The highs and lows

[LoganCIT]

So whats your best detail (most expensive car, best results or something along those lines) and your worst (the one that everything when oh so wrong).

[doctordon]

I can remember when I first started detailing for money. One of the first trucks I did was for a friend of a friend whose father had a Chevy Pickup that needed detailing. It was a top of the line Silverado with all the options.

The truck was used as a work truck in citrus groves here in Florida. The inside and outside of the truck was trashed. I don't think the truck had ever been polished and waxed. To name just of few things I remember it had spilled deisel fuel on the carpet, the seats were dark brown leather until I cleaned them and found out they were really light tan. There must have been an acre of dirt in the carpets. The paint had branch scratches everywhere from riding through the orange trees.

After about 2 1/2 days work, this truck looked great. That was one of my proudest detail jobs. The customer couldn't believe it was the same truck. Unfortunatley, I was just starting and really underestimated how much I should have gotten paid.

One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was again when I first started. This was a full interior and exterior detail.

I was cleaning the interior of a Toyota Camry. The door panel had leather inserts. As I wiped my cleaning cloth across the insert the leather color disappeared. At first I thought it was just a reaction to my damp cloth so I wiped again. More color gone. My heart was in my stomach.

To make a long story short - the original inserts, when delivered from Japan, were cloth. Somewhere, somebody had the cloth inserts replaced with leather and they did not put a polyurethane protective coating over the sprayed color. This was not dyed leather just painted.

I was honest with the customer and told her what happened and told her I would not charge her a dime (she insisted on paying me anyway.) I had a leather repair person redo the area at my expense. Since the job took an extra day or two I told the customer I would deliver her car to her when it was done. On the way to her house the clouds unexpectingly opened up and rained like hell. I drive up and the sides of the car dripping with road mud. Luckly I brought some microfibers along to clean up. You learn by your mistakes but I wish that one had never happened.

[Dave]

Low.....

I burned my paint with a rotary when I was 19. Thought I was doing good until all the sudden the panel started smoking. I had no idea what I was doing at that time.

Highs.....

The car doesn't matter to me and I can honestly say that Lambos and other high end cars don't phase me anymore. Paint is paint and I treat them all the same. I love doing paint corrections and restos like old single stage paint, etc.

This is also one of my favs......

http://tapatalk.com/mu/b84ec81c-8699-fa24.jpg

Fixing other peoples work. I'll be finishing this one up tomorrow.



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[jdmser]

Low-I let one of my dealers pressure me into using my rotary on plastic. He kept saying how all I had to do was lean on it and that there was no way I could mess up the paint. This is the same guy that "wet sanded" a car with a DA before he brought it in for me to fix. I finally gave in and wouldn't you know, the paint wrinkled. It was a little fender flair and I offered to pull it off and repaint it for him but, he declined. He did however bring it up no less than 6 times before the vehicle sold.

High-I can't really pick out one single vehicle that stands out above the rest but, this month has definitely been a high point. I opened my shop last March and this is the first month I have broken the 40 car mark. Very awesome for me especially since my previous best was just this past June with 33 cars.