Hello! from a frozen Michigan newbie

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geoguy

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Long time listener, first time caller as they say. Just wanted to introduce myself and can't wait to start talking to you guys about detailing. My eyes have definitely been opened after finding AG. I do have some "experience", back in college I worked in the "detail shop" of a dealership and have some horror stories from that experience! My car is a obsidian black Subaru that I will do my first-ever paint correction on (the soft paint and being black freaks me out a bit) and will definitely have some questions soon about it.

Cheers!
Geoguy
 
Welcome from a former SE Michigan guy, you've found the place for sure but don't worry about soft black paint here, lots of advice and tips, just ask!

Sent from my SPH-M930 using AG Online
 
Welcome from the frozen North of Arizona, except that we haven't had much snow this year.
 
Thanks all for the welcomes! I can't wait untill all this snow melts (this winter was our second highest snowfall on record - 111") and I can finally really clean my car. It is thrashed with two small kids, two dogs and all the salt and sand that Michigan likes to put on the roads.

Cheer!
Geoguy
 
Newbie too. Always tried to maintain my vehicles, but since joining AGO I have learned much. Great advice Great products and Great Helpful people I'm in New England and I'll thaw out some time around July 4
 
DetailingNoob said:
Welcome! Please share some horror stories. I love horror stories.
Click to expand...


Maybe not so bad to some of you, but here are a few stories from my “detail shop” days:


  • An old guy I worked with named “Brownie”, who also ran a bodyshop out of his garage, claimed he was a professional and an expert and loved to use his rotary and wool pads. He would squirt probably half a bottle of compound on the hood, fire up the ol’ rotary and hit the paint full speed, spraying compound everywhere. It was so bad, he once covered the front of my old jeep with spray and I was parked across the parking lot! He never fully cleaned off all the trim, cracks and crevices that were filled before putting it on the lot (plus a nice layer of caked wax), The managers and sales people thought I was the best in the shop so I would always have to pull the cars and re-clean them. He would always say “What? That car is done and looks good, why did you bring it back” all ticked off.

  • Cleaning out an old chinese delivery panel van that had sat out in the hot sun for too long. The stench was bad enough, but finding rotten broccoli chicken, egg rolls (at least that‘s what I thought they were) and maggots in the body cavities were too much. Enough to well….gag a maggot.

  • My former boss started his own shop and started doing touch-up work on paint chips and scratches for the dealership. The chips looked ok, not filled back in to the surrounding paint level though, but he left all of the over-spray surrounding the chip. All the cars he did looked like they had acne or some disease all over the front of the hood and bumper with these little halos of matte-finish overspray. And they went on the lot like that!

  • Picking fingernail and toenail clippings out of the carpet nap in a salesman’s demo.

  • Watching someone clean the carpet in a car using a 5 gallon bucket of water and APC and a brush and walking away with an empty bucket. That one had a nice smell in it after a few days (guess who got to try to clean that up).

  • In the summer, pulling a trailer with a pressure washer and water tank around the lots to hose off all the new and used vehicles on the lot and them using old, dirty chamois’ to dry them off. The cars were always dusty since the dealership was surrounded by corn fields, swirled the heck out ‘em.

Some other non-detailing happenings:

  • Watching the aforementioned “Brownie” slip on a puddle in one of the wash bays, cracking his head on the concrete floor and blood pouring out his ears.

  • Hearing that my new boss was finally caught red-handed stealing gas for the dealership. I heard he cried like a baby when the used car manager caught him. Of course he was fired and I found out later that he got a job at a bank. Hmmmm……

Cheers!
Geoguy
 
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