Car Washing Horror Stories

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Originally posted by speedingpenguin

thats hillarious

my church (The confirmation class i was in) had a fundraiser carwash.....one of the people asked if i would do it since they knew i was big into the cars and stuff, and i said sorry but i couldnt......Anyway, a few minutes later they were asking people to bring old sponges and rags......

In a way i felt bad not helping out cause i dont wanna be a ***** or whatever, but at the same time i`d probably wanna kill myself after seeing what went on...haha

Same with the schools around here.....

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Whenever I am roped into a churc or charity car wash and my recovering-catholic guilt gets the best of me I will usually nicely explain that I am beyond anal about the finish of my car and make a donation for them NOT to wash it...only excpetiopn was once years ago when I let the Hooters girls loose on my hog :cool: and the wasked it myself (corectly) when I got home (who can say no to a soakign wet hooters girl?

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Originally posted by kevmo327

Whenever I am roped into a churc or charity car wash and my recovering-catholic guilt gets the best of me I will usually nicely explain that I am beyond anal about the finish of my car and make a donation for them NOT to wash it...only excpetiopn was once years ago when I let the Hooters girls loose on my hog :cool: and the wasked it myself (corectly) when I got home (who can say no to a soakign wet hooters girl?

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i won`t say no to a soaking wet hooters girl as long as she gets so wet and lubricated that she doesn`t scratch the paint. :cool:

LOL!

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Originally posted by The"X"

Anyone see the TV add for Eagle One Wax As You Dry? The one guy has a wool bonnet on the business end of a gas weed eater fixing to remove the wax on his car :eek:

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I saw it - it`s hilarious!

I manage a car wash, and i more than my share of horror stories. This one always sticks out in my mind though...



This guy had just bought a brand new black Lexus. Apparently, it had sat under a tree for a week while he was gone on business, and sap had gotten all over the hood and hardened. So he comes to me and wants to get the sap out. I examine the car, and give him a price of $60 to remove the sap, polish the hood, and re-wax it. He looks at me like i`ve lost my mind and said "no way, im` going to AutoZone and buy some stuff to do it myself". As i had seen numerous DIY jobs go wrong, i advised him to make sure he knew was he was doing.



A day later, he pulls in again. The hood is scratched beyond belief. He thought gasoline and a S.O.S. pad would do the trick. I wound up charging him $400 to re-do the hood.



$250 to wet sand, buff, polish and wax the hood.

$150 for him being a complete moron who should`ve listened to me in the first place.

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Originally posted by MongooseGA

My first post, but here it goes:



i saw a man wash (maybe more like spreading around) spilled gasoline offof his car at a gas sation with the window squeedgee. then he dried it off with oneof those really course recycled brown paper towels.

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Yeah...I think I`ve done that once or twice back in the day. I`m ashamed of my auto detailing past...and I thought I knew a little something about it back then!

- in the begining of this year my mom went to a local toyota dealer for a car, and backed then i didn`t know about autopia, we were there negotiating with the salesman and right out of the window i saw a man using a brush to wash the cars and he used one of those yellow mop buckets with the wheels to hold his water and he went around washing the cars in the front lot like this, and after we made the purchase we were stupid enough to let the dealer wash the car.



- one day my dad took a 80 mile trip to Tampa, Fl and when he came back a ton of bugs got killed on the front of his van from bumper to moonroof deflector and that afternoon i had to go somewhere and my dad decided to wash his car and i guess he thought scrubbing the bugs with a scotchbrite pad would easily take them out so when i came back he showed me what he did, and boy he must have scrubbed it good cause the hood looked like someone went over it with rough sandpaper, and just this last week i decided to wash his car for him and when i got to the top of the car i found out he used the scotchbrite pad on the moonroof deflector and the front of the ceiling before the deflector.

This is an expensive hobby for me right now, but i am always trying to get a job when I can. Thought I had a job in hand a while ago, but I turned out to be wrong. This is a basic idea of how the days went...



