JLs Detailing: Suburban (Destroyed!)

Well I go over to a friends house for a New Years Eve party and she is telling me her horror story she had with a local body shop. Seems that her Dad had scraped down the passenger side of her Suburban when he was up visiting one weekend. Well she took it to what is suppose to be a good body shop in our town. Well it used to be back in the day but lately has left a lot to be desired. Well she says that when she got it back the first time some of the plastic pieces were not even installed and they rummaged in the back and found them and came out to the parking lot to put them on. In the meantime she noticed several spots on the paint and asked about them. She was told that after painting some of the paper blew up on the paint and they pulled it off and figured it would be ok. Red flag number one.

Well she demanded a repaint and after the second one it still wasn't right. So they reluctantly went after it a third time and when she got it back she was really frustrated and asked me to look at some really gray spots on it. Well I went and looked at it and it was full of buffer trails and wet sanding marks that had never been removed. I really couldn't believe how bad it was and that wasn't even under the halogens. She asked if she was right to not be satisfied and I said absolutely. She was really frustrated now and said she doubted that it would ever be right. I told her, "I can make it right if you want me too." Well she jumped at it and said she would just withhold my fee from their payment. When she went to pay the body shop she told them she was withholding part of their payment so someone else could fix the Suburban. They reluctantly went along with it and told her she was just one of those people you couldn't satisfy. Well you look at the pics and see if you think she is that type of person or if she had a real beef.

This will be a little different from most of my show and shines as my pics don't follow the same pattern. I guess since this was my first full weekend detail it kind of threw me off my photography game. Couple that with it was pouring down rain when I finished Sunday evening and my after pics didn't follow my befores so I just had to make do. I let her see it Sunday and pick it up Monday. I planned to go by her house and get some sun pics on Tuesday and it freakin' snowed!! Man I hate snow. Well here's what I did:

Tires/Wheels/Wells: The wheels got Megs Wheel Brightener and a variety of brushes. I used a lug nut brush, green foam finger pocket, and EZ Detail brush. For the tires and wells they got the ol' standby Majestic Solutions Super Green Stuff at 2:1 in a Solo 418 handheld pressurized sprayer, and some of the brushes I got from Home Depot. The tires were first dressed with Megs Hyper Dressing @ 1:1 with a CGs tire applicator. I then dressed them with the same method with another TW tire applicator and a beta of Tropi-Care tire dressing. I got this sample from Dust2Glory to try out and I must say I really like it. It looks almost identical to Swissvax Pneu. I mean its so close its scary. I will be buying some of this soon. Wells were dressed with my combo of MS Mr. Natural/Megs ASD.

I then coated the wheels with MS Enviro Shield. This is one product that I am 100% sold on. This product is a great protective coating on wheels, glass, and exhaust. It does well on paint too but my testing is flawed because I tried it on my Jeep and Mustang that already have LSPs on them. This stuff makes cleaning wheels an absolute breeze. I mix up 3 oz of Enviro Shield in a gallon of demin water and put it in a Solo 418 handheld pressurized sprayer. While the wheels are wet spray them down and let them sit for a couple of minutes then rinse off and dry.

Engine: I gave the engine a quick rinse with the CR Spotless system and sprayed it down with MS SGS. There was a lot of dirt in just about every crevice there was so I agitated it and re-rinsed. I dried most of the water with a leaf blower and then sprayed the engine bay down with Megs HD @ 3:1. I cranked the engine and let it run for about 20 minutes and it turned out great.


Wash: Well when I got this it was 9 degrees outside so I decided to work in my heated garage until it warmed up some outside. I gave it an ONR wash so I could start polishing. I washed all the painted parts using ONR and some warm water! I had the garage all nice and toasty so it wasn't bad at all. After all the polishing I was able to pull the Suburban out in the drive way and break out the foam cannon and do my thing.

I went with the foam cannon with 1 oz of another Tropi-Care beta product. This time was their Citrus Wash and 1 oz of CGs Citrus Wash Clear and 1 oz of CGs Strong Wash. I had used the Tropi-Care Citrus before by itself and the only drawback to it was it didn't foam as much as I like. It foamed up just not as much as I prefer. It does however clean better than any soap I have ever used bar none and that of course includes CGs CWC. When they make the formula that foams more I will be buying it by the gallons. I used a boars hair brush and a rinse bucked with a grit guard. The bugs got CGs Strong Wash @ 4:1 in a Solo 418 handheld pressurized sprayer, and a Majestic Solutions bug sponge. The entire wash including wheels and engine were done with the CR Spotless System. The car was then dried with the leaf blower, and a Vroom drying MF.

