How far is it aproperiate to take a detail?

R

reshine

New member
Ok, not sure if its the right subforum, or if its an aproperiate question but here it goes:



How far do you take your detail jobs?

By this im thinking of:



A show car, answer should be obvious, to perfection..

A exclusive car (also classics), not daily driven, same as above..

A exclusive car, daily driver, swirls? Sure.. Scratches, if so how much is to much?

A over medium daily driver?

A medium daily driver



Then you can include the following mix, i.e a car i just did myself, a Porsche 911\964 1990 modell with original paint on most of the car, lots of swirls, some deep scratches, LOTS of paint chips around rear wheel arches and in the front.. How far would you take it?



How you understand the point?
 
reshine- Actually, IMO most show/concours cars are *FAR* from perfect, and that makes sense as they're subjected to a lot of abuse. My friends in the Jag Club do a lot of concours competing, and their showcars are a lot more marred up than my dog-haulers. I hardly *ever* see decent paint (marring-wise) at sows.



I decide how far to go based on various factors:



-How far the paint's condition will allow you to go before you (possibly) precipitate thin-paint issues.



-Whether overthinning, and the possible subsequent need to repaint, is a big deal (with some of my bought-used cars, I'll often say that I just can't live with the marring, and if I precipitate a repaint then so be it).



-Related to the above, is original paint a big deal? If so, don't do much correction at all; think long-term (decades). I will *NOT* correct my original-paint '84 RX-7 and '85 Jag for this reason. On some other vehicles, I don't care if I have to get a few panels reshot.



-How will the vehicle be treated post-correction? If it's just gonna get marred up again I won't take it as far as I otherwise might.



I put a *LOT* of emphasis on that last one. I hardly mar my vehicles at all, so I take them a lot farther than vehicles I do for others. If I had to polish every year I wouldn't take them as far. If doing vehicles for others, I find out what they want/expect, and I discuss the issue of overthinning the clear.



Unless it's gonna stay basically marring-free for at least a year, I'd think twice about going for near-perfection.
 
The reason for asking is exactly that, i really dont think you should take cars to far every time you hit it with a rotary\DA..

In the car club im a member of there is a group of people that colaborate on details, and they are misleading others to believe that a car, either its a HOT car or a daily driver should be taken to the limit every time..



Trying to tell them "why take it so far? you know the owner is gona mess up your work again imediatelly?!", but im talkin to deaf ears, and others follows the hype..



Me for my part, listen to the customer; "what do you want, and what do you expect?"



Most of the time, my customers are really really happy with the work i do..

Will be posting pics from the Porsche job soon.. :)
 
Unless it's an exotic that I know I'll be taking care of or one that the customer wants it to be perfect, I stick with one-steppers. I consult the customer and just break it down to them in simple terms... it's a daily driver and it's going to get scratched more, so let's just do a 1-stepper, make it look great and still save enough paint so we can polish it again in the future of necessary.
 
Apollo_Auto said:
Unless it's an exotic that I know I'll be taking care of or one that the customer wants it to be perfect, I stick with one-steppers. I consult the customer and just break it down to them in simple terms... it's a daily driver and it's going to get scratched more, so let's just do a 1-stepper, make it look great and still save enough paint so we can polish it again in the future of necessary.
Click to expand...



exactly and a soccer mom wouldn't want a showcar/flawless finish, but more like a shiny/cleaned up look. it's not worth it to do 100% correction, when you know it's going to get thrashed within a few months from the kids, dogs, etc...
 
I do what time allows. I work hard to keep the paint relatively mar-free. I polish when the paint looks dull.



The honda cr-v made it 3 years from new until this year. This is my wifes DD and kid hauler. 50,000 miles had left the paint needing more than AIO to clean it. One pass with a white pad and OP left the car at 90-95% perfect again, I followed with UF an blue and the paint looks better now than the day we brought it home.



My Ranger was only polished one time by rotary and one other time by PC (very gentile, at that) in the 8 years I owned it. When I traded that one in it went on the dealership's showroom floor. Not bad for an 8 y/o 4x4.



My lighting (garage Queen) was corrected once by PC and rotary, and now I just jewel the paint every year or two. It will get some marring over time, and will probably need a real correction (aggressive polishing) in 5 or so years.



I try to keep all 3 of my trucks at "show car" (or better as it has been pointed out what most show cars are like), mostly by maintaining it when its perfect.



If I was to work on someone else's car, it would probably be a 1-step to make it shine then wax. No need fixing something that will be a mess after 1 wash.
 
I have done some details that go "above and beyond" what I was paid to do... and the customer didn't even notice.



One of the cars I busted my cookies on (a 2001 black Nissan Maxima that needed a lot of TLC.. swirl city and lots of RIDS) looked like it was washed with a brillo pad (he told me took it to a "gas station car wash" and got a "freebie basic wash" because he purchased 8 gallons :eek: ) and the interior looked like a rolling dumpster... just 10 days after I detailed it!



I treat every car as if it were my own... to an extent.
 
I take out all of the swirls and leave the RIDS on most DD and such. Concours show car, perfection.



However, if a customer pays me to take a DD to perfection, I'm not gonna stop them.
 
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