So I`m doing my car and a guy in the neighborhood strolls up to see what I`m doing.



Guy: car looks nice



Me: thanks, I`m trying



Guy: what did you do?



I proceed to show him all the stuff i had that I used at the time: FCRC, SSR2.5, FP, VM, and #16



Guy: how long it took to do all that?



Now, I think I see an oppurtunity to get a new client...



Me: took about 3-4 hrs, but on customer cars, I`m a bit more anal about making the car look good



Guy starts to shake his head in amazement



Guy: about how long on a customer car?



Me: depends on the severity of the work. It could range anywhere from just 20.00 to 180.00. Interested in getting something done?



I guess the "price quote" was too much cause he backed up in disbelief



Guy: Naw, I do my own stuff, thanks.



Guy walks away, but gives me another compliment on the work. Later on that week, I happened to see him working on his car. I figured I would return the favor of a visit and check out his work. As if to imply that I worked too hard, he smiles at me, and heads towards the trunk, and pulls out a can of Pledge, and some paper towels..



Guy: check this out...



He sprays the Pledge on a panel, lets it sit for a bit, and then washes it off with a sponge (the kind with the scuff pad on the backside). He then takes the paper towel and wipes off the water.



Guy: when you do it like this, it cleans off the car, and leaves behind a nice shine cause of the wax.



Me: really, I always though Pledge had no wax in it?



Guy: Trust me, it has wax in it, otherwise it would not give off the nice shine. Been doing this for years on all the cars I work on.



Me: You detail for a living?



Guy: it`s a sided gig, but my "peeps" always come back. Takes about an hour, I`m done, "peeps are happy, I get paid, and keep it movin` , know what I`m saying?



I just nodded my head and continued to watch him work. At some level, I REALLY wanted to stop him, but in all reality, I don`t think he would`ve paid me any mind.



Me: so how much you charge, if you don`t mind me asking



Guy: 50.00 wash n wax, and 50,00 for the inside.



He had this look on his face as if he realized he should not have told me what he charges, but i guess then he realized that I would never be able to match his work. I just nodded my head again, and told him I had to go.



Guy: next time you`re free, I`ll show you some other tricks.



Last time I saw him, he was doing a late model lexus, and he had the owner watching him work. Guy gave me a whats-up look, and kept on working. I REALLY wanted to put an end to it once and for all, but I couldn`t do it. iI knew if i did, he would accuse me trying to steal his customers.

Wow this is the best thread ever :)



My story- Ive been reciently detailing a few of the neighbors cars charging about 100-175 depending on the condition and size of the vehicle, which is fair for the time i invest in doing them. My nextdoor neighbor comes over interested in me doing their expedition so i explain what i do and what i use , (pc, rotary, etc) , and gave him a price of 175- wash, clay,polish,seal, interrior. Well i guess he wasent to thrilled with the price and decided to "invest" that money in some products and do it himself..About a week later i was going outside to do my daily QD and noticed my neighbor outside with a bunch of products layed out on his driveway, the claymagic kit some kind of dishwashing liquid and a kitchensponge and a box of SOS pads. I needed some entertainment so i decided to wash my car and observe my neighbor. Gives it a good rinse than breaks out the clay bar.. before washing! He clayed for about 25 mintues, big long strokes with almost no lube around the whole car. his next step was washing his chrome rims with a fresh sos pad, next was a nice washdown with the kitchensponge, He let it airdry since it was white.. i guess waterspots dont happen to white cars :p I thought he was done.. but he was breaking out the orbital with a brandnew wool bonnet and some turtlewax compound paste! I decided i would do my interior so i could continue with my observations. His next step in his detailing process was to get a big chunk of compound and spread it on the hood and buff it around with his wool bonnet on the orbital.. this process took about an hour or so. After he was done he gave it a wipe down and threw on a coat of what looked like some old simoniz wax. buffed off with same towel he used for his "compounding" and called it a day. What a sight to behold the paint was a very dull white with little, if no reflection, sitting on some nice scuffed up dull chromies :D On a lighter note my leather seats were the softest they have ever been, i think i must have condtioned them 4 or 5 times while trying to make myself look busy while observing my neighbors first detail. Sorry about such a long story, but it was the funniest thing ive seen in awhile. I would have offered to assist him but hes one of those "I know everything " neighbors. :nixweiss

thanks to all for making my day...I needed a good laugh.



