Guess everyone makes mistakes?

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Maestro Sam

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What was your biggest mistake while detailing? My biggest mistake was detailing my aunt's vehicle 2007 Mercedes e500 and spraying all-purpose cleaner on the rubber dials where you can adjust your lights. The dial became soft and the lettering on the dial kind of smeared off. After that instance, I never use the all-purpose cleaner on non-hard plastic trims.

I have also seen a lot of mistakes from high-end detailers as well. I guess everything you see on show and shine thread is not all accurate. I stumbled across a hellcat that was paint corrected by a member of this forum and it was not up to standard. I also took delivery of a car that was detailed by one of the best detailers and the work was not good. Here are some pictures. This car is in my garage as we speak and still inspecting for mistakes. Guess everyone makes mistakes!
 
I believe it.

I did a polish + sealant on a red viper about a year ago. Of course he's talking about how great it looks, blah blah blah.. Then my associate calls and says we have a red viper to do. I ask where, and it turns out It's the same guy!

I told him that I should probably sit that one out.
 
Sh*t happens. There's always something.


Mine typically tend to be product residue that I forget to wipe off the vehicle after an AIO job. Or my favorite, getting the car totally done then finding that one scratch, go to hit it with the polisher quick and hit the button too soon and sling polish spots everywhere. GOD that drives me nuts.
 
I learned a valuable lesson recently... don't clean and seal trim BEFORE doing your paint correction. When you go to tape off the trim the tape won't stick! :doh:
 
I predict every reply will be rated PG.
I don’t think people are willing to expose their true and epic fails.
I’ve got 1 that comes to mind off the top of my head, and I ain’t tellin. Lol.
 
Eldorado2k said:
I predict every reply will be rated PG.
I don’t think people are willing to expose their true and epic fails.
I’ve got 1 that comes to mind off the top of my head, and I ain’t tellin. Lol.
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That guy with the Viper wanted me to polish his acid etched aluminum wheels. He didn't offer to pay for that service, and was obsessed with me using my paint dedicated 3" pads to do the rims..

I warned my guy about that, and he was better prepared to handle it than I was.

My friend also reported that the paint looked great...
 
dlc95 said:
That guy with the Viper wanted me to polish his acid etched aluminum wheels. He didn't offer to pay for that service, and was obsessed with me using my paint dedicated 3" pads to do the rims..

I warned my guy about that, and he was better prepared to handle it than I was.

My friend also reported that the paint looked great...
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Use your good 3” paint pads to polish aluminum wheels? The Master of All Pads doesn’t throw away pads like that. He’s Crazy. Lol.
 
My worst situation was WET SANDING a Lambo! It was keyed very bad and I let the person know that it should be repaired and painted. He was very cheap and did not want to pay the 2 - 3K for re-paint. I specifically let him know that I could only do my best. I did let him know there may be clear coat failure. He did not care and said to move forward. OVERALL it looked significantly better than before, however, I showed him the clear coat failure points and he didn't care. In fact he was very happy.

I will let people know if I have to wet sand there may be clear coat failure. So far, it's happened to me just 1 time and it was the Lambo. All the rest is fine. That being said, I will let the people know that I prefer not to wet sand any ride unless they know what to expect. They MUST understand that there could be clear coat failure.

But 99% of the time I will not wet sand. I have wet sanded about 4 to 5 vehicles since the Lambo which was about 2 to 3 years ago. All the wet sandings I did came out really nice. But to show you guys the Lambo repair, here it is.

The clear coat failures are at the edges of the Lambo. Hard to tell unless you look very close and then you can see the dullness. But again they were at the edges of the scratch.
 
Didn't you just have a thread closed because somebody was questioning your work or skills? Isn't this exactly the same thing? Like exactly the same?
 
I think the spirit of the posts as it has gone on is in the right place. It helps to laugh at ourselves/admit our mistakes sometimes. Part of the process.

Knocking someone else’s work and further pointing out that they happen to be a member here IMO is in poor taste.

