shane@detailedreflections

1 hour ago, RayS said:

Thanks Shane.  For the front that makes perfect sense and I can do that without a problem.  For the sides, basically where the seat is at, all the gold pieces are individual so there is a lot of Red in between and the cut out areas and they are mostly small.  Would you recommend going to the outside and skipping everything in the middle of the graphics in that area?

You have a couple of options. 

- hand polish with revive which is probably adequate 

- light pressure with a finishing pad and polish, maybe even slow the speed down a bit to mitigate heat. 
- if you want new toys and have a rotary around, the auto triz mini polisher is a great setup for that kind of work. A polisher the size of a chapstick cap. 
 

I’d start with revive and see how it looks. If you want more, go from there. My guess is those areas aren’t heavily damaged. 

So with a lot of vinyl, if you change your technique just a little you can work with it and polishes. We will use a finishing polish and a minimal cut pad, light pressure and a quicker arm speed. Heat is not your friend in this case. 
 

The biggest question is why do you need to do anything with the graphic?  Work up to it cautiously by hand or machine and then prep and coat like normal. That’s the approach we would most likely take. 

@RayS your vehicles are looking good. Keep it up!

You could work a good with a mini. But I wouldn’t want to. It would take a long time to get adequate coverage. We use the mini for areas our bigger polishers don’t fit or a quick spot correction. 
 

There is something to be said for having the right tool for the job at hand. The most universal polisher is the 15. So if you’re going to have one polisher, that’s the one. 

10 hours ago, mc2hill said:

Thanks for taking the time to share your work Shane!  I always enjoy your insights.

 

@shane@detailedreflections any chance you re attending Mobile Tech?

I hadn’t given it much thought. I might look into it now that you mention it though. I wanted to hit SEMA but wasn’t able to this year. 

 

3 hours ago, tlbullet said:

@shane@detailedreflections i thought we lost you!  Great pics and fantastic work. 
 As i scrolled down i kept changing my favorite Pic!  
  GTR was my early favorite, changed over to the Aston, before ending with my winner.... the Porsche!! 

PS ..no reason for the GTR to have 1200 hp!!!!  That’s insane. Would have loved to park it for u!! I wonder  what is 0 to 60 time is?🤔

I’m still around. I was pretty busy with work, life and the business. Add to that that most discussions here revolved around scents and I felt I needed to take a break. But, here I am!

The GTR has a crazy twin turbo setup. Even just moving it was wild. And he said he thinks he has a couple of bad injectors. It runs on alcohol for the most part. Pretty wild car. 
 

We still have the Porsche. It goes for vinyl work next week and then it’ll be done. Gloss black spoiler, door handles and mirrors and 35% tints. 
 

The next project for that client is a Ram 1500 Limited that’s being wrapped in matte grey leaving gloss black emblems, window trims and wheels. Then being coated in a lifetime warranty coating. Should look great. That’s next month. 

 

1 hour ago, Yo-Yo Ma's Cousin said:

Great post! @shane@detailedreflections

 

Thanks!
 

1 hour ago, RayS said:

As always Shane, I appreciate your you sharing your work and knowledge and that Red GTR was beautiful.   I also see that you got your shop insulated, I'm sure that is really helping for the cooler months.

Thanks. We did get insulation up. That little bay is still awesome to work in. We are constantly evolving our setup and techniques. It amazes me still how far we’ve come in our process, business and the cars we work on.
 

We have some new logo revisions too and I’m working on a new website. One of my friends does marketing and branding and is helping us out out of her own kindness (she’s a partner at her business). She helped me with this years sweatshirt designs, logos, business cards...and now the website and some focused marketing. So look for all that to launch soon!!!!

Figured I would bring this back with some new posts. So incoming photo heavy posts. It’s been a minute...

 

25’ Bennington Pontoon Boat ceramic coated and protected. 
 

 

 

Audi A5 Sportback ceramic inside and out. 
 

 

 

 

Dodge Ram after being in a collision and body shop repair which included a “complimentary buff.” Two guys. Nine hours of paint correction and a new ceramic and this is the results from before and after. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeep Rubicon in ceramic inside and out. The top was removed and the roll cage serviced as well. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

BMW 435 for one step polish regular service.

 

 

 

 

1200 horsepower Nissan GTR polished and coated. 
 

 

 

Camaro SS ceramic coating

 

 

 

 

Aston Martin Rapide one step regular service 

 

 

 

 

 

45’ Show Hauler. Ceramic cab, sealed body. 
 

 

 

Porsche Panamera 4e Hybrid ceramic interior and exterior. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Wheels are no different than paint. They’re typically clear coated so they polish like paint. If you’re going to try to polish them, the least aggressive to most aggressive method still applies. I’d start with a test spot inside the barrels or somewhere hidden and I’d start with finishing polish and pads. Essentially using them as a cleaner.  The process is the same as paint, so clay won’t hurt as would wheel cleaner for decontamination. 

