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Mike Phillips
Guest
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
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
