Chevy Tahoe Full Correction - TLC Auto Detail

[Hoytman]

I studied the pictures so hard that I originally failed to see what products you ended up using. Looks like I need to add some Menzerna products to my stash.

Were 1500/2500 the only two sanding steps?

Wow!

 

[Hemin8r]

Great save. That paint definitely has a deep shine now.

 

[Flannigan]

Simply amazing work!

Thanks gene!

:iagree::iagree::buffing::buffing:

thank you!

+1 :applause:

Thanks!

I studied the pictures so hard that I originally failed to see what products you ended up using. Looks like I need to add some Menzerna products to my stash.

Were 1500/2500 the only two sanding steps?

Wow!

Yep, those were the only two sanding steps. After that I jumped to the MF pads on a PCXP.

Great save. That paint definitely has a deep shine now.

thank you!!

 

[Alex Boyce]

wow, great save! AWESOME work! Did you do the same to the roof? I hate polishing SUV roofs.

 

[dnoraker]

I have an '03 Suburban and just posted my work with some wet sanding and buffing, and I noticed what you said about the micro-marring on the Tahoe paint. I have had the same experience with using the DA with pretty much any product or pad on that paint. I've done several Tahoes and Suburbans and always finish off with the rotary and Menzerna PO85RD on a blue pad. It's the clearest, glassiest finish I can come up with. Anything I've tried with the DA, regardless of pad, caused a "milky" micro-marred finish in my experience; it didn't have the "pop" that it should. I had the same experience with my dark red Nissan (in my Avatar, which I sold to eventually get my Suburban).

When I was choosing the jeweling polish on my Suburban, I tried the DA and rotary with 85rd as well as the Optimum finishing polish on the DA and the 85RD with rotary won hands down.

I haven't tried 106FA with a DA yet, and I see that's what you finished with and it turned out great. I was planning on adding it to my next order, and your truck is giving me more confidence that it would be a great go-to for vehicles that get micro-marring, especially on black.

 

[SkateForGirl]

Wow that truck looks so good. The paint looks flawless now.

 

[Porsche Pilot]

Not sure how I missed this thread but dayum...amazing recovery on that beast. Seriously good work!


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[Flannigan]

wow, great save! AWESOME work! Did you do the same to the roof? I hate polishing SUV roofs.

Thanks man! Had to dial back the polishing on the roof a bit. the paint thickness readins were very low. It's got just the SIP and finishing polish, but still looked great.

I have an '03 Suburban and just posted my work with some wet sanding and buffing, and I noticed what you said about the micro-marring on the Tahoe paint. I have had the same experience with using the DA with pretty much any product or pad on that paint. I've done several Tahoes and Suburbans and always finish off with the rotary and Menzerna PO85RD on a blue pad. It's the clearest, glassiest finish I can come up with. Anything I've tried with the DA, regardless of pad, caused a "milky" micro-marred finish in my experience; it didn't have the "pop" that it should. I had the same experience with my dark red Nissan (in my Avatar, which I sold to eventually get my Suburban).

When I was choosing the jeweling polish on my Suburban, I tried the DA and rotary with 85rd as well as the Optimum finishing polish on the DA and the 85RD with rotary won hands down.

I haven't tried 106FA with a DA yet, and I see that's what you finished with and it turned out great. I was planning on adding it to my next order, and your truck is giving me more confidence that it would be a great go-to for vehicles that get micro-marring, especially on black.

Yep, 106fa is a great polish. I decied not to use a rotary bc I didn't want to have to worry about any holograms since it was black.

Wow that truck looks so good. The paint looks flawless now.

Thank you! rops:

Not sure how I missed this thread but dayum...amazing recovery on that beast. Seriously good work!


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Thanks man! :dblthumb2:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Not sure how I missed this thread

Me neither? Was posted on Tuesday, January 31st... can't remember where I was... sure don't remember seeing this though... I've been offline a lot though lately working on video projects...

So I had a monster of a detail this past weekend…lol. A customer contacted me about getting some work done on his black Chevy Tahoe.

He said it had never been detailed, and was taken through tunnel washes on a regular basis. So I, of course, expected the finish to be pretty bad, but not nearly as bad as it ended up being….


Upon initial inspection we agreed to a two-step correction. A one step would not have removed enough of the swirls to make it worth it, and a full correction was not worth it since this vehicle is used to tow a boat, and sometimes go off-road.

Very nice work Dave. To take on a daily driver like this that's abused the way you describe requires not only skill and talent but a true passion for what you do... exactly the kind of passion I describe in something I wrote a long time ago that describes how I feel about detailing in general and paint polishing specifically...

While this Tahoe isn't a show car you gave it the show car treatment...

The Mindset of a Professional Detailer


Here's a portion of the above article...

Another category of detailing is what you would call Show Car Detailing. This would involve doing your best work for typically special interest vehicles where the owner wants and expects a show car finish and understands that to achieve this kind of finish, it requires the person doing the work to have a high skill level and a excellent working knowledge of what I call the 3 P's, Paint, Products & Procedures.

Of course the owners of special interest cars understand that professional quality work also comes at a premium price. At the end of the day, the value is in the results achieved, but if you want to drill down a little deeper, then what the customer is really paying for, (and in other words, the real value), is the peace of mind the owner obtains knowing that their car is in the hands of a skilled professional. It is this confidence the detailer provides the owner, that enables the owners to hand them the keys and walk away without fear.


Besides confidence, a professional detailer also brings to the table their soul, by this I mean a true craftsman of the art of polishing paint brings to his craft the human elements of care and passion.

The human elements of caring about the quality of your work, and having a true passion for the craft, is a mindset. This mindset is a way of thinking that is an unconscious reflex similar to breathing. By this we mean, just like none of us ever have to think about breathing because it's an automatic reflex that is a part of our physiology, for the craftsman, doing their very best work for every car they touch is an unavoidable reflex... it's in their blood.

For myself, when I work on another person's car, I mentally adopt the car as if it were my own. After making this intellectual commitment and emotional attachment towards both the vehicle and the owner of the vehicle, everything else, (the work to be performed), becomes second-nature, I simply treat their car exactly like I would treat my own car, because at some level, it is now my car.

This is the mindset of any true professional no matter what their profession. It's never about the money… it's always about the passion.

When it comes to polishing the paint on special interest vehicles, there is no room for error. This is because automotive paints are a thin, delicate film coating; they are easily dulled and easily swirled and scratched, once they are dulled down or instilled with scratches, it requires the right products and techniques to remove the defects and restore a show car shine. You are limited to what you can do by how thick the working film-build of the paint is, this is why we always say,"It's all about the paint".

There is a point of no return when working on paint. Once you've gone past this point, the only true solution is to apply more paint and this can be quite expensive, especially when it's someone else's car we're talking about and not your own!

A very nice save on this Tahoe. I hope the owner is going to have you regularly maintain it into the future to preserve all your hard work.

 

[Flannigan]

Thanks for all the mind words Mike! Means a lot! :dblthumb2:

 

[JonFD]

Fantastic.

 

[Flannigan]

Fantastic.

Thank you! :dblthumb2: