Worst Detail of 2009! - Extreme Paint Correction by Unique Car Care!

[Rickrack]

I have been detailing cars for 16 years now and have seen some pretty trashed cars roll through the shop. For some reason, the cars seem to be getting worse and worse as time goes on. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, another one appears. It’s almost as if people are trashing their cars beyond belief, just to see if us at Unique Car Care can work miracles and whip their car back into shape! I’m really hoping that someone invents a buffer with magical powers someday to make my job a little easier!





The Audi A6 you are about to see is one of the worst cars we’ve had in the shop this year. Not only due to the horrible condition of the paint, but the job overall. The car had recently been to the body shop for some paintwork and was just a swirly, dull, scratched, neglected mess! The paint did not want to cooperate at all and was just a nightmare of a job.





The pictures below show the condition of the exterior the day it was dropped off at the shop. Keep in mind that it had just left the body shop and was wearing a fresh coat of glaze which was hiding a good amount of the defects. I knew once it was properly prepped, it was only going to get worse.





I’ll just let the pictures do the talking……

 

[Rickrack]

The owner was planning on driving the car for another couple months and planned on putting the car up for sale. He wanted it as perfect as possible since it had fairly low miles and requested that we do our best to fix several stone chips that were improperly repaired on the nose that the body shop had done. I assured the customer that we would do the best we could and not to worry.







The first step was to give the exterior a thorough wash, clay, clean all wheels & tires, strip paint free of previous waxes/glazes and clean the engine compartment.







Here is what it looked like after it has been fully prepped for polishing……

 

[Rickrack]

 

[Rickrack]

After speaking with the owner over the phone, I found out that the 75% of the car had been repainted at different times, which meant that every panel would most likely react different to polishing.









Before going to town on the exterior, I chose a test panel to see what products, pads & techniques would yield the best results. I knew that the process would change throughout the detail, so I decided to correct one panel at a time.









I started on the drivers side rear door to see what kind of correction could be achieved. I quickly found out how ridiculously hard the paint was and knew this car was going to be an absolute nightmare! I must have used a dozen different product/pad combinations before making a dent in it.







Below is the drivers side rear door after about 90 minutes of polishing. This is with no final polishing or wax! Definitely a huge difference compared to the front door!

Nice reflections!

This picture shows the difference between the rear door and rear ¼ panel (no final polishing or wax)

As you can see, it was coming along nicely, but wasn’t going to be an enjoyable job. I moved onto the front door and used whatever products & pads necessary to achieve the results I was shooting for.







The picture below is the front door after more than an hour of polishing compared to the front fender (no final polishing or wax)…

Now that I had an idea how long this car was going to take, I asked Ryan to get off his butt and help me! He went to town on the passenger side, while I continued to work on the drivers side.







After polishing for several hours, I pulled the car outside to inspect it in the sun. Here is what the drivers side doors and rear ¼ panel looked like outside compared to the front fender, which was untouched…

 

[Rickrack]

We pulled the car back in the shop and continued to work on it until later that night. We planned on working on the car for several days in order to get it looking as perfect as possible.





Below is me sanding down the front bumper in order to fix some deeper scratches and repair the poor touch-up job from the body shop…

This is what the bumper looked like after sanding…

This is what the bumper looked like after compounding (no final polishing or wax)…

The front headlights were scratched as well…

Headlight after polishing…

Here is Ryan compounding the front fender…

After 4 days of extreme polishing, we were finally getting somewhere! We decided to give the exterior a thorough wash to remove all of the compounding dust and spatter that was embedded in just about every crack & crevice before moving onto the final polishing.









Me final polishing….

Ryan cleaning the exhaust tips…

Me applying the paint sealant…

Ryan sealing the wheels…

Now onto the after pictures! We were so beat upon completion that we didn’t go crazy taking after pictures, but I think you get the idea how well it came out!









AFTER!!!!!!

 

[Rickrack]

 

[Rickrack]

Thanks for looking!

 

[D Tailor]

Amazing, oil pool looking paint. Those before were giving me a migraine! Outstanding.

 

[stilez]

Kudos guys!



