This is why I got into detailing....I was afraid I'd get this

Lance Mark

Lance Mark

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this guy can likely detail circles around me, I'm told he's all that and a bag of chips....don't know who he is, but he seems to know his stuff

this is what I thought I'd get, if I took my bike into a shop for a coating

I don't see the need to cover a bike in foam, and there's no need for a power washer....maybe an attachment for a power washer to help clean the bottom of the primary and tranny, but eventually you gotta get under with with brushes, rags and q-tips....every part of a bike is small and can be easily done by hand

a gas tank is maybe one wiring harness, 4 bolts, and a quick disconnect for the fuel line....takes 10 minutes to remove if you doddle....how do you not completely machine polish one of the most prominent features on a bike?

the fender is held on with 4 bolts....again, huge parts of the fender went unpolished

bags, tour packs, side covers, fenders, seats, fairings upper and lower....all need to come off

that primary cover would come off and I'd machine polish that on a bench....if he wasn't going to do the whole thing properly, he should have never taken sand paper to it....it's pretty obvious, he hit the parts he could reach

i don't get that giant pad on the bike, it tells me he should stick to cars....holds more materials, he says....when i bought my pads, they had more, so I bought more, and change them frequently....there's not a lot of a bike that needs more than a 3" pad

I read a comment from MP here where he said he doesn't like to do bikes

i'd rather have someone tell me they'd prefer not to do the work, than half ass it....i respect that in fact
 
Trust me on this-- MP would never do a half a$$ job on any detail job he took. Everyone has jobs they like or dislike better or worse than others.

As I have said- I hate doing bikes- but when i had mine I always did a good job.
 
luckydawg said:
Trust me on this-- MP would never do a half a$$ job on any detail job he took. Everyone has jobs they like or dislike better or worse than others.

As I have said- I hate doing bikes- but when i had mine I always did a good job.
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never said MP would, but this guy did....his intentions were good and the customer seemed happy
 
I have a master blaster I never ever use, past me must've thought he was gonna own a bike at some point, or something.
 
Lance Mark said:
I don't see the need to cover a bike in foam, and there's no need for a power washer....maybe an attachment for a power washer to help clean the bottom of the primary and tranny, but eventually you gotta get under with with brushes, rags and q-tips....every part of a bike is small and can be easily done by hand
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I agree that the foaming is not necessary, especially when you're going to be polishing anyways, but some guys like the foaming step and it certainly doesn't hurt anything. Same could be said if this were a car. Foaming may be beneficial for maintenance washes, but for pre-polishing washes it's probably a bit overkill.

As for the power washer, again it is not absolutely necessary, but it certainly doesn't hurt as a pre-rinse for removing the initial grime provided you use some common sense around sensitive areas, i.e., wheel bearings, electronics, etc.



Lance Mark said:
a gas tank is maybe one wiring harness, 4 bolts, and a quick disconnect for the fuel line....takes 10 minutes to remove if you doddle....how do you not completely machine polish one of the most prominent features on a bike?
Click to expand...

I don't feel it is necessary to "completely machine polish" the tank. Whatever you can't get with the machine is easy enough to hand polish. I have never removed a tank for the sole purpose of polishing. In fact, I think it is easier to polish the tank when it is mounted to the bike, (rather than rolling it around on a bench), unless you have a jig to hold it while it is off the bike.

Although one thing that I always do, is to remove the center console when polishing the tank.



Lance Mark said:
the fender is held on with 4 bolts....again, huge parts of the fender went unpolished
Click to expand...

Again, I have never removed a fender for the sole purpose of polishing, although I do agree that there are areas of the fender(s) that are inaccessible to polishing, even by hand, without doing so. But I feel those inaccessible areas are concealed and hidden well enough that you really have to consider the need for polishing as it relates to the finished product. Is it really worth the effort?



Lance Mark said:
bags, tour packs, side covers, fenders, seats, fairings upper and lower....all need to come off
Click to expand...

I agree that removing the bags, side covers, and seat are all good ideas and I routinely do so. But for the fairings and tour pack, my standard practice is more along the lines of how I handle the tank and fenders as stated above.



Lance Mark said:
that primary cover would come off and I'd machine polish that on a bench....if he wasn't going to do the whole thing properly, he should have never taken sand paper to it....it's pretty obvious, he hit the parts he could reach
Click to expand...

The bike in the video has bare aluminum components. I don't have to deal with that as my bikes are chrome. That said, if and when the situation arose, I'd have to assess whether or not to remove the cover(s) based on the condition of the cover(s) and the expected results.



Lance Mark said:
i don't get that giant pad on the bike, ...there's not a lot of a bike that needs more than a 3" pad
Click to expand...

Completely agree. While there are a few areas on the bike where a 5- or 6-inch pad will work, generally speaking, a 3-inch pad is the better overall choice.



Lance Mark said:
I read a comment from MP here where he said he doesn't like to do bikes

i'd rather have someone tell me they'd prefer not to do the work, than half ass it....i respect that in fact
Click to expand...

Bikes can be a PITA and one needs to have enough patience for all of their intricacies. Definitely a different animal than the typical car.
 
