Apollo_Auto
New member
Hi all! I did this guy's Vinaccia F430 (the "eggplant flavoured one 
) a few weeks back and at never really got any feedback from the guy, as he's very busy so it just left me wondering, "Did he like it?" Well we met at the hotel (referring to the Ferrari weekend I went to) and he told me the car looked gorgeous and asked me when I could do his Maserati... guess he liked my work because I've got a couple of referrals from him too . Anyway, This car's been freshly repainted and well, they didn't do the greatest work, but it looks nice nonetheless. I guess to a non-detailer it'd be perfect. The paint was OK, but as soon as I finished polishing this man-mobile I went downtown, and had a gypsy put a curse on both the painter and the a$$wipe who polished it. The painter should have anal warts any day now and the other guy's hands should be withering away to nothing soon. The guy who painted this must have put a 1:1 mix of paint and hardener because this was the HARDEST paint I've polished to date. It was like trying to polish granny's commemorative Elvis plate set... and this is why I've damned the polisher:
Some very deep scratches all over the entire car, but I didn't hunt down each one and try to catch it on camera...
This is what the whole car looked like under the Crime Light. I really think they compounded this with a wool pad an some heavy compound and then just finished it like that... wan..
The Crime Light's other side...
This piece was a goner... it didn't make any sense to tape around it and I could put tape on the piece itself, so... eventually my rag snagged onto it and it fell off. Luckily it fell off in one piece because after polishing I was able to super-glue it back on. It came out looking better than before actually.
What? OK, so now I'm a bit unsure about this car because there's just no telling how thick the last layer of paint really is... Yeah it had high readings but there could also be fillers and bondo making it that high... pfft.
The average readings were in the 500's. Later I saw a place on the bottom of the car where the paint had chipped off and there was about 1mm of some kind of really crappy bondo under the paint. Message to painter:
My poor attempt at a 50/50... it's a point n' shoot, what can I say? This is after a few passes with a polishing pad and InstaFinish #15. I'd already been through the "work your way up" stages of the test area and this was the only thing that would even put a dent in it. It may look good on camera, but trust me it still looked like poop. My final decision was to "Rambo" the entire thing because there were just way too many scratches. Flexcalibur and I went with a 5" Scholl wool pad and InstaCut #15, which gave a really nice and uniform cut. After the compounding I went with InstaFinish #15 and a polishing pad, then to #15 and a finishing pad. I'm absolutely spent now, because this car took a LOT of pressure to polish over a 3-day period. Even at speeds up to 2000-2200 I still had to lay into the paint to cut it. In the beginning there was a lot of experimenting with pressures and speeds because I got to the point where I was asking myself, "Am I even cutting it or am I marring it more??"
I had to do a little wet sanding on the bonnet with 2500 grit. I couldn't find my sanding block so I had to improvise with my lighter. I used Born Slippy as a lube. It actually came out pretty even despite the way it looks.
Some scratchy pics
After "Ramboing"
) a few weeks back and at never really got any feedback from the guy, as he's very busy so it just left me wondering, "Did he like it?" Well we met at the hotel (referring to the Ferrari weekend I went to) and he told me the car looked gorgeous and asked me when I could do his Maserati... guess he liked my work because I've got a couple of referrals from him too . Anyway, This car's been freshly repainted and well, they didn't do the greatest work, but it looks nice nonetheless. I guess to a non-detailer it'd be perfect. The paint was OK, but as soon as I finished polishing this man-mobile I went downtown, and had a gypsy put a curse on both the painter and the a$$wipe who polished it. The painter should have anal warts any day now and the other guy's hands should be withering away to nothing soon. The guy who painted this must have put a 1:1 mix of paint and hardener because this was the HARDEST paint I've polished to date. It was like trying to polish granny's commemorative Elvis plate set... and this is why I've damned the polisher:
Some very deep scratches all over the entire car, but I didn't hunt down each one and try to catch it on camera...
This is what the whole car looked like under the Crime Light. I really think they compounded this with a wool pad an some heavy compound and then just finished it like that... wan..
The Crime Light's other side...
This piece was a goner... it didn't make any sense to tape around it and I could put tape on the piece itself, so... eventually my rag snagged onto it and it fell off. Luckily it fell off in one piece because after polishing I was able to super-glue it back on. It came out looking better than before actually
.
What? OK, so now I'm a bit unsure about this car because there's just no telling how thick the last layer of paint really is... Yeah it had high readings but there could also be fillers and bondo making it that high... pfft.
The average readings were in the 500's. Later I saw a place on the bottom of the car where the paint had chipped off and there was about 1mm of some kind of really crappy bondo under the paint. Message to painter:
My poor attempt at a 50/50... it's a point n' shoot, what can I say? This is after a few passes with a polishing pad and InstaFinish #15. I'd already been through the "work your way up" stages of the test area and this was the only thing that would even put a dent in it. It may look good on camera, but trust me it still looked like poop. My final decision was to "Rambo" the entire thing because there were just way too many scratches. Flexcalibur and I went with a 5" Scholl wool pad and InstaCut #15, which gave a really nice and uniform cut. After the compounding I went with InstaFinish #15 and a polishing pad, then to #15 and a finishing pad. I'm absolutely spent now, because this car took a LOT of pressure to polish over a 3-day period. Even at speeds up to 2000-2200 I still had to lay into the paint to cut it. In the beginning there was a lot of experimenting with pressures and speeds because I got to the point where I was asking myself, "Am I even cutting it or am I marring it more??"
I had to do a little wet sanding on the bonnet with 2500 grit. I couldn't find my sanding block so I had to improvise with my lighter. I used Born Slippy as a lube. It actually came out pretty even despite the way it looks.
Some scratchy pics
After "Ramboing"
