New to detailing

O

offcenter

New member
I have gotten some excellent advice here in the past few months. Everything from QD's to microfiber, charismas, Blitz and Klasse. Now that my car looks great with AIO and 2 coats of SG, here is the bad news. I brought the car in to the dealer yesterday for 5,000 service. I picked up the car, the service was done as requested, the car was washed and I took off. Well, this morning I look at my rear bumper and notice a chip or gouge of silver paint is gone on the lower portion under the license plate area. It looks bad, a black spot on a silver car that is flawless! I went back to the dealer, they agreed to pay for the body shop repair. The chip is about one half the size of a dime but really sticks out. I asked the body shop what they can do and they said they will repaint the rear bumper. I am concerned about overspray, will the paint match, should I tell them I used Klasse acrylic on the bumper? I need your advice, I have an appointment scheduled for next Tuesday, they said I can pick it up Tuesday night. Should I just touch up the chip or have the body shop repaint the entire lower bumper. What are the downsides or things to look out for if I have the bumper repainted. My car is only 6 months old. I am bummed out:( :mad:
 
Silver is one of the hardest to match but luckily your lower bumper has an easy edge and area to paint. It's not like they have to blend in the middle of a door. Even if the paint isn't "perfect" regarding the match of metallic, it will not be noticable. This sounds worse than it is.



I had the lower bumper on my S4 painted when the car was only a few months old. It turned out great.



Don't worry about overspray. Just voice your concerns. What kind of sealant you use is unimportant. They will have to sand the surface anyway. You will have to rewax in about 90 days. Until then use a quick detailer to keep it clean through the winter.



It's a new car (and a cool one at that) I would get it painted. And remember, only accept the car if you are happy with the results. My dealer let me have the car a week so I could be sure I liked the paint in all lighting situations. Then I ok'd payment.
 
Thanks Brad. I appreciate your quick and thorough reply. It certainly has eased my mind. I 'll post a reply after next Tuesday. when the deed is done.:)
 
wow this story is kinda similar to what happened to my sisters care last week. my sister just got a new IS300 say 3 weeks ago. i waxed and detailed for her using some basic meguiars stuff and made it real nice. didnt spend as much time as i normally do on my own car but still put some good elbow grease and time into it.



just last week my sister found out there was a big scrape about 1 inch long an .5 in wide on the passenger rear bumper corner. black plastic is showing completely, paint is totally gone. its barely 3 weeks old and already a scratch. bad thing is we dunno how it got there. 100% sure it was from another person, not own mistake.



well anyways to make a long story short, we r just gona have the dealers shop redo the bumper. dunno if they need to jsut repaint it or replace the bumper. in some ways i think its good that we got it early so we dont have to worry about paint fading not matching up with a newly replaced/painted bumper.
 
Believe it or not guys, the products you are using are going to come right off when the shop hits them with the first of the repainting process.



They will wipe the area with a commercial grease/wax remover and take it right off.



As well, due to the part being a TPO, they will use an adhesion promoter before applying the primer. That really strips!



The color, it's not hard to match. If they have a good PBE that supplies their match paint, they will take the fuel door off and send it down to them.



It goes under a computer scanner that creates the perfect match paint for that car.



Then, with the new high solid material, since the painter can't play with air pressures anymore, the metallic particles will be laid out correctly in the flow and fill coats.



Piece of cake!



Ketch

:bounce
 
Thanks Ketch, you pros are amazing:up :up :up I am going to ask the body shop about all the items you mentioned. Apparently, this shop does work for my VW dealer. They claim alot of vehicles come off the trucks on the way to the dealership with more damage to the bumpers that my nick/chip and they do the repairs for the VW dealer. I hope they don't get p***d off when I ask them questions about adhesion promoters, primer and computer paint match. :cool:
 
Since they do that much dealer work, probably won't even have to take the fuel cover off, have the exact match on the shelf, left over from another vehicle.



They'll do it right, don't worry, if you're not satisfied, they seem to be quality shop and will make it right for you.



Ketch:up
 
<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' >

<em class='bbc'>Originally posted by Brian 330Cic [/i]
<strong class='bbc'>Why not just ask them to remove the bumper and paint it separately?

Brian [/b]</blockquote>
Because that would cost about an additional 1 to 2 hours labor at $60+ per hour minimum. Could require up to 4 hours, would need the Mitchell Flat rate book to know, but it wouldn't be cheap and not necessary.

Ketch:eek:
 
<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' >

<em class='bbc'>Originally posted by Brian 330Cic [/i]
<strong class='bbc'>Why not just ask them to remove the bumper and paint it separately?

Brian [/b]</blockquote>
Brian, I rather not have them remove the bumper. It just means more can go wrong during removal and replacement. If they "bag" the vehicle, I would prefer that to a removal and reinstall.
 
