What not to do when detailing a car!

Maxima Mom

Maxima Mom

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What not to do when detailing a car!

Last night we broke out all our new AG stuff and began to work on the Maxima. Since we are newbies, we really have no ability to give advice... however, we did learn some important facts to pass on to other newbies and even some of you expert detailers. Feel free to post your pearls of wisdom here. As you will see, our detailing pearls involve humor and not real advice!

#1 Do not detail in the nice, clean, hot garage at night when a fridge full of cold beer is next to the car. Remove the beer and replace it with bottled water!!! I feel sick this morning! Nuff said!!:(

#2 Re-read the Mike Phillips articles with your detailing partner before starting so you don't argue the whole time about who is right about the proper technique! Oh, and by the way, I was right! But then again, I am always right! Isn't that true gentlemen? :joking:

#3 When detailing with your partner, don't be the person who lifts the polisher off the car before turning it off!!!! Luckily, it wasn't me! I used to wonder why Mike repeats himself ad nauseum about turning the DA off before lifting it from the car! I only need to hear that advice once or twice. But, the hubby made that fatal mistake early on and we are still cleaning up the mess!:doh:
 
That was an entertaining read. Thank you :xyxthumbs:

For #3 Thats the last time he will make the mistake of lifting the polisher with product on it before stopping the motor! Same thing happened to me my first time! Luckily I was outside so the damage wasn't quite as bad.
 
Well, I see you're practicing and building knowledge!! :laughing:

Good post though, we need a chuckle early, it starts the day off on the right note...:props:
 
I'm glad you re-postet that message.. i'm soo noobie i'm waiting on a pc to be delivered next week. Can't wait to try it out...
 
kdude said:
I'm glad you re-postet that message.. i'm soo noobie i'm waiting on a pc to be delivered next week. Can't wait to try it out...
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It was thrilling to see the difference in the paint after polishing with the swirl remover. You will have a blast!
 
Great post, thanks for sharing! I must admit that I too am guilty of #1 and #3 as well :nomore:
 
Maxima Mom & Dad - Glad to hear that you have gone from asking questions to buying products to testing them out.

You did take LOTS of pictures, right??
 
Ok its Maxima Dad....in defense of #3...refer to #1.....however I will be introducing a new line of "swirl-designed" t-shirts....hmmm "wolfgang wear" splatter inspired clothing designs...

now for tip #4.....when detailing the car in the garage AT NIGHT, with the newly installed shop lights, coupled with #1 previously mentioned....make sure to CLOSE the garage door....this prevents the moths and bugs from flying into the DA polisher pad resulting in aformentioned #3......
 
Maxima Mom said:
#1 Do not detail in the nice, clean, hot garage at night when a fridge full of cold beer is next to the car. Remove the beer and replace it with bottled water!!! I feel sick this morning! Nuff said!!:(
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That's funny... :laughing:


Maxima Mom said:
#2 Re-read the Mike Phillips articles with your detailing partner before starting so you don't argue the whole time about who is right about the proper technique! Oh, and by the way, I was right! But then again, I am always right! Isn't that true gentlemen?
Click to expand...

Yep... the ladies are always right...

Maxima Mom said:
#3 When detailing with your partner, don't be the person who lifts the polisher off the car before turning it off!!!! Luckily, it wasn't me! I used to wonder why Mike repeats himself ad nauseum about turning the DA off before lifting it from the car! I only need to hear that advice once or twice.

But, the hubby made that fatal mistake early on and we are still cleaning up the mess!:doh:
Click to expand...

Yeah... been there done that, well actually said that at hundreds of classes only to watch people make the mistake even though I repeated the admonition to not lift the polisher off the paint till after turning the polisher off and allowing the pad to stop spinning...


Here's the good news...
After you make this mistake one time... and then put the polisher down and start wiping off all the tiny little splatter dots off everything in about a 6' to 7' radius of the buffing pad self cleaning at high speed... you tend to not make that mistake again...

Wiping little dots of splatter off windows, wipers, mirrors, and anything else in the path of travel is never any fun...

Thanks for sharing... I'm confident others will read this and take it to heart and you'll have helped others to be successful in their garage...

:bowdown: :bowdown:
 
Maxima Mom said:
now for tip #4.....when detailing the car in the garage AT NIGHT, with the newly installed shop lights, coupled with #1 previously mentioned....make sure to CLOSE the garage door....this prevents the moths and bugs from flying into the DA polisher pad resulting in aformentioned #3......
Click to expand...