 

Satin by nature has a slight sheen so changing appearances will be less noticeable. Adding a coating will darken them slightly as well. 

Don’t polish matte paint. Or if you do, do so sparingly. The matte comes from the texture of the paint typically. 
 

There are companies out there that make matte specific products to use. 
 

And keep in mind if going ceramic, the coating will add a slight sheen to the finish and typically darken the colors. We will be costing a matte vinyl wrapped truck next month. I’ll post pics once it’s done before and after so you can see it. 

7 hours ago, Sandalwood said:

I tried the wipes and missed some spaces. I thought I might need to remove some areas before or after to deal with overlap.

Do all ceramic coatings eventually wear away on their own or do they just lose their protective qualities and still must be polished away?

Ceramic coatings tend to wear off. As you drive, they are constantly being abraded slowly. The loss of their qualities is usually due to them being dirty or contaminated.

 

If you want to remove a costing that’s been applied, you have to do it by mechanical means. The level of what’s needed to do this varies by coating. Most consumer grade coatings can be polished off relatively easily where most professional level coatings require aggressive compounding or wet sanding to remove. 

 

51 minutes ago, Yo-Yo Ma's Cousin said:

Do you think using a utility towel and something like rubber and tire cleaner could come in handy? Or do you think it would be necessary to use something like an abrasive sponge?
 

I’m thinking this might not be fully necessary. You might be able to give it a good clean and surface prep and go over the existing ceramic.

If you’re trying to remove the coating, you’ll need something to mechanically abrade the coating off. You could try a magic eraser but do a test spot first. If you’re just trying to level the product due to an application error, you could clean the surface and then I’d reapply to the entire piece and really level it out. 

A strip wash won’t remove coating from trim. Coating from trim is difficult to work with honestly. Why are you trying to remove it?  You can scrub with a mildly abrasive sponge and a lot of patience and it’ll come off. But it doesn’t guarantee it doesn’t mar the plastic. 

By microfiber, do you mean alcantara?  If you do, it’s treated as suede with mild cleaners and soft brush (boars hair) agitation. It’ll take sone effort to get them clean as most women spread makeup residues and that causes some of the packing of the fibers. 

You can try to clay bar it or you can try to polish it off.  Without knowing what the product that got on your vehicle is, it's difficult to say what the best approach would be.

This is the kind of situation where it helps to have a variety of products around. Mixing and matching pads and polished/compounds will achieve all kinds of results. 
 

Like others said, do a test spot and see what the magic combination is. It takes a mix of experience and trial and error. One of the biggest corrections we did was a four step correction using a different pad and compound/polish for every step. And that was after a complimentary “buff job” from the body shop after a collision. 
 

Don’t be afraid to play. 

Honestly I’d return the pad or write it off as a lesson learned. 
 

The bigger pad takes more motor to turn and usually has a longer throw on the polisher. 
 

 

On 11/5/2019 at 5:06 PM, SouthernSteve said:

Hi All,

Friends of ours just bought the above...pic below.  They asked me to “do my detailing,” to it.  My question is, since I’ve never worked in an Audi, if anyone has any experience with them and the paint hardness?  My research shows Audi’s can be harder paints but wanted to ask you folks.  

 

I had it “under the lights,” to do an inspection and thankfully the amount of marring and scratches is very minimal.  The black door trim has the most and one area above the left wheel well.  Our one friend may have though I was a tad nutty as I was inspecting...lol

 

I have my plan of attack but was hoping someone may have some experience with this particular paint, albeit every situation is different.

 

i just ordered Adams Spray Ceramic Coating for it...👍. 

 

Thanks to @RayS and @Rich  for your write ups that helped me in deciding to use it.

 

 

Hello to a fellow firefighter...

 

Audi paint is usually crazy hard. You’ll most likely find polishing takes longer or you’ll use more aggressive methods to get your results. The paint on the posts is usually still not crazy hard though. 
 

Without seeing the damage, it’s difficult to say what method we’d start with. That decision may also be impacted by what tools/products you have at your disposal. 
 

Good luck. 

It looks like leftover product that didn’t completely rinse off. Iron remover takes quite a bit to rinse off entirely. So the residue left behind dried. 

 

Glad it polished out okay and you’re good to go. 

Steamers are easy to use. We use a Vapor Chief 125. The machine we use is a little under $2,000. It allows us to mix chemicals in the line and to refill it while it’s hot. 

 

A great steamer that’s more economical for most doing their own work is a McColluch MC1385 Deluxe. It can be had for just under $200. It doesn’t have as large of a tank or the pressure and can’t be refilled while hot, but for most people those are non issues. The pressure of ours is great, but the heat and steam is where it’s at.

