Have you ever messed up a customers car?

**Wills.WindowsAndWheels** · 05-24-2010, 11:18 PM

LOL funny jokes Ciera....i like em

To Christian and Dubbin...wow thats crazy that you could burn with a PC using 205 in one case...and a white pad in the other case. Guess its good to be cautious. If I had my own place i'd really consider a junk pannel to practice on...but being that I DONT at the moment I dont want to litter the yard with a hood or a trunk pannel lol. But considering the doors on that Taurus i'm gonna be working on are from the junk yard after my mom got in an accident...I guess that KINDA counts right

These are some really good replies and I think more should be out there about how PC's can in some rare cases burn the paint...cause when I first bought mine all I ever read was how it was 'burn proof' or 'dummy proof' or whatever other names were attached to it saying basically you cant **** up....

How often do you guys (if ever) use a paint thickness gauge...how accurate are they and do you really need to spend $400 on one?

**Mirror Detailing** · 05-25-2010, 08:58 AM

Once so far in my detailing career. Was working on a Foxbody Mustang with a fiberglass hood. In one small nickle size area, the paint I guess did not adhere to well to the hood because as soon as my rotary with a fLC White Foam pad hit it at about 1500 rpms it lifted the paint and moved it creating two small quarter inch tears in the paint.

That one thing though was enough to badly screw over my reputation thanks to the owners not dealing with me about getting my insurance to pay for it and there friends proceeding to trash my name as much as possible over the course of a year.

**sullysdetailing** · 05-25-2010, 09:54 AM

I messed up my partners G35. We were trying to get a scratch out on his Plastic bumper and we made a little burn spot. Someone backed into him and then it was fixed lol. That the only thing I can think of.

**christian900se** · 05-25-2010, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by MrWillsi3

To Christian and Dubbin...wow thats crazy that you could burn with a PC using 205 in one case...and a white pad in the other case. Guess its good to be cautious. If I had my own place i'd really consider a junk pannel to practice on...but being that I DONT at the moment I dont want to litter the yard with a hood or a trunk pannel lol. But considering the doors on that Taurus i'm gonna be working on are from the junk yard after my mom got in an accident...I guess that KINDA counts right

These are some really good replies and I think more should be out there about how PC's can in some rare cases burn the paint...cause when I first bought mine all I ever read was how it was 'burn proof' or 'dummy proof' or whatever other names were attached to it saying basically you cant **** up....

How often do you guys (if ever) use a paint thickness gauge...how accurate are they and do you really need to spend $400 on one?

Most paint thickness gauges around that price level only tell you the total film thickness i.e. this includes the primer, base coat, and clear coat as one total thickness. This means that you can't tell exactly how much clear coat you have, but you can estimate by taking the paint thickness in the inside of your door as it only recieves one coat of clear at the factory.

I was very mad at myself for burning my paint because I was in a tight spot and was trying to lessen the severity of a scratch which is when that happened at low speed and with a finishing polish and pad. For 95% of cars, it is highly likely that you will never come close to burning the paint with a PC but the problem is that remaining 5% of cars or cases where you don't have a lot of paint left either throughout the car or in isolated areas such as edges and body lines. Even a paint gauge will not be able to measure those edges and corners so it is really just the luck of the draw sometimes. It is a very safe machine, but sometimes you just can't help damage if it occurs in rare cases.

**Wills.WindowsAndWheels** · 05-25-2010, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by Mirror Detailing

Once so far in my detailing career. Was working on a Foxbody Mustang with a fiberglass hood. In one small nickle size area, the paint I guess did not adhere to well to the hood because as soon as my rotary with a fLC White Foam pad hit it at about 1500 rpms it lifted the paint and moved it creating two small quarter inch tears in the paint.

That one thing though was enough to badly screw over my reputation thanks to the owners not dealing with me about getting my insurance to pay for it and there friends proceeding to trash my name as much as possible over the course of a year.

Wow thats messed up...mistakes do happen and if you had insureance to cover it than things should have been fine. Had you talked to them before hand about the possibliity of this happening or no?

Have you been able to build your reputation back up yet....funny how one bad apple (the owners of the mustang in this case) can really spoil things even if you've done 100 cars before them with no problems.

**Wills.WindowsAndWheels** · 05-25-2010, 01:45 PM

Originally Posted by christian900se

Most paint thickness gauges around that price level only tell you the total film thickness i.e. this includes the primer, base coat, and clear coat as one total thickness. This means that you can't tell exactly how much clear coat you have, but you can estimate by taking the paint thickness in the inside of your door as it only recieves one coat of clear at the factory.

I was very mad at myself for burning my paint because I was in a tight spot and was trying to lessen the severity of a scratch which is when that happened at low speed and with a finishing polish and pad. For 95% of cars, it is highly likely that you will never come close to burning the paint with a PC but the problem is that remaining 5% of cars or cases where you don't have a lot of paint left either throughout the car or in isolated areas such as edges and body lines. Even a paint gauge will not be able to measure those edges and corners so it is really just the luck of the draw sometimes. It is a very safe machine, but sometimes you just can't help damage if it occurs in rare cases.

Good advice about the thickness inside the door area. They really only do 1 coat there? How many coats does the rest of the car typically get? I guess its true you can never be too careful...I just wish these guys would put a little more clear on for us to work with...seems like doing detailing is like doing surgury....except at 1500 rpm lol

**A4 1.8tqm** · 05-25-2010, 02:28 PM

Have I ever messed up a customers car? NOPE! (but I've never had a "customer"

)

**Grizzly** · 05-28-2010, 02:59 PM

I was detailing a 98 GMC Jimmy for a customer, on the way back to give it to him I flipped it on accident.

**A4 1.8tqm** · 05-28-2010, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by Grizzly

I was detailing a 98 GMC Jimmy for a customer, on the way back to give it to him I flipped it on accident.

Wow, sorry, but I laughed pretty hard!

**jpegs13** · 05-28-2010, 06:09 PM

Screwed up my own SUV this week. Had water spots on the hood and driver's door from the dang blasted sprinkler. Grabbed TSR and a yellow pad, gave it a quick going over, then wham! sun came up and it was an absolute mess! Laughed at myself for doing a rush job. Wound up polishing the whole truck ( 8-1/2 hrs). Can't do a rush job on anything, always winds up biting you in the ars.