Made a huge mistake today, cost me 400 bucks!

joyriide1113

joyriide1113

There is no cure!
Today i had a client drop off his car. trying to perfect his car as much as possible I noticed a small scratch and began to lightly wetsand it with 2000 grit. After sanding the area, I grabbed some extreme cut, OP, and a yellow cutting pad. I don't know what happened as I kept the buffer moving but for some reason, when i finished and wiped everything away, i realized I warped the paint.

This area was on the lip of the rear bumper, right where the trunk lid closes. The damage was not a rotory burn, but warping. It looked like a thumb print with a section of the paint peeled off. This was caused by too much heat obviously.

I immediately called the customer up, had him come by and look at. We then went straight to a bodyshop, got an estimate, dropped the car off, and then went and rented a car for him. His car will be ready by Thursday thankfully and it looks like it all worked out.

The reason I took care of this client soo well instead of just telling him to send me the bill, is because he is a return customer, good person who I have had good chats with, and part of another forum i frequent.

I feel completely foolish and will try never to make this mistake. I have been using a rotory alone without any other machine for 2 years now and have never had this problem. In fact, i had to purposely try to burn a finish before in order to understand what it was (beater car). I feel I took a responsible approach by taking care of it immediately but also question myself now.

Has anyone messed up liek this before? I literally feel like a rotory is a part of my hand since i always have great control over it, but this obviously showed me otherwise.

FLAME ON! :confused:
 
Ouch! :( I bet that wasn't the most fun detail.

Alot more attention should be paid to bumpers or painted bumpers as the paint heats up considerably faster than on the usual metal body panels along with using slower RPMs. Hard to say without seeing the paint / damage but it sounds like there was another issue with the paint that maybe needed attention to begin with (pre detail).

I myself have not had the pleasure of jacking a customers paint as i am just a well (decent:redface:)practiced amateur who only has touched mine and family, friends cars but you did the right thing for your customer who you dearly appreciate the return business. :bigups

Btw, i've seen you're work here and on E90post :bow i'm more of a lurker there. (you still got the X5 or something newer now?)
 
I have a 335i now.

mg031 said:
Ouch! :( I bet that wasn't the most fun detail.

Alot more attention should be paid to bumpers or painted bumpers as the paint heats up considerably faster than on the usual metal body panels along with using slower RPMs. Hard to say without seeing the paint / damage but it sounds like there was another issue with the paint that maybe needed attention to begin with (pre detail).

I myself have not had the pleasure of jacking a customers paint as i am just a well (decent:redface:)practiced amateur who only has touched mine and family, friends cars but you did the right thing for your customer who you dearly appreciate the return business. :bigups

Btw, i've seen you're work here and on E90post :bow i'm more of a lurker there. (you still got the X5 or something newer now?)
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sorry to hear that . i recently removed the decals from my dumptruck getting ready to sell it . after i removed the vinly decals one of them left a mark on the paint. it kinda looked like it etched the clear. any way i went at it with my p/c and polish . and nothing them i tryed a compound and a yellow cutting pad and i got most of it out but i burned the clear:(i couldnt belive i breached the clear with a p/c :wall
 
Real hard call to make but you did the right thing....and a lesson learned....as stated the bumpers and some parts on cars are plastic and a rotary can heat the surface quickly.....so that's the lesson for you...and one that we rotary user face everyday....the other thing to remember and this is the one that I practice all the time...

I rarely attack a scratch with wet sanding...I will make a few passes over it to see how I can use the rotary to reduce it...then if its still there...I leave and point that out the customer when I return the car...I then tell them that I can wet sand that down, but its a additional process, time consuming and not a guarantee that it will go away...I've found that even the most pickiest customers can live with a scratch or two as long as the rest of the car is looking great
 
Accidents can happen to the best of us and you are a stand up guy and a true professional for calling the customer and resolving the issue so quickly.

A perfect example of excellent customer service.
 
It's happened to me twice. Once on a painted front bumper, and once on a painted rear. Only one involved wet sanding, and the other was me not paying attention while on a lip. Both times were with a rotary.

