Jsmooth
New member
- Nov 9, 2012
- 181
- 0
Ok I shared this on ACC earlier with my normal professionalism But for you AG guys I'm just gonna tell you OMG PLEASE NEVER WAX OVER MATTE STICKERS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. Enjoy the write up!
I'll start this out saying this had to be one of the most trying things I've ever done... Customer wanted his beloved truck perfect and to have the most protection available so Opti Coat Pro was the obvious choice.
When it got here, it actually didn't look bad minimal defects on the paint, some normal wash induced swirls and scratches still thinking no worries at this point.
Some one thought it would be a great idea to wax over the matte stickers.... OK +1 customer caring enough to get his car waxed -100 detailer who waxed the stickers and made them look so bad.
This scratch is deep, easily catching a fingernail and the customer really wanted it gone. So after wash and decon I went straight after it.
While I was unable to do much polishing it, a little spot putty some light sanding, and some touch paint. I got these results. 95% improvement(customer couldn't find it when he picked up the car so I didn't point out the other 5% you could still see)
Working on most of this truck was not bad at. Paint was very workable.
Make sure you get the lights!
Here was where this became an eater of time and tried my patients and probably caused a couple gray hairs.
First off getting all the old wax off the stickers them self was no easy task and took close to 3 hours. Then getting all the wax build up from around the edges of the sticker with out damaging them... Well that was HORRIBLE... I hated it so much and it took a long time... Then I couldn't tape the stickers off to polish around them and between them because the tape res was staining the matte part of the stickers and I couldn't get the stain off(another reason test spots are super important on a not so visible area) So I had to polish between the stickers with a rotary and 3' pad. Again I can't really explain how much fun this wasn't... I ate something like 15 hours just on those stickers and polishing between them.
Getting in less than a 3' gap with a 3' pad.. Anyone who uses a rotary a lot probably knows what happens when you tilt your pad hard on an edge so
After all my polishing was done at 1am I foamed the truck down with APC to get all the polishing oils and dust off so we(little brother showed up to help for the home stretch because up to this point I was already well into a 17hr+ day) could coat the paint.
Next morning pulled it out side and well I got the defects from the between the lettering!!!
Stickers look much better in Matte than in the faded wax residue chalky white don't ya think?
I'll proudly display any work that comes out of this shop in direct sunlight all day!
Blindingly shiny eh?
Thanks for looking
Joseph Torbati
Orinda Auto Detail | Car Wash Orinda | Custom Auto Detail
I'll start this out saying this had to be one of the most trying things I've ever done... Customer wanted his beloved truck perfect and to have the most protection available so Opti Coat Pro was the obvious choice.
When it got here, it actually didn't look bad minimal defects on the paint, some normal wash induced swirls and scratches still thinking no worries at this point.
Some one thought it would be a great idea to wax over the matte stickers.... OK +1 customer caring enough to get his car waxed -100 detailer who waxed the stickers and made them look so bad.
This scratch is deep, easily catching a fingernail and the customer really wanted it gone. So after wash and decon I went straight after it.
While I was unable to do much polishing it, a little spot putty some light sanding, and some touch paint. I got these results. 95% improvement(customer couldn't find it when he picked up the car so I didn't point out the other 5% you could still see)
Working on most of this truck was not bad at. Paint was very workable.
Make sure you get the lights!
Here was where this became an eater of time and tried my patients and probably caused a couple gray hairs.
First off getting all the old wax off the stickers them self was no easy task and took close to 3 hours. Then getting all the wax build up from around the edges of the sticker with out damaging them... Well that was HORRIBLE... I hated it so much and it took a long time... Then I couldn't tape the stickers off to polish around them and between them because the tape res was staining the matte part of the stickers and I couldn't get the stain off(another reason test spots are super important on a not so visible area) So I had to polish between the stickers with a rotary and 3' pad. Again I can't really explain how much fun this wasn't... I ate something like 15 hours just on those stickers and polishing between them.
Getting in less than a 3' gap with a 3' pad.. Anyone who uses a rotary a lot probably knows what happens when you tilt your pad hard on an edge so
After all my polishing was done at 1am I foamed the truck down with APC to get all the polishing oils and dust off so we(little brother showed up to help for the home stretch because up to this point I was already well into a 17hr+ day) could coat the paint.
Next morning pulled it out side and well I got the defects from the between the lettering!!!
Stickers look much better in Matte than in the faded wax residue chalky white don't ya think?
I'll proudly display any work that comes out of this shop in direct sunlight all day!
Blindingly shiny eh?
Thanks for looking
Joseph Torbati
Orinda Auto Detail | Car Wash Orinda | Custom Auto Detail
