Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

[summerstorm]

I was about 10 years old, and our Dad had been teaching my brother and I how to detail his Plymouth Horizon Hatchback. He was at work one day with our other car, and so I wanted to surprize him that day by detailing his plymouth before he got home. While doing-up the car I noticed I couldn't get the tar spray off the side doors of the car. So I wanted to show him how creative I could be in getting all that off. Surely he would be pleased with me then. So knowing my mom's kithen stuff usually cleaned the heck out of our dishes. I grabbed a couple S.O.S. pads(Steel wool with cleaning agent on it) and successfully cleaned all of that tar off of his car. You know the rest of the story.

[summerstorm]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

Please feel free to add your own stories!

[ajb39oh]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

Oww! That poor paint.
My father in law used the old time rubbing compound on his new at the time 2003 Chevy truck and scratched the heck out of it. Didn't understand about clear coats!

[GhOsT1321]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

Heres my story...
When I received my first car, I didn't care for it. I let it sit under a tree that dropped a lot of sap and had many birds nested in it. About 7 months late, the car was sticky everywhere and I was tired of my fingers getting stuck to the doors when I closed it.
Above is mistake number one.
I then decided to wash the car. I took it to a washing area with power washers that cost 25cents per 30secs. The power washer didn't get much of the sap off, so I used the tire brush. When I was finished, I noticed that the tire brush had sand in it. A week or two later, my car had some deep scratched in some areas, that were in the diection that I moved the brush. This was mistake number two.
These scratches are still in the car today.

The joys of being new to detailing.

[summerstorm]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

In hindsight, I think we can get a little chuckle out of these stories. But at the time they were probably no bueno.

[summerstorm]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

More stories encouraged.

[BlueZero]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

I can remember putting way to thick of a coat of paste wax on my car. It would take forever to dry so being the smart guy I am, I figured out a quicker way to dry it. Park the car in the sun for a couple hours. I never thought I was going to get all that wax off. lol

[summerstorm]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

Def. good one BlueZero.lol The faces you were probably making to get that off the car had to be priceless!

[DrdetailNashville]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

The carpet spot cleaner and the brake dust cleaner (acid) I use are roughly the same color. Not really one is yellow one is orange, but if you are rushing and the bottles aren't labeled then its a fairly easy mistake. Well needless to say I was lucky it was only a floormat I had to replace on a customers car. Moral of the story "Always label your bottles!"

[Car Potential]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

Well mines not really a blunder but the first time I waxed my car, after it was hazy I wiped off the wax with a wet sponge because I thought thats how you were supposed to wipe off the wax until my roommate looked at me like wtf and then explained that I needed a dry MF towel to wipe off the wax.

[STRIFE]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

I never make mistakes cuz i'm a member here....lol

In anycase, the "stupidest" thing I ever did was wash my car with dish soap back when I bought my first car, a NEW 1987 Honda Civic....lol

[summerstorm]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

Niice, good stuff. I don't feel so bad now.lol

[GhOsT1321]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

Here's another blunder that happened a week or so ago
We had a severe storm, I had only 2 miles to drive or so when I left. As I started my car, it started pouring, 2 minutes into driving, the wind and heavy downpour make seeing anything whether it be a cars tail lights or a person walking impossible unless within 20ft. I was pulling over when the wind broke a tree and a medium size branch that broke off hit my car.
I wasn't sure what had hit me or what I had hit at first, so I got out of my car and walked back to see the branch. By the time I turned around to head back to my car, I was soaked, from my head to my shoes.
Morale of the story, if there is a tornado watch with over 60mph winds, do not drive your car.

[Brook]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

As a teenager I bought a can of Turtlewax and decided to skip the wash on my '68 Impala. I applied it right over the very dirty surface. The can of wax and the applicator got a lot of grit mixed in as a result. I think I did get most of the dirt and grime off the car--at what cost to the paint I don't remember now.

This was the same car on which I was checking the water level in the battery one day. I placed the battery caps on the fender and ended up with six distinct areas of damage to the paint.

[Brook]

Re: Stupidest Detailing Blunder(At any age)

I just remembered that I also (as a teenager) used to wash my car with Tide. I'm sure there was a scrubbing brush in there as well.