need urgent help - houston, tx area.

OK i went to a guy in Houston that was highly recommended. Wil from A Finer Detail. He's got a couple of mobile detailing trucks that go out to the car and do the work. He spent 10 minutes on a part of the hood, polishing with a couple of compounds. He removed probably 80% of the 'halo's, but you can still see them there when you shine a light on it. not as large, but nonetheless they're there. He said it would be impossible to remove all of them, and if it were his car, he'd just spend 8 hours on it and get most of the swirl marks out.



he did say that spraying another layer of clearcoat on would allow me to get the car the way it was when i got it - with absolutely no swirl marks or halos on it whatsoever, but he suggested against doing that because he said it's just one more thing that could go wrong, could not be done correctly, etc.



So what should i do? should i 'settle' for getting MOST of the halos/swirls removed? Or should i start going to body shops now and getting quotes on clearcoat/wetsand/thewholebit from them, and i could then take it to a detailer to get it polished.



what think. i'm getting so tired and depressed over this incident i don't know what to do
 
Polishing should be cheaper than getting it re-painted. If you get it re-painted there may be other issues, such as paint-job quality, body-shop quality.



I'm pretty sure with enough time, a good detailer would be able to get the holograms out. As JoshVette said, 9-12 hours for the whole car for a "flawless" correction. That's without any holograms.
 
OK so i looked at the car again yesterday, under the parking lot lights at IHOP, and it looks freaking terrible.



now when i took it to the guy at Finer Detail, he worked for 10 minutes, using multiple chemicals and buffers, on about a 2 foot square section of my hood. He said that was the "best he could get it to look", and it looked good with a little light he shone on it (although you could still see the swirls), but under the big flourescent lights in the IHOP parking lot, this is what it looked like...



ORIGINALLY DAMAGED AREA, NO FLASH:

OSnoflash.JPG




ORIGINALLY DAMAGED AREA, WITH FLASH:

OSwithflash.JPG


OSwithflash2.JPG




Now this is what got me. Note the area he spent 10 minutes on with two different buffers and a few different buffing/polishing compounds:

TOUCHED UP SURFACE, NO FLASH:

WSnoflash.JPG




TOUCHED UP SURFACE, WITH FLASH:

WSwithflash.JPG




Please tell me that's not the best that can be done... i honestly don't see a difference between the worked on surface, and the original surface. This guy comes with recommendations inside and out



i want to just get rid of the car. this upsets me so much
 
Eh.. I'm not sure he's such a good detailer... Was he recommended on autopia? Or just recommended by friends/family? Also, do you know what products he used? Rotary or PC?
 
he was recommended by the people that were going to install my clear bra. he's got a fleet of mobile 'detailers', 4 or 5 trucks fully equipped. everything from filtered water, to power. i don't know the difference between rotary or PC, but the thing he used was this thing that span round in a circle really quick? like an angle grinder, but with a buffing pad on it. seemed like he knew what he was doing though. but i'm noticing 'dull' patches on the part of the hood where he went over with the buffer...
 
It doesn't seem like he did any correction to be honest. He doesn't seem like a good detailer. Have you tried asking around in the regional forums in autopia? I really hope you're able to find a good detailer soon... Look at the 20 hour Lexus detail that JoshVette did. I'd say your car is in comparable condition in the befores(maybe a bit worse? The pictures are always hard to gauge), and the results you can get with a good detailer is right there.
 
Yes but this guy wasn't recommended on here. The detailers on here are on a whole different level then the hack that didn't know how to buff your car. The guy who buffered your car had no clue what he was doing (as does the about 95 percent of the so called detailers in this country).



Josh Vette can fix it, he isn't cheap, but with high end detailers, you get what you paid for. There are people on this board that are experts or artists behind a rotary buffer and you would be amazed at the shine they can get out of paint.



If it was my car, I would have Josh Vette take care of it.
 
TH0001 said:
Yes but this guy wasn't recommended on here. The detailers on here are on a whole different level then the hack that didn't know how to buff your car. The guy who buffered your car had no clue what he was doing (as does the about 95 percent of the so called detailers in this country).



Josh Vette can fix it, he isn't cheap, but with high end detailers, you get what you paid for. There are people on this board that are experts or artists behind a rotary buffer and you would be amazed at the shine they can get out of paint.



