vtec92civic said:
How is the flipping car business? I need to get in to that. Business has been slow i'm looking for what ever i can to make ends meet.
Its actually more of a hobby and the way I am doing it, it works out really well. I do a few cars a year. I like driving something different every now and again so I pick GM cars only, that I like, but retain decent value. I look online till I find something that strikes my eye, what I call a detailers special, and I buy it. I am actually a GM ASE Certified Technician who oddly enough has never worked for GM and has not been a Tech in the last five years. So I purchase these cars, register them, insure them (it costs me a little). In the meanwhile i repair things that need repairing, and work on detailing the vehicle to where it goes from junk to show condition, and when the title comes in a couple months later, I sell it, make my profit and move onto the next toy/investment. I have been doing well, but you have to expect to lose eventually, its really like gambling which unfortunately I like doing as well.
jono20 said:
I agree with both of you. I often peruse the Pro Before/After forum, and it is safe to say, a lot of those cars are PERFECT! Perfect in the sense that they have taken a Makita rotary with a wool pad and 105, and worn the surface of the vehicle down to the bottom of the deepest defect.
That's all well and good.. I'm just worried about them going back next year, or coming to me! I can't afford an ultrasonic paint thickness gauge, when I get a badly swirled, brushed, and webbed car I assume I'm working with factory paint, it's only begun to occur to me lately that maybe, just maybe, I'm not the only person to have ever laid pad to paint on this particular vehicle...
I am having a similar problem with the before and after section of this forum. I aspire to be like all the autopia greats and i am willing to put in the time and effort necessary. I spend hours watching meguiars videos, reading threads on here, and practicing on my older commuter car. Seems though like the pros are the first ones to level a car with M105 and twisted wool, but are also the first to step into a thread like this and tell you not to do it. I want the same results.... I know these guys have been doing this for years... that's what makes them pro's but I can't imagine god gave them special hands and special eyes. I know we are all damaging these cars.... just some of us make it look better than others.... and some of us are quicker to admit it than others.
Below I made a little write up about my experience today.... to cut to the chase, I will be seeing this car again, which scares the sh*t out of me. I did a great job this time according to the owner, but I certainly screwed myself down the road.
vtec92civic said:
I am not a painter but i have been in the modifying car world ever since i could drive. I have had cars painted and been around painters and so on . . . . . so i have a pretty good eye for a vehicle that was in a accident of some sort. A lot of times owners are surprised when i ask them:
has your vehicle ever been in a accident or repainted? They usually all answer no and then when i show them all the sanding scratches they scratch their head like how did those get there or like i busted them. :chuckle:
if you ever are in question about any particular panel step down a pad or two and on the polish as well. The last thing you want is to go through the clear and instead of you making $300 or what ever you might charge you owe them $1,000 for the paint work that now needs to be done LoL.
Brother, this was the lesson of the day. DON'T ASSUME THE PANEL YOU JUST WORKED IS THE SAME AS THE ONE YOUR ARE ABOUT TO POLISH. Sometimes you really can't tell if a panel has been repainted. I will never make this mistake again for as long as I live. If i am compounding the hood and I move to the door, I will step down drastically in what I am using... then I will move back up as necessary.
jono20 said:
Would you say it's always the detailer's fault if the car has been corrected SO much that it simply runs out of paint? What about the ten guys before him? Makes you think that the owners need to be educated a bit on whats actually going on once they drop off the ride.
I agree. I learned today that the ride i just completed had been at a detailer just 3 months ago. This is a limited use vehicle that is garaged! :nervous2: This car was a mess when I got it. I really don't feel all that responsible after learning this information. And that many of the panels where repainted
Auto Concierge said:
Highline II is $225.00(however I just replaced my Highline with a DeFelsko from Phil @DD)if you do not invest in a paint depth gage it is like driving at night with your lights off........ you can do it but..... .
DETAILS PLEASE... BECAUSE IF THIS IS A "QUALITY" ITEM I AM PULLIN THE TRIGGER ON IT!!!! For $225 really there is no excuse not to have one. The one at the dealer I was working for a couple years ago was $2K... big difference!
wannafbody said:
-Gotta resist falling for the "Curse of Autopia" where every vehicle either turns out 100% or it's a failure.(end quote)
True, heavy etching won't come out unless you remove a ton of clear. Even if the owner is gonna ditch the car in a year or two would you want to be the guy who buys a car and a year later the paint is fading or peeling off? Overcorrection seems to be the norm around here.
I agree with your first statement... Its tough being on here sometimes when it seems like everybody else is doing such a high level of work and you aspire to be like them. You look at what your doing and its never good enough.
There are two schools of thought on this though. On one hand you have the vehicle you are a looking to do a good job on, but don't want to see someone get stuck with a car a year later where the paint is falling off if the original owner dumps it .... on the other hand, who are you working for?
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Well, I sure learned a lot today. I am going to move into doing this part time because clearly I am doing decently. I delivered the vehicle today and the owner couldn't be happier with the job that I did. I later learned a couple things about this particular car. They were tossing over the idea of having it repainted anyway because the back bumper was so badly faded and acid etched. I somehow by the grace of god manged to save the rear bumper and not thin the clear out to the point where I can see any differences. The car really did come out great. When I delivered the vehicle and found out this new information I approached it like this... "You were considering a repaint, correct? So the car new looks showroom new with the exception of this small blemish. The car is garaged and rarely driven so you will likely get at least 5 year out of the finish. Maybe no more compounding but certainly a very light polish maybe in a year or so." For the price i charged, I saved them thousands in getting the car repainted today. Also, I was told they took it to a local detail shop that is "highly recommended" in the area just 3 months earlier. This was news to me as it was not previously mentioned although i think I said I suspected it in my first post. Clearly they did a horrible job because the car looked terrible and was thin in random places. Non the less the detail work was horrible and I believe the owner believes my error was a result of their poor quality work. I can roll with that! Anyhow, I have been commissioned to do the rest of there cars....
I did learn a couple of important detailing lessons also.
1. Never assume anything: Just because the hood is rock hard, and the body "appears" original, don't assume it hasn't been repainted. Although good shops are few and far between, they do exist. In this case the paint was soft and already thin... a recipe for disaster
2. If you polish one panel with twisted wool and 3M extreme cut, when you move to the next damaged panel start with a light polishing pad and polish and work your way up once more to compound.
3. I learned to say NO. I will try to rationalize with people and explain what I can an cannot do, but I am not destroying anymore cars... its just to stressful.
I think if I can remember these 3 lessons this will just be a bad memory.
DG
