Nissan transformation

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Z06-Goose

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Mike -a friend of mine- called me this week to tell me his boss has bought a small car for his wife, and wanted to have it detailed
Mike didn't have enough info for me other than the car was black, and mainly the emphasis will be in the interior, so I showed up with a few of my arsenal (truck load of stuff! :lol: )
Upon arrival, I looked at the car and noticed it had a lot of dead paint (oxidation) but at the same time it brought a smile to my face as I knew this could turn out great, despite not having a cleaner wax to use first
That said, I proceeded to wash the car with Ice Car Wash
Claybarred a little bit, but then I realized it was going to be futile as the contaminants should come off with the layer of dead paint, and I was right
Clean and dressed tires, wheel wells and exhaust tips
After polishing out the paint, I used DG501/Rejex to protect and seal the finish and hopefully give it 6-8 months protection
Before shots:
Notice headlights condition; a bit oxidized as well:
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After working the hood driver's side with a couple passes of my own concoction :cool:
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To give you an idea what oxidized paint means:
My pad after buffing the roof:
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My pad after washing it: I washed my pad at least 8 times during this process
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Passenger's side mirror before:
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Passenger's side mirror after:
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Money shots:
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Headlights were also polished out:
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Thanks for looking :thumbsup:
 
Good job. What did you use on the head lights? BTW that rear wheel well looks like it could use more dressing.
 
Rsurfer said:
Good job. What did you use on the head lights? BTW that rear wheel well looks like it could use more dressing.
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On a hunch, I used a mix of PO85RD3.00 and Ultrafina SE on the headlights. I wasn't sure if it was going to work, but to my surprise it did
Yeah, the wheel wells were pretty bad, just as bad as the whole car was. I scrubbed it quite a bit. My intention was to use some spray tire shine to dress it, but I realized I didn't bring any with me
The owner of the car was more concerned with the interior of the car and not the exterior!
He told me when I was done that he thought I was just going to wash it and wax it. I just couldn't bring myself to do that. I decided to go the extra mile and clean the paint the best I could for him, and still charged him what I quoted him over the phone. He was sooo happy at the end :cheers:
BTW, the interior was actually in great shape, no stains, nothing, I just vacuumed, wiped the dashboards, all vinyls, and cleaned the inside windows really good which it was what was bothering him the most
 
Well you went over and beyond, he should be happy. Nothing like a happy customer. Good way to build you rep.
 
Great turnaround. No wonder he was happy.
 
Nice job, that should have got a good size tip, considering you went the extra mile!
 
Meghan said:
Nice job, that should have got a good size tip, considering you went the extra mile!
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Actually he did. He had just the right amount of cash to pay me, and asked me if I needed more money. I politely declined. He insisted and said..."I've just withdrew the cash for what you told me it was going to cost. What about if I fill up your truck with the company's gas credit card?" (he has his own company)
I said it was fine, and I appreciated his gesture, but he didn't have to do that
Frankly, I didn't know how to handle the offer. My friend Mike insisted to have the keys of my truck and he will top off my gas tank. So he did... :)
 
Z06-Goose said:
Actually he did. He had just the right amount of cash to pay me, and asked me if I needed more money. I politely declined. He insisted and said..."I've just withdrew the cash for what you told me it was going to cost. What about if I fill up your truck with the company's gas credit card?" (he has his own company)
I said it was fine, and I appreciated his gesture, but he didn't have to do that
Frankly, I didn't know how to handle the offer. My friend Mike insisted to have the keys of my truck and he will top off my gas tank. So he did... :)
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Sweet, you deserved it! Its good you take pride in doing the job right, whether you are paid enough or not, you got it done and done nicely!
 
Meghan said:
Sweet, you deserved it! Its good you take pride in doing the job right, whether you are paid enough or not, you got it done and done nicely!
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Thanks!
I actually do detailing as a hobby, and get a lot of referral from friends that have seen my work. I'm not a pro by any means, but I have learned the right ways and techniques of detailing a car mostly from autogeek.net and the knowledge of the products that produce great results!
 
nice job. what did you use to clean the pads? and were they still wet when you used them?
 
Great way to build a relationship with a new customer. You can be sure he will be mentioning your name to his friends and associates who are in the market for good detailing work.
 
aflyvietguy said:
nice job. what did you use to clean the pads? and were they still wet when you used them?
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I used Joy dishsoap. I had plenty pads, but I didn't want to get thru them since I would be taking a chance of ruining them all. I didn't have a dedicated pad cleaner per-se, just a little bit left of my XMT cleaner which was gone quickly. The Joy detergent worked good. I had to run a lot of water to get rid of all the detergent residual. Once I wringed the pads as good as I could, I stuck it on the backing plate on my PC and ran at 5 to allow it to spin off the excess water until almost all dry; about 30 seconds maybe?
 
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