM got me about 95% correction on it. Either the defects on this car are a lot deeper or the paint is a lot harder.

I am sure I made the right decision to stop working on the car until he can get it to CarMax and see what they are willing to do to make him happy. Just such a shame they butchered an otherwise cherry, low mileage car.

Cleaning Fool · 09-23-07, 04:18

Nothing wrong with turning down jobs. Although not in car detailing, I've turned down jobs a time or two. As the poker saying goes, you gotta know when to hold'em and know when to fold'em

Reflectionz · 09-23-07, 04:21

What is carmax, a dealership? I doubt the dealer is going to do anything about it.. the most they will do is take in the car again and have their detailers go at it one more time.. but no way are they going to spend money outside to get it fixed. Once the car is sold, its sold unless something really bad goes wrong within a certain amount of days (tranny problem, engine blowing, etc). Even if it came with a warranty, that does not include paint condition because you saw the car before buying it although you may not of saw it in the full sun. There is nothing much he can do.. dealers have probably gone through this type of complaints many times.. and unless the manager is a understanding and nice guy, which i highly doubt, he will just BS his way out of it.

I will never buy a car that looks like its been repainted at the dealership. They do it the cheapest way possible and probably wont last long. They may be right tho about the car never been in an accident. Was there chips on the hood too? Because if they resprayed the bumper because it was all chipped up, then there gotta be chips on the hood too unless it has that clear guard on it. Or they might of sprayed it because it got scraped or hit lightly. The fender too.. they might of sprayed it because it got scratched bad, keyed, scraped, etc. But i know they wouldnt have the balls to sell something thats been hit and not claim it.. its risky of their part.

Im sure you will get way better results with a rotary. Dont be afraid of it as you can still always finish up with a porter or udm if you like. Is he really looking for perfection? Or does he just want his car to look right? A lot of people around here doesnt care much for getting a butt smooth, crystal clear finish. They just want the bad swirls reduced, scratches out, and such.

Best of luck to you and im sure he'll be happy with your results.

Scottwax · 09-23-07, 10:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reflectionz

Im sure you will get way better results with a rotary. Dont be afraid of it as you can still always finish up with a porter or udm if you like. Is he really looking for perfection? Or does he just want his car to look right? A lot of people around here doesnt care much for getting a butt smooth, crystal clear finish. They just want the bad swirls reduced, scratches out, and such.

Best of luck to you and im sure he'll be happy with your results.

He wants the car to look significantly better. I would say (and I am sure a lawyer could successfully agrue) that a person has a reasonable expectation that a luxury car with less than 10,000 miles is going to have paint in excellent condition. There is absolutely no excuse for a car to be hammered like that and if people would be jumping down dealership's throats on a very regular basis, they'd get their act in gear and train their people properly.

As bad as the car was, I just didn't want to proceed any further because the dealer has a responsibility to make the car right, whatever the cost. I didn't want to buff the whole car out and then have the dealer tell the guy "tough crap, you should have given us a chance to make it right first". The two panels I polished look significantly better but not to the level I'd feel comfortable charging someone for. He'd still see it at some angles in the sun and probably be pretty unhappy.

It has been so long since I have used a rotary (body shop class I took in high school in 1978-9) that I don't want to relearn on that car.

Picus · 09-24-07, 05:15

Weird about that sticker; every single Infiniti I've ever done has had it and they are all super soft. Maybe there was more repainting going on that just the bumpers; either way, a bummer for the owner.

ebpcivicsi · 09-24-07, 11:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Picus

Weird about that sticker; every single Infiniti I've ever done has had it and they are all super soft. Maybe there was more repainting going on that just the bumpers; either way, a bummer for the owner.

Smae with Nissans of the same year. I have a 2003 M45 with that sticker and the paint is *very* easy to correct--as is every other Nissan/Infiniti that I have detailed with that sticker.

Scott, I would bet that the paint is not factory, or the holograms were just that bad. I have seen hologrmas created by a dirty wool pad @2500 RPM's and the results are not pretty.

FWIW, Menzerna SIP via rotary and a polishing pad @1500-1700RPM's has been able to remove 90% of the holograms that I have come across.

Here's a pic of the sticker on a Q45 that I did a while back.

Scottwax · 09-24-07, 05:13

I was getting very little hazing from OHC/yellow combination and I know on the two black G35s I regular do, that combo would make them grey with haze.

I'll have some pics posted up some time tonight.

P1et · 09-24-07, 08:26

Blimey, I cannot image how anyone could do such damage. Well, I guess I do but I'm stil surprised.

I was on a bike ride on Sunday and drove by a local small car dealership. There was an ex-limo service Expedition outside and I have never in my life seen such an awful hack job. I took a picture with my phone, have a look:

Painful to look at...

Reflectionz · 09-24-07, 11:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scottwax

He wants the car to look significantly better. I would say (and I am sure a lawyer could successfully agrue) that a person has a reasonable expectation that a luxury car with less than 10,000 miles is going to have paint in excellent condition. There is absolutely no excuse for a car to be hammered like that and if people would be jumping down dealership's throats on a very regular basis, they'd get their act in gear and train their people properly.

As bad as the car was, I just didn't want to proceed any further because the dealer has a responsibility to make the car right, whatever the cost.

Im not on the dealers side as i think they are very shady people too but i work with them a lot (greedy, shady people). however, it is a used car. and didnt he see the car beforehand on how it looked like or did he buy it online without seeing it in person? The dealer could come up with some BS like.. oh, we gave you a good price because we knew it wasnt in the best condition. The main goal of most dealerships, if not all, is to get the most $$$ for their cars and whatever needs to be done.. do it the cheapest way possible.

Reflectionz · 09-24-07, 11:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by P1et

Blimey, I cannot image how anyone could do such damage. Well, I guess I do but I'm stil surprised.

I was on a bike ride on Sunday and drove by a local small car dealership. There was an ex-limo service Expedition outside and I have never in my life seen such an awful hack job. I took a picture with my phone, have a look:

Painful to look at...

offtopic, but what steps would you guys take to fix that via rotary.. what product? how long do you think it'll take just to make it look decent (hologram free but no completely swirl free)? just curious.

Scottwax · 09-24-07, 11:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reflectionz

Im not on the dealers side as i think they are very shady people too but i work with them a lot (greedy, shady people). however, it is a used car. and didnt he see the car beforehand on how it looked like or did he buy it online without seeing it in person? The dealer could come up with some BS like.. oh, we gave you a good price because we knew it wasnt in the best condition. The main goal of most dealerships, if not all, is to get the most $$$ for their cars and whatever needs to be done.. do it the cheapest way possible.

It was cloudy the day he looked at and bought the car. CarMax is a no haggle used car dealer, claim to have the cream of the crop when it comes to used.

CarMax: Used cars and new cars online

Here are the pics.

The clear on the driver's front fender looked to be quite thin and super swirled-this shot comes nowhere near to how bad it actually is.

This is after going all the way to Cyclo, Edge yellow cutting pads and Hyper Compound and several minutes of working time. The door looks a lot better, right?

Changed the angle and the area the sun is focused on and...ugh.

Looks even worse in person.

On that fender, pretty much all I did was darken it but the swirls really didn't budge at all. just forgot to take a shot of it.

MikeWinLDS · 09-24-07, 11:37

Man what kinda phone do you have that takes some an awesome pic? Never seen any phone that has that good a resolution. And the car looks terrible. I'm guessing that's what holograms and buffer trailing looks like when a rotary is used wrong?