looking get some better results for my customers and save time.

A

afreelife4me

New member
Looking for a little help.



I had white honda accord today and she was hurting.. Waved my hand on the side panels and I could not even get a reflection.



So I used Optimum no rinse.. Also used a clay bar and some spots I needed to use magna sponge to get some of the heavy industrial fall out dots off.



Also used magic eraser in some spots to take some scuff marks out.



So after prepping that thing for 2 hours and dumping the dirty water that was now white from the oxidation … I got ready to polish



Using the flex 3401 and hydro tech cyan pads.

Ceram-X Polish



Well I got that shine back but there was some scratches left behind that I could not tell if I put there or they were there from someone else a long time ago..



What led me to believe that they came from me was because of the direction of them… I thought maybe my clay bar had a rock in it but was clean.



I know magic erasers scuff up the paint a little but when I polish it usually takes them out.





Sometimes this combination of pads and polish works great.. Takes out the major swirls but there are some paint jobs that just wont budge no matter how slow or how many passes I do… I really would like to keep a one step process to save time.. Was just looking for suggestions.



Thanks in advance guys
 
If you really have to do a single-step job on a neglected, problematic white paintjob which is probably single stage paint (huh?), then I assume it's not owned by an enthusiast customer, and it's a low-budget job.



IMO, you shd be using a rotary+wool.



This crude single step will cut back the paint quickly, remove lots of "problems" and brighten up the old, white paint nice and fast. Of course it'll leave behind loads of swirls...but hey...it's a budget single-stepper....!
 
since i bought my flex i have not touched my makita.. for a couple of reasons.. 1 my customers love my results with the flex.. my customers are mainly mom and pop mini vans..etc.. not so many high end or car collectors. which im fine with.. my customer base appreciates my hard work more and spreads the word for me so i dont have to pay for advertising.



2nd reason is since i moved to texas i have noticed soooooo many bad touch paint jobs from body shops.. orange peel.. drips going down the side.. or even some spots not painted completely... and i have burned one paint job already .. was not my fault.. after investigating the car some more i found overspray all in the jam.. and the car was taken in for a bumper paint job.. so who knows what kind of hack job they did to the customer..





what about the flex with a wool pad? also im open for new polish suggestions.. mine works really well .. but being the perfectionist i am .. i get angry when i still see some scratches left behind.. even though my customers are low budget i am always trying to improve my skills and become a better detailer
 
I assume most of your customers' cars are neglected and in quite a rough shape. On such cars, your FLEX can only do so much, especially when u mentioned above that you're pissed when you see scratches left behind. FLEX can't correct everything. Hence, I suggest you take time to hone your rotary skills. Very generally, whether you're compounding or polishing, rotary gives a slightly but noticeably better gloss. And it cuts through your problems faster.



Not sure about wool+FLEX cos I'm a wool+rotary guy:hand:



If you insist on doing these beat-up cars armed with only a FLEX, and want quick,easy results on a low-budget single-stepper...why not try Meguiars purple foam cutting pad + a strong compound? I won't recommend Megs 105 since you're doing low-budget, single steppers. The classic Megs 85 Diamond Cut + purple foam pad on your FLEX at high speed could give you much better results than what you're getting now:bigups
 
gigondaz said:
If you insist on doing these beat-up cars armed with only a FLEX, and want quick,easy results on a low-budget single-stepper...why not try Meguiars purple foam cutting pad + a strong compound?
Click to expand...



The Meg's burgundy (purple) foam cutting pad works very well via Flex 3401, just be aware that it won't remove *ALL* the deeper scratches even with two or four (or whatever number of) tries. But generally, yeah...that pad works *great* via Flex. It doesn't get enough attention here at Autopia IMO.



I'd probably trade a little correction for a lot of user-friendliness and do the Meg's burgundy cutting pad with Optimum's spray compound. I'm pretty certain that would leave a much nicer finish than the M85 (which I'm *NOT* knocking!) at least via Flex; when I used Flex/Meg's 7006/Opt. Spray Compound on the Tahoe it left a surprisingly nice finish and the work was very easy. Topping that with some kind of cleaner-LSP with a tiny bit of "gloss it up" cut, if it's really necessary, oughta work OK.