<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' >

<em class='bbc'>Originally posted by Brian 330Cic [/i]
<strong class='bbc'>Why not just ask them to remove the bumper and paint it separately?

Brian [/b]</blockquote>
That's what the dealer did for me at my request. It made for a much better job. The shop manager agreed. And insurance paid.
 
<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' >

<em class='bbc'>Originally posted by Brad [/i]
<strong class='bbc'>

That's what the dealer did for me at my request. It made for a much better job. The shop manager agreed. And insurance paid. [/b]</blockquote>

I have this bad feeling that removing the bumper will lead to other problems like the tailight wiring or trunk lining getting messed up or other parts like hardware not installed correctly. I remember having work done on other cars I owned and there was always something that wasn't perfect after the body shop reassembled the vehicle. Don't they have to disassemble the trunk to remove a rear bumper? I believe in minimal intrusion on a 6 month old vehicle. I don't believe that reassembly will ever match the factory job. Am I being cynical or realistic? I am pretty finicky about my car. I would feel alot better if the vehicle was covered to my satisfaction and bumper masked off.
 
I guess it comes down to the body shop itself.



Before you have work done, make sure you ask them to see examples of the work they have done.



If they are good, they should have completed cars waiting to be picked up. Before they tell you what they did to a car, see if you can spot the repair work. If you can, go elsewhere.



Also, you can call a high end car dealership to find out where they get their cars repaired that are damaged in shipment. Those cars have to be repaired perfectly for them to be sold.



I would still have them remove the bumper so they can paint the bumper fully, if it is still attached to the car, the sprayer may not get into all of the seams.



Brian
 
Thanks for the advice Brian 330Cic and Brad. They removed the bumper to repaint it. I brought the car in yesterday at 8 AM. It was promised at 6 PM. When I called at 3PM, I was told it was still being prepped. Today I picked it up at 2PM. In the sunlight, the bumper look great, excellent color match. Looked factory new, matches the rest of the vehicle.

When I got home and looked under fluorescent lighting conditions which shows every little imperfection, I noticed a few very, very minor imperfections. It almost looks like a few specks of dust got trapped in the clear coat that can only be seen from an extreme angle. I am wondering if I can "smooth" these out after 30 days. I was told that I can use IHG for the first month and can wax after 30 days. The bumper certainly looks better than before it was repainted and had the chip in it and I am sure after a few years the bumper will see some "wear" just from the elements so maybe those little specks won't really matter. If this bodyshop does the bumper repairs for the new car dealers in my area, I guess many people are buying new cars with bumpers repainted anyway- at least from the looks of all the cars in the shop.
 
As a new member to your forum, I must say that their is a wealth of info to be had. I've started searching for a good quality polish/wax to detail (learn) on my own vehicles. Every site I look at naturally states that they have the best polishes on the market. I'm looking for a durable polish/wax that will stand up for a while and a good product for a new person to use. My plan is to purchase the new Porter Cable machine but have no idea what pads to order etc.
I have a black 2006 Honda Pilot which I just got and had a "MING" traetment applied to it to remove fine scratches which it had all over it otherwise the paint is excellent ( no chips etc.) The Ming treatment removed all the scratching and came out a beautiful job. My other vehicles are a silver 2006 Toyota Matrix (wife's car) which we purchased new and the paint is in excellent shape and a tan colored 1995 Buick Le Sabre also with an excellent finish on it.
Also looking for a top quality leather cleaner/ protectant. Any input you can offer will be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Doug
 
For pads I would recommend the lc flat pads. I will usually buy three of each type pad so you can switch off while working. I would buy three orange, three white, and three black to start. If you want to use the pc to apply sealant then purchase one gold pad. For polished I would start with megs 105 and 205. Can't really go worng with that combo for a weekend warrior. For sealant I like the collinite 845iw or the blackfire wet diamond.
 
Hi Doug,
You have found a good detail forum and store , I am pretty new here still too, you will find that the folks around here are helpful and will point us in the right direction.
What will be very helpful is if you can submit some pics of your questioned vehicles, pics say a thousand words...these guys will want to see how much paint correction you need to do so they can point you to the right materials .

I too have recently purchased dual action polishers, the PCXP and the Meguiars v2 polisher , and have yet to get a grip.

The PAC store guys can really help too ! they ship same day which is nice.

Welcome to the Forum ! :biggrin:


Steve
 
Doug, welcome to TID. I hope you enjoy your time here. I think Jokeman's suggestion is very good. They are the three most popular and versatile foams. You can accomplish most of the task you will encounter. You can also purchase them in one of our "Pick Three" or "Pick Six" pad kits and save money.

jk
 
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