 

https://chiefsteamer.com/product/chief-steamer-car-wash-industrial-steam-cleaner-125-psi/

How aggressive to be is difficult to say without seeing the damage. I don’t know if it’s through the clear or not. 

 

You can go back over it, you just have to repeat the steps. So if you go back to correcting compound, polish over it. 

 

As for pads, we tend to go through a bunch for each vehicle. We change them out when they get loaded up and lose effectiveness. 

 

Pads can be cleaned and reused without issue. Just let them dry first. With pads and towels I always recommend you buy way more than you think you will need. Because you will need them. 

Nice work. I couldn’t imagine doing that job by hand or without a steamer. 

 

Good job. 

So there's a few things that come to mind with that.  It's hard to tell if that's truly haze or if it's damage that still needed to be worked.

 

The first question that comes to mind is if the paint is original?  If it is, it's quite possible that with that much time on it, the paint itself is damaged.

 

Is the paint single stage?  Older cars often used a single stage paint versus the more modern "base coat, clear coat" currently in use.  You can still polish single stage, but you're actually removing paint versus simply clear coat.

 

How much clear coat are you working with?  Hopefully you have decent clear coat on the car.  Without a gauge it's difficult to tell, but that's the best way to ensure you don't go after it too hard.

 

You said you did three steps of polish on it, but what does that truly mean?  Did you blast over the area once with a polisher for each step?  Did you work it in different directions?  Did you change pads often to ensure you're still getting a decent cut with the polishing?  There's a ton of variables.

 

Have you tried using anything to see if it's simply stubborn polish residue?  It could be that simple, although from the image it does look like damage.  

 

And the last question, which is the biggest.  Did you do a test spot on the most heavily damaged part of the vehicle to determine what process/materials you truly needed?  The reason we do this is so we don't potentially do what you did here where you went through multiple steps to find out that maybe you needed a bit more.  

 

Set realistic expectations for yourself given your experience and the age of the vehicle.  This will help make sure you're not setting yourself up for disappointment.

 

It sounds like I'd try working that area with a fresh pad and some compound before polishing it back to life.  It may take a few passes.  Diminishing abrasive polishes lose their effectiveness the longer they're worked, this could have been at the end of a polish.  

 

Good luck.

These trim pieces are textured plastic and can't be polished out like a gloss plastic or paint can.  You can clean them, but repairing them or making them better is of limited benefit.  Scuffs are caused by abrasion.  Once the plastic scuffs, it becomes visible.  It's a fact of life.  The way to prevent this is to educate your clients about picking their feet up when they get in the vehicle.  The reality is that most clients don't care about that (or some have mobility issues which can't be corrected).  They care about clean.  Manage your clients expectations, clean the surface and move on.  

 

It would be great to correct everyone's damages, but it's not realistic.  This applies to you as a service provider, and them as a client for what they're going to get.

 

All that being said, we clean the textured plastic with a variety of boars hair brushes, towels, steam and APC or Interior Detailer.

Alcantara simply needs to be kept clean in order to remain functional. Once it mats up, it’s a headache. Use soft brushes on it and gentle cleaners. 

 

As for moisture it’s not the end of the world, but for added protection you could use a fabric protection product available from a variety of manufacturers. We highly recommend them for carpet, upholstery and leathers. 

You’re welcome. It does help with sap. Steam and a plastic razor blade and it makes quick work of it. Pollen is super easy to mobilize. 

 

My video skills left a lot to be desired, but it was a last second idea to do a video and post. It’s been a while...

Every wonder how we do door jams and tight spaces quickly?  The answer is a steamer and a tornador tool. 

 

Our steamer is a Vapor Chief 135 that allows us to mix chemical in the same line. With the steam it really heats the product which makes it super effective. We tend to run diluted APC through ours, but in the winter we can run rinseless through it to do an entire car. It just takes a little time. 

 

A good entry level steamer is the McColluch MC1385. It doesn’t allow continuous fill while hot, doesn’t mix chemical in the line and is lower pressure but will make a difference in how you work. 

 

In these two videos (sorry for my poor video skill, it’s not easy to work and video), you can see how the steamer does a ton of work. Once the steamer does it’s things, you can wipe them clean with ease. 

 

 

 

 

Typically before we wipe though, we use the Tornador tool. This tool runs off of the air compressor (and is air hungry with heavy use) but uses compressed air and chemical to mobilize contamination. We also run this with diluted APC frequently. 

 

When you combine these tolls, tight spaces don’t stand a chance!  Door jams are cleaned with easy as well as seams.

 

 

 

 

@Kyle@Adams the new site looks great. I’m happy to see the Pro Line is finally a real thing after years of waiting.

 

Seeing the availability of the line, maybe with time we can switch back to some more Adam’s products as we had drifted away due to the abrupt termination of the affiliate program without warning or notice. 

 

Are five gallon products still a thing?  Maybe I missed them.