Car Washing Horror Stories

I just gave an estimate on a 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse who's owner decided to wash the car using a sponge with the green scouring pad backing. Guess what side she used on parts of the car.... :nervous2: :lol
 
Hilarious Thread
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My neighbor used a green scrubbing pad to remove the bugs on the front of his hood on his new Ford P/U (dark green truck) It wasn't until the water was dried off that he could see the damage. I hit it a few licks with the buffer, but I suggested he take it to a professonal shop as it had little clear coat left. :(
 
This is years ago but still rather funny. Well at least now it is.Was working at a detail shop and the shop owners brother who just got out of the police academy stopped down to show us the blue police lights he had installed under the body of his Buick Grand National. This guy was gung-ho being a cop and also would never let his brother detail his car. He always washed and waxed it himself and kept it in great condition. Well this particular day the brother talks him into letting us detail it real nice for him. He finally relents and goes home for a few hours while his car is being done. The first time he has let anyone touch his Grand National.

Well long story short after detailing it we left it our in front of the shop and someone left the keys in it. 20 minutes later we see it being driven away out the window. I'll never forget the look on the brothers faced when he was told his car was just stolen outside the shop. The good news is it was found 6 hours later. I guess the crooks flipped the switch on the dashboard setting off the police lights underneath and thought they stole an undercover police car. They just left it as it was. Not even stripped.
 
Years ago (1984) is was washing and waxing cars to make extra $$$ while in highschool. My supplies consisted of Zip Wax Car Wash, Polishing compound, Turtle wax, Armorall, WIndex, 3M Fill in Glaze and bug and tar remover. I cleaning a ladies BMW and the wheels were black with brake dust. Most miserable set of wheels I ever worked on. I am positive, I still have some of that brake dust in my fingernail today!



Anyway, I cleaned that car to the MAX. I had to use compound on most of paint to remove oxidation, waxed it and dressed the tires. I was really proud of my work and when I returned the car the woman freaked out. I mean lost her mind. I did not know what to say??? She lost it. Started screaming. She told me that I had switched her wheels! She thought they were black not silver!



She told me to come home when her husband returned from Golfing. The husband who knew me as I washed his car regularly knew the deal.



Paid me and added a nice tip.
 
I was at a local "detail shop" a couple weeks ago and the kid had his wash mitt laying on the ground.I told him he shouldnt leave his mitt on the ground.He tells me not to worry he leaves it on the ground all the time and has never had a problem.YEA OK!!!!!!!!
 
Just this morning, as my wife was cleaning the kitchen she paused to tell me that her friend told her of a "little tip" or "a new cleaning trick" or something like that.



I don't remember exactly how she phrased it...it was a traumatic moment...



"For scrubbing the stove or pots or whatever..SALT!!" :wow:



Nice!! What does she suggest for, uh... corrosion? :think2
 
The dealer that I used to do work for has people wipe his vehicles with blue shop towels and meg's qd. His vehicles are a new $50K boss hoss motorcycle with sweet paint and a new $40K chevy truck.
 
With my first car, I applied wax but never removed it. Had a beautiful white haze all over it that I never could figure out where it came from.
 
backwoods_lex said:
The dealer that I used to do work for has people wipe his vehicles with blue shop towels and meg's qd. His vehicles are a new $50K boss hoss motorcycle with sweet paint and a new $40K chevy truck.
Click to expand...



What's the difference between a new $40k chevy truck and a $10k used chevy truck?



A year! :laugh:
 
im sure we have all seen this atleast once while driving down the road.. washing a car from bottom to top... startign with the wheels...
 
1- i saw a guy using 87octane gasoline for wax his red car.. the guy says "the gas have chemical that cleans my paint and produces an awesome finish"

2- saw many MANY MANYY people using Full Strenght degreasers/all purpose cleaners to pre-soak the cars (windows, paint, tires, wheels) after the first preasure washer rinse.

3- the classic old t-shirts for remove wax

4- dawn soap

5- scrub sponges

6- brushes on the paint..

7- POLISHING BY HAND USING AN OLD PIECE OF T-SHIRT and a Formula1 Wax or Gold Class as their polish jaja

8- Using Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound on the paint..

etc etc etc
 
I got a call from a guy last summer (my lovely assistant, my wife, answered the phone) and he had about 1,000,000 questions about this and that, etc. I could hear on my wife's voice and see from the expression on her face that this was going to be an interesting one... She booked an appointment for the following weekend and upon arrival I was greeted with this:



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Eeek! I immediately thought, "*** did he wash his car with? A...." While I was polishing it the customer just carried on about, "... there must have been something in the sponge I used..." and again I just bit my tongue and didn't say anything about not using a sponge in the first place, as I was going to give him a short course in washing his car when I was finished anyway. After listening to him rant about the sponge for so long I finally broke down and asked him, "What kind of sponge did you use?" He rummaged through some items on the ground... no comment... and then slapped my in the face with this:





Brace yourselves...







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Place comments here_________________. I think you can all assume what was going through my detailer's mind when I took a gander at this. I managed to get a mediocre finish out of this disaster and told him that is all that I'll do because if I polish it anymore I won't accept responsibility for it. I didn't have a PTG so I wasn't sure exactly how much clear was left, but from experience I know that it wasn't much at all...
 
I was visiting my dad the one day, and saw an elderly neighbor of his spraying Windex on her whole vehicle and wiping it down with papertowels. I went over to her and asked what she was doing, and she said she was cleaning the car, and then pulled out a can of lemon scented pledge and told me that she was then going to polish her car....I just left.
 
Nothing big to contribute, my best friend consistently washed his car with dawn, he didn't do it too often (once a month) but always with a few ounces of dawn and some old rag to dry it, the paint was really dull after a year of his treatment.



My neighbor saw me using my foam cannon washing my car and decided she'll wash her cars (sl500, retro ford thunderbird, and her husbands lincoln truck) with a hose and some paper towels... just let it air dry too... nice lady though



My parents still try to scrape the ice off their cars with the window scrapers even after I yell at them!
 
Attempting to carefully wash my old Jeep. It gets interesting when the mud shoots out of the bumpers and back on to yourself.



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When I was 10 years old, my dad never cared if his cars were clean or not . All his cars were old junks so I guess that was the reason. Well at 10 years old I was a clean nut. Every saturday I would wax my bike with Simonize. One day I decided to clean my dads car when he was away. We lived on a main street so I was told not to go into the street . I got a bucket of water , some towels and my Simonize. To make this story short I washed and waxed 1/2 of my dads car. Only the curb side was done including 1/2 of the windshield. From were I stood the car looked great . I guess when my dad got to work his car was the talk, like a before and after. He thank me for my efford , and said that next time I felt like cleaning his car he would pull it in the alley so I could do the whole car . Next time I got the urge he did put in in the alley. It took me all day to do his car with Simonize. It was a maroon 1946 Dodge.
 
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