What I just witnessed

uniquedetailing

New member
So i went to bodyshop today to try and gain some experience, watch someone with experience. so we had a 69 mustang built ground up, bc/cc, all sanded to 2000, the guy has 20 experience so i was keen to see how he works. the guy was using a 3m wool pad, 2m compound, the whole time i was there, the pad didnt get washed once, nor did anything get wiped after goin over a section. the foam pad was switched out using same product no cleaning. the guy told me he would use to full bottles of compound on the car, he was using so much product. the thing is his work speaks for itself, cars have gone to barret and jackson.

from what i have read this forum, watched videos, he was goin against all the rules, cleaning the pad, 50/50 wipe.

is that just the way he does things??? i felt like asking him why he did certain things but didnt feel i could i without having much experience myself.

if he cleaned the pad, im right in thinkin he wouldnt need to use half the product he uses.

im just little confused
 
uniquedetailing said:
the thing is his work speaks for itself, cars have gone to barret and jackson.



I'm sure it really does speak for itself and for all the other old school body shop buffers too. :nervous:



These guys are set in their ways, resistant to change and think that if they've been doing the same thing for 20 years, it must be right. I see guys like this every day and I'm at the point where I don't even laugh anymore.



Barrett-Jackson is an auction and doesn't mean that the cars that are auctioned there are in good condition. I've seen swirls on tons of cars via TV.
 
David Fermani said:
These guys are set in their ways, resistant to change and think that if they've been doing the same thing for 20 years, it must be right. I see guys like this every day and I'm at the point where I don't even laugh anymore.



Barrett-Jackson is an auction and doesn't mean that the cars that are auctioned there are in good condition. I've seen swirls on tons of cars via TV.



Double true! Within the past month I've had 2 of these run ins while picking up cars from body shops. The first was so horrid I wanted to take pics to post, but felt bad for the cars owner. Just to give a visual; 1/2 sanded orange peel, over spray inside the car, engine bay, wool buffed and we got to keep several patches of wool stuck in various locations free of charge. The 2nd one wasn't as bad, just saw a rotary with a white waffle caked with black paint. I also enjoyed crawling around a 6pt. roll cage for 4 hours to remove the blanket of sanded fiberglass dust.

It just goes to show big names and reputations don't mean jack until you see for yourself. There are still amazing shops out there, it just seems nobody wants to pay for a "good job" anymore. They rather have a "good deal" and get the sub-par product they paid for.
 
David Fermani said:
I'm sure it really does speak for itself and for all the other old school body shop buffers too. :nervous:



These guys are set in their ways, resistant to change and think that if they've been doing the same thing for 20 years, it must be right. I see guys like this every day and I'm at the point where I don't even laugh anymore.



Barrett-Jackson is an auction and doesn't mean that the cars that are auctioned there are in good condition. I've seen swirls on tons of cars via TV.



Agree with David. Old dogs don't learn new tricks. Wipe down a few times with IPA and take it outside. I have also seen the swirls on TV, if you can see them on TV, it means they are horrible IRL.
 
rcrobbins said:
It just goes to show big names and reputations don't mean jack until you see for yourself.





Funny! I was at a so-called "high-end" shop last Thursday and was shooting the crap with the shop owner about a Bentley Coupe their guy was prepping for paint. He was bragging about charging the car owner $1500 to paint the grille surround and bumper(rock chips). Well, they were painting it on the car (no R & I !!) They didn't even loosen anything. He claims he could tape off the edges good enough and it wouldn't matter. Plus the car was covered in shop dust and they were dragging pre-used paper all over it to cover for overspray. Grade 1 Hack in my book.
 
Lol, that's pretty low. Then taking it the extra mile to re-use paper on a Bentley (since bagging it was certainly out of the budget), now that's just morbidly frugal!
 
This is why I'm going to have my father in-law shoot my car after I do all the prep work myself, and then do the sanding my self... Can't trust anyone to do it right unless you do it yourself...
 
One kinda-positive thing I will say is that with some diminishing-abrasive compounds you *can* switch from your aggressive step to a milder one without buffing off the residue.



I've gone from rotary straight to Cyclo, pausing only long enough to drop the one and grab the other, and it worked fine (ebpcivicsi used to do this with old-school products too).



You do have to stop and clean/change the pads though, no matter what. They can only hold so much used product/cut-off paint before, well, they're full of old product and cut-off paint.



And "ain't that the truth!!" about cars at big auctions... and even top-shelf concours competitions :rolleyes:
 
We have all seen the wool pads laying around body shops that are so caked with product that you can't even see the wool anymore. The pads are five years old and never been cleaned. They just spin them on a rotary and spur them with a screw driver!!



It has been a while since I have seen a good new paint job. No one wants to take the time to do it right anymore. IF you are lucky enough to find someone, they watn to charge 5 to 10 grand to spray the car.
 
David Fermani said:
I'm sure it really does speak for itself and for all the other old school body shop buffers too. :nervous:



These guys are set in their ways, resistant to change and think that if they've been doing the same thing for 20 years, it must be right. I see guys like this every day and I'm at the point where I don't even laugh anymore.



Barrett-Jackson is an auction and doesn't mean that the cars that are auctioned there are in good condition. I've seen swirls on tons of cars via TV.



+1



Body shops are all about speed and keeping costs down.
 
fergnation said:
We have all seen the wool pads laying around body shops that are so caked with product that you can't even see the wool anymore. The pads are five years old and never been cleaned. They just spin them on a rotary and spur them with a screw driver!!



It has been a while since I have seen a good new paint job. No one wants to take the time to do it right anymore. IF you are lucky enough to find someone, they watn to charge 5 to 10 grand to spray the car.



Just know that alot of the $$$$ goes into taking and putting the car back again. For that kind of money they don't tape the car.
 
David Fermani said:
These guys are set in their ways, resistant to change and think that if they've been doing the same thing for 20 years, it must be right. I see guys like this every day and I'm at the point where I don't even laugh anymore.



So true!!! It just irritates me when people rave about their years of experience.





Paul Dalton mentioned on 5th Gear that many of his clients visit him after their cars have received an expensive paint job that is not done to high quality standards. And I am sure many of his customers get their cars painted at really high-end repair shops.
 
so i went back to the shop to see the progress of the car, it was finish and i musy say it was high end, im amazed how though, he did go through about twice as much product as needed. oh well, ill stick to what ive learned and read through the forum
 
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