Some extremely impressive work! Looking forward to visiting the shop, hopefully soon.

 

[Rickrack]

D Tailor- Thanks David!



G35stilez- Thanks Sean! Whenever you want to stop by works for me. I'll be at the shop for a little while this Saturday and will be there the entire week after Christmas. Let me know...

 

[Make it shine!]

Awesome job bringing that paint back to life!

 

[Setec Astronomy]

You know I was scrolling thru the pictures and thought "oh, he started wetsanding it" then scrolled a little more and it was still before pics...holy crap...parts of that car were so dull I thought you had been sanding them already! Great recovery!

 

[Eisen Hulk]

Nice work guys. Those are probably the worst "before" I have ever seen.



Amazing save.

 

[imported_artikxscout]

you're right. I was going to say the car didn't look to bad in the beginning, nothing SIP can't clean up. but boy was I wrong! Amazing... turnaround.



BTW, would you have achieved the same results with the sanding if you did it by hand? I get ask by couple of clients to sand down the front too and rock chips, but I never use the tri-zac disks.

 

[TSC17]

Unbelievable work Rick (and Ryan). I've had some tough black Audi's myself in the past, but that one went way beyond. With stupid-hard paint, and several re-paints, I know that you guys were in for some serious work.



You know Rick...we're buds and everything, but I'm convinced that you do in fact come from a different planet because your skills, knowledge, and level of paint correction are simply out of this world!



:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow:bow

 

[Rickrack]

MR Detail Shop- Thanks a lot!



Setec Astronomy- It's funny, because I thought the same thing when I was uploading the pictures. I almost had to think twice if I had wetsanded or not since we did this detail a little while ago, haha... It probably would have been easier to sand the entire car in reality, but didn't want to get that involved since the paint was a nightmare to work with. Thanks Setec!!



EisenHulk - Thanks buddy! This was no easy task for sure...



artikxscout-Thanks Sam! I agree, the first before pics don't look that horrible, but it got MUCH worse once we removed the glaze that was hiding everything. As for the sanding, you can definitely achieve the same results by hand, but decided to use the Dynabrade since I don't get to use it often. Power tools are fun! Haha...



TSC17- You're right about the stupid-hard Audi paint! That mixed with poorly repainted panels makes for a disaster. Luckily Ryan didn't have anything going on and was able to help out. It would've taken me a week if it wasn't for him. ~Thanks Rydawg!



As far as being from another planet, maybe I am and I just don't know it! LOL! Nah, just someone that has some serious OCD issues when it comes to paint correction. I really appreciate the kind words and hope to work with you sometime in the future.

 

[JCastro1085]

What an amazing transformation! You guys do some incredible things with these vehicles! I always wonder though how much are these paint corrections? (not sure if we're allowed to ask or if that is considered rude, not trying to offend anyone) but perhaps a ball-park figure?

 

[Rickrack]

What an amazing transformation! You guys do some incredible things with these vehicles! I always wonder though how much are these paint corrections? (not sure if we're allowed to ask or if that is considered rude, not trying to offend anyone) but perhaps a ball-park figure?

I really don't have any specific pricing for paint correction work. It all depends on the size, condition and color of the vehicle as well the customers expectations. If a customer has a certain budget they are trying to stay within, we do our best to custom tailor a detail to suit the customers needs at a price that works for them. It also depends if I like you or not . Sometimes customers have several vehicles and get a multi-car discount.



Something like this is normally in the ballpark of $800 - $1200...

 

[JCastro1085]

I really don't have any specific pricing for paint correction work. It all depends on the size, condition and color of the vehicle as well the customers expectations. If a customer has a certain budget they are trying to stay within, we do our best to custom tailor a detail to suit the customers needs at a price that works for them. It also depends if I like you or not . Sometimes customers have several vehicles and get a multi-car discount.



Something like this is normally in the ballpark of $800 - $1200...

Worth every dollar IMO! You took something that look like it came straight from the scrap yard and made it look like it came from the show room! :hifive:

 

[RaskyR1]

Awesome work Rick/Ryan! :2thumbs:



I can't believe how bad the paint was on that car! :faint: