Difficult Car Today , need thoughts

detailbarn

detailbarn

Professional Detailer
Hey all I did a car today that was in very poor condition and ran into some difficult spots need your opinions about it. It was a Burgandy 97 Dodge Intrepid , never detailed , car wash only , never garaged ect. The car was full of acid etching , got rid of that very easily , but it was also full of millions of scratches some the you could feel with your nail but most you could not. I compounded , it with 3M Super Duty , Heavy Cut all the way up to SMR alot of them came out but no where near all of them. Under my flourescents it looked pretty bad so I did it all again four more times , not much improvment , so I called it a loss , waxed it up and took it outside. The immposible scratches , couldn't be seen in the sun light. What gives , I have never had this happen before. I don't get why I couldn't remove the scratches for one , but what really is getting to me is that I couldn't see them in sun light.:confused: Sorry for the long post , but this one is eating at me. I tried to not charge the owner but since they couldn't see the scratches they insisted , which means it wasn't a total loss , but now I have to figure out what went wrong it anything. Thanks all.Sorry For The Long Post
 
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Sounds to me like you did some miracle work - no one in their right mind could expect to remove all scratches, especially ones that were able to be felt with your fingernail. The amount of clear you'd have to remove to accomplish that wouldn't justify the effort.



I assume you used a PC or rotary?



Man, if you weren't going to charge for that, how would you ever make any $$?
 
You just need to understand that there are some scratches that are too deep to remove, even with wetsanding. If the car was as poorly maintained as you indicated, no wonder it was all scratched up.
 
geekysteve PC was used with CMA pads.



Man, if you weren't going to charge for that, how would you ever make any $$?
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What can I say I'm an anal retentive perfectionist.:D



Actually I don't usally get cars in that bad of shape , most of the cars I do are high end , Bimmers & Benz and my personal favorite a small collection of Ferrari's , Lamborghini's and Porsche's.:xyxthumbs



These cars are taken care of unlike the dodge today.:(



Thanks for your imput steve.
 
Scottwax thanks for the kind words :D I pretty much thought that was the case but it was just eating at me , I hate it when the scratches win.:) The owner was impressed so in the end thats what matters.
 
Do you know if the vehicle was re-painted? Sounds like the scratches were under the clear coat.

I did a Mercedes a few months ago that had scratches all over the hood that I could see but not feel. I used a rotary and some light compound and still could not remove them. I checked with the customer and the hood had been re-painted. The scratches were in the base coat. Poor prep work by the body shop.
 
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