Please forgive my not-so sharp photos, I need photo practice and a better, newer camera. Forgive my long-winded narrative too, this is my first “Show & Shine.” This was a detail on an ’02 Ford Explorer, gold metallic for a co-worker after doing an ’07 Toyota Camry for another co-worker a few weeks ago. He brought it over Thursday evening to be returned Saturday afternoon. Neither the owner nor I knew the gold paint was metallic. The car was very, uh, dirty. The inside had sunflower seed husks, old candy, a melted Snickers, and other assorted….uh….stuff all over. It had red clay in the wheel wells, on the wheels, the bottom half of the car, and on the bottom part inside doors. I took it to the local $3.99 tunnel wash first to get as much clay off as possible and save my equipment and supplies from getting dyed and ruined by the red clay. I also vacuumed the inside at the car wash as well as I could without a crevice tool to get the narrow areas. When I returned home, there was still red clay but not as much as before. I pressure cleaned all the above spots with my re-built $99.00 1700 psi Karcher. I also pressure cleaned the 4 mats, then sprayed Folex on the bad spots, re-pressure cleaned the mats, and hung them to dry overnight on a retractable clothes line I installed in the garage. I popped the hood and pressure cleaned the engine bay, sprayed Blue Coral APC & Degreaser all over the engine, let it dwell about 5 minutes, wiped down with a terry cloth towel, rinsed with the pressure cleaner, then dried everything with an electric leaf blower. I sprayed CD2 in the engine bay and left the hood open to let the solvents in the CD2 evaporate for about ½ to an hour while I Shop-Vac’d the rest of the interior with a crevice tool and cleaned rubber seals and vinyl with Meg’s #39 and the APC. I dressed all the interior vinyl and rubber with 303 on a terry applicator and buffed with a MF. I then closed the hood and went inside. It was now late and dark. The next morning I set up my (2) Quick Shade 10’ x 10’ canopies on my driveway and parked the Explorer underneath. I opened the hood, slightly wiped some plastic engine bay parts and hoses to smooth the CD2 finish, and this is how the engine bay looked: (I didn’t think to take a “before.”) I then clayed all the paint surfaces with Meg’s white clay using Meg’s QD as the lubricant. In my limited detailing experience (6 cars so far), this was the roughest feeling finish of all six. Usually the claying takes me maybe ½ hour; this car took about an hour or so to get the paint feeling glass-smooth. I then used Meg’s APC with a terry towel on the gray plastic cladding on the bottom half of the vehicle, and used a toothbrush-like grout brush on the many portions of the cladding that were stained white from a long ago waxing. I also used the APC via a terry on the black vinyl (plastic?) roof rack and the inside of all 4 doors on the bottom. I used the APC with a long-handled Black Magic tire brush (Big Lots) on the wheel wells, a curved-head brush (Walmart) on the tires, and a Quickie wheel brush (bought at Target) on the wheels. I rinsed it all off and dried the wheels. I then applied Duragloss 501 to all 4 wheels, then went back around and buffed off the 501 with a terry wash cloth. I sprayed the wheel wells with Black Magic Pro Shine Protectant, sprayed the tires with Meg’s Tire Foam aerosol and wiped the overspray from the wheels. This is the result: Now on to the exterior body. I wasn’t going to polish the whole car due to time and $$ constraints, and the swirls were hardly if all noticeable due to the color of the paint. I used Meg’s #80 with a yellow Meg’s polish pad on my new Makita rotary but only in certain spots that, in my opinion, needed it the most. This was my first time with a rotary and at one point, I lost my nerve and brought out the PC. I used the PC on a few spots, then found my nerve and went back to the Makita on the rest of the spots. I rinsed the car, blot dried it, and than hand applied DWG with a terry applicator, rubbing it in about a 2’ x 2’ section at a time, then buffed it off with an MF towel, one section at a time. It was at this point I realized the gold paint was indeed metallic flaked. After the whole car was DWG’d and buffed, I applied a coat of Ultima UPGP. The car was looking fine! At this point, I stopped for the day to let the UPGP cure, and I’ll finish tomorrow. I pulled the car from under the canopies so I could put them away for the night. Suppose a breeze overnight would cause the canopy to scratch the car? No way am I taking that chance. I took a few pictures of the yet unfinished job in the dimming sunlight: The black spot on the ¼ panel above is a fly. The next morning, I set up the 2 canopies and parked the car underneath. I applied another coat of UPGP, and did all the exterior glass with Stoner’s IG. I lifted the rear hatch to get in the rear to apply some 303 to the inside rear plastic. A small problem. The rear hatch fully opened would contact the top of the canopy. OK, I thought, no problem. I’ll lift it