Clay: Well I clayed it after the ONR wash because I was going to be going right to polishing. Well my mainstay for clay has become the Bilt Hamber and this detail was going to be no different. Man I do love this clay better than any other clay I have used. I used the regular and decided to put it in the bucket of warm ONR water. Water was used as lube (man I love that) and after a good claying the paint was feeling silky smooth.

Glass: Glass inside and out got Sprayway Glass Cleaner. I used a MS blue huck window towel to apply and a Walmart WW to buff off. The outside of the glass was treated with MS Enviro Shield. This stuff is as good if not better than Aquapel on windows.

Trim: All trim got Stoners Trim shine.

Rubber Weather Stripping/Door Jambs: Well krshultz had given me a product he picked up at Majestic Solutions by Wurth. It was Wurth Rubber Care and contained no silicones. I sprayed it on the rubber weather stripping throughout the car and wiped it down with a TW yellow foam applicator. I cleaned the door jambs with a mixture of MS SGS and CGs Total Green Clean in a pressurized sprayer while washing. I used a Swissvax brush and rinsed with the pressure washer.

Interior: I cleaned all the plastic, vinyl, and leather with Majestic Solutions Leather and Vinyl cleaner. She has two small kids so the interior showed some wear along with a gaggle of animal crackers! After cleaning everything I protected all the rubber and vinyl with Lexol Vinylex. The more I use this stuff the more I like it. I vacuumed the carpets and treated several stains with MS Carpet Spotter HD. It cleaned all the stains up extremely well. I shampooed and extracted the floor mats.

Paint: Ok here's where the fun began. After washing I put the halogens on the passenger side and was like :yikes:. It was much worse than I expected. I truely could not believe that a place of business would let a car leave in this condition, especially when a guy knowing what he was doing with a buffer could fix it. I took some paint gauge readings and got readings of 120-140 microns on all panels that still had factory paint. Now on the repainted side I got reading ranging from 250 microns to 900 microns! I thought the reading was 397 microns on one panel but after looking at it a second time it was 897!

Well I had received my Scholl Concepts polishes from my man Pirex earlier in the week and this was the perfect job to use them on. I started with S17 on a SC blue pad (like a LC orange pad) and it wasn't getting it so I moved up to SC S03+. This is like Menz Power Gloss but it doesn't dust near as bad. I used it with an orange lo pro pad, and my Metabo @ 1800 rpms, and it did a great job. Now let me assure you this polish will leave some beautiful holograms, but it will correct like crazy. I did the entire car with this. The passenger side was destroyed by the body shop but the rest of the car had the usual swirls from poor washing and the such. I would think that if I had messed her car up that many times I would have buffed the entire car for her just for customer service.

Well after the S03+ I went with Scholl Concepts S30. This stuff is the very best polish I have ever used. It is like 106ff on steroids! It cleaned everything up and left a phenomenal shine. I had debated using S40 after this but there was no need. I used it with my 3M white pads and my Metabo at 1500 rpms. Next up was DG 501 on all but the passenger side. I followed that up with DG 105 on everything but the passenger side too. I didn't do anything to the passenger side as far as LSP because it was just too soon and I didn't want the body shop to have anything to say if something went wrong. So come March I'll get it back and wash it and protect everything then.

When she came to see it on Sunday she was absolutely thrilled. She loves this car and kept saying it looked better than the day she bought it. You could say she should have gone to another body shop here in town but that just might not be an option. You see the girl that baby sits for me had her car fixed at the other body shop in town and when she picked it up she sent me a text that said "I just picked up my car from the body shop and it needs you because it looks like shit!" Oh well another customer for me. Oh and the girl says she is taking some of the pics posted below back to the body shop to show them how it should have looked when she picked it up!

How it looked when I got it:







Body shop hack job!

















A couple of 50/50s (the owner really loves these)




Afters:



































And yes I know there was a couple of spots left in the cupholder. I had to go back after seeing the pic and use a screwdriver to get those out as they were so crusted and hard!

 

DAMN!!!!!! Talk about NIGHT AND DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AWWWWWWWWWESOME job!!!!

 

Wow, very nice! You got me interested in trying out Scholl stuff now....

 

Great job JL, that must have been fun to correct.

 

You should enter this in the monthly competition. You did a fantastic job turning that around. What an appalling state to leave a car in, how the hell do they think they can get away with something like that. 900 Microns! What did they use friggin glass as clearcoat?

 

Amazing detail JL! Looks like I'll be adding MS Enviro to my future MS order and will look forward to those Tropi-Care products.

 

Wow, is that the same suburban??? haha damn good work sir

 

Awesome work man as always and a great write up

 

Well done there JL :applause:

I agree those 50/50 shots look great :thumb:

Glad to hear the owner of the vehicle was pleased, but with results such as those 50/50 pictures it would be very hard to not be pleased well done.

 

Thanks man just trying to get my game up to your level.

