Had to turn a job down today - Page 3

SpoiledMan · 09-24-07, 11:39

Man, those pictures of the Expedition had to be some kind of attempt at abstract art.........right??

Totoland Mach · 09-25-07, 05:07

Scott: I run into this situation from time to time. The BMW dealer had a customer come in to trade his 745 on a newer and the dealer asked if he knew the passenger door had been repainted. The customer did not know and CarFAx came clean too.

I ended up getting the car to do and started with wet sanding, then the DeWalt rotary and 3M Extra Cut on a cutting pad, then polish with 3M Dark Glaze. It was a time consuming process to finish the car because I had to bring the door to the same condition as the rest of the car.

I think I had about 22 hours in the car.

I've also learned to use a paint guage to my advantage if I have doubts.

Toto

Scottwax · 09-25-07, 09:31

Toto-the paint thickness is one of my big concerns with that car because some areas looked pretty toasted.

I'll put 22 hours into the car if that will get it right and still leave adequate clear coat thickness. I think it is best he sees what CarMax will do to resolve the issue first, because they should be on the hook for whatever it takes to fix the car since their guys messed it up. CarMax claims satisfaction guaranteed, we'll see.

P1et · 09-26-07, 10:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeWinLDS

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?

Thanks for the compliment, but I think the quality of the camera is awful on my iPhone...

AP2TUDE · 09-27-07, 12:42

That is a real shame.

Honestly the thing that I admire most is that you knew what your limits were, and you stuck to them. Rather than try and push your boundaries, you simply told him that you were limited and left it at that.

Based on the job done on that car before it came to you, others don't have the same conviction.

ShineShop · 09-27-07, 12:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scottwax

I had a referral from a couple of my regulars to do an exterior detail on a black M35 (they are all friends, or coworkers) this afternoon. The guy had just bought the car from CarMax and said he wasn't happy with the detail job they did. When I got to his house, I could see why. Severe rotary holograms and spiderswirls. In the full sun, most of the car actually looked grey instead of black (I took some pics but the roll of film is still half full so it may be a couple days before I can post them). In addition, they told him they had the bumpers repainted due to stone chips and scrapes but it was very obvious the passenger side front fender was also repainted (orange peel difference was very noticable). A few overspray issues too. He said a Carfax report came back clean on the car.

Anyway, UDM, Meguiars polishing pad and Optimum Polish added a lot of gloss but very little improvement in the swirls. White swirlbuster (cutting) pad and Optimum Compound was a little better but still maybe 30% correction. I switched to my Cyclo, yellow Edge cutting pads and Optimum Hyper Compound and was getting about 75% hologram correction on the driver's door but maybe 50% improvement in the halo swirls (absolutely the worst I have ever seen) on the driver's side front fender.

At that point, I called the customer out to look at the car. At some angles, the paint looked really good but at other angles, the halo swirls were still really noticable and some faint hologramming remained. I told him I didn't feel I was going to get enough correction for what I'd need to charge for the amount of buffing I was going to have to do. I said the paint has issues too serious for me to correct. I also told him he needs to take several pictures of the car in the full sun, both sides and all the horizontal surfaces before he takes it back to CarMax to complain. He wanted to know about maybe just doing a quick polish and wax but I said if I do the whole car and problems remain, CarMax will try to put it off on me and he is out any kind of solution they owe him. I took pictures before I started and of the panels I polished out so he can prove those areas I polished looked much worse before I touched it.

The car in question is a 2006 Infiniti M35 with less than 10,000 miles on it and the dreaded underhood sticker warning "hard clear coat". I think much of the car is going to have to be wetsanded (assuming enough clear is left after the dealer hacked up the car) to remove the defects. Considering I was able to get 90%+ correction on a black Audi with similarly rock hard paint with my Cyclo and I can't get anywhere close with this Infiniti tells me the defects are really deep on this car. I haven't used a rotary in years and wouldn't want this car to be a test bed...plus I don't think a rotary will be able to achieve full correction either.

He is going to call CarMax tomorrow to let them know he wants to come in and talk to the head manager about the swirls on Monday. He really doesn't want to let their detailers have another crack at the car though and if the car needs to be repainted, he is concerned about diminished value when he eventually sells the car. I told him I'd put him in touch with the lawyer my brother used to sue the bodyshop that trashed his new truck when he took it in for hail damage repair.

