Presidential Detailed: Freshly painted EG, almost ruined by a hackjob.

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presidential_detail

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This customer came to me after having his civic freshly painted black, everything was done the right way, the car was completely stripped of everything including glass and seals so that no area was missed. He was then referred by his painter to a "detailer" in the same complex to perform a wetsand/buff on the car. Well, unfortunately he got a hold of the biggest hack I have ever come across. There were severe holograms, swirls, sanding marks that hadnt been completely removed and worse of all he burnt through most of the edges on a fresh paint job!!!

He was well aware that he was getting a service that wasnt up to par once he got the car back and pulled the car into the sun only to find the car looking like a 20 year old car again. He pointed out everything to the guy and he declined any wrong doing, telling him that the swirls are normal for a fresh painted car and they will go away after a month. So he waited a month only to find they are worse and called me up to perform a 50/50 on the hood to show this guy what he was doing was completely wrong. I was able to get the hood looking like it should again and the guy claimed there was no different and trust me it was VERY different! haha! Long story short, the guy didnt even have a legitimate business and I ended up taking on the entire job. I had my work cut out for me!

Are you ready for a nightmare? Keep in mind this cars paint is barely even a month old.

The Hood.
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Roof.
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Rear Bumper
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The painter for some reason shot extra clear but taped off the inner portions, it looked horrible and your eye is drawn straight to the tape line. I later sanded these portions level to reduce the eye sore.
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This is a close up of the roof, if you look deeper into the paint past the circular swirls, you will see straight line scratches. These are sanding scratches that the previous guy failed to remove creating a horrible haze on the entire car.
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Here is where the real nightmare begins,
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Before starting the long buffing process I knew was going to be required on this car, we took out the lights, moldings and anything that was easily removable to make my job a little easier and to get a full correction all the way up to the edges.
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Side Moldings and Skirts Removed.
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The flourescents really brought out the worse of the sanding scratches, bringing them to focus.
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The 50/50 from a few weeks prior that the hackjob declined seeing a difference between what he did and what I did. He must be nuts.
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A quick walk around the car with halogens really lets you see how bad this thing looked in person. Once again, remember this is a BRAND NEW paint job!!
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A close up of the sanding scratches that werent fully removed.
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Knowing that I am going to have to cut into this thing pretty hard to get the sanding marks out I pulled out my Meguiars Red Wool Pad and began to prime it using the KBRM for fast hard cutting results. This combination is VERY aggressive and wouldnt recommend it to anyone without proper experience with a rotary.
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Part of this method is applying M105 to the pad.
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To my surprise, this method even being as aggressive as it was, totally blew away the finish left by the previous guy. I could only imagine he used rocks and a broom to polish this thing! haha! This is only the first step for me, still gets better!
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Here is the passenger door panel untouched..
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Here is the passenger fender after cutting with M105 and polishing with M205.
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Passenger Door before.
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After M105.
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After M205 with camera flash.
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rear 1/4.
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After M105
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After M205.
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Driver Rear 1/4.
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After M105.
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here you find the difference between my very aggressive cutting stage on the rear 1/4 next to whatever the heck this guy did.
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Driver Door After M105.
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Driver Fender Before.
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After M105.
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No more swirls, just LOTS of dust!
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Finally starting to see some depth in the paint again!
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Here is the full hood completed.
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Then moved onto the rear hatch/bumper area with a 50/50.
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amazing work... Too bad the owner didnt take it to you in the first place!
Pretty odd that the painter went through all the work of removing all glass and seal to paint but taped off for the clear on the 2nd time around...

again ,amazing work! :cornut:
 
Mustangous said:
amazing work... Too bad the owner didnt take it to you in the first place!
Pretty odd that the painter went through all the work of removing all glass and seal to paint but taped off for the clear on the 2nd time around...

again ,amazing work! :cornut:
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It puzzled me as well, I dont see why he would do that if everything was removed already.
 
Awesome correction - congratulations on a beautiful save.

It looks like the first detailer wasnt the only hack - the painter was a pretty good hack too.
He must have never heard of "back taping", because if he had, there would have not been any clear lines of paint/clear build-up anywhere. Real painters know how to back tape correctly and spray product so it doesnt build up in the first place.

Either way, thanks for saving this poor guy with the car from total disaster.

If I had ever let anything go out of our shop like that, I would have been fired on the spot. Note this place as one to NOT ever go to for any reason.

Dan F
 
wow, that is unbelievable what that guy did to that car!!

It amazes me that you need a license to drive a car, be a plumber, or even cut hair....but any yahoo w/ a bucket and a buffer can say he's a detailer. If I owned that honda I think I would be using your pics to sue the guy, if not for the refund at least to make sure he is put out of business before he does that to someone else!

absolutely amazing save! can I ask what you charged for that restoration?
 
Great job, Billy!!! What a HACKER this guy was! That's one of the worst messes I've ever seen!

I've seen numerous cars at car shows that have been hacked like that. That's where I get a lot of my business.
 
Awesome work Billy! There is nothing like the mirror shine of a black car that has been sanded smooth and polished to perfection! :thumbup:


So did the owner have you brush touch the burns on the edges? If it were my car it would have been sent back to the paint shop on the detailers tab! :mad:
 
RaskyR1 said:
Awesome work Billy! There is nothing like the mirror shine of a black car that has been sanded smooth and polished to perfection! :thumbup:


So did the owner have you brush touch the burns on the edges? If it were my car it would have been sent back to the paint shop on the detailers tab! :mad:
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The detailer is long gone and never had a business to begin with leaving the owner in a bad spot=no refund. The painter is going to touch up the burnt edges, but the whole situation sucks.
 
presidential_detail said:
The detailer is long gone and never had a business to begin with leaving the owner in a bad spot=no refund. The painter is going to touch up the burnt edges, but the whole situation sucks.
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That sucks for the owner. One could carefully touch up those edges to where they wouldn't be very noticable, but the whole panel really should be repainted.

At least you made the car look stellar! ;)
 
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