That's hilarious!
 
CEE DOG said:
For #3 Thats the last time he will make the mistake of lifting the polisher with product on it before stopping the motor! Same thing happened to me my first time! Luckily I was outside so the damage wasn't quite as bad.
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This is a real common mistake when a person is first starting out...

About the only time it's hard to really recover from it is on older cars that have grills in the hood in front of the windshield that you can't access to wipe the spatter out of...

This is what I'm talking about, these grills for fresh air intake...

GrillsThatCantBeWiped01.jpg


GrillsThatCantBeWiped02.jpg



And I tape them off before buffing out the car...

redelcamino_015.jpg




When I detail muscle cars or just about any car from 1970's and older I always look down inside the area under the grill to see if there's splatter and there usually is... then I take a picture of it and point it out to the owner who is usually oblivious to it so I don't get the blame and of course, tape it off.


Other than grills like above... for splatter anywhere else... a little wiping here and there and you're back to work...


:xyxthumbs:
 
Great thread, funny and entertaining (Yes I'm guilty of #1 & #3 as well)....Still make the #1 mistake every now and then....BUT!
:postpics:
 
Maxima Mom said:
Last night we broke out all our new AG stuff and began to work on the Maxima. Since we are newbies, we really have no ability to give advice... however, we did learn some important facts to pass on to other newbies and even some of you expert detailers. Feel free to post your pearls of wisdom here. As you will see, our detailing pearls involve humor and not real advice!

#1 Do not detail in the nice, clean, hot garage at night when a fridge full of cold beer is next to the car. Remove the beer and replace it with bottled water!!! I feel sick this morning! Nuff said!!:(

#2 Re-read the Mike Phillips articles with your detailing partner before starting so you don't argue the whole time about who is right about the proper technique! Oh, and by the way, I was right! But then again, I am always right! Isn't that true gentlemen? :joking:

#3 When detailing with your partner, don't be the person who lifts the polisher off the car before turning it off!!!! Luckily, it wasn't me! I used to wonder why Mike repeats himself ad nauseum about turning the DA off before lifting it from the car! I only need to hear that advice once or twice. But, the hubby made that fatal mistake early on and we are still cleaning up the mess!:doh:
Click to expand...
Great and funny post.. made my Friday haha :xyxthumbs: I have my beer after my detail job.
But I have sometimes during lol.....
 
Great Thread with good humor! :dblthumb2:

I was doing a little of #1 in the garage last night along with my roommate, thought I did add in a little water between beers.

We also had the door open as well but instead of moths flying in we had blood sucking mosquito's! Nothing worse than being in mid polish on a panel only to have several vampires sucking the blood from your back! :D

Rasky
 
Ha ha, I really enjoyed reading your post. I too have been guilty of committing mistake #1. I like to make a drink called, "Michelada" every now and then when I work on my car. :buffing: Alcohol and power tools never mix :nomore:, ask me and my finger how I know. Im the MAN
 
Very funny, thanks for sharing. Sounds like you and the hubby had some quality bonding time! Nice thing is we all make mistakes, great thing is those mistakes help us to really remember what not to do next time. Bonus is you tried out the new stuff and you and your car survived! So there you can see this isn't that hard after all!
 
Meghan said:
I think this is a story I want to hear!
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First off I'd like to say that I was lucky to keep my middle finger. My uncles and I were laying laminate wood flooring and I was the one in charge of cutting the pieces to fit. Luckily one of my uncles was a carpenter and had a pretty good rule of thumb when working with a table saw. Only raise the saw high enough to clear the piece your cutting by about 1/8 of an inch or less. Everything was going smoothly at first, then the beers started adding up. :cheers: Now I'm a little tipsy and as I was cutting a piece, I noticed the blade didn't clear the top. Without thinking I decided to give it a little nudge downward with my finger to clear the blade. I saw the blade come through and also happened to notice blood splatter on the wall. I had an epiphany, I realized then I was also cutting my finger. :doh: Again, luckily for me the cut was really only superficial, except for losing a small chunk of finger from the tip. Surprisingly it healed very well. You'd hardly be able to notice I got cut. From that day forward, I rarely mix tools that cut with alcohol. :xyxthumbs:
 
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