Real shame about how bad this car is. The interior looks perfect and the mileage is very low. Goes to show you should never buy a black car without seeing it in the full sun.

Anyone else run into this? Also, anyone have a good pad/product combo for the new Infiniti clear coats?

I just went through the same thing with a dealership that sent me a black 2007 Cadillac XLR-V that was absolutely destroyed thanks to some kid idiot with a buffer. I'm not sure if it was their detail shop that did it or not but the paint was actually burned right through in 3-5 spots and SEVERE swirls and incomplete polishing over the entire car. After an entire day of messing with it we got it good enough for them to deliver but if it was my car I would have been having it repainted. I honestly can't imagine why someone would have compunded out a brand new car worth over $100000.00 if they didn't know what they were doing.

Scottwax · 09-27-07, 09:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShineShop

I just went through the same thing with a dealership that sent me a black 2007 Cadillac XLR-V that was absolutely destroyed thanks to some kid idiot with a buffer. I'm not sure if it was their detail shop that did it or not but the paint was actually burned right through in 3-5 spots and SEVERE swirls and incomplete polishing over the entire car. After an entire day of messing with it we got it good enough for them to deliver but if it was my car I would have been having it repainted. I honestly can't imagine why someone would have compunded out a brand new car worth over $100000.00 if they didn't know what they were doing.

I hear ya! My regulars who buy BMWs tell Moritz BMW to not even wash their cars when they come in off the truck. I actually have a folder called "moritz sucks" full of pictures on my computer.

ShineShop · 09-28-07, 06:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scottwax

I hear ya! My regulars who buy BMWs tell Moritz BMW to not even wash their cars when they come in off the truck. I actually have a folder called "moritz sucks" full of pictures on my computer.

As much as it pisses me off having to fix that crap, I understand why it happens. The dealers don't pay jack squat and I can caertainly understand why they aren't getting a top notch job for the money that they are willing to pay. That Caddy was for a friend of mine's dealership and I charged him double what we normally charge them for a car due to the condition of the paint and how much work it was going to take to fix it. He still tried to haggle me on the price despite knowing how much more work it was going to take. These guys live in fantasy land when it comes to this because they have beat their detailers into the ground for price and have become accustomed to paying next to nothing. You really can't blame a guy doing their work for doing a cut rate job when that is all they are willing to pay them.

JuneBug · 10-03-07, 11:16

My wife just traded her Toyota van for a Honda one - you should have seen the look on the dealer's face when we told them that if they touched the paint, the deal was off. We saw several examples of their detailing on the lot, no thanks! We found one that had everything she wanted and only two tiny scratches that I can polish out.

Way2SSlow · 10-03-07, 01:48

I think the thread got kinda OT, but here's my .02:

Scott,

IMO you handled that situation the right way. I would appreciate that kind of honesty as your customer.

ron231 · 10-03-07, 06:05

From what I see in those pics, I could fix that easily with my makita and E2K wool. E2K wool is just so great for cutting, and almost zero risk of burning the paint whereas a rotary with a foam pad can easily burn paint if you don't know what you are doing.

Scott, you should go rotary, I have and I will never go back to PC now that I can cut, and properly finish hologram free (no fillers mind you) with a rotary.

A rotary with a good selection of edge wool and foam pads is unbeatable IMO.

Scottwax · 10-03-07, 09:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by ron231

From what I see in those pics, I could fix that easily with my makita and E2K wool. E2K wool is just so great for cutting, and almost zero risk of burning the paint whereas a rotary with a foam pad can easily burn paint if you don't know what you are doing.

Scott, you should go rotary, I have and I will never go back to PC now that I can cut, and properly finish hologram free (no fillers mind you) with a rotary.

A rotary with a good selection of edge wool and foam pads is unbeatable IMO.

The paint is much worse in person, especially on that front fender. I don't doubt a rotary could have done better but several sections of the paint looked burnt so I'm not sure enough of the finish would have come out good enough to avoid repainting at least some areas.

I detailed a G35 for the guy who referred the M35 owner to me and he says that guy (at least as of late last week) still hadn't contacted CarMax.