May just be me personally, but when I see poor Work from someone else, rather than make a point of knocking them out loud, I see an opportunity to prove I can do better if given the chance. Badmouthing your competition is never a good look.


Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app
 
sudsmobile said:
Didn't you just have a thread closed because somebody was questioning your work or skills? Isn't this exactly the same thing? Like exactly the same?
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Threads closed from what? Asking for advice on a detail and later getting questioned by a forum member? I don't think so. No one was question my skills, they were questioning the amiunt of charge.

JCDetails said:
I think the spirit of the posts as it has gone on is in the right place. It helps to laugh at ourselves/admit our mistakes sometimes. Part of the process.

Knocking someone else’s work and further pointing out that they happen to be a member here IMO is in poor taste.

May just be me personally, but when I see poor Work from someone else, rather than make a point of knocking them out loud, I see an opportunity to prove I can do better if given the chance. Badmouthing your competition is never a good look.

Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app[/QUOT

Spirit of the post will go on the right place only if you do not take it the wrong way. We are here to learn from our mistakes and point out the obvious to better ourselves in this industry. This thread is about pointing out the mistake not only by amateur detailers, but by pro detailers as well. Not sure why people come post on other peoples thread if they are going to cause a commotion.
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Kamakaz1961 said:
My worst situation was WET SANDING a Lambo! It was keyed very bad and I let the person know that it should be repaired and painted. He was very cheap and did not want to pay the 2 - 3K for re-paint. I specifically let him know that I could only do my best. I did let him know there may be clear coat failure. He did not care and said to move forward. OVERALL it looked significantly better than before, however, I showed him the clear coat failure points and he didn't care. In fact he was very happy.

I will let people know if I have to wet sand there may be clear coat failure. So far, it's happened to me just 1 time and it was the Lambo. All the rest is fine. That being said, I will let the people know that I prefer not to wet sand any ride unless they know what to expect. They MUST understand that there could be clear coat failure.

But 99% of the time I will not wet sand. I have wet sanded about 4 to 5 vehicles since the Lambo which was about 2 to 3 years ago. All the wet sandings I did came out really nice. But to show you guys the Lambo repair, here it is.

The clear coat failures are at the edges of the Lambo. Hard to tell unless you look very close and then you can see the dullness. But again they were at the edges of the scratch.
Click to expand...

Came out better then expected! I am always scared to wetsand as well but I use my paint thickness guage to measure the paint before sanding. Still, wetsanding or even correcting paint still puts me on the edge! Looks good and great job!
 
sudsmobile said:
Didn't you just have a thread closed because somebody was questioning your work or skills? Isn't this exactly the same thing? Like exactly the same?
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Please don't jump to conclusions or read the whole thread when it was up before you speak. The thread was about asking for guidance on a cargo van and wanted to know how much to charge. The thread became polluted after prices got involved. If you are going to bring in past situations to these threads, don't even bother posting because this is just a post stating that everyone makes mistakes and I have made mistakes as well, like my post.
 
I try not to knock anyone's work. You never really know what a customer does once they leave you. I had a CTS, black of course, took me damn near 20 hours to finish. Customer was blown away.... Then a week later a detailer friend of mine one town over says this guy contacted him, said my work was shoddy, car looked like crap in the sun.... Before my guy started it he called me, because he remembers me doing that exact car. I had pics and everything. After my friend prodded him more, he admitted to buying a clay bar kit from Walmart and "tried it out" just to see. Needless to say we both refused him service after.
 
sudsmobile said:
Didn't you just have a thread closed because somebody was questioning your work or skills? Isn't this exactly the same thing? Like exactly the same?
Click to expand...
Everyone makes mistakes,its whether we learn from our mistakes that make things better the next time we encounter the same situations. We typically don't give people a second chance to make the same mistake. Human nature I guess.
 