The Scholl Concepts polishes are awesome I love everyone of them that I have used. Just ring up Pirex and he can hook you up.

It was like correcting a 40 acre corn field, lol! A lot of real estate but fun to get the results.

Those were my comments exactly. I just could not believe how poorly the job was. And to think they told her she just couldn't be pleased. Hell I think Maaco could have done a better job.

I am totally sold on the Enviro Shield. It makes wheel clean up a breeze and its dead easy to use.

Thanks bro, it certainly looked like a different Suburban when all was said and done.

Thanks sal!

When I showed her the 50/50s she said print those out for me because I'm going to carry those to the body shop! She went from feeling frustrated and desperate to being highly pissed off that they tried to make her out to be the problem.

 

Damn. :worship2:

Seriously, that is absolutely shocking that a body shop owner would look at that work, and say to himself, "Yep...that's a job well done!" I know body work is hard to get right, but seriously...come on now!

Good for her - and good for you - that she knew who to take it to to make it right. I wonder what went through the mind of the body shop owner when he saw those before and after shots! Wow - Scholl SC03 and an orange pad at 1800...that's pretty stout stuff.

Really a hell of a job JL, I think this may be your best work that I've seen. Just amazing. Now, you've got one thing left to do...tell her to stop washing the thing with a brick! Or, maybe not...if she keeps using the brick, she'll keep bringing it back to you!

 

Fantastic job JL, great to see the SC doing it's stuff

 

I really can't believe that "pros" are doing that. Great comeback!

 

You did a great job. How long did it all take you?:thumb:

 

Very nice work! Those 50/50 door shots are insane! Should send those pics to her bodyshop!

 

Very VERY NICE job JL! That car was really bad huh, love the 50/50 shots Can`t imagine the reaction of the owner when she picked it up!

Great to hear you liked the new Scholl concepts polishes, S3+ rocks my world

 

Great job JL.....i see they didnt even paint the door handles so they would match...thats poor quality at its best.....i have alot of body shop experience and i can say that it doesnt take much more effort to do the job right but most body shops do not realize that....couple that with lazy help (ts almost impossible to find good body shop help) and the insurance companies low ball figures on EVERYTHINgG its really difficult to put out stellar work each time.....

i do some polish work for a local body shop on the higher end stuff and his guys get pissed that he calls me in on certain cars...he straight up tells them that if they stepped up their game and did the job i did he wouldnt have to...they piss and moan and dont change a thing....i even gave a little class there one saturday on how to properly polish a car....they simply just dont care...most body shops its all about the production numbers...the more cars that went out the door in a week the better....SAD....

 

Great turn around there JL. I have been eyeing the scholl for awhile. Its about time to contact Pirex again. Oh yeah, I sure you gave that front license plate a good polishing and cleanup. I hope you didn't steal it. lol Those 50/50 shots are what keeps you going. Again very nice.

 

I showed this one to a buddy of mine who isn't into detailing at all. His response was "I didn't think that was even possible."

By the way, JL - the interior and the engine bay also look great. I'm glad you're liking Vinylex. I like the before and after shots of the dashboard on this one - you can see Vinylex made the black plastic look just a little more dark and rich, without being shiny. I love the stuff. Autogeek has it for $9.99/bottle, or 2/$17.99.

 

Thanks Karl and I agree one would think that in today's economy an owner would be striving for the best customer satisfaction they could get. Oh and the Scholl S03+ is the shizz as I told you. The only polishes I reach for are the Scholl Concepts and now that my arsenal is full with Scholl polishing is great. And she does like to clean her car so we have been over proper washing techniques to make sure it doesn't look like that again.

Thanks bud! If you have the opportunity to try some out you and Rustbucket really need to do it. I think the two of you could produce some fantastic results with it.

Thanks. I'm telling you it's becoming increasingly difficult to not only find someone with a great trade skill but to find the ones that take pride in their work is getting damn near impossible.

Took me about 13-15 hours over two days.

She has had them printed out and is planning a trip to see the body shop now. I do not envy the owner on this one.

Dude yet again you come through in the clutch with the Scholl Concepts! Everything you have suggested to me has been phenomenal. Now I can't wait to get the Scholl Concepts QD and Interior Protectant as well.

Man you nailed it. One of the best commentaries I've seen on body shops right there. I too was amazed at having to hand polish under the door handles. Everyone should read your post before going to a body shop.

You really should get up with Pirex and get you some Scholl. Everything I have used from them has really impressed me. Of the polishes I've used only S17 is trailing its Menzerna counterpart SIP. Its not much but it is a little behind it on correction ability. However even though it doesn't correct like SIP it is much more versatile and doesn't really dust when you compare it to SIP. All the other Scholl Concepts polishes have blown away the Menz. counterparts.

Thanks again Karl and I am liking the Vinylex more and more.