Video: How to inspect a car prior to detailing it - featuring Jim White from White Details!

[OrangeVee]

Hi guys,

A cool new video this week, as I collaborated with Jim White, a professional detailer from the UK (widely regarded as one of the best paint appearance specialists in the UK) about how to inspect a car prior de detailing it. The inspection routine is key to identify issues, plan which steps you'll perform for the restoration and establish a game plan to be efficient and deliver results.

Jim also talks about his "White Detail" package, that many of you probably saw in his YouTube videos, and takes us through the steps of those complete exterior and interior details.

Enjoy the video!

[Rsurfer]

Love your videos, Pam, but why do you salute with your left hand?

[OrangeVee]

Love your videos, Pam, but why do you salute with your left hand?

I'm a lefty, so I guess it comes naturally. That's the hand I use to shake hands and salute people...

[Rsurfer]

I'm a lefty, so I guess it comes naturally. That's the hand I use to shake hands and salute people...

If you were in the US armed forces you would face a firing squad for saluting with your left hand. Do people in Canada shake with their left hand?

[zero4]

If you were in the US armed forces you would face a firing squad for saluting with your left hand. Do people in Canada shake with their left hand?

No they don’t. With right of course.

[OrangeVee]

Love your videos, Pam,

Oh by the way, for the record, my name is Pan. .

[Paul A.]

Thanks for sharing that, Pan. Good video. Couple that info with Mike's VIF and your in a good position of assessment and documentation.

[TTQ B4U]

Great video and very timely as I just recently had a scare and learned a lesson that no detail wants to learn. Especially hard for me to have endured as I am most particular about inspecting vehicles as the come to me. This time however, I cut a corner and nearly paid the price.

Long story long, I had a vehicle come to me that was less than 30 days old and beautiful. The owner is a doctor and mildly a car-guy but wanted a full course of treatment for his new $140k car. Obviously he is a busy guy and thus dropped the car off at night. It was cold, his family was in the other vehicle waiting for him and he wasn't in a rush but was watching the clock as I began to cover the details of our agreement on work to be done.

That said, he pulled the vehicle into my garage and parked it, handed me the keys. As I finished covering the details of our agreement and just began the inspection his wife texted him that they had to leave. I made the mistake of stating that I would inspect the vehicle and contact him if necessary. Mind you, the car is less than 30 days old and wasn't driven much at all. Big mistake and it included my not gathering his signature on my work order and corresponding inspection form. I know, I know, I know, I know........dumber than a rock move. I own that.

I put-off the inspection until the next day and figured I would just go over it after I washed it as I really didn't expect to find anything. BIG mistake. I moved the vehicle out of my garage and re-positioned it on an angle inside near the center. It fit perfectly with room to spare. As I worked my way around washing the vehicle panel by panel I looked it over carefully for the first -pass. As I rounded the back on the rear corner of the hatch area I noticed a significant dent with corresponding scratches. OMG I gasped!! I KNEW it was nothing I did as I simply moved the vehicle and no one was out in the garge the night before or morning of. However, I did move it, I did wash it thus removing any trace evidence / dirt, etc.

What to do. Well, I am 100% that I would always stand up and note it on my inspection form, took photos and a video and then reached out to the client via a phone call directly. As you can imagine, the call could have gone well or it could have gone badly. His initial response was that he didn't recall damage on the car when he brought it to me. #$@#@$# as you can imagine my pulse raced. Thankfully, I have a close partner that works in the PDR business and he had seen my pics and noted that the fix would be easy in terms of moving the metal. That said the scratches were left to me "IF" they could even be addressed.

The customer wasn't angry, he didn't push the denial either and said he would appreciate if I simply continued the detail for the targeted pick up time. I put our conversation in writing via text and asked that he agree in his reply to our previously agreed upon price and process plan and he did. It put me a little at ease as he didn't argue and if he suspected I did it and was untrustworthy he likely wouldn't have agreed to have me continue. Was I being set-up? I didn't sense that. However, my senses were clearly not with me on this job as I dropped my own ball big-time.

Later that day I called him to tell him the vehicle was ready and to share that I had contacted a shop for him to consider using for the repair. I partially expected a response and perhaps push but to my surprise he fessed up that it was existing damage that his wife explained was there and how it happened.

It was and will continue to be a lesson learned on my part however.

[OrangeVee]

Great video and very timely as I just recently had a scare and learned a lesson that no detail wants to learn. Especially hard for me to have endured as I am most particular about inspecting vehicles as the come to me. This time however, I cut a corner and nearly paid the price.

Thanks for sharing your experience! It will surely help many others who are reading these posts! It seems your customer knew about it but omitted to tell you, probably thinking you'd correct the damage. I'm glad to hear it all turned out ok in the end.

[EricBurkholz001]

That's a great experience thank you for sharing your process with us. I am wondering what products you use to do the headlight restoration. We use, rubbing alcohol and vinegar mixed with sand paper and water to clean the headlights, ｗｗｗ．ｗｉｎｄｏｗｔｉｎｔｊａｃｋｓｏｎ．ｃｏｍ. We don't push too hard when applying the sand paper because it can ruin the plastic but just small coats does a really good job.