Robert Mac Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Great job! You should be proud. Thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wardo Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 do you like the all purpose cleaner over the green wheel cleaner and leather cleaner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chase@InsanePaint Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 I think in this particular case, the APC was NEEDED to get that level of dirt out. INSANE turnaround bro. Killer job. Just killer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neogenix Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Great Job!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChargerMatt Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Car looks brand spankin new, great job man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisguga Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 Holy cow that is an amazing turn around. You made your Mom a boat load of money when she goes to trade that car in if she manages to keep it that nice. When the dealer looks at that car he will see dollar signs. Can I ask what dilution of APC you used on the interior? How long did you work on the interior by chance? Because the interior transformation is what is so amazing to me. Excellent work, if you get any "knit picking" they are JEALOUS because the car looks better than new!!!! Can't wait to see more writeups from you in the future. I used a different brand APC because it's $15 for a gallon, safe to use on the interior and exterior, and works GREAT. I diluted it to 1:4 and it still cleaned with amazing results. I used the same thing on the exterior shuts, gaps, under the gas cap, under the hood, on the wheels, tires, etc and it all came very clean. "First, let me say I'm not a professional detailer" Well you could be! From the paint to leather and everything in between it looks amazing. Hope your Mom knows how hard you worked. Thanks man. It's crazy, I linked this thread to a few of my old car guy friends and they're lining up trying to get me to do their cars at a discounted rate. My wife is a photographer and can easily design websites, help me with very high quality photographs rather than my iPhone shots, etc so I would do work for cheap to get examples of my stuff up. My buddy wants to pay me $400 to do his 4-door Chevy truck and I told my sister I'd do her Lexus IS250 for $300. Once I get about 4-5 more cars under my belt those prices would at least double if I'm doing a FULL correction and detail. My biggest limitation is the fact that I have a full-time job, get paid time and a half for overtime, work 45-50 or more hours per week, and I'd have to get a client who could leave their car with me for a week so I could work on it Sundays and in the evenings and nights on the other days. Or, if it's someone I trust I could just let them take my car for the week, much like I did with my mother. My wife left a television reporter job that she hated and started her own business 2 years ago. Now, she makes more with it than she did reporting and LOVES it. I really respect her courage, drive, and ability to be an entrepreneur. I'd love to have my own business even if I only did one car a month. We'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
79tomato Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Nice job Chris! I'm new posting here but I do enjoy reading everyone's tips and tricks. As most of the people on this site I also love to detail cars. It's hard to stop looking at a well detailed car. I too was in your kind of position about 20 or more years ago. I detailed some cars for fun. People saw them and told other people and soon I had more cars to detail. I started charging $35 and then $50 with no shortage of business. As you do, I also had a full time job that paid well. At that time in my life I was close to having a wife and starting a future and family together. Because of that I opted to go the safe route and stay with my job. Shortly after that a friend of mine brought an article from a financial magazine to me. It said auto detailing was one of the top ten up and coming small businesses. I often wonder what could have been. I am not telling you to quit your job. I'm just offering food for thought. You can still work and build you own business at the same time. It will require more time out of your day. Best of luck to you and great job on the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRZN Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Nice turn around. Sorta' reminds me of the old show with rapper xzibit: Pimp My Ride! Don't let her turn it back to the "before". Oh, and make sure she replaces her wiper blades, the passenger side one is torn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AudiOx Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Nice, nice work! Those 'taped-off' interior/exterior shots are amazing. -The aluminum trim on my A8 has clearcoat damage in several spots. I've tried some metal polish selectively, but it didn't do any good. Any thoughts? -Also, I have what looks to be similar 'hedge-dragging' scratches on my rear quarter-panels. The Adam's and non-Adam's polish is not doing the job. All the micro-scratches are gone, but not the horizontal 'drag' ones. Wet-sanding, ya think? Seems like too large of an area. I hope to get input from Junkman on the 3rd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Tegeler Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Nice, nice work! Those 'taped-off' interior/exterior shots are amazing. -The aluminum trim on my A8 has clearcoat damage in several spots. I've tried some metal polish selectively, but it didn't do any good. Any thoughts? -Also, I