Miracle turnarounds in no time

Ive been saying it for awhile, pictures dont show crap, especially the way people take them. There are also tons of "detailers" out there who take short cuts and say it only took them 2 hours to correct the paint. Guess what, those same people arent polishing bumpers, side skirts, and they are finishing with Power Gloss then go straight to LSP.
 
Grouse said:
often i think people get a little bit over confident and start to under work products. When you under work product, Nearly any product, it will do an excellent job at hiding a fairly large portion of the marring. This is a common theme i find with even products that contain no fillers. This gives people who are inexperienced with a product (500-1000 cars or more) a false sense of accomplishment.



My 2 cents in a world of 20 dollar bills.
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What do you mean exactly when you say under work? Are you referring to actual times used, or more along the lines of not working the product onto the car until it breaks down and you wipe it off?



I for one being new and researching what i should be getting to start detailing with, don't expect my results to match results here. Specially not in a quick time. I think i spent 2 or 3 hours washing and claying my car last summer, and then I still saw spots I missed the next day. When i get my DA buffer and other proper brushes I can see this easily being a 2 or 3 day spring detail.
 
^^^^ take HTEC and make two overlaying passes with a PC/orange pad and then wipe it off...Looks like the defects are removed, yet you still havent even started to break down the polish enough, especially with a PC, as its going to take a long time to break it down completely...



i think that Ryan is also saying how someone can go from PG to FPII and have it corrected 100%....it cant, yet people post up C&B's stating that was their process...



which is part of the reason why I posted the click and brags that I just did...after 6+ hours of work and 3 stepped on the paint alone, it was only about 85% cleared...no way someone can get it 95%+ with a two step and only 3 hours of work time...I know those cars are not perfected, and I stated that...I didnt take far away shots to minimize the amount of defects still left in the paint, or try to hide anything...I am being 100% honest...if someone truly wants 99%, then time is money...



having someone tell you your half assed work looks amazing isnt as gratifying as hearing your hard work at achieving 90% looks amazing...
 
i think this is one of the most valuable threads.



when i started polishing. i didnt realize how much work it is. the CandBs make it seem that you can get alot done in a couple hours. when in reality i can spend 4 hours on a fender and it still not be perfect.



i always say the exact time it took me to get a job done. which is usually 12-14 man working hours. and ive never done a car 100 percent.



the cars i have had over the weekends, i can get close to. but using a UDM its next to impossible without unlimited time.

'

P1080731.jpg


going from this to



P1080747.jpg


this



only took 1 pass with an orange pad. the customer knew i was only doing light paint correction. and i stated that the paint is not 100 percent when i wrote my CandB



you can see the paint looks really good in the 2nd picture. but its important to note the differences in lighting as well. sure it looks good. but ppl need to know it takes alot more time to get it to really look 100 percent.



heres a correction i did on the first black car i ever did

P1160781.jpg


you can see here under the halogens its pretty bad.



P1160783.jpg


then 50/50. even still the side tahts "done" isnt 100percent. i know you can tell. because i can tell.



P1160786.jpg


done. i dont even remember how many passes this took. its certainly swirl free. but i knew it wasnt 100 percent. i kept noticing micromarring the closer i inspected the paint. it was a significatn improvement however.



P1160784.jpg




but you can see how in the similar lighting how it looks to noobs that the paint is 100 percent.



in order for it to be 100 percent the before and afters need to be taken under the same lighting and conditions.



ive learned to take the CandBs witha grain of salt. a full detail job cant be done in 4 hours. its impossible.
 
tdekany said:
Who are those people that you are talking about? Are they posting in the C&B?



Can you provide any links?
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I am speaking in general...over the past two years or so I have been looking at C&B's, I have seen a lot of people oooo and ahhh over cars that are heavily swirled and what not, and only received a two step like IP and FPII or 83/80 combo, and all of a sudden it LOOKS like its perfected...



There are a few people on here who post C&B's that I HAVE to look at because of their work they always post...but those details are not the 3-4 hour ones, but more like the 8+ hour reconditions...those are the ones I LOVE to look at...
 
tdekany said:
Who are those people that you are talking about? Are they posting in the C&B?



Can you provide any links?
Click to expand...



I can't think of any recent ones off the top of my head, but some may remember Justin30513 (I think that was his s/n). He was famous for busting out full details with 2 polishing steps in record time. AND he used some very aggressive combo's that he claimed he could get to finish out LSP ready.
 
Thanks to this thread, I don't feel so bad now when it takes me a full weekend to do a detail or I spend a whole afternoon on just the interior. I know I'm slow, but for awhile I thought I must have been the slowest Autopian in history based on what others could accomplish in 3-4 hours of time. I just assumed that because I don't do this for a living, I must not have known all the short cuts and/or that I haven't perfected my process (which I know I still could use a lot of improvement on).
 
HAHAHA



Same here. I used to get soo mad no being able to finish a job in 4 hours. LOL..