Both time were embarrassing, expensive, and made me angry, but I like you felt better for immediately admitting my mistake and getting it fixed at the body shop of their choice.

Mistakes are easily made on painted bumpers, and I'm sure you KNOW that now.
 
Maybe the plastic don't dissipate the heat as well as metal
I burnt the paint on my Corvette and it was real easy to do.:wall
 
Joy - absolutely straight up handling of the situation and shows true character to affect a great resolution! This is the kind of thing that separates the hacks from the pro's!!! I'm just sorry to hear it cost you so much.

I've had a couple of those myself in the past and worked out immediate resolution like you did. Both customers are still with me. Hey, unfortunately it happens and we chalk it up to the learning curve.
 
Well on a side not, the customer who could have easily called another detailer who is infamous in the forums, decided to ask me if I could finish the detail (i'd probably have to re-do all over again though, I was in my first step of polishing, so there are halos on the rights side.), as soon as it gets out the bodyshop this Thursday, right before a meet on Saturday.

On another note, do you guys know what I eman when I say warping and the whole finger print type damage. I had never seen it before and it just freaked me out when I saw it. I felt humiliated and soo angry.

JOY
 
joyriide1113 said:
On another note, do you guys know what I eman when I say warping and the whole finger print type damage. I had never seen it before and it just freaked me out when I saw it. I felt humiliated and soo angry.

JOY
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I know just what you are talking about....its to bad that you didn't take a pic.....lastly DUDE! stop beating yourself up...these things happen....I've knocked off, broken and burned threw many customers cars over my 30 years of detailing...the way that you handled it was stellar...and the customer should only admire you for it and trust you that much more!.....relax:D
 
my worst mistakes i would never take back. A plus advice. dont go right into yellow and cut. try polish whatever u use. and a polish pad. then go. the buffer has a mind of its own, we can only tame it. always least least aggressive first. great post bout wetsanding from beemer. i always buff first then wetsand then buff. alot times u dont need to wetsand. get 3000 grit an play with that. anyone using the rotary fulltime is always goin mess up. how u handle it and learn is the message. many props to u.
 
Let me add to the suggestions of not beating yourself up over this. Again, you handled it in the best way you could and these things do happen.

I know exactly what you mean by the "smudge" hot paint issue. I did it to my own car and knew exactly what I did when I did it. I did that once and will inevitably do it again but having experienced it once it should be a long time before I repeat that mistake.

Like beemerboy, I've flat out burned through paint in the past and that just plain sucks. I get immediately deflated when it happens.

Again, these things happen to all of us so take some solace in the fact that your not alone. It's how you handled it that impressed me greatly and the same way I handled mine!
 
Pander5 said:
Joy - absolutely straight up handling of the situation and shows true character to affect a great resolution! This is the kind of thing that separates the hacks from the pro's!!! I'm just sorry to hear it cost you so much.

I've had a couple of those myself in the past and worked out immediate resolution like you did. Both customers are still with me. Hey, unfortunately it happens and we chalk it up to the learning curve.
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X2

I had my first burn (moved the paint) this summer.
Customer looked at me and said, "it's just an old truck. It looks great."
 
My mistakes in past 10 years:

1. Burnt small section of trim on Acura MDX (cost $350)
2. Accidently sliced leather seat in Caddilac Deville w/ razor ($50 to fix)
3. Cut through bumper on Honda (Nothing to fix, went more aggressive at owner request even though I told him we should not. He was present).
4. Cut through clear coat while wet sanding many times early on. (Luckily was at dealer's request, and was not concerned at all if I went through).
5. Had check engine light go on after pressure washing engine (dealer again). Just had to reset code.

Lessons learned:

1. Trust your instinct.
2. Do not get aggressive unless the owner is aware of the risks and is willing to accept the risks involved (usually only dealers).
3. Honesty is always the best policy.

joyriide113,

You are an honest guy, and your good reputation is intact. Better to learn a $400 mistake than on a Lambo or a Ferrari where the mistake could cost you a heck of a lot more.
 
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