Sometimes it’s not about being perfect.

[Ochnob]

Not a professional detailer, just a weekend warrior. But I enjoy detailing and everyone I know comes to me about taking care of their cars because my always look good.
I had a friend come to me who has twins but didn’t have a ton of money to spend on a car for his kids. At the last minute he asked if I could “clean it up” before he gave it to his kids.

2002 Honda Accord that has sat under someone’s tree for 2 years.

The car was hammered. That’s not dirt. That’s moss that grew on it from sitting under the tree. Both the roof and trunk had horrible clear coat problems. It had break dust buildup on the rims since 2002.

So I went to work on it. Had to power wash the moss off 3 times. Compound, polish, and I had to figure out how to make the CCF not as noticeable. I tried DG111, and Sonax PNS. Neither made any noticeable difference. Then I grabbed Gyeon Cancoat. It made a lot of the whitening clear coat disappear and made the underlying base paint turn black again. Here is an example. The cancoat made it look 100 times better.

I topped it with 2 coats of DG111/601 and a final layer of FK1000p trying to give it as much protection as I could so it would last.

After working on it all weekend I got to deliver it to the kids. It is far from perfect. The clear coat failure on the trunk and roof are still there but is much less noticeable.

.

The kids had no idea I was dropping the car off. When I pulled it in the driveway the parents brought the kids out and they were confused. He explained that this was their new car to share because they are twins. The young girl started to cry. She said “but you told me we couldn’t afford a car!” The parents could not believe that it was the same car.
The surprise and genuine emotion was a special moment.

While we are constantly striving for perfection on this site with our vehicles, sometimes it’s not about that. Sometimes just better than the current condition makes all the difference in the world. Sometimes it’s not about being perfect. It’s about the tear in a young girls eye who wasn’t expecting to ever have a car of her own.

To all of you in this site, kudos to you. I have learned so much from all of you. I have enjoyed my detailing journey and was happy to be able to provide something to a special family. And you all deserve some credit in this as well.



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[FUNX650]

What an inspirational, feel-good story!
Kudos to you! rops:


Bob

 

[Ochnob]

What an inspirational, feel-good story!
Kudos to you! rops:


Bob

The FK1000p was in your honor Bob.


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[fly07sti]

I love seeing jobs like this. Good on you for doing such a great job!

 

[oneheadlite]

Terrific story, and amazing turnaround.

Really cool thing you did there. Now they’ll not only be able to be excited to have a car, but be proud of the car they have, which will hopefully help motivate them to take care of it and keep it up.

May the universe treat you with some Karma points that’ll come back around in your favor when you need them. :dblthumb2:

 

[PaulMys]

Now THIS is a great thread!

I think you did an awesome job, man.

 

[fightnews]

Phenomenal job and story. Car looks incredible. Those cars would be like the greatest affordable car in history if not for the clearcoat failures they are plagued by.

You should be proud today you deserve it

 

[fightnews]

I wonder what that new clear coat restorer product from carpro would do to that ccf?

 

[Ochnob]

Thanks guys. My lesson during this process was dealing with the clear coat failure. I have never dealt with that before. It made me realize that for what they paid for they car they were not going to pay to get it resprayed. So I tried to simply make it less noticeable.

The roof and trunk were in bad shape. Here is the trunk with the test spots to try to at least mask the issue. You can see the Sonax PNS and DG111 made no difference. I was trying product that I thought would mimic clear coat. Also tried fk1000p on the roof with no luck.

Here is the test spot of Cancoat on the roof.

The Cancoat did the best of all the products I tried. The send result is that it is not nearly as noticeable unless you walk right up on the car.

While I don’t have a need for it myself I would be intrigued at some point to try that new Optimum Clear restorer. Also seems like a cool product. But in this situation I had to deal with what was already in my arsenal.



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[PaulMys]

You did an outstanding job considering the subject you were given to work with.

And remember, us 'Geeks are 1%ers.

The other 99% only see a car as a means to get from A to B.

This fact would make them all the more thrilled with the job you did on it.

 

[fly07sti]

If they ever wanted to make the trunk and roof look a lot better, it wouldn’t be too much to vinyl wrap those areas. I have an 01 Accord in white. Luckily with zero clear problems.

