How and WHY to use a Vehicle Inspection Form or VIF to document Pre-Existing Damage

[Mike Phillips]

How and WHY to use a Vehicle Inspection Form or VIF to document Pre-Existing Damage


If you're new to car detailing, here's a tip... get a Vehicle Inspection Form and always inspect a customer's car with the customer while he's at your shop or location.


My good friend Sam dropped off his 1949 Mercury Convertible today for a Ceramic Coating Class tomorrow night. I saw picture of it on the Barrett-Jackson website and on their website of course, the car looked perfect. And I have to admit, I was NOT surprised to find out the true condition of the car is horrible. But that's okay as I consider myself the Kung Fu of detailing and by this I mean, there is no bad, there is no wrong, there is only opportunity. In this example, I will take the problems and turn them into a teaching moment with this how-to article.


When the car first arrived, the sun was shining down on the front driver's side fender, here's what I saw. While this is simply smears from something, without the sunshine on this fender to show you the car is dirty with "something", you wouldn't know it in the next pictures.

Smears from something all over the car....





Here's the same car in Autogeek's Show Car Garage under florescent lights - looks perfectly GREAT now!





Burn Through also called Strike Through






The darker center section is the BASECOAT. The perimeter you see is the edge of the clearcoat. The faded looking area beyond the perimeter is VERY THIN clearcoat. If a person were to buff on this area some more - the circular area you see and the perimeter line you see will grow and grow as you buff away the clearcoat paint.





More burn through...











Imprint stains
The paint on the car looks like it had some type of car cover or plastic wrap or plastic sheet/cover on it and whatever it was, it left an IMPRINT IN THE PAINT.




What you're seeing is an imprint or texture that is in and on the paint.





Close-up








The masses
For the average Joe Consumer, to stand back about 10' from the car, you would think this car looks pretty darn good. But to a trained detailer, this car looks like crap.


Your job
As a trained detailer, you need to learn how to inspect the finish on a car, find out where the major paint defects are and the mark them down on your VIF and POINT THEM OUT TO THE OWNER.


If you're a member of this forum, you can reply to the below thread and I will send you a copy of my VIF and using Microsoft Word - you can modify it to work for you.

There's also a link at the top of the page to download Yancy's re-creation of my original form. Look at both, figure out what works for you.


Mike Phillips VIF or Vehicle Inspection Form

[Mike Phillips]

More....


Besides looking for and then pointing out visible paint defects. You also want to inspect the paint using the Baggie Test.

My technique is to,

First - Wipe a section of paint on the hood and trunk lid clean with a spray detailer.

Second - I FEEL THE PAINT - BEFORE THE OWNER FEELS THE PAINT - This way I know if the paint is contaminated or not and if it is - how bad it is.

Third - I have the owner feel the paint first with his bare hand and after this using the Baggie Test.



Always do these things before the owner of the car leaves.

[Mike Phillips]

More...


If you have never watched the video in this article I wrote, click the link below and watch it. I show you the simple things every detailer should have at-the-ready in their shop and also in their car.



The Get Me a New Customer Kit by Mike Phillips






Meanwhile back on the farm, or Facebook Group, where's any new articles?

[Mike Phillips]

Shared here,

https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...ml#post1661550

[304detail]

Mike thank you so much for your dedicated time to give out this knowledge, I wish I would have read this post last summer!

It would have saved me so much time.

I had a GTR customer come in for a Paint Correction & Ceramic Coating. When the customer arrived he then stated that he had just took the wrap off of his car(not professionally he just did it himself), he bought the GTR from a wealthy California person that had the car vinyl wrapped numerous times.

When I received the car I noticed there were a ton of left adhesive and even spots where the clear was missing along seams and other places just like the pictures you shared above.

I did not have a vehicle inspection form at the time(shame on me) but acknowledged with the customer.

Well I performed the paint correction but stayed away from the sketchy areas that had burn through from ripped off vinyl to not make the damage worst then ceramic coated the entire vehicle including glass, wheels, and brakes.

The customer picked up the car was super impressed and happy for a few weeks until he messaged me pictures of the burn through from the same vinyl damage I pointed out at drop off and tried to blame me for it.

He threatened to turn it into a insurance claim and tried to hurt my reputation, he said that it should have looked brand new and threatened to take it to another shop.

Thankfully I had video documentation and stood my ground.

[Mike Phillips]

The customer picked up the car was super impressed and happy for a few weeks until he messaged me pictures of the burn through from the same vinyl damage I pointed out at drop off and tried to blame me for it.

He threatened to turn it into a insurance claim and tried to hurt my reputation, he said that it should have looked brand new and threatened to take it to another shop.

Thankfully I had video documentation and stood my ground.

Thank you for sharing your story.

I know others will read this into the future and learn from your experience to

DOCUMENT PRE-EXISTING DAMAGE


Americans can be ridiculous. They have too high of expectations. It's our job to lower them but to also document pre-existing damage.