Car Washing Horror Stories

[StealthMode]

Back when I used to work at a used car dealership (I worked on auction cars mostly, ie. barely running piles of crap.. and washed the lot cars) One day me an my co-worker decide to wash our own cars, I do mine my way, and he sprays his down, and grabs a towel and "scrubs" it dry, no soap needed apparently.... So I asked him why he didn`t use soap, and he says to me, "soap just takes the wax off, I haven`t waxed in 6 months, still looks good!" .....



I told him a good automotive soap would be fine, and would be far better than no soap and a beat up towel, but hey, he does all the detailing around there, (obvious enough by the condition of the lot cars) so he must be right....



Anyway, halfway through my own careful drying process, he decides to help me finish.....with his dirt soaked towel he just wiped his blazer down with...and before I could stop him, my roof is full of scratches...... I`ve since given up on trying to get my finish decent until I can afford a PC....

[adept]

My old neighbor owned a really nice 2004 Black BMW X3. I used to watch him wash his car when I was outside doing mine. He would wash it with his dish cleaning rags and once bucket for the whole car, and let it air dry. Not only that, but for the tough spots, he would use his kitchen sponge on the rough side. It gets better, he would keep the bucket on top of the hood, I guess thats a really good spot for the bucket.

[dumbblonde]

has anybody else used Meguiars NXT Insane Shine Tire Coating on a black paint job besides me? LOL i use it on my scratched CD`s as well, WORKS GREAT!! Hope theres no long term damage this can do. any input?

[Bigpoppa3346]

has anybody else used Meguiars NXT Insane Shine Tire Coating on a black paint job besides me? LOL i use it on my scratched CD`s as well, WORKS GREAT!! Hope theres no long term damage this can do. any input?

Maybe you shouldn`t even be on this site.





Where I live, I am in the 4% of people that actually wash their own cars. All the rest get some swirl-o-matic lovin`.

[fusion orange]

One of the funniest things I ever saw was a person at the gas station with their new caddy washing it with....get this...with the squigee to clean the windows!! I mean going over the whole paint, wheels, windows, etc.



There must have been a few dirty spots cause she was really bearing down hard with that thing!!

believe it or not,I`ve seen this happen more than once



I wouldn`t even use those damn things on my windows



:nixweiss

[whitejavaS500]

has anybody else used Meguiars NXT Insane Shine Tire Coating on a black paint job besides me? LOL i use it on my scratched CD`s as well, WORKS GREAT!! Hope theres no long term damage this can do. any input?

Is that a joke? I hope so.

[velobard]

Is that a joke? I hope so.

I doubt it. On another car forum I just saw someone else recommend using AA tire foam on the paint.



The OP wanted a nice quick shine for some pictures and I`d already recommended AW, so I`m not even gonna get into it any more.

[imported_gusbubba]

has anybody else used Meguiars NXT Insane Shine Tire Coating on a black paint job besides me? LOL i use it on my scratched CD`s as well, WORKS GREAT!! Hope theres no long term damage this can do. any input?

...appropriate username....:nervous:

[dumbblonde]

well thanks for your input guys...i see how i should go about things now...change my screenname to something masculine and pretend like i know it all so u can be assholes and correct me. cuz thats the only way you`ll give a straight answer on here.



judging by your responses...im already ahead of your game...so really...what can i learn from you?





i suppose i ought to post a pic of my first paint job and how it turned out. since i did choose black pearl urethane acrylic ( metallic blue pearl in the black) and then a purple pearl i added to the clearcoat...if you know ATLEAST as much as me, then you`ll know i picked one of the hardest paintjobs to do as my first.... im sure i have no credability due to the name i selected and my gender....so your secrets will remain your secrets and mine will remain mine.



p.s. about the tire products u mentioned....LMFAO!!!!!! guess youve never used the product before...LOL...and you call yourselves detailers. i call u rude commenters with little or no experience to back your opinions that i would be embarrassed to share on a forum like this...

repeat this outloud and slow...I AM SOFA KING WE TODD DID...and then you`ll realise why i decided this isnt the forum i want to be a part of...because if you actually used the product...or had a clue as to what you were commenting on...youre answer might have been somewhat different. i`ve done a lot of experimenting and WAS willing to share my findings...but i dont mind having the same results in 2 steps as you acheive with your 4+....good luck boys

[dumbblonde]

not one comment reflected that u had actually experimented with different products, they were all personal attacks...you must feel pretty big and powerful to pick on girls online? lolol



i was hoping this would be a place where adults could discuss detailing with other adults as im interested learning all there is to know and then some...

[aaron33]

Wow the flaming. One question, did NXT tyre shine make the paint feel tacky and sticky?

