Why so many hours?

skibik said:
I did enjoy driving it. I was the same about driving it unless it was clean, but I got burnt out detailing it at mid-point of ownership. I reverted to my old ways and it never bothered as much to driving it a little dirty as did in the beginning.

Kudos to those that do this for a living. I know it is a career I could not do. Not after owning a black car, that was a job in itself.
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I think some people need to understand letting a car get a little dirty is, "OK". It`s a car and you can`t let a machine, no matter how great it is, dictate your life and happiness.

I`m now a year into ownership of my second black car and it doesn`t stress me out a bit. I know it will get dirty and I know I will clean it up and get it looking, "proper" again when time allows. This schedule often is no different than when I owned a gray or silver car. In the winter it gets downright filthy when it`s too cold to wash. In the spring it gets covered in pollen for a few days between washes. The rest of the year it will get dusty and covered in brake dust thanks to autocross events. It happens, and you do the best you can. Even with letting it go some times, any of our cars probably look better than 95% of those on the road...and the other 5% are probably owned by fellow nut-cases like ourselves.
 
Desertnate said:
I think some people need to understand letting a car get a little dirty is, "OK". It`s a car and you can`t let a machine, no matter how great it is, dictate your life and happiness.

I`m now a year into ownership of my second black car and it doesn`t stress me out a bit. I know it will get dirty and I know I will clean it up and get it looking, "proper" again when time allows. This schedule often is no different than when I owned a gray or silver car. In the winter it gets downright filthy when it`s too cold to wash. In the spring it gets covered in pollen for a few days between washes. The rest of the year it will get dusty and covered in brake dust thanks to autocross events. It happens, and you do the best you can. Even with letting it go some times, any of our cars probably look better than 95% of those on the road...and the other 5% are probably owned by fellow nut-cases like ourselves.
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I think it was because it was my first black vehicle(and will be the last) and it was a Camaro. I never cleaned a car so much before I got it. It was my DD through even through winter so it was driven at least 5 days a week, washed just about every Friday until winter set in then it only was cleaned when it was above 20F. I look back now and know I cleaned it at least 5 times more than any other vehicle because it was not only black it was a Camaro and I wanted it to look nice all the time. I think if it was a black pickup I would treat it like any other vehicle I have ever owned, wash it about every 2-4 weeks, wax it 1-2 times a year and would have left it at that. Back to my old ways, I can`t remember the last time I washed the truck, it has been at least 4 weeks, I was going to wash it a week and a half ago and the rain cleaned the thick layer of dust off so I should be good for a couple more weeks. B)
 
Desertnate said:
I think some people need to understand letting a car get a little dirty is, "OK". It`s a car and you can`t let a machine, no matter how great it is, dictate your life and happiness.

I`m now a year into ownership of my second black car and it doesn`t stress me out a bit. I know it will get dirty and I know I will clean it up and get it looking, "proper" again when time allows. This schedule often is no different than when I owned a gray or silver car. In the winter it gets downright filthy when it`s too cold to wash. In the spring it gets covered in pollen for a few days between washes. The rest of the year it will get dusty and covered in brake dust thanks to autocross events. It happens, and you do the best you can. Even with letting it go some times, any of our cars probably look better than 95% of those on the road...and the other 5% are probably owned by fellow nut-cases like ourselves.
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This comes down to a case of how the car is used. If it`s a daily driver then trying to maintain a show car finish is just asking for frustration. Keep it clean and wash carefully and do a full polish and wax once or twice a year. it`s a different case for limited use cars that don`t take a beating.
 
I have had a lot of black cars and even a new Jet Black Bimmer, and paint corrected a zillion more..
They are not hard for me and I use Rotary Power on all of them..
Have seen Jet Black paint so neglected that it had turned a shade of dull gray and was not even black looking at all on the entire vehicle..
The man came back when I was done and swore I switched out 2002 BMW M5`s on him... :)
Having a fully insulated and sheetrocked, painted garage walls, door, and ceiling really helps keep everything much cleaner.
I guess I have this thing for making rolling, black mirrors.. :)
Dan F
 
wannafbody said:
This comes down to a case of how the car is used. If it`s a daily driver then trying to maintain a show car finish is just asking for frustration.. it`s a different case for limited use cars that don`t take a beating.
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I guess having the right facilities to keep things nice makes all the difference, especially in the winter. I don`t have to correct the Dailies for years on end any more than the Garage Queensm but that`s because they don`t get touched between washes and I can always do those washes the way I do.