slowly; let it rest on the canopy, no big deal, right? WRONG!!! While the hatch was in the upright position contacting the canopy, I applied the 303 inside and buffed it. When I slowly closed the hatch, with an MF in my hand because I’m SO careful, I saw an inch long SCRATCH in the paint of the hatch, caused by the vehicle moving a bit when I buffed the 303 inside! I went from pure elation, feeling like “Yes, I’m a real detailer,” pride in a fantastic looking detail, to a feeling of pure dread, my heart sank to the pit of my stomach. This scratch was so obvious, so horrible, I ruined the car! Now what do I do?? Shooting myself crossed my mind. I was in a daze. My wife, ever the calm one, took me to Autozone to get touchup paint. “So, you’ll touch it up! What’s the big deal?” she said, more confident in my abilities than I was. I’ve never used touch-up paint. Don’t you have to wet sand to make it look good? I’ve never wet sanded. Kill me now. Well, I picked up a bottle of Ford B2 by Duplicolor at Autozone. The salesman added to my dread by telling me that although close, these Duplicolor touch ups hardly ever match the color exactly, even though the label does say Ford B2. My wife picked up a can of Duplicolor generic metallic gold spray, saying that the cap color looks just like the Explorer. I bought them both. Back home, trying to remember everything I ever read on touching up and wet sanding, I trepidly cleaned the scratch with alcohol. I chose the small bottle of B2 to use as opposed to the spray, because the bottle says B2! It HAS to match! The spray can is generic gold. How could that match? I dipped a wooden toothpick in the bottle, and carefully dragged the paint-soaked toothpick along the length of the inch long skinny scratch. OK, it was filling the scratch. So far so good. I went to the back of the garage and nervously smoked about 44 cigarettes while the paint dried. About 20 minutes later, I went back to look at the car. It looked worse!! The paint didn’t match, it was a lighter color, and one could now see the scratch from about 100 yards away!! Where’s my gun?? My wife suggested we try the spray paint. I acquiesced, thinking it couldn’t get worse than it already is. She went in the house and returned with 2 eyeliner paint brushes, the skinniest paint brushes I ever saw. I shook the spray paint can for about 2 minutes, and sprayed some into a cap from a another paint can. I had broken the gold Duplicolor cap by prying it off with a screwdriver, which then cut my finger causing it to bleed. I was a mess. My wife dipped her eyeliner paint brush in the paint I had sprayed into the cap, and proceeded to lightly paint the scratch over the touchup I had previously done. I couldn’t watch. I stood with my back to her, bleeding onto a paper towel I was holding on my cut finger. I was totally useless at that point. Finally, some minutes later, she asked, “How does that look?” I turned around and looked. It matched! Although one could still see that there was a scratch, at least it was the same color as the rest of the car! The generic gold metallic matched better than the touch up paint with the same B2 number as the Ford paint code of the car! I started to feel a little better. The paint in the scratch was slightly higher than the surrounding paint, but it matched. Bless my wife! I had some 2000 grit 3m paper in my supplies. I threw it in a bucket of water and let it soak awhile. I read that somewhere. I framed the scratch with painters tape, getting as close to the scratch as possible. I sprayed the scratch with water, and lightly started sanding along the scratch. I read somewhere, maybe Megs forum, that was called “feather sanding.” I’ll just sand enough to get the touch up paint the same level as the surrounding clear coat, and it’ll be good to go! Yeah, right. I gently sanded along the scratch, within the framing of the painters tape, while constantly spraying with water, till the touch up paint looked level. I blotted the water off and inspected it. It looked horrible again! I had sanded her matching paint down to the right level, but that only re-exposed the darn B2 paint I had first applied, which was a lighter color. I fought the dread down, which was trying to overtake me again. My new plan: I decided to continue wet sanding the scratch, down a small bit, and then have my wife apply the generic gold metallic paint, and I’ll then gently sand it level. Then I’ll point it out to the owner, and offer to pay for a professional to fix it. Oh well. With that decision made, I calmed down, and continued wet sanding, gently, spraying water constantly. I brought the level down a notch. My wife added some paint with her miniature brush, and I gently wet sanded that after it dried. When I felt I did the best I could, I stopped sanding and pulled the painters tape “frame” from around the scratch. Now the small area was level, the same color, but loaded with 2000 grit scratches. Part II tomorrow with more pics. I must go to bed. I have to get up at 4 AM. Only me and Cooter are up at that time.
