the 'mistakes you've made so we don't have to' thread

LET'S GET RIGHT TO STUPID THINGS...



and lived to tell about it.



Amour-all'd motorcycle seat. WOW WHATTA RIDE!!!!!!

1ST thing it was sooo slippery even at low speeds( it should have registered then...but) at the Very next light, I decided to um blow the moisture buildup out of the pipes. The #$@^ thing launched right out from under me like a rocket, dumb me I didnt wanna lay it over or get banged up so I tried to hang on...It would of been a great cartoon...me flappin' my feet on the ground HARD flailing about...Front end goin' all over the place, and of course since I was WAY off balance, hands were yanked back on the grips kinda hangin on for dear life( which also make it varoom much faster...)

this went on forever...Ok 30-40 seconds BUT it was wicked while it lasted...

Tried everything in the book I knew to get rid of that stuff, put Tide detergent dry on the seat in the sun for days to try to remove it...

You know I only did that ONE time....



Mike



:bounce :bounce :bounce
 
bgruver said:




I've done that about 4 times on my Maxima and I still haven't learned!



I did it once on my Integra and that was enough to remember next time. Now I dry the hood before I touch the windshield. Duh!
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LOL, I've done it too... a lot of times on my truck but it never left a scratch.
 
This winter I was cleaning of the windshield, had the wipers up. When I went to snap them back down the blade pivoted,flew off and the metal arm came down on the -30 or so dergree windshield, which is now cracked bottom to top and almost side to side(I will fix it before inspection time, I have since gotten a nice stone chip which make me happy I didn't replace it immeadiatey).

After doing this I have opened the trunk with the wiper arms up.



When washing the car with a high presure wand (desperate times), trying to clean off your hands with a quick pull of the trigger. My cousin did it I laughed my *** off, I have done it since, not as funny.
 
bguild said:
I stored my drag radials in the back seat of my 2001 GTP with leather interior. When I removed them, black marks all over the leather that I can't remove. I am in the middle of various leatherique treatments to see if I can remove these stains.



STUPID STUPID STUPID



Brian
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go to home depot and get a product called LAVA rags for cleaning. IT will remove the stains right off the leather, but be sure to condition the leater right after you are done

NYD
 
NY detailer said:
go to home depot and get a product called LAVA rags for cleaning. IT will remove the stains right off the leather, but be sure to condition the leater right after you are done

NYD
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It's called "LAVA Rags"?



Where will it be in home depot and what kind of stains will it remove. I might have to get some to start carrying.
 
I am not sure of the exact name of it.

I do know it comes in a red tube and it is called LAVA.

I use this on all types of leather stains. It has taken off ink, ice cream, etc... it works really well but you must be carefull that you dont rub to hard, you dont want to damage the leather.



It can be found in HD, in the house cleaning section.
 
On my crx, the battery terminals are very close to the hood when it is shut. My dad and I put on these other clamps because the other ones were flimsy and loose. Well, when it was at a shop where he took it, they turned that thing, and now I have a big M**** F***** dent going upward on the hood. To add to it all, the NEW paint on the hood is cracked in that area!!! I know it was this shop because I washed and waxed the car the day before....that was the first hood-opening stop with the car. I haven't done anything yet...I'm not sure if I will...if I do this is what it will be:argue



:sosad Thanks for letting me vent...
 
BW said:
Opening the hood when the wipers were up… :o It left a chip on the back of the hood and scratched my windshield and plastic.
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Dang...he took mine...at least I'm not the only one...lol
 
A relative of mine (it really was a relative) had some bird poops on the hood of her fairly new bright red car. I guess she had some trouble getting them off with a sponge, because she figured a Scotch-Brite pad might do wonders. Well, it certainly did wonders for her paint. The hood looked great except for 3-4 patches of the deepest swirliest scratches you've ever seen.



I made a huge mistake when replacing the weatherstripping of my 1987 Corvette. This was about 2 years ago. It was all very easy to do (I'm reasonably mechanical) and saved me over $1000 by doing it myself (the car has a removable roof, plus it's a Corvette so the estimates I got were all over $2000). I bought the car used when it was about 10 years old and all the weatherstrip was cracked. I was nearly finished with the car and just had the strips along the outside bottom of the door glass. They are pop-riveted in place and had to be drilled out. Well, I'm drilling out the first rivet and I'm drilling and I'm drilling and the rivet isn't coming apart. In retrospect I just needed a bigger bit or to use a little force pulling it, but I figured I just didn't make it through. The next thing I know there is some whitish substance coming out the drill bit followed very quickly by a nice metallic burgandy and a substantial lack of resistance to the drill. That white stuff was fiberglass as I drilled right through the door panel. :eek:



Fortunately the hole was right under the side-view mirror so it was harder to notice. And I had been using a small drill bit. I put some body filler in the hole and painted with some touch-up paint. It is pretty darn noticable if you look for it, but otherwise blends in fairly well. The rest of the replacement went without incident. When I realized what I had done, though, I almost started crying... :(



P.S. If you ever do replace your weatherstripping, use factory parts. I bought nice aftermarket stuff to save some money (about $300 over factory stuff). I put it all on only to find the doors wouldn't close with the windows up, and the roof panel wouldn't sit back down on the car. The aftermarket stuff was shaped right, but it was much firmer and about twice as thick as the factory stuff. I guess they thought thicker was better, but I had to remove all of it and send it back. The worst part was I couldn't put the top on or close the windows until I replaced it(and it was my daily driver). Thank God my local Chevy dealer had it all in stock.