It sure does seem like common sense is sorely lacking these days.

Now you can quote $300+ to fix the damage :D

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Originally posted by Acuracl98

Wow this is the best thread ever :)



My story- Ive been reciently detailing a few of the neighbors cars charging about 100-175 depending on the condition and size of the vehicle, which is fair for the time i invest in doing them. My nextdoor neighbor comes over interested in me doing their expedition so i explain what i do and what i use , (pc, rotary, etc) , and gave him a price of 175- wash, clay,polish,seal, interrior. Well i guess he wasent to thrilled with the price and decided to "invest" that money in some products and do it himself..About a week later i was going outside to do my daily QD and noticed my neighbor outside with a bunch of products layed out on his driveway, the claymagic kit some kind of dishwashing liquid and a kitchensponge and a box of SOS pads. I needed some entertainment so i decided to wash my car and observe my neighbor. Gives it a good rinse than breaks out the clay bar.. before washing! He clayed for about 25 mintues, big long strokes with almost

no lube around the whole car. his next step was washing his chrome rims with a fresh sos pad, next was a nice washdown with the kitchensponge, He let it airdry since it was white.. i guess waterspots dont happen to white cars :p I thought he was done.. but he was breaking out the orbital with a brandnew wool bonnet and some turtlewax compound paste! I decided i would do my interior so i could continue with my observations. His next step in his detailing process was to get a big chunk of compound and spread it on the hood and buff it around with his wool bonnet on the orbital.. this process took about an hour or so. After he was done he gave it a wipe down and threw on a coat of what looked like some old simoniz wax. buffed off with same towel he used for his "compounding" and called it a day. What a sight to behold the paint was a very dull white with little, if no reflection, sitting on some nice scuffed up dull chromies :D On a lighter note my leather seats were the softest they have ever been, i think i must have condtioned them 4 or 5 times while trying to make myself look busy while observing my neighbors first detail. Sorry about such a long story, but it was the funniest thing ive seen in awhile. I would have offered to assist him but hes one of those "I know everything " neighbors. :nixweiss

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Originally posted by Acuracl98

Wow this is the best thread ever :) .... I would have offered to assist him but hes one of those "I know everything " neighbors. :nixweiss

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Dude, it`s time you told him to step up to the big leagues



http://collections.ic.gc.ca/heirloom...ages/356-b.jpg



The Lemon Pledge is Da shizzle ma nizzle:xyxthumbs

this thread has got me laughing so hard.. oh my god

My sister has some nasty car-washing habits. She has a black `97 Olds Regency with about 99.9% swirl coverage. She washes it ocasionally and sometimes I give her a hand and try to show her the ways of Autopia, but my efforts are in vain. She just keeps saying that she doesn`t care about her car as much as I do and it`s too much work. I just don`t get it. If she`d let me polish it out and protect it, keeping it in relatively good shape would be simple. All she would have to do is adopt the 2-bucket method, buy a few detail-quality products (wash mitt, car-wash soap) and spend about a few hours a month. I`ve polished a few areas with the PC and made a very notable difference. One of these days I`m gonna do the whole car and maybe after she see`s how good it can look she`ll change her ways. I`ve seen her do the wipe down with the window squeegee, dry the car after rain with the same squeege, wipe 3 weeks worth of dust off the paint with a dry rag, etc. It kills me to have to share the same driveway, LOL.

Hah! my sister will be driving soon and im already looking for a product kit to order for her present! Honestly your right once your car has been polished and properly preped maintance is a breeze! I wish more people would see it that way, but than again that would put the majority of this board out of business :D