Wow talk about going to both ends of the emotional spectrum. Hope everything works out for you and you will probably find that the owner is a lot less devestated than you are.
Man, your heart must have sunk when you noticed what you did. At least you worked at fixing it and decided to be honest with the customer. On a side note, you could write entertainment columbs. The way you told that story was rather candid.:giggle:
I probably would have asked the owner if I could attempt to fix it instead of just doing it, but I'm sorry you were in that predicament.
Thanks. It was an emotional roller coaster for me. (And one bloody finger). Glad to help! Glad I decided to tell him. It made me calm down....a little. Thanks. I was shooting for some entertainment value too. My thought was, I messed it, I'll fix it. More synopsis and pics later tonight. I'm determined to make it worthy of Show & Shine!
Continued from first post above: I put a small glob of Meg’s 105 on a terry washcloth and hand-scrubbed the 2000 grit scratches till the 105 appeared dry. I flipped the washcloth over to a clean side and removed the 105. Oh my! Not only were the 2000 grit scratches gone and buffed to a shiny finish, but the original scratch that caused my heart palpitations was barely visible! One had to know where to look to see it. Unbelievable. I applied some DWG with a terry applicator over the area, working it in and then buffed the area with a clean MF. My wife, feeling confident with the touch-up paint and her tiny brush applied the touch-up paint to an area on the rear bumper that was scrapped down to the black primer. She didn’t build it up to the level of the surrounding paint, she just made the black scrape the same color as the rest of the body paint. I applied another coat of UPGP to the whole car. I sprayed AquaWax in and around all interior jams and doors buffing to a gloss with a MF. Just for good luck, I applied AW to all of the gray plastic cladding on the bottom half of the vehicle. All glass and mirrors inside and out were cleaned with Stoner’s IG. I stepped back to look at the job as a whole. Looking good! I focused in on the scratch I had made. Looking good too! When the customer/co-worker came to pick and the vehicle and drop off some money, , I showed him my “freebie” of the touch-up on the formerly black scrape and told him of the scratch I made and my attempt to repair it. I told him I’m no expert at touch-up; I just did the best I could on both locations. He said, and I quote, “Looks good. Don’t worry about the scratch. You can’t even see it until you’re up close. And thanks so much for touching-up that black scrape.” He paid me and drove away, waving happily. Relief! I was ready to pay to have it professionally repaired. It was like JL Detailing said above; I was way more devastated than he was. And that’s the story of my success/catastrophe/success. Not only did the detail/ordeal turn out terrifically, but I learned how to wet sand in the process. :applause2: He called me a few hours later while I was indisposed and unable to answer the phone. He left no message but I saw his number on the caller ID afterward. I was worried about this. Despite his initial reaction and lack of care about the scratch/repair, I thought he might get home, look at it again, change his attitude, and not only demand to have it professionally repaired, but even worse tell everyone how I ruined his car and what a terrible detailer I am. I called him back, expecting the worse. But he wanted to tell me again how fantastic the car looked and his neighbor saw it and wants me to detail his car! Thank y’all for reading this, and I’d like to show some before and after pics. Now I wish I had taken pics of the scratch before and after, but at the time I was in no condition to even think about pictures. Before/after: Before/after: Before/after: Before/after: Before/after: Before/after: Before/after: Before/after: Before/after: Before/after: Before/after: Before/after: And one more after:
Nice work. Glad to hear everything turned out great. Referals rule!! I detailed an Eddy Bauer Explorer earlier this year, and the wheels arches and door jambs on these things trap a TON of dirt.
See I told you so!: Great job and really glad everything worked out for you. Again the Explorer looks better than new! Now clean out that garage and you won't need that tent again.
Yup, ya told me! Even if I emptied everything out of that garage, and I was able to squeeze that Explorer in there, there wouldn't be room to move around it. I can get 1/2 a small car in there, work on the front, then turn it around and work on the back. If I knew then what I know now, I would've bought a house with a GIANT garage!
wow well done, what a way to start off. Sorry to hear about the scratch but glad to hear that everything worked out at the end. Pictures look great and the end results are very nice, job well done if you ask me :thumb: Thank you for sharing, I enjoyed the write up :thumb:
Thats the BEST way to get business. People see your work and the difference b/t it and the generic carwash "detail" they offer, AWESOME STORY!!!