As long as nobody touches the paint between washes our stay nice indefinitely. Simple as that. But I realize that my situation is kinda, uhm...different and if I didn`t have my facilities there`s no way I could keep things as nice as I do.
 
Stokdgs said:
Having a fully insulated and sheetrocked, painted garage walls, door, and ceiling really helps keep everything much cleaner.
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Guess that explains my situation. Heh heh, I didn`t appreciate the diff a proper ceiling makes until I had one :D No more having to rewash every time something sits overnight during a Detail!
 
I can wash in my garage and my paint doesn`t get touched so I`m in the same boat as Accumulator
 
It’s hot as hell here half of the year, gotta wash in the wee hours of the morning or late at night if you don’t have a garage and a squeegee.
 
Bill D- Oh yeah...your climate, forgot about that. I was thinking about all the foamgun output we create, how it`d be...something...if we were washing outside. I`d leave a *river* of suds in the neighborhood, don`t think I could get away with it for long.

I`ve just *never* not had a floordrain when doing this stuff, can`t imagine how I`d deal with the runoff.
 
My driveway is real wide so I can squeegee the foam out on it and still keep it on my property and off the street. In my 12 years in this house I don’t think the neighbors even noticed once.
 
Bill D said:
My driveway is real wide so I can squeegee the foam out on it and still keep it on my property and off the street. In my 12 years in this house I don’t think the neighbors even noticed once.
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Well, you don`t let yours get a filthy as I do...so I`m probably doing the equivalent of four (of your) washes every time :o Takes me about that many passes on some areas if I`m being nice and gentle.
 
Bill D said:
Wow! Four of my washes in one! Now that’s remarkable!
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Well, if I`m gonna touch it that many times then every contact has to be SO gentle that, well...it`s like they don`t even hurt the dirt. Yeah, the water company loves me, as do shampoo vendors :o
 
Setec Astronomy said:
That orange peel discussion came up a long time ago, before David B sold the forum, when was that, 2010? The way I remember it is that when they started to use the 2-sided galvanized panels the galvanize was not as smooth as the upper panels and the finish did not look uniform, so they WANTED the orange peel to be the dominant appearance so that you couldn`t see the substrate difference between various substrates, which were all slightly different--plain steel, galvanized steel, aluminum, reinforced plastics, etc. IIRC there was some pretty heated discussion about this, I think there was some member who didn`t believe they were doing orange peel on purpose...who was that? Oh yeah, it was me. I believe it was David Fermani that educated us about this, although I`m not sure he provided the rationale, which is why some of us (er, me) didn`t believe it until we researched it a bit.
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I believe it, the lower part of the doors and side panels on my new 2018 Tacoma felt just like the outside of an orange. I complained to the dealer and they told me they all come this way. :(

Apologies for the sidetrack...
 
wannafbody said:
On the lower portions of some trucks it`s intentional. I think there is something textured they apply before painting.
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On some cars too, e.g., the rocker panels of our Audis. Sometimes it`s just a paintable version of the Gravel Guard/Body Schutz stuff underneath the regular b/c paint, other times they use a different type of paint altogether.
 
Mike lambert said:
I’m guessing the average time I spend on the paint, not including decon is about 6-8 hours depending on the vehicle size. As far as if the client wants perfection, if you are a true professional, you would explain to them it is unreasonable to expect that. I get as close as possible without damaging the vehicle. I’m not talking about the damage you mentioned in Jim’s video. I’m talking the average damage seen from a rotary and poor washing.
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Bingo

Your job as a pro is remove the least amount the material while removing the most amount of defects possible.
 
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