What was your first detailing mistake/error?

Well I was 18, maybe 19, (I'm now 58) and was detailing, and buffing a man's car for him, and at that point thought I was fairly experienced handling a rotary buffer. This was the massive "Christopher Columbus brought over" one speed Boat Anchor Milwaukee, with Wool Bonnet. and a quite agressive Cleaner Wax-Polish combo I was using.

Just a short lapse of inattention, and you guessed it, I burned the paint right down to the primer on a rear quarter panel top edge. And not a little either, about a one foot long nasty.

Learned a hard lesson that day, and gained a new fear and respect with the Rotary Machine. Luckily, the owner didn't mind.

The next one I did by Rotary was a minter, a black '65 Caddy Calais, and I'll tell you, I was very very afraid of any sort of a mess up with that Car. Thankfully all went well.
 
Going in thinking that it was going to be easy..... Lesson learned. You can only grade the difficulty level upon completion and not anytime before.
 
I owned a black 1991 300ZX back in the day, I loved that car, so much so that I actually waxed it 3 to 4 times a week and washed it every day after school, never removing any of it, layers on top of layers...well I guess thats another thing lol. Man, those were the days. Anyways, I was getting tired of spending all that time everyday cleaning it because we all know how black paint is, its only clean right after you wash it...one day after school I decided the use a wet shammy (the absorber) to remove the dust without washing. Needless to say it swirled my nice black paint horribly, I pulled it out into the sun and my jaw hit the ground lol

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Most everything I did was a mistake.

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Working on a BMW from the 1990's. I didn't appreciate that the paint was a poorly done respray. Trying to remove a scratch in the middle of the hood I burned right through the paint with a PC 7424XP. I stopped & called the guy. He asked what happened, I told him his car had a respray that was not done to BMW standards. I pointed out other areas that previous detailers burned through the paint. The guy was pretty cool about it. I paid $450 for a respray of the hood, correctly done this time. I finished the detail (very, very carefully). He actually reimbursed me for the respray...and then sold the car.
 
Used one bucket not enough soap dirty mitt and bath towels to dry the car. Once I found autogeek that all went out the window real quick lol.
 
I still don't mind using dish soap if I'm going to be stripping LSP. Although I do now use Chem Guys Citrus Wash N Gloss, dish soap didn't do anything bad.
 
I did a single stage white car back in the 60's. Never did get the old cruddy paint out of my wool pad.

Sure wish I had read Mike's single stage paint article but I'm not sure he was born then:xyxthumbs:
 
JSou said:
Washing with one bucket,dish washing soap, and an old sponge that was also used on wheels. This was before I knew any better.
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Same here. One dirty bucket, old sponge, dawn, drying with discarded bath towels, pouring a nice thick layer of OTC Zymol on and then unable to get it off, getting wax in every crack and crevice, using a 10 inch orbital buffer and getting splatter all over the car and myself.

How about spilling tranny fluid on a 77 Grand Prix with oxidized SS paint and noticed that it darkened the paint and gave it a nice shine. So did the entire car in tranny fluid, ah to be 15 again.
 
Buying my first can of Kit wax......ever since then life's never been the same....:D :buffing: :laughing:
 
Using the foamy scrub brush at the 25¢ car wash as a teenager. Yes, they actually used to be a quarter. As far as actually detailing it was burning the paint off of a ridge on the hood of my gal's car:o This was with a DA but the hood had been repainted.
 
Using 1/4-1/2 can of original Simonize wax on my dad's 'work car'. Needless to say, he was NOT too pleased.

Yea, I was only a kid (10 or so) but I did learn that thin was in even in the 50's. If any parts of that car are still around, I venture to guess there is STILL wax on it.

Bill
 
Couldn't list ALL the stupid things I did!

What comes to mind (in no particular order) is:
Using Tide as a car wash soap.
Using the first clay bar I had without any lubrication (I don't need no stupid instructions!)
Washing with an old towel and an old galvinized bucket, and not rinsing (I was 8 -10 yrs old on that one).
Using the old vacuum that had water in the base to collect dirt and dust, on an incline. That was a 'shocking' experience!
Using way too much wax (more is better, right).
 
lokerola said:
Buying a car with black paint! Using a California duster and boars hair brush on the black paint ranks right up there.
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+1 on the black paint. It looks great, but I will not be doing that EVER again.

But my first major adventure into detailing i lifted up my polisher and sprayed everything withing 10 ft. of the workspace. My wife's engine bay is still speckled. I dont have the energy to spend hours cleaning it out.
 
i used to think nothing of using dish soap to wash my truck. then not only wash my truck with one bucket but then move on to the wifes care and use the same bucket without changing it.
 
After figuring that I had "mastered" that rotary, I proceeded to get too close to a piece of plastic molding on a fat Ford SUV, yep, rolled about an inch of paint it right off. The good thing was that the vehicle was a sh1tbucket and had several bumps, dings, and to the metal scapes - the owner didn't notice it! He was really impressed that I got the greasy interior clean again. I think I used a clean bucket of hot water as a rinse on every door, seat, and panel in that thing. I mean, jeez!
 
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