Boom! Test spot got me the job from skeptical customer!

[KirkH]

Cool. As you know, people are unpredictable, hey you said you could fix this and you ruined my paint.

Yep, hope he doesn't go blow that paint job money at the casino or the strip club!

[custmsprty]

[QUOTE=KirkH;1485093]

Cool. As you know, people are unpredictable, hey you said you could fix this and you ruined my paint.

QUOTE]

Yep, hope he doesn't go blow that paint job money at the casino or the strip club!

This is what a guy I know just got for $2,000 grand so you can tell your guy he's well ahead of the game with having you do the job and the best you can

[Eldorado2k]

Great results. Just curious, did you clay your test spot before polishing, or just straight to the buffer? Paint looks so bad, did wetsanding cross your mind?

[daimler]

I have had that same experience when I had to work on a small car. The owner was about to send his car to a paint shop the next day or two. But when she heard of my work, she called up and asked what I could do. Her black car was filled with heavy swirls. She said her nephew tried to buff it out with a rotary polisher using a wool pad and a cheap compound. It ended up leaving a matte finish--no more gloss, not a bit! The owner was a hardcore low baller. She wanted good results but ain't willing to spend. I just told her we'll talk after I finish working on her car. For the mean time, we'll have to stick with my quotation.

After I finished working on it, I called the owner up. When she saw the result, she paid straight up. I didn't hear any single word from her. By her looks, she was wondering how it turned out to look that way with all the scratches it previously had.

[Mike Phillips]

Thank for sharing....


Just a comment...

When you deal with cars where the paint is obviously "severely" neglected, ask yourself,

How did it get this way?


The answer is usually one of the below,

1: The "new" owner purchased it used and the previous owner(s) didn't lift a finger to take care of the paint or possibility the entire car.

2: The current owner never lifted a finger to take care of the paint and/or the rest of the car.

Here's my point, if the answer to the question is #2, the paint looks the way it does because the current owner, (possibly the original owner from when the car was new), didn't do anything to take care of the car. So the question I always ask myself is,

What's changed?


What's changed that NOW after I fix the paint the owner will now take care of it? IF the answer to the question is "nothing" then chances are the customer is not going to do anything after you restore the paint to maintain it and it's going to go down hill again. If you don't educate the customer on how to correctly wash and how to NOT wash it, (take it to any kind of mechanical car wash), then it will go down hill and the owner will likely blame you or worse, all detailers because their expectations are unreasonable.

Make sense?


I've been detailing cars for a long time and that means dealing with people for a long time and everything I teach in my 3-day detailing classes is based upon a lifetime of experience, something you can't get with the all the new instructors popping up all over the map.

Anyway, here's an article I wrote about this topic and the picture is from a slide in my class.


Evaluate the customer first!



I'm in no way saying don't take the job by all means take it but just keep the above in mind.

The first question I ask anyone I'm going to detail a car for is,


How are you going to wash the car?


How they answer this question gives me a lot of insight as to where their knowledge level is and thus their expectations.

[Mike Phillips]

Test spot in the picture- still some swirls in the test spot,

The before condition lools like a text book definition of

severely neglected paint

The swirl scratches are uniform and cover 100% of the panel. The paint has oxidized. Clearcoats are not known for oxidation, they are known for swirls. Single stage paints are known for oxidation. So when a clearcoat becomes oxidaized, it's a sure sing of long-time neglect.

gonna have to go a little longer when I do the whole panel:

You could go that route but if it were me I would have explained that the paint is thinner than a post-it note and due to the severe neglect and the fact that this car is a daily driver, not a show car on display, and if I had found out how the owner currently takes care of the car I would probably recommended using a one-step cleaner/wax and living with the results of the one-step which would still make a HUGE difference.


Then I would have over delivered on what I under promised, something else I teach in my classes on Saturday when we go over production detailing, that is detailing daily drivers.

Clearcoats are thin by Mike Phillips



Looking forward to your write-up.

[fightnews]

It's a mess. Extreme oxidation, water spots, etchings, everything. You should have seen his face when I whipped out the Cyclo 5. It looks like a hair dryer from the 1950's or something. I started with orange pad and Meguiar's cleaner wax (not much help) , went to Sonax Hybrid NPT ( a little better)T, then Wolfgang Uber AIO (starting to get somewhere) and then Optimum Compound II did the trick. Dude's jaw dropped after I polished it with Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish and a white pad. It ain't perfect, but he ain't spending $1500 on a paint job anymore though!

How much are u getting for the two step process then wax that's a lot of work

[KirkH]

How much are u getting for the two step process then wax that's a lot of work

I probably should've mentioned that the guy had just bought this truck.

$350 and I am only 2 stepping the hood and the front of the roof. The rest is getting Wolfgang Uber AIO.

[KirkH]

Thank for sharing....


Just a comment...

When you deal with cars where the paint is obviously "severely" neglected, ask yourself,

How did it get this way?

I forgot to mention that the guy just bought the truck this way.

[KirkH]

Great results. Just curious, did you clay your test spot before polishing, or just straight to the buffer? Paint looks so bad, did wetsanding cross your mind?

I did clay the surface. Since he was planning on painting, I did not recommend wet sanding.