 

[Ochnob]

Phenomenal job and story. Car looks incredible. Those cars would be like the greatest affordable car in history if not for the clearcoat failures they are plagued by.

You should be proud today you deserve it

Agreed. After the job I notice a ton of those old Accords and a ton of them have CCF. I drove the car. Functionally it’s in great condition.


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[The Guz]

I wonder what that new clear coat restorer product from carpro would do to that ccf?

While I don’t have a need for it myself I would be intrigued at some point to try that new Optimum Clear restorer. Also seems like a cool product. But in this situation I had to deal with what was already in my arsenal.

It will not do anything for failed clear coat or clear coat that is on the verge of failing. Speaking from experience.

 

[SWETM]

Awesome story and write up and pictures!

Great work and you do what you can and mostly that's enough for most people. And just see the joy in the kids eyes is worth a lot.

Cool how Gyeon CanCoat was able to mask the clearcoat failure. It's something I put in my mind if I get in a situation like this.

/ Tony

 

[fightnews]

Awesome story and write up and pictures!

Great work and you do what you can and mostly that's enough for most people. And just see the joy in the kids eyes is worth a lot.

Cool how Gyeon CanCoat was able to mask the clearcoat failure. It's something I put in my mind if I get in a situation like this.

/ Tony

oh yeah that ones definitely going in the vault. I bet even gyeon doesnt know that.

 

[PA DETAILER]

Some things in life we take for granted, While others find them a true blessing.

 

[TTQ B4U]

Nice work! I agree that it in many cases isn't about being perfect. I offer a variety of packages and my base package tag-line is "When Value Matters as Much as the Results" the next one up is a one-step and it's tag line is "Looking for Great Results but not Chasing Perfection"

Not everyone is going for 90-100% correction. In your case it was more emotion and thought that actually looking for you to "fix" what they know is broken. I can absolutely relate to what you did as I would feel just like your customer. What you provided them meant more than a perfect car. You helped them provide a good feeling and well intentioned thought to someone they cared about. That's powerful.

Nice job all around!

 

[oneheadlite]

If they ever wanted to make the trunk and roof look a lot better, it wouldn’t be too much to vinyl wrap those areas. I have an 01 Accord in white. Luckily with zero clear problems.

That’s really a great idea.

We’ve got a black race car in the shop that had been wrapped before we got it. Stripped off the wrap as it wasn’t our style, and found the roof was in really rough shape (and the sunroof filler panel was white). A friend of ours had done a small amount of vinyl work (read: amateur), so he wrapped it in black vinyl. He was in a hurry and split the piece as he was stretching it. He finished it up, making it look as best he could, volunteering to come back and redo it. Turns out, just being uniform black it blends in enough you don’t even notice unless you look hard at it.

Moral of the story, even if it’s not a super pro wrap job, just being uniform will make those areas disappear from view, especially with how great you got the rest of the car looking! And worst case scenario, not like you have to worry about pulling the clear off if you re-do it.

 

[Ochnob]

It will not do anything for failed clear coat or clear coat that is on the verge of failing. Speaking from experience.

You may be right. But on a car that has the beginning of CCF using Cancoat or another product can make it look better, much less noticeable, and may slow the degradation. There were a lot of other little spots that had the beginnings of failure. Circled here is a spot that the clear was starting to fail. Besides the moss covering the car your eye always seem to be drawn to the glaring white spot in a black car.

Again the goal was not to fix it. But to simply mask it so the eye was not drawn to that spot. Here is the end result. While still there, it wasn’t glaring and pulling my eye to it anymore. From a couple feet away it was hardly noticeable. For me this was a revelation.

There were a bunch of little spots like this that I got to “disappear” and “hide” from the naked eye. To be clear I am not sure how long it will last. The clear will continue to fail. But whether you are a detailer or just a weekend warrior like me, hiding these little spots could make all the difference in how someone views their vehicle.


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[fly07sti]

OP, you’re thread got me so juiced that I had to go and

rinseless wash our Accord this morning. We rarely drive it but we’re gonna take it out today and enjoy it.


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