dropped off my 1993 z28 to get a front bumper and hood reshoot. i did this as the car was going into the 2009 houston autorama . the front bumper and hood were rock chipped severly. and i like my vehicles to stay in pristine shape. before i dropped the car off i had performed a complete cut n buff . the car was absolutely swirl free. however when i went to pick up my car it had holograms and swirls all over it evident of a rotary and wool pads. i had to redo my work in order to show the car. however im only curious as to why bodyshops still use wool pads?
body shops and wool pads!!
- Thread starter ex-SS-ve
- Start date
Envious Eric
New member
your whole post doesnt make sense...
why would you think that it would come back from a BODYshop perfect??? Seems like you are just jumping on the bandwagon "bodyshop haters headed nowhere fast..."
it was your mistake to keep a "PRISTINE" condition car with "SEVERE rock chips"...sounds like you really don't care for the car in the first place...PPF anyone???
it was your second mistake to perform any sort of detailling/reconditioning to the car PRIOR to sending it into the bodyshop....wait til afterwards, it would have saved you the time spent prior to do something more productive with your time...
why would you think that it would come back from a BODYshop perfect??? Seems like you are just jumping on the bandwagon "bodyshop haters headed nowhere fast..."
it was your mistake to keep a "PRISTINE" condition car with "SEVERE rock chips"...sounds like you really don't care for the car in the first place...PPF anyone???
it was your second mistake to perform any sort of detailling/reconditioning to the car PRIOR to sending it into the bodyshop....wait til afterwards, it would have saved you the time spent prior to do something more productive with your time...
Dan
Well-known member
toyotaguy said:
Damn....
is the bad weather getting to everyone?
Dude asks a question and people jump all over him...
Barry Theal
New member
Wool is your best friend if you know how to use it
imported_gusbubba
New member
^^^^^I heard that.
I much prefer wool to foam on a rotary.
As others have mentioned, it's not the wool, it's the operator.
I much prefer wool to foam on a rotary.
As others have mentioned, it's not the wool, it's the operator.
the last time i walked into a body shop i noticed a shelf, with a bunch of polishes, and wool pads with a ring of blackness on them from use.. sitting on a very dirty shelf, some turned right side up, and some face into the dust. rediculous. they have to know what theyre doing too..
xconwrathx
New member
Seriously man, you would have been much better off had you just accepted beforehand that you were giving your car to a bunch of incompetent nincompoops and saved yourself the trouble knowing that they would have screwed it up. It is definitely way too much to ask that someone can return your vehicle in a better condition than the way you left it.
Accumulator
Well-known member
Oh, I dunno....I can :argue (good-naturedly of course 
) a few points:
I've had truly "pristine" vehicles with lots of rock chips (original paint can count for more than anything; touchups aren't original paint). As the curator said "real cars have stone chips", and IIRC he was talking about the cars in Alfa's factory museum.
The paint/body shops that work on *my* vehicles sure don't [mess] them up like that, and my best painter can run a rotary as well as anybody. I know people who've had those shops do full-correction details and the cars turned out great.
I take my stuff to the bodyshop in ready-to-show condition, and I get it back that way too.
Gotta find good, competent people to do your work and educate them about how you want things done. Gotta do something about it if they mess up your vehicle, *before* you pay them and/or take it back.
It's important to talk to the shop *before* leaving the vehicle, stuff like "don't touch any areas other than the one(s) you're working on" and "how do you do your buffing?". IF there's gonna be an unpleasant surprise, you want it to happen *before* they work on your stuff.
) a few points:I've had truly "pristine" vehicles with lots of rock chips (original paint can count for more than anything; touchups aren't original paint). As the curator said "real cars have stone chips", and IIRC he was talking about the cars in Alfa's factory museum.
The paint/body shops that work on *my* vehicles sure don't [mess] them up like that, and my best painter can run a rotary as well as anybody. I know people who've had those shops do full-correction details and the cars turned out great.
I take my stuff to the bodyshop in ready-to-show condition, and I get it back that way too.
Gotta find good, competent people to do your work and educate them about how you want things done. Gotta do something about it if they mess up your vehicle, *before* you pay them and/or take it back.
It's important to talk to the shop *before* leaving the vehicle, stuff like "don't touch any areas other than the one(s) you're working on" and "how do you do your buffing?". IF there's gonna be an unpleasant surprise, you want it to happen *before* they work on your stuff.