If it was my car, I would have Josh Vette take care of it.



+1 on that... he's already offered too.... http://autopia.org/forum/986658-post13.html
 
PM'd you back.



Let me know possible good dates for your schedule and if you have any other friends that need a high end detail let me know, otherwise I'll get some of my own clients together.



I'll need a full day on the car starting early.



Thanks,

Josh



Call, PM or email me, all my info is on my website under my homepage.
 
Well I was pm'd and couldnt do it. I don't have a rotary and that cc is too hard for my pc...well unless I want to spend 15+ hours on it. Also I don't have the back for it, I don't have the back for much anything hahaha. If Josh goes to do this I would love to be able to watch for a bit if possible. If you don't want this becoming a party I totally understand, I would just like to see a rotary being used by someone that knows what they are doing. Once again sorry for not being able to help. By the way did you ever contact the guy I told you about?
 
MobileJay said:
Well I was pm'd and couldnt do it. I don't have a rotary and that cc is too hard for my pc...well unless I want to spend 15+ hours on it. Also I don't have the back for it, I don't have the back for much anything hahaha. If Josh goes to do this I would love to be able to watch for a bit if possible. If you don't want this becoming a party I totally understand, I would just like to see a rotary being used by someone that knows what they are doing. Once again sorry for not being able to help. By the way did you ever contact the guy I told you about?





J. If Lorenzo's okay with it, I'm okay with you joining. May take a while though as GM paint is typically very hard and difficult to correct.
 
MobileJay, I did contact the guy you told me about. And if Josh ends up doing it, I don't mind you watching in. not a problem for me.



Actually i'm just waiting on the body shop to pick a quote. that's all i'm waiting for.
 
Great thanks a lot, I will definetly be there.

Josh, thats one of the reasons I was not able to do the job. I only have a pc and like I said before, my back couldn't take all that work with a pc.
 
the bodyshop SHOULD be Paying for Joshvette's recovery (correction)!!! . i would really go back there with the side by side pics and raise some hel! once its completed.
 
OK update:



here's what the body shop says... first off, the guy's really nice. he said he knows they messed up, but i need to give them a chance to FIX their mistake. i need to leave the car with them, and they'll take better care this time, and they'll wetsand it and fix the problem. if they gauge the clear coat and see that it's not good enough, then they'll apply a new clear coat. he said he wants to keep me as a customer, but he can't pay an outsider to do the work, not when he hasn't even had a chance to try to fix his problem. he said it's got a lifetime warranty, and if something ever happens in the future i just bring it back and he'll fix it.



what should i do...



it's a) bring it to him and get him to try to fix it, or b) find someone else to do it, and pay it out of my pocket.
 
Mystical_Ice said:
OK update:



here's what the body shop says... first off, the guy's really nice. he said he knows they messed up, but i need to give them a chance to FIX their mistake. i need to leave the car with them, and they'll take better care this time, and they'll wetsand it and fix the problem. if they gauge the clear coat and see that it's not good enough, then they'll apply a new clear coat. he said he wants to keep me as a customer, but he can't pay an outsider to do the work, not when he hasn't even had a chance to try to fix his problem. he said it's got a lifetime warranty, and if something ever happens in the future i just bring it back and he'll fix it.



what should i do...



it's a) bring it to him and get him to try to fix it, or b) find someone else to do it, and pay it out of my pocket.





That's a toughy, I'd say this to anyone, even if I wasn't personally involved.



First off, don't let them bully you around like that, get a lawyer or whatever and take them to small claims court......you should be able to fix it whatever way you feel is best.



Body shops are not known for there skills with the buffer (hence how you got the swirls to begin with) and if they're talking about wetsanding and respraying the car that means they don't know how to properly fix the problem.



When a car is resprayed, you never know how it's going to turn out as well, (unless you have a very reputable experienced painter) most resprays I've seen come out with horrible orange peel and the likes.



These guys are admitting fault but then telling you, you have to fix it the way they say or else they won't pay for it tells me they are NOT ON THE LEVEL....



Remember this, a year or two from now, you're still going to be looking at that same paint, what do you want your paint to look like?

Do what's best for the car.



Josh
 
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