Ugh, 9 freakin' hours of claying

S

Scottwax

New member
...and still not done. :nervous2:



Customer has a jet black 335 that got absolutely fogged with overspray. He was finally able to contact the contractor who did the painting but was unable to find out what type of paint they were using. All I know is it is very fine (white) and very dense. The owner's wife is a teacher and the car was parked near the track and there was some stripping going on when her car got hit.



I've got about 95% of it now, just got to chase down what is left, then polish and seal the car. Didn't want to use anything too aggressive due to the typically uber soft jet black paint, mineral spirits didn't do anything. Just didn't want to chance going hard into the paint.
 
Scottwax said:
...and still not done. :nervous2:



Customer has a jet black 335 that got absolutely fogged with overspray......
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Understand how you feel:hmph:

I always get this kinda customers, and this could be the main reason why they decide to bring their car to a professional detailer. I hope you have noticed this problem before accepting this car for detailing, or you could have ended up under-charging the owner.



Diagnosis is key.

Whenever I get a car like this, I'll charge very premium pricing 'cos it takes so many manhours to solve the problem. 3 of my boys took 2hrs claying on a similar car, so if you're doing by yourself, I doubt you hv the energy to proceed straight to machine work, cos with all that extensive claying, I'm sure the paint would hv some degree of marring now....and not to mention the poor claybar which cannot be used again on paintwork. Groan!
 
Scott, have you ever tried claying via PC? I dread it so much I recently ordered one of the Lake Clay pads, very mixed reviews on it, but I'm willing to give it a shot.
 
That is when you pull out a sheet of trizact 3000 and a d.a.sander. You could get all the paint off of the painted panels in 30 minutes. The tough part about overspeay is the rubber seals and windows. Best of luck.



John
 
JohnKleven said:
That is when you pull out a sheet of trizact 3000 and a d.a.sander. You could get all the paint off of the painted panels in 30 minutes.



John
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...followed by several hours of polishing to remove the sanding marks! :lol



Windows were a piece of cake, razor blade and QD took care of them very quickly. :)



gigondaz-the overspray is the reason he had me come out, so I was well aware of it before I started on the car. The problem was that it took him a while to track down the contractor who did the actual painting and even more time to get them to accept responsibility so it has now been three weeks since the car got messed up. At least the owner green lighted me to make it as right as possible and not take any shortcuts.



yakky-haven't tried the PC claying yet, not sure I'd want to do it on jet black BMW paint though!



Josh-always windy in the Dallas area so we can count of regular overspray jobs, can't we?
 
Scottwax said:
At least the owner green lighted me to make it as right as possible and not take any shortcuts.
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That's always nice. Try not to get tunnel vision when doing the same thing for 9+ hours. :D
 
I did a white Suburban that was covered in overspray. The owner is one of those PDR guys that goes and does touch-ups at dealerships. So, we're talking years of caked on overspray. I used a wool pad, 3M extra cut via rotary and then SIP with my PC to finish. I still hate that truck. But it was a challange and the paint went from feeling like notebook paper to slick again.
 
Now I am ****ing pissed. The guy whose car I was doing tells me as I am finishing up that the painting contractor was supposed to pay him in a couple days so that was when he'd pay me. Either he'd give me a personal check or have them make it out to me. Seriously, what the hell? He waits until I am done to tell me this after saying before he would take care of it and hoped he'd get fully reimbursed? His rational is that he finally got through to someone there (contractor's office) who promised a resolution by Wednesday, and of course "his wife had the checkbook". That is some serious BS right there. I am sure he will pay me but he should have been upfront right from the start about the payment. One thing for sure, if the contractor says they are submitting it to their insurance, I am not waiting months to get paid.
 
Scottwax said:
One thing for sure, if the contractor says they are submitting it to their insurance, I am not waiting months to get paid.
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Sucks, but Krylon Fusion is cheap enough if you have to reverse the process :D
 
If this was my customer, I will not allow the car to leave my premises...unless he's a very loyal customer and I know where his office and home is.

If you don't know this guy very well, pls be careful.

Once the car has been collected, you might hv a hard time tracking him down.



Insist on at least some payment first, because you hv done your part.

Hey, even for a simple beer, you hv to pay BEFORE you leave the pub.
 
gigondaz said:
If this was my customer, I will not allow the car to leave my premises...unless he's a very loyal customer and I know where his office and home is.

If you don't know this guy very well, pls be careful.

Once the car has been collected, you might hv a hard time tracking him down.



Insist on at least some payment first, because you hv done your part.

Hey, even for a simple beer, you hv to pay BEFORE you leave the pub.
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I did the car at his house, so I know where he lives. I also have pictures which show enough of his house in the background so no way he could deny it was his house and car. Like I said, I am sure he will pay me, but I just didn't like getting a surprise like that after putting 14 or so hours into the car.
 
Understand your situation. After slogging for so many sweaty hours, we certainly expect to be paid.



Some of my customers, when collecting the car from place, will say: "I'm bringing another car tmrw, and u finish this 2nd car, I'll pay in full".

LOL...no way, jose! I don't even know where you live, where you work and what you do for a living!



I tell them: "Tmrw and next few days, I'm full. Sorry. Perhaps you can settle the 1st car now, and bring your 2nd one next week where I'll give ya a small discount?".
 
Scottwax said:
Now I am ****ing pissed. The guy whose car I was doing tells me as I am finishing up that the painting contractor was supposed to pay him in a couple days so that was when he'd pay me. Either he'd give me a personal check or have them make it out to me. Seriously, what the hell? He waits until I am done to tell me this after saying before he would take care of it and hoped he'd get fully reimbursed? His rational is that he finally got through to someone there (contractor's office) who promised a resolution by Wednesday, and of course "his wife had the checkbook". That is some serious BS right there. I am sure he will pay me but he should have been upfront right from the start about the payment. One thing for sure, if the contractor says they are submitting it to their insurance, I am not waiting months to get paid.
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I'm hardly in a position to give you advice about payment, since you've been doing this so long; but I would not have left without being paid unless it was a previous client. It isn't that I am particularly hardcore or whatever; I'm actually really lenient; but to pull that kind of surprise on you shows a type of character I am not comfortable with. I'd have had him drive to an ATM.
 
Picus said:
I'm hardly in a position to give you advice about payment, since you've been doing this so long; but I would not have left without being paid unless it was a previous client. It isn't that I am particularly hardcore or whatever; I'm actually really lenient; but to pull that kind of surprise on you shows a type of character I am not comfortable with. I'd have had him drive to an ATM.
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When you are mobile and know where people live, they aren't very likely to stiff you. In 18 years (which includes the two years I was detailing part time), I've had a total of 5 bad checks and only 1 I was unable to collect on and she had been evicted from her house so I guess I was down on the list of people she was going to pay.



He called me today to say he'd go ahead and pay me whenever I could get by. The owner of the firm called him today and said he had just heard about it and needed to do some "research", so since he wasn't going to get a check as quickly as he expected, he'd take care of me now and go after the painting company. The owner was telling him overspray claims have usually been running them $125 or so. The BMW owner explained to him how close the track being painted was to the teacher parking lot and how heavily covered his car was. In addition, not only was I telling him how soft his clear coat was, so was BMW who also cautioned against getting aggressive with the claying. I told the BMW owner he could have the painting company owner call me if he wanted.
 
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