What is the 1 thing you hate when detailing

I hate cleaning wheels and taking off the wax.

 

Removing wax is the best part. Stand back and enjoy your labor of love. I hate interior windows.

 

Washing the vehicle,hands down.Foam gun or not.

 

polishing roofs is the worst for me

that or the low panels on lowered cars

 

Originally, I said I hated tall vehicles, esp. SUVs. And that's true. But, I've changed my mind. My least favorite thing in all of detailing - maybe in all the world - is...

Polishing my CCW wheels.

:doh: If I had it to do over again, I'd get them clear anodized. I've basically given up any hope of making them look as perfect as they looked when I first got them. Either there's something I don't "get" about polishing bare aluminum, or it's impossible to do without special equipment.

Half my fingertips are bruised from working around the freaking fasteners that hold the two rim halves together. Hate, hate, HATE polishing those things.

 

the owner showing up to "Watch".

Its like there is a three year old there

Why are you doing that?
What does that do?
What does this stuff do?
and on and on

 

Oh man, I forgot about that. Seems like it causes me to take twice as long when the owner is around to chit chat.

 

^^^Bingo!!

Interiors would also be mine too. Takes a long time. I'm hoping this steamer will help speed up the process.

 

I hate interiors. So many surfaces to cover and their is no scientific approach to it like in paint correction. That annoys me, but like I say interiors make or break the detail job.

 

krshultz -

it's a fact of iife with high polished wheel halves. Rain, morning dew, etc.

Sealing the crap out of them helps but IMO, draws away from the optically clearness of it. Others have sweared x product does not film over....but I have tried everything and it does take a bit away from the high polished.

BTW, what metal poiish are you using. my go to metal polish is a oldie....has been purchased by another company, may have folded but I LOVE LOVE LOVE this polish. Heavy Metal Polish. Both the fine cut (in which I primarily use) and the medium cut. Flitz will always be in my backup stash along with assorted others, but I ALWAYS GRAB the Heavy Metal when I'm getting dirty to polish !

 

Undoubtedly my least favorite thing in detailing, heck the entire world as we know it, is doing interiors. I would absolutely kill to have all my details be exterior only jobs!

 

Interiors, rear windows..lol. I also hate when you are all done and you realize you missed something like the trim around the windows and you get product on the freshly polished and waxed car..lol..gawd I hate that!

 

Yeah...no kidding. These wheels were built to order, and it took a couple different versions to get them properly sized. When they finally showed up in the correct configuration, after a two month long process, they were polished, rather than clear anodized. And I thought they were beautiful. "How hard can it be to keep after these?" REAL hard! :yikes:

I gave up on sealants and waxes. The high dollar Swissvax Autobahn stuff left them nice and slick, for about a week, or until the next autocross. I think the heat, and the huge amount of brake dust, gets to LSPs in my situation.

I've been using Mother's Mag and Aluminum, and, more recently, Wenol. The Mother's stuff is more aggressive than Wenol is. I hit them first with the Mother's stuff, then with the Wenol. Wenol claims to leave a "protective coating," but it doesn't hold up.

If you find a place that still has this Heavy Metal stuff, I'd certainly like to try it. I'll try just about anything before I pony up the money to ship them back to CCW and have them refinished.

Funny story about JL and interiors. The first time we worked on a vehicle together was at his house this past winter. He was very willing to "let me" work on the interior of this Suburban while he did other stuff. Huh. I wonder why. :lol: I actually like doing interiors, mostly because I agree with dsms. It's super important.

 

Heavy Metal Polish won't solve the problem though...it's just MY favorite metal polish.

I'm not sure how deep your lip is, but there are pro/cons to clearcoated vs. not----depending on the roads around you. Roads around my way are pretty shitteeee and the clear would be cracked/chipped sooner than not.

Uncoated wheels you can always repolish. The problem is that they are so ~hydroscopic~ ---if the wording is right. I may be off but it's something along the lines that the more high polished they are, the more hydroscopic it is.

YMMV and you can try sealants.

I have tried them and while they do make them less hydroscopic.....to me, it definitely added a slight film/cloudiness on various levels... Between morning dew, and just any moisture that touches the wheel, you are guaranteed a never ending battle keeping them where you like it.

It's a different story if it's just a weekend car. But anything more than that....yes, I feel your pain.


ALOT of folks have recommended sealants and swear by them. I have not come across one that I liked ontop of after a high polishing.


I suggest you just have a local shop clearcoat it.

Another option, in which alot of motorcycle heads swear by....slight cult following is a product called Zoopseal.

 

I hand wash and rinse all of my pads and paint towels. It takes so incredibly long to do I really would just hire someone to do it. I feel the compulsion to inspect everything about them when im washing and rinsing. My hands are so sore and close to raw from being in the water for hours that I almost get blisters...stupid addiction

 

So far I can't say I hate anything about detailing. My experiences have been very enjoyable. Detailing my car definitely has a calming affect on me. I love spending time outside with the car. It's too bad that winter is lurking ahead... That being said, all I do is maintain my car and maybe my parents and/or my girlfriends ride. I'm not a pro who has to deal with detailing on a daily basis.

Also, I've only had two major detailing sessions - ever - where I did the full wash, clay, polish, polish, wax, thing so I haven't had much time to develop a hate for any one aspect of detailing.

BUT, if I had to say what I dislike the most, it's probably getting all of the damn dust off the car after a nice long polishing session. Next time I'm just going to bring the car out and wash it before I apply the LSP!!!

Oh wait - I do hate one thing...TAPING. I hate taping!

I've seen a lot of people mention interiors. For some reason I don't mind doing it. Maybe because I don't do it as often as the exterior and I don't let my interior get that dirty. The only thing that needs to be seriously cleaned in my interior is the floor mats. I rarely have any passengers in the back - I don't even use the back seat just to keep it clean! (Everything goes in the trunk). Whenever I see a little dust or something on my dash I just take a Meguiar's Interior Detailing wipe and give it a quick sweep. Same thing goes for my seats after the gym. I always wipe them down. I sweat bullets and even though I use a towel on my seat to absorb the sweat, some always manages to get through, soak the armrest, shift boot, whatever. It's the everyday maintenance that saves me from the huge interior hauls...

 

I hate interior as well ....

 

Clients who you inform that their car will take 3-5 days and after two hours on the car, his wife comes out and says, "Are you almost done?"

 

I'm changing my answer. :lol:

Low cars. I hate them. Not "lowered," but low slung. Today's subject was a 1970 Porsche 911. A family heirloom that had been repainted to a very high standard a couple years ago, I was called by the owner to make it look as good as possible for a huge PCA show this weekend. I was rather flattered. Anyway, the "hood" (trunk, really, since the engine is in the back) is long and low, positioned in such a way that I could neither kneel or stand up. "Perfectly wrong." I was stuck bending over it with my lower back, mostly to avoid the fenders, which are higher than the hood on a 911. I didn't feel too bad while working on it, but now that I'm relaxing at home, I can tell I'm going to be REALLY sore tomorrow and Saturday.

Still...it was worth it. The guy was beside himself. At one point he thought he'd found some marks on the roof. Turns out, it was a reflection of some dead bugs trapped in the light fixture in his garage. That made me chuckle. :giggle:

 

The start of a detail job. It seems to take forever to get going!