Note that on really rough vehicles, aiming for 100% correction isn't always feasible anyhow, no matter what sort of "nothing but perfection for me, on every car!" talk is bandied about here at Autopia. Believe me, if I could get all the marring out of my beaters without precipitating clearcoat failure, I'd do it...but at the very least it'd mean never being able to correct them *ever* again (I'm basically there now on the Yukon). And that doesn't seem sensible for mom-and-pop minivan type customers who'll be bringing it back with new damage in a few months.



Oh, and Welcome to Autopia, Flyingsolo!
 
Did you sit down and discuss what you were going to do on the car? Not what YOU wanted to do.



I used to do this. I'd work for hours on the paint only to have the customer walk past the paint, open the door, and inspect the interior. I could have just done a simple wash and wax and focused my time on the interior and saved a ton of time.



Everyone one wants to save time on their detailing process but what about the qualifying process? I hate working for free and I'm sure you do too. Ask them what they want...shiny paint or defect free? Most just want shiny. Just ask and save time and make money.
 
Justin Murphy said:
Did you sit down and discuss what you were going to do on the car? Not what YOU wanted to do.
Click to expand...



Exactly. Find out what the customer's expectations are for both the results and the amount they are willing to pay. Don't promise the paint will be perfect when doing one polishing step, because unless the paint is already in really good shape, you will either not meet the expectations you laid out for the customer, or you will be working for free to achieve them.



Single stage white Honda paints tend to be on the hard side, so you can get pretty aggressive with them. Plus you generally have a lot more paint thickness to deal with.
 
I deal with this all the time here. White is a very popular color here in FL and most people don't take care of it. The sun eats it for lunch. To add to it, the cheap a$$ manufacturers (Honda and Toyota!!!!) think it was and still is a good idea to use single-stage paint on non-metallic white. I actually just did a vehicle yesterday just like this. Single-stage white. Never waxed in 6-7 years. No reflection. Flat white. Owner clearly does not care about perfection. They just wanted some gloss back at a low single-step price. I pulled out the D151 (body) and Meg's Color-x (for roof and hood). I found that using too aggressive of a pad on these low budget paint jobs leaves swirls and holograms everywhere, so I always skip straight to the black or white polishing pad on a rotary. When the owner returned to pick up the car yesterday, she thought it had been repainted. I was able to get 80% of the gloss back into the paint in a single-step at a low price.
 
sorry for the delay.. been busy entertaining mom for the holidays.



i do beat myself up sometimes on my results when i know the customer will freak out anyway.. but i just like to be consistent and what works on one car i would like to work on another.. i know there are so many products and steps some people take.. im working my hardest to find the right combination to make it a quick and easy process with outstanding results. .. i know i have a lot of testing and reading to do but im always up for a good challenge.



hope everyone has a great new year.
 
Just as a FYI .......



It's my experience that if a professional detail tech properly inspects a vehicle that the above mentioned defects of the paint (over spray, spots not painted completely) should have been notated before beginning ANY work on the vehicle. If the paint wasn't burned before you started polishing then you do share some of the responsibility as it wasn't "burned" before you started polishing.



I've seen this scenario played out before and the customer ultimately wins in the long run with regard to the blame being placed on the detail shop.



My .02
 
flyingsolo said:
since i bought my flex i have not touched my makita.. for a couple of reasons.. 1 my customers love my results with the flex.. my customers are mainly mom and pop mini vans..etc.. not so many high end or car collectors. which im fine with.. my customer base appreciates my hard work more and spreads the word for me so i dont have to pay for advertising.



2nd reason is since i moved to texas i have noticed soooooo many bad touch paint jobs from body shops.. orange peel.. drips going down the side.. or even some spots not painted completely... and i have burned one paint job already .. was not my fault.. after investigating the car some more i found overspray all in the jam.. and the car was taken in for a bumper paint job.. so who knows what kind of hack job they did to the customer..





what about the flex with a wool pad? also im open for new polish suggestions.. mine works really well .. but being the perfectionist i am .. i get angry when i still see some scratches left behind.. even though my customers are low budget i am always trying to improve my skills and become a better detailer
Click to expand...



Just as a FYI .......



It's my experience that if a professional detail tech properly inspects a vehicle that the above mentioned defects of the paint (over spray, spots not painted completely) should have been notated before beginning ANY work on the vehicle. If the paint wasn't burned before you started polishing then you do share some of the responsibility as it wasn't "burned" before you started polishing.



I've seen this scenario played out before and the customer ultimately wins in the long run with regard to the blame being placed on the detail shop.



My .02
 
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