Foam gets the social media likes lol. I haven't owned a bike since the mid 80's (1 in 90). I was always to afraid to even hose down the whole bike on the three that I've owned back then. Maybe the newer bikes are tighter/better sealed ect. It's crazy where social media has taken the detailing industry, both for good and bad.
 
I loved foam in the tunnel was I had, but not for hand washing.
 
well, i have limits....i haven't pulled an engine, primary, and trans yet to polish, coat and seal the frame :)

for me, it's a matter of time and effort and ultimately the result

i can get what i can see on a tank, and by and large, most would be happy

but with a tank as an example, I can do it on the bike...and make everything the customer sees look great, but it's just as stable on a bench, easier to work on and more accessible from every angle, i don't need to cover the engine, which is a nightmare if compound splatter hit its, I can clean it, decontaminate it, clay bar it, and then polish it out, I even hand polish the channel underneath, inside and out, top to bottom, it gets coated and sealed....and it takes 10 minutes to take it off

the fender is the same story, super easy to take off and when i do, i'm on the inside of that with a tooth brush....yup, the underside gets coated and sealed too....again, it's just too easy to do, to not do it

I can't see how a lower fairing can be polished without disassembly? this is not easy, and I hate this part... but without removing...What's the point, you can get part of the top, the cap and some of the side next to the crash bar....i'll have pics of the one I'm finishing tonight up soon...I detached those and polished out every nook and groove, it was worth the time, that feature on a harley is too curvy and sexy not to polish out properly

the tour pack on the trike i did came off with 6 bolts....i had it off in about 10 minutes, and it took my son and I about 2 minutes to drop it back in when it was done....the entire suface on top of the trunk as well as the bottom of the tour pack got polished coated and sealed....that's an area that may never see that kind of love ever again, and a coating will help my customer keep it clean
 
Lance Mark said:

this guy can likely detail circles around me, I'm told he's all that and a bag of chips....don't know who he is, but he seems to know his stuff

this is what I thought I'd get, if I took my bike into a shop for a coating

I don't see the need to cover a bike in foam, and there's no need for a power washer....maybe an attachment for a power washer to help clean the bottom of the primary and tranny, but eventually you gotta get under with with brushes, rags and q-tips....every part of a bike is small and can be easily done by hand

a gas tank is maybe one wiring harness, 4 bolts, and a quick disconnect for the fuel line....takes 10 minutes to remove if you doddle....how do you not completely machine polish one of the most prominent features on a bike?

the fender is held on with 4 bolts....again, huge parts of the fender went unpolished

bags, tour packs, side covers, fenders, seats, fairings upper and lower....all need to come off

that primary cover would come off and I'd machine polish that on a bench....if he wasn't going to do the whole thing properly, he should have never taken sand paper to it....it's pretty obvious, he hit the parts he could reach

i don't get that giant pad on the bike, it tells me he should stick to cars....holds more materials, he says....when i bought my pads, they had more, so I bought more, and change them frequently....there's not a lot of a bike that needs more than a 3" pad

I read a comment from MP here where he said he doesn't like to do bikes

i'd rather have someone tell me they'd prefer not to do the work, than half ass it....i respect that in fact
Click to expand...

Top followed detailer on the ‘Tube…. 1st bike I’ve seen him do…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Lance Mark said:
think I should reach out and give him some tips?

:D
Click to expand...

Just like with cars, there are no clearcut boundaries when it comes to the level of detail applied, and the quality achieved when working on bikes. There's a wide range of "attention-to-detail" and "quality" beginning with "production detailing", proceeding to and through "show prep detailing", and everything in between. The boundaries are even "gray" within a given range.

It all boils down to your own, and your customers, expectations (and budgets).

What is shown in the video would fall towards the "production detailing" end of the spectrum in my opinion, and that may have well been the intention. It does not mean that it's a half-assed, or low quality, job. Rather it shows that everyone is not looking for, can afford, or expects a "show" level of detail/quality. As long as the job depicted met his, and his customer's expectations, then the quality objectives were satisfied.

Expectations can vary from job-to-job and person-to-person. Most of my work would fall towards the higher end of the "attention-to-detail/quality" spectrum, but not always.

An example could be my daughter's car. It would be a complete waste of time and energy for me to strive for perfection, which is typically my baseline, on her car. She doesn't really care and isn't even capable of appreciating "perfection" in this context. So, when I work on her car, I have to set my own expectations lower, and she gets the "production" level detail job and is perfectly happy with that.

Another example of varying expectations, specifically relative to your own scenarios presented, is the removal of the tank and fenders for cleaning, polishing, and coating of the undersides. Those steps are not something that would fall into my expectations for a bike that is street-ridden, and I would only do those steps if they were specifically requested by the customer.
 
Another thought for a situation like this (regarding disassembly for cleaning) would be factoring in that while some folks may be an expert at paint care, they may not be mechanically savvy.

If I were traveling down the highway on a couple of contact patches the size of a dollar, I'd want to know that the last person that touched the seat and fuel tank/fuel connections was an expert in that regard.

Same goes for detailers pulling seats for carpet cleaning/etc.

Working on cars for a living, I've worked on plenty of cars where it's clear to see the last person (shop or DIY'r) doesn't realize that just because they can turn wrenches, doesn't mean they should...
 
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