Now obviously I could care less and I take my time. My after pics, like this one for example,

DSC01437.jpg




I just did today. I polished for almost 7 hours straight and as you can see, the jet black hood still has a few, very little scratches here and there. Mind you, this was done with a rotory. Still, the paint is now 100% wow like some of the thread you speak of will lead you to believe.



I always let my clients know that most of the time, the paint will not come out 100%, but will be drastically different and perfect to the untrained eye.



I mean, if you gave me a PTG, wetsad paper, a AC'd garage, and unlimited polishing time, I could probably get it looking 95-98% on most of the panels.
 
This is one of the more excellent threads I've ever read. I'm not a pro by any stretch of the imagination and my fastest detail ever was 8 hours on my Honda Civic using a PC and several 4-inch pads. It was not perfect but it was good enough to pass the 5-foot test on a cloudy day with an untrained eye :chuckle:. I washed, clayed, #80'd or #83'd multiple times, and finally 845'd.



I would imagine that 4 hours is possible only if the car's paint needed very little correction to begin with.



Since I don't do this for a living, on my next detail I'll take my time and do one or two panels per weekend so I don't feel so beat up. :D :waxing:



The only time I'll ever want my car to be 100% swirl- and scratch-free is right after I have it repainted. :D



The pros here at Autopia do amazing work. Miracle details, like most good things worth while, take time. ;)
 
This thread is scary for a guy like me. For years and years been around the detail business without actually being a detailer. I do lots and lots of interior repair & re-dye, sometimes cleaning and stains kinda thing, Also graphics, windshield repair and occasional exterior touch-up, but have never attempted exterior detail for pay. Lately been awestruck with the great info offered on this board, so as to improve what I'm already doing and/or add a new service or two. I was already scared to take on a whole detail since I didn't know what I'm doing when it comes to waxing, polishing, special problems, swirls, etc. Now you guys got me double scared scared!! <--had to say it twice to emphasize the point!
 
So, is the general consensus that anyone claiming to do:



Full prep + Clay

Spot wet sand defects

Multi-step paint correction + 3 step LSP

Paint touch up

Engine detail

Complete interior detail

Remove all wheels to clean/protect



in 6 or 7 hours full of BS or not doing good work?



I've concentrated my efforts for many years trying to do complete details as effeciently as possible and see no way this is likely in this amount of time. Not even close.
 
Somewhat random thoughts from a non-Pro follow:



I can spend literally 100 hours on a good "before" car and still miss something that'd cost points at a high-level concours' Street Driven class and I don't waste time when I detail.



Front upper grill of the MPV has dozens of diamond-shaped slots; four surfaces plus four seams each. Each slot needs individually cleaned at every wash, then there'd be a mild polish, then AIO, then I'd start layering the KSG. How many hours does *that* take!? How could anybody do that grill in less than one hour...I can't do it in two hours of nonstop work and that's just one grill on our minivan.



I take *forever* to do good correction work, and that's with rotaries and pretty aggressive products (H-T EC/3M EC/etc.). And I still don't get things 100% because when I try for that I can end up over-thinning the clear.



It can take me five minutes to inspect a panel for near-perfection, and I have to do that over and over...good inspection simply takes *time*. No way somebody else can see stuff that much faster than I can after all the decades I've been doing this (and with all my different light sources...this is something I have down pat); more often people don't see stuff that *I* see even when I point right at it.



So if I can't see the "after" *in person, in *my* shop*, I have to take a person's word for the quality of the work. And this is the internet ;)



OTOH, I've read posts by pros saying that they never do more than two passes of a given step because "time is money". Well, my time is my most valuable resource so I'm considering doing fewer passes with a more aggressive approach (say, wool instead of foam). I've spent an entire afternoon on one panel with a rotary and H-T EC and that's just too much time for anybody to spend on this stuff.
 
This is a great thread!



I'd just like to add a couple things. For people that are mobile, like myself, 12-14 hour details aren't always an option. I would think that for most mobile detailers, 1 or 2 polishing steps is the norm so perfection isn't likely. Plus, the customers dictate how far you go with your detailing. If they aren't willing to pay for a 12-14 hour detail, then the maybe the 8 hour detail will have to suffice.



Again, I've really enjoyed reading this thread. It sure makes me feel better about the time it takes me to detail a vehicle. As others have pointed out, there seem to be a few people out there that are more about speed than quality.
 
It seems the *true* pictures are the pictures that get less commented on. Posts that show pics that are *hard to believe* get all the attention. "WOW, nice job, awesome detail"...etc ect.

Glad there are people that realize pics can be deceiving.
 
Incorporating video's to your thread can help tell the tale of the true condition of the paint, although it's kind of hard to do the job justice sometimes that way.
 
mshu7 said:
I can't think of any recent ones off the top of my head, but some may remember Justin30513 (I think that was his s/n). He was famous for busting out full details with 2 polishing steps in record time. AND he used some very aggressive combo's that he claimed he could get to finish out LSP ready.
Click to expand...



Ahhh, good ol Justin. I remember a little conversation we had on AG about him finishing LSP ready using just PG.
 
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