Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

[brig2221]

I spent the better part of 7 hours completely detailing my car today. I washed it with Megs Gold Class wash, clayed it with Megs Smooth Surface Clay Kit, and polished it with my PC and Megs M80.

That said, as great as my car looks now, I screwed up pretty bad. I severely chipped the paint on 3 of my door handles when using the PC today. It took me bashing three of them before I figured out what I was doing wrong. I was wedging in my pad on the PC under my door handle to try and get those scratches underneath. What I wound up accomplishing was bashing my door handle with a metal part of the PC, chipping the paint down to the metal on three of my door handles, one of them really bad.



Do you think a body shop could literally remove the door handles from the car to repaint them? I'm not interested in having the door handles repainted on the car due to overspray issues, etc.

Any thoughts on the best way to rectify this would be greatly appreciated. As great as my car looks now, and it looks the best it ever has due to M80 (LOVE IT!), I can't help but focus on the damage I did. I won't be happy until I get it fixed!

[Tim Lingor]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

Hey,

Sorry to hear that, but accidents happen.

I would imagine a bodyshop could take them off and repaint them. That is probably the best idea.

As for the PC, next time, place a few layers of masking tape over the head/housing. As well using your finger as a stop also works. I have seen all kinds of gimmicks out there, but simply using your finger works just great!

Tim

[Bunky]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

I have seen people wrap some polyurethane foam (maybe 1/2-in thick?) around the circumference of the metal housing.

[buda]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

At the risk of sounding haughty, you probably should have taken the vehicle to a professional detailer.

That said, you can contact a paint touch specialist who can fix those chips like new, at a far less cost than a body shop.

Where you located, maybe I can steer you to a paint touch company in your area.

Regards
Bud Abraham

[Nick Chapman]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

At the risk of sounding haughty, you probably should have taken the vehicle to a professional detailer.

I couldn't disagree more!

Everybody goes through a learning phase when they are trying something new. Be it detailing or riding a motorcycle. You screw up, you learn from it and you're better the next time because of it.

I own a detail business, and I make my money off of people that don't want to, or just don't have time to detail their own vehicles. But if theres someone that comes to me asking for advice, or asking questions, I help them out as much as I can, because I like to see people take enough pride in their vehicles to get out there and sweat!


brig2221-Don't let this discourage you. Next time, tape your door handles up, put some kind of padding on the PC, or just stay away from your door handles. Take this as a lesson and learn from it. Don't get discouraged and walk away.


We all make mistakes. Here's one of my recent ones...... http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24370




Nick

[Jeepster04]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

I couldn't disagree more!

Nick

Agreed. If we all sat around and sad we should take things to so called 'professionals' then no one would ever learn anything. That would mean I would have to take my Jeep to a stealership to get the oil changed.

In my opinion, Ive yet to find a professional that can give me the results Im looking for. Weather it be detailing my Jeep, changing the oil, or wiping my rear, I can do all things better than anyone else since I know Im doing it right or I will figure out how to do it right.

[Nick Chapman]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

or wiping my rear

Just curious where you would go for such a "service"

[buda]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

Well if I were operating detail centres again and my livelihood came from the detail business I sure would not teach my competition how to detail cars.

You competition in this case, is the consumer who thinks they can do it themselves.

Meguairs might want to do that as they sell chemicals, etc to the consumer to do it themselves.

But professional detailers have to make a living detailing cars, why would you give away your secrets and techniques so someone could compete with you?

Does not make sense. In business it is war, you can't be a nice guy. If a person is your customer and wants some tips on how to take care of their vehicle between details that is different.

Just my thought.

bud abraham

[Erik Mejia]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

You should get a PC Guard, so this doesn't happen again. Check it out here: http://www.showcardetailing.com/esho...c=no:thinking1

[brig2221]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

At the risk of sounding haughty, you probably should have taken the vehicle to a professional detailer.

That said, you can contact a paint touch specialist who can fix those chips like new, at a far less cost than a body shop.

Where you located, maybe I can steer you to a paint touch company in your area.

Regards
Bud Abraham

I'm in McKinney TX, a Northern Suburb of Dallas.

[brig2221]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

You should get a PC Guard, so this doesn't happen again. Check it out here: http://www.showcardetailing.com/esho...c=no:thinking1

Funny thing is, I have a PC Guard, but it still happened. After using the PC for so long, that metal gets so hot, the guard actually started to come off and move around a bit while using it.

[ZoranC]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

I couldn't disagree more!

Everybody goes through a learning phase when they are trying something new. Be it detailing or riding a motorcycle. You screw up, you learn from it and you're better the next time because of it.

I own a detail business, and I make my money off of people that don't want to, or just don't have time to detail their own vehicles. But if theres someone that comes to me asking for advice, or asking questions, I help them out as much as I can, because I like to see people take enough pride in their vehicles to get out there and sweat!


brig2221-Don't let this discourage you. Next time, tape your door handles up, put some kind of padding on the PC, or just stay away from your door handles. Take this as a lesson and learn from it. Don't get discouraged and walk away.


We all make mistakes. Here's one of my recent ones...... http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24370

I wholeheartedly agree.

[Paul S]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

I once had a boss that told me (while I filled out an accident form for tearing up one of his trucks),show me someone that never makes mistakes and I'll show you someone that dosen't do anything. As long as we learn from our mistakes , it's all worth it. Remember if it was easy,everyone would do their own.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

No one is perfect. We all learn from our mistakes. I personally take great pride in sharing the tips and techniques learned from this forum. The look on someones face when they see the positive results. They actually are beaming with pride. Thats a good thing.

[johnyB]

Re: Detailed my car today, screwed up royally, need advice

The way i look at it is that this could be a future pro detailer and if he can learn how to do things properly from the start then he will help to promote proper detailing. One time i brought a car for tinting to another detailshop (i dont do tints) long storie short i introduced myself and they said ooo your the competition i laughed and said listen until everyone in this town is geting there cars detailed we are allies in promoting detailing if we are fighting over one customer we beter pack it in.