have what looks to be similar 'hedge-dragging' scratches on my rear quarter-panels. The Adam's and non-Adam's polish is not doing the job. All the micro-scratches are gone, but not the horizontal 'drag' ones. Wet-sanding, ya think? Seems like too large of an area. I hope to get input from Junkman on the 3rd. Input from junkman would be perfect at the clinic! Can you feel these with your fingernail at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AudiOx Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Input from junkman would be perfect at the clinic! Can you feel these with your fingernail at all? Just went out and checked. Other than the couple of bad gouges, I can't feel the majority of them. Before the clinic, I may give it one more shot with the Flex as it seems they are better than what I remember. I'm wondering if maybe I my pad was clogged the first time, so I was making no progress. Whereas, the second time (now with more experience), my pad was in better shape. We'll see. I definitely have some other spots to ask Junkman about, particularly a few acid rain/bird dropping type spots that I can't seem to get out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisguga Posted November 24, 2011 Author Share Posted November 24, 2011 Nice job Chris! I'm new posting here but I do enjoy reading everyone's tips and tricks. As most of the people on this site I also love to detail cars. It's hard to stop looking at a well detailed car.I too was in your kind of position about 20 or more years ago. I detailed some cars for fun. People saw them and told other people and soon I had more cars to detail. I started charging $35 and then $50 with no shortage of business. As you do, I also had a full time job that paid well. At that time in my life I was close to having a wife and starting a future and family together. Because of that I opted to go the safe route and stay with my job. Shortly after that a friend of mine brought an article from a financial magazine to me. It said auto detailing was one of the top ten up and coming small businesses. I often wonder what could have been. I am not telling you to quit your job. I'm just offering food for thought. You can still work and build you own business at the same time. It will require more time out of your day. Best of luck to you and great job on the car. Yeah, there's no way I'd ever quit my job to detail cars. I don't want to waste the 7 years I spent in college. lol Nice turn around. Sorta' reminds me of the old show with rapper xzibit: Pimp My Ride! Don't let her turn it back to the "before". Oh, and make sure she replaces her wiper blades, the passenger side one is torn Good eye. I meant to get that fixed for her but didn't have time. I put some Adam's glass sealant on her windows for her so hopefully she won't need them very often. Nice, nice work! Those 'taped-off' interior/exterior shots are amazing. -The aluminum trim on my A8 has clearcoat damage in several spots. I've tried some metal polish selectively, but it didn't do any good. Any thoughts? -Also, I have what looks to be similar 'hedge-dragging' scratches on my rear quarter-panels. The Adam's and non-Adam's polish is not doing the job. All the micro-scratches are gone, but not the horizontal 'drag' ones. Wet-sanding, ya think? Seems like too large of an area. I hope to get input from Junkman on the 3rd. I also have scratches on my "chrome" trim that I haven't had much success removing. You can try rubbing them out a bit with a microfiber cloth and some polish. I tried brilliant glaze hoping for a filler effect but it didn't do anything. Well, I use a Porter Cable which is weaker than a Flex and I had no problem removing the horizontal scratches on her car. It took 2, sometimes 3 passes of my cutting compound and pad and then just a quick pass with a finishing pad and fine machine polish to fix it perfectly. Just went out and checked. Other than the couple of bad gouges, I can't feel the majority of them. Before the clinic, I may give it one more shot with the Flex as it seems they are better than what I remember. I'm wondering if maybe I my pad was clogged the first time, so I was making no progress. Whereas, the second time (now with more experience), my pad was in better shape.We'll see. I definitely have some other spots to ask Junkman about, particularly a few acid rain/bird dropping type spots that I can't seem to get out. You definitely want to clean your pad between each set or at least between each panel. I pretty easily removed etching from the clear when I worked on my car (not the Maxima) the very first time. Yours may be much deeper than what I dealt with. It's hard to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbit Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Wow that is a very nice turn around! Good job Chris! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveVY Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Awesome job! After seeing your results I need to try the plasti dip stuff for the wheel wells on my Bride's 4Runner. Very cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcarrot Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Plastic Dipping the Trim and Wheel Wells was genius. That stuff is awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Tegeler Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 curious how the plasti dip is holding up on the wheel wells? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisguga Posted December 1, 2011 Author Share Posted December 1, 2011 I checked it last weekend and it is holding up perfectly. I too was curious how long it would last, but so far so good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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