Maestro Sam said:
Please don't jump to conclusions or read the whole thread when it was up before you speak. The thread was about asking for guidance on a cargo van and wanted to know how much to charge. The thread became polluted after prices got involved. If you are going to bring in past situations to these threads, don't even bother posting because this is just a post stating that everyone makes mistakes and I have made mistakes as well, like my post.
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Most of us are referring to your blatant call-out of a forum member on their workmanship on a hellcat:

I have also seen a lot of mistakes from high-end detailers as well. I guess everything you see on show and shine thread is not all accurate. I stumbled across a hellcat that was paint corrected by a member of this forum and it was not up to standard. I also took delivery of a car that was detailed by one of the best detailers and the work was not good. Here are some pictures. This car is in my garage as we speak and still inspecting for mistakes. Guess everyone makes mistakes!
Click to expand...


Sorry man, that's in poor taste no matter how you try to frame it.
 
My largest mistake happened on a black Jeep Wrangler. I finished compounding and polishing the whole Jeep, but I a spot I missed with the swirl finder light. I grabbed my G21 and forgot to clean the pad before it touched the paint and a particle of pollen was on the face of the pad and it left a ton of DA micro scratches! Grabbed a new pad and went to work all over again. Never forget to clean the pad BEFORE using it! Lol

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I also took delivery of a car that was detailed by one of the best detailers and the work was not good. Here are some pictures. This car is in my garage as we speak and still inspecting for mistakes. Guess everyone makes mistakes!
Click to expand...

I also noticed this statement which, as a peer in this industry really bothers me. You make a point to say you "took delivery of a car that was detailed by one of the best detailers". The tone of that whole statement seems to me to be very self-aggrandizing and arrogant, as if this 'best detailer' couldn't hold a candle to your work. Yet you make no mention of who this 'best detailer' is and what they did wrong.

This actually makes a great point about a mistake that lots of people, particularly new to the industry make. Your only real competition is yourself. To sit there and point fingers and act like you can do no wrong is the worst thing you can do for yourself in an industry where you SHOULD be constantly learning and striving to improve.

Nobody's perfect. Nobody knows everything. Don't make the mistake of tricking yourself into thinking you do. Let's not forget you were on here just a week ago asking what you should charge to detail a cargo van. Estimating and pricing are some of the first important skills you learn in this business.

But, being better than the 'best detailer', you probably already knew that? ;)
 
JCDetails said:
I also noticed this statement which, as a peer in this industry really bothers me. You make a point to say you "took delivery of a car that was detailed by one of the best detailers". The tone of that whole statement seems to me to be very self-aggrandizing and arrogant, as if this 'best detailer' couldn't hold a candle to your work. Yet you make no mention of who this 'best detailer' is and what they did wrong.

This actually makes a great point about a mistake that lots of people, particularly new to the industry make. Your only real competition is yourself. To sit there and point fingers and act like you can do no wrong is the worst thing you can do for yourself in an industry where you SHOULD be constantly learning and striving to improve.

Nobody's perfect. Nobody knows everything. Don't make the mistake of tricking yourself into thinking you do. Let's not forget you were on here just a week ago asking what you should charge to detail a cargo van. Estimating and pricing are some of the first important skills you learn in this business.

But, being better than the 'best detailer', you probably already knew that? ;)
Click to expand...


Don't try to stir a commotion and of course I did. I pointed out my mistakes and this is a thread to point out each individual flaws. You are definetely right! Your only competition should be yourself! Also, did you read the thread where I list my mistakes lol! Please just don't jump to conclusions and also, whats so hard about trying asking prices online? Do we not start from somewhere? Maybe reading the whole previous thread or jumping into someone elses conversation is a lesson you must also learn not to do! I already made the price and estimated the price while inspecting, and wanted some advice. I also said that the owner had seconds thought of the price and wanted the price to be shaved down quite a lot from the initial agreement so I let the work go. Soon after, someone was questioning me about how a price of couple hundred dollars became only half of that. How the heck should I know lol! The manager of a huge company wanted to adjust the prices after starting on the detail so ask him lol! Take your comments and have a great day man :)
 
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