P.P.S Here are a few pictures of it before I sold it: http://www.geocities.com/aurora402002/vette.html

It was a fun car, but man did it take a toll in traffic or on trips. :wavey
 
I thought of another one while I was putting some stuff in the trunk. It wasn't a detailing mistake, but it certainly affected the look of the car. I had a 1987 Chevy Celebrity that I kept clean and in good repair. It was transportation, but I still wanted it to look nice. Anyway, I borrowed a jack from a friend and put it in the trunk to take home to use. Like most jacks, it had wheels on it. While driving home I heard it thunk a few times but thought nothing of it. When I got out of the car I noticed about 3 fairly large bumps in the side of the car by the back. Turns out the jack punched right into the sheetmetal from the backside and did some pretty unsightly damage. It never really occured to me that the wall in the trunk was just the backside of the sheetmetal. There was some carpeting/padding on it but it couldn't stop all that weight from the jack. So it's something to keep in mind when loading the trunk.
 
The first detail I ever did when I was fifteen years old involved Meguiars body scrub and cleaner-wax. My friend and I worked the body scrub in by orbital buffer. While he was doing a lower side panel, he hit the side of the buffer to the paint and left a long scratch. I also applied the wax a little thick and left it on too long before buffing. Let's just say it doesn't come off like P21S. Can you say beltsander?



Forward to a few weeks ago...



I found out my friend was washing his 2003 Toyota by rinising it with water and immediately drying, among other terrible ways to clean his car :mad: I immediately took him under my wing. The detail started at his house, where he got out his $1.99/can TW. He opened the can and titled it at 90 degrees to the ground to show me. The green paste (more like a thick liquid wax in a can) ALL FELL OUT on his white carpet. It was like a can of goo.



It ended happy though. We took the car to my house. I showed him everything he should do. His car left very shiny.:xyxthumbs
 
:scared



I had a 2000 Grand Cherokee, dark gray. After the first winter I couldn’t believe how stained the front wheels were just an awful yellow. I kind of ignored it.



I went to do a good spring clean up and couldn't get the stain off no matter what I tried so figured it was a factory defect and went to the stealer to ask about it. They said; "No problem use brillo pads that will take care it". I asked him to repeat himself an he said again."Brillo pads will take care of it".



So like a lemming I did it and it did a great job of removing the stains and the clear coat and scratching the bare wheel.



Oh well it was a leased vehicle already turned in with no penalty.



Moral of the story dealers no nothing about cars all they know is how to pressure people into sales.



Oh yeah when the stain reappeared the Purple EO A2Z took it right off!
 
This one belongs to my Zaino distributor. I thought it was funny.



He uses an old Z-6 bottle to hold his engine degreaser. So he goes to town spraying down his engine, and scrubbing here and there, and runs out of cleaner. When he opened the bottle to refill the engine cleaner he realized he had just used an entire bottle of new Z-6 to degrease his engine!



He did say it smelled nice though ;)
 
I still have this problem, and I'll try to get a picture up....



I feel like such a noob...... Anyways, just realize that I was about 18 (20 now) when I did this....



There was a relatively large, deep scratch (into the depths of the clear coat at least) down the side of my car on the driver's side... I showed it to my dad upon discovery and he said "I'll go get something you can use on it." He goes and grabs a can of the dreaded Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound. :eek: Now I knew nothing about detailing at all at this time, but I just felt bad rubbing that stuff on my paint. BOY WAS I RIGHT! Yea, the side of the car looks better cause there is no visible scratch... However, there's a NASTY, long, swirly line down a portion of the drivers side quarter panel and door.



Like I said, this problem was fixed (temporarily, as it has since resurfaced) with the Mother's 3 Phase system, but I would like to know how to once and for all remove this eyesore as I'm pretty sure that all the Mothers did was fill it and hide it. I'll post a pic of it and see what you guys think later, but I'm warning you, it's NOT pretty.
 
Oh boy.



Had a friend with the same name as I 'Joe' whom was detailing his grandma's car and sprayed some wheel cleaner on the rims, which were unfinishd aluminum and they etched the crap out of thim, Had to polish them for hours by hand.



drink too mny beers and used a buffer, did a job on my wifes car. $500 in damage. I now polish by hand only :-)
 
For some reason, it no longer rains in the south-eastern united states- especially not in Atlanta.



Because of that, there is a watering ban, and you can almost never wash your car at home. The stage is set.



I took my 2000 black clear coated audi a6 to a coin op car wash after it hadn't been washed for six months and used the foamy brush on it. I soon realized the foamy brush is best used only on truck tires. Foamy brush has sand and grit all in it, stuck there nicely by dried soap.



I'm still finding swirls.. the horror...

the horror...
 
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