[dumbblonde]

ok, rather than listening to a bunch of people calling me an idiot and asking me questions like "was it sticky or tacky" i`ll tell ya the whole long boring story. i bought a cheap car so i could put my baby (rx7) in the shop. well it had some paint flaws from previous owner i tried correcting and the next thing ya know im painting my car myself for the first time



i paid $800 for a 90 ford probe and couldnt see spending $5k for the paintjob i wanted, and maaco...well...theyre maaco =/

since i had to sand down to primer in spots where the car was touched up with a paintbrush, i was in a dilemna.

i hate driving a dirty car, let alone one with primer spots!

i figured i can do a decent paint job with a rattle can so i figured why not try to do the paintjob myself.

make a long story somewhat shorter...lol...i spent the next month sanding and priming it and by the time i was done painting it, i was seriously burnt out. well basically i was burnt out on all the "expert advise" i recieved from people that knew less than me but thought i needed advice since im just a woman.

well it was definately a learning experience!! lol and to be honest my paint job at best was rough. wasnt smooth to the touch and was only shiny when wet. and had rented a garage to paint in with no electricity yada yada...lighting sucked...wasnt warm enuf when the sun went down and that was time i had alotted for painting.

i am happy that i used some 1000 watt halogens to paint with because u can see every little flaw as ur painting.

i put on a bunch of thin coats of base black pearl (black with with metallic blue shimmer) and even more clear (1st and 2nd to last coat i mixed in some purple pearl hoping to achieve a deeper look) so i knew it was basically a diamond in the rough since i spent more time researching than the month it took me to complete the project.

i picked probably the hardest paint job to do as my first.

but i had to have black and because im far from an expert at sanding and bodywork, figured the the pearls would help hide any imperfections in the body.

although now that its finished, i cant believe how good a job i did especially since i was lazy and did what everyone told me NOT TO DO!!!

I used a cheap ole black n decker electric wood sander dry with 1500 grit sandpaper LOL

needless to say, i ended up with a PC DA polisher because of all the detailed info there was on it.

detailed in every way but one crucial factor.

that it doesnt it doesnt cut like i needed it to do.

so i enlisted a friend that was gungho about polishing my car, had same enthusiasm i had at the beginning of the project and had a few heavy duty rotary polishers to do what my polisher couldnt..

but do to conflicting schedules and entering the rainy season...(i live in lovely washington state) he ended up spending 2 hrs daylight and 4 hrs dark polishing my car when it wasnt ready.

one side i got as far as a quick, dirt draggin wet sand job with 1500 grit that hadnt been soaked properly while the other side had been done meticulously with 2000 grit.

which was the side he happened to look at and start with.

by the time he worked his way around to the other side, it was dark and the deeper scratches went unnoticed.

one side looked beautiful and the other was my worst nightmare...so what do i do?

buy the flashiest, wheels i could find to draw the attention away from the paint ...lolol...to buy me some time because at this point i didnt want to look at the car much less spend time sanding it all back down and starting over...

the wheels and tires cost me 3 times as much as i paid for the car and are worth every penny and people see me coming!!

i ordered em off the net so im the only person in this state that i know of with those wheels (my pic here) anyways..i sprayed the tires with my meguiars and had a wild hair and decided to try it on my paint. it filled in the deep scratches...made the black look deeper and wetter, made the blue and purple pearls stand out like never before, and didnt leave any "grease slicks" i ended up doing the whole car and i was driving around everywhere showing it off, until i ended up at autopaint (where i got supplies and the most helpful advice) i promised Jeff id bring it by and show him when i was finished and unfortunately it was dark when i arrived there cuz he brought out his lovely lil light that showed every little imperfection i had covered up with the meguiars LOL...finished the paintjob 10/30/06 and to this day i STILL havent finished polishing my car completely....i sanded it back down, bought my own rotary buffer and buffed it with that once and my PC DA once, and im just waiting for my sonus sfx pads and a couple of nice days so i can finish the job and stop...so there it is...hopefully you`ll give me a little credit now as i`ve been thru the initiation!!

[jfelbab]

Also an oldie... I watched my uncle clean oil/tar spots from his new 56 Ford Crown Vic with a Brillo pad. It took the tar right off. When he was done the car looked like a light blue primer finish. Perfectly flat with no shine. Luckily, back then the paint was SS and thicker than it is today. He got it buffed back to a gloss.

[Zet]

:up for doing the painting yourself, it sure isn`t easy. But as you have also found out, what really makes a paint job look good is the sanding and polishing done afterwards. What might have worked better than the tire shine for what you wanted to achieve, is what`s called a "glaze", these are meant to increase the depth, bring out the color, and give a "wet" look to the paint. But like everything put on top of the paint a glaze won`t fix problems, only make it look better. So the correct way is to sand away the imperfections and then polish to bring back the shine, just like you are doing.

[fusion orange]

:LOLOL



you go girl!





I`ve actually Armorall`d the hell out of a flat black pickup(top to bottom) before running it through a auto auction once a looooong time ago





made an awesome 100 footer out of it