Tough detail, but well worth it

zesty-man

zesty-man

how do ya like it?
today i probably had one of my hardest details. it was my first actual "mobile detail", and i did it for one of my friends. i met him at a shopping center, and transferred all my stuff into his car, then we went to pick up and drop off his girlfriend, then we went to his house. inside the house was cool, literally, because he had centeral air. but outside..... high humidity, 90+ temps.


as for the car, it was a 96 camry, sorta like a station wagon. it was really really long, and really took a lot out of me. half way through the detail i was really temped to give up, because i was feeling the fatigue. but then we went out to lunch and i was re-engergized again. the car had been neglected for a couple months, no biggie. however, the real biggie is that he is a surfer, so he got some sea spray on the hood. i managed to remove a lot of the oxidation, but theres still very faint mineral spots on there that wont come off (ssr 2.5 and yellow cutting pad). anyways, heres my process.


QEW x2
Claymagic clay (roof/hood)
SSR 2.5 /w cutting and polishing pads
Rejex sealent /w black finishing pad


i wasnt really "impressed" with the result because there were a couple of places that i couldnt do anything with because he had gotten hit, and a couple chips here and there that were really annoying. also, i could have sworn that the owner before him had two parts of his car repainted because the paint was a different shade of white and had a different orange peel pattern. anyways, in the end it was really fun because i fooled around at his house and watching some really funny videos that he made, and starred at his posters, hehe. my friend really liked his car, and his paretns were also very impressed. in fact, his mother said that maybe she would get to work on her lexus (which doesnt go to the beach). sorry no before pics. just after i started the ssr 2.5, i remembered.


first things first, this is the first thing i found in my friend's car as we were picking up his girlfriend. hahaha
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The wagon looks good. Do not be disappointed if the end result was not up to your standard, not all cars will be perfect in the end. In the end all that counts is the customer is happy and satisfied with the work done. Remember the car is Camry not a Show Car.

What do you think of Rejex?

Eric
 
It's always disappointing when you uncover "flaws" or less than perfect body repairs, but it's sometimes even more disappointing (or even shocking) to the owner if they didn't know about the repairs before they bought the car! :ticked

Still, you do what you can. Did you just get the Rejex? If you keep acquiring new stuff at this rate, pretty soon you might have as many waxes and polishes as me! :lmfao
 
Cool work. Looks like it to quite a while to do the work by the shade. How do you like the look of Rejex? I wonder why Ranney put it right away on his page. Yeah white can be disappointing, but mega clean! As DC members there is always room for improvement when we detail, which isn't good at all :lol
 
thanks for the comments guys. the rejex is pretty slick, but not nearly as slick as other sealents. however, i feel that the rejex adds depth, and that its a really good protectant. it may be my imagination, but for some reason dust doesnt accumulate nearly as much on a car coated with rejex vs something else. its pretty cool.
 
lookwise, id give the advantage to FMJ and UPP. however, i think durability wise, the advantage goes to rejex.
 
zesty: Don't get down on yourself, it looks great!

Honestly, sometimes, there is nothing you can do without a repaint. Sometimes it is that bad! I think for a car that age, you really brought life back to it.
 
oh no, it wasnt the repaint that was that bad. the repaint was better than the original paint, it was brighter. so two parts of the car looked significantly different from the other parts of the car, it was very odd. thats what really got on my nerves. at first i thought i had done something wrong, but in the end i convined myself that it must have been repainted, because only a two particular panels had the brighter white than the others.
 
hmmm, well i guess others didnt see how the car actually was... my friend got me two other customers. one was his dad, whom was really impressed at how i worked on it. he said that it looked just as good as the day they got it. now he wants to me work on his lexus gs430 (that car doesnt go to the beach). another customer that my friend got for me was his mom's coworker. after he saw what my friend's car looked like, he wants me to work on his car anytime. not bad if i do say so myself!

however, if i do these cars, i think that means less fooling around. also, that probably means that i have to find methods of keeping myself cool. it got really hot in the afternoon until i finally started working with my shirt off (i brought a couple changes of shirts). do you guys find it inappropriate to work without your shirt on? maybe next time ill bring a fan :)
 
Would you see any professional without their shirt off? Grab shade or a fan. I also change from shoes to sandals after the washing stage. Try to keep heat dispersed and drink lots of fluids!
 
ah, you make a great point, wtih the exception of mr clean dean. anyways, ill try to do that, but if it gets really bad, i think ill be forced to change. it really gets hot here, especailly in december!!!
 
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