Envious Eric
New member
yeah, that might have been a little harsh....sorry
imported_Jakerooni
New member
Hey the future pro has to start learning somewhere right 
why not on your car when he's making minimum wage LOL J/K I think everyone else covered this quite well. It's not the wool. even on a soft black paint it's still not the wool. You just have to know what your doing.
why not on your car when he's making minimum wage LOL J/K I think everyone else covered this quite well. It's not the wool. even on a soft black paint it's still not the wool. You just have to know what your doing.body shops do not take their time when buffing out cars. the body shop i use t work at they would use wool then fiish with foam but because they wanted to get the cars out asap even after the foam there were swirls marks. i talked to the owners about it and they said if i can do a better then do it. well i took one of the "finished" cars redid half the hood and let tem compare the the 2 sides. they told me from now i do all th buffing. well when they found out it was taking me 1 hour to do a hood and front fender they told me i had to move faster and stop goofing off. i tol them i was not goofing off thats just how long it takes to do the job right. they said i need to move faster told them if i do then it wont come out right. anyways we went back and forth on this matter fo like 2 weeks. kept taking my time they kept telling me hurry. i finally told them to either let me do it the right way or fire me. they choose to push the cars out fast and look like crap so i got let go
imported_gusbubba
New member
^^^^^I've been in a similar situation with similar results. The hardest thing I've had to learn is to put my personal criteria regarding 'quality' on the shelf in order to make a living.
imported_gusbubba
New member
Agreed.....situations differ and it's tough to find a comfortable medium.
I get my 'quality' fix in my own part time business and my reputation is secure. As for the 'hack work'...a means to an end.
I get my 'quality' fix in my own part time business and my reputation is secure. As for the 'hack work'...a means to an end.
solekeeper
New member
Keep it clean, sorry to hear you got let go because of the way the body shop world is. But that's how it is, just get the car done is the goal.
toyotaguy said:
well the car was dropped off. hood removed and had a new bumper that was painted seperately along with hood. then they were installed after paint work and car was buffed by the painter. as for rock chips it had a clear bra yet the rocks still managed to chip the paint. touching up previous rock chip damage takes its toll after so many times.
imported_WhyteWizard
New member
Awhile back I had a friend who worked with me and really knows how to cut and polish cars looking for work, so I found him a job at a body shop, a low end body shop.
Because he was so good, the work being delivered was much better looking than it should have been. He lifted the shop's quality beyond their wildest expectations. The shop got busier and busier because people were getting full paint jobs with swirl free cuts and polish and he was sanding to match the orange peel on repairs so the repairs were invisible - not like they'd been previously where the repaired panel was cut flatter than the rest of the car but had swirls all over.
The shop started making real money and the owner decided to sell. The new owners thought my friend was taking too long so they had him show another guy how to colorsand - not understanding that it takes more than a few lessons to really understand what's going on and to get things right. Then - I'm sure you all know the next part of the story - they let my friend go.
A few month later, the reputation of the shop in the trash, they stopped making the money they had been and were upside down with debt because they'd bought a shop expecting a certain amount of work to come through. When we drive by now we see at a pretty nearly empty shop that used to be full but there's no way we're going to help them out.
Vengeance is a pretty decent organizing principle when all you have to do is sit back and let karma take its course.
Robert
Because he was so good, the work being delivered was much better looking than it should have been. He lifted the shop's quality beyond their wildest expectations. The shop got busier and busier because people were getting full paint jobs with swirl free cuts and polish and he was sanding to match the orange peel on repairs so the repairs were invisible - not like they'd been previously where the repaired panel was cut flatter than the rest of the car but had swirls all over.
The shop started making real money and the owner decided to sell. The new owners thought my friend was taking too long so they had him show another guy how to colorsand - not understanding that it takes more than a few lessons to really understand what's going on and to get things right. Then - I'm sure you all know the next part of the story - they let my friend go.
A few month later, the reputation of the shop in the trash, they stopped making the money they had been and were upside down with debt because they'd bought a shop expecting a certain amount of work to come through. When we drive by now we see at a pretty nearly empty shop that used to be full but there's no way we're going to help them out.
Vengeance is a pretty decent organizing principle when all you have to do is sit back and let karma take its course.
Robert
RaskyR1
Rasky's Auto Detailing
Most body shops still use wool pads for removing sanding scratches....the wool pad is not the issue. The issue is that they simply didn't finish it off properly.