CHeck this out, this happened to me today!!!!

onebadchef

Registered User
Check this out, this is what happened to me today!!!!

I have an orginal 90 sc. This week I was at school, I sat in a chair in a class which had gum in it!!! Well this was my last class for the day then in turn I got into my car with gum on the seat of my pants. Well, I got home only to find the damn gum in my seat. Okay this is the begining, I call this guy at a detail shop to get an estimate, it was a 150.00 for the services rendered. When I went to get it today at 5:00 today. It looked like it wasn't even touched! Well, these donkeys' scratched my paint in numerous places for one; then when I got it home I noticed what a crappy job they did; swirl marks, they hit the middle accent line with the buffer several times. This is the main concern to me! They also scuffed the molding around the rear window. One more thing, the paint looks like spiderman took a crap on it. I forgot it is black with the original paint, it has never been buffed since the factory. The reason is it has been garaged kept since it roooled off the showroom floor. The school paid for the detailing which mainly was for the seat. So what would you all do in my situation. Do I go cuss the chumps out, go in physically and resolve matters, or just deal with it and fix it my self? By the way how can the molding be fixed since it has buffer scratches?

Thank you
Chef John
 
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can the onebadchef cook some kentucky fried chicken?

I dunno what I would do in your situation. Gum can be removed from the seats with some mineral sprits. And then some soap and water.

As far as the scratches are concerned, you have nothing to loose if you go back to the shop and complain about the damages to your car. You paid $150.00 so you at least epect them to do their job right.

ALways inspect your car and ask to see old parts before settling the bill with a mechanic......Same rule should apply here. If you are not satisfied, let them know before you settle the bill. Consider this a $150.00 lesson in "Carnomics 101".
 
I didn't pay for it though the school paid for the whole detail not me, they paid for the removal of the gum and the buffing and the waxing. also it looked okay at the time, because the sunlight was not as direct on it at 5:00. But it sure was at 7:00
 
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Buffing for gum?

Chef:
Not sure why these guys ended up buffing the car for gum, but, just so you know, gum can be easily removed with any light oil. Remember grade school? Moms used to get gum out of hair with peanut butter. It wasn't the peanuts, it was the oil that removed the adhesive properties of the gum. Then it's easy to get oil out of upholstery with a nice carpet cleaner like spot shot.
 
sorry for the misconseption

I went to get a quote for the gum removal. But the actual quote was for detailing the whole car. so I got the whole car done.
 
Sounds like those guys...

In the detail shop didn't know their A$$ from the elbow. THey scratched and cracked your paint? Wrong just wrong.

Don't ever let someone "learn" on your car.

I don't know what to suggest to you about the paint probs, other than having to pay a professional to take care of them.
 
the rest of my post

Hi chef,
Somehow, part of my post didn't get thru. OK, I understand about the gum issue. Here's the rest of the book I wrote: (Sorry!)...As for the swirl marks, this is just lousy technique and stupidity on the part of the detail shop. They should know better. Black is the hardest to buff. If the paint and clear are in good shape, not oxidized at all, the swirl marks can be taken out by rebuffing the car while observing these rules: Never buff in sunlight. The paint is easier to swirl when it gets hot. Change pads more often than you think is needed. Detail places use the same pad until it falls apart. Idiots. You need at least half a dozen for one car. Keep changing them even if it kills you. Use the finest compound you can find. Ask for recommendations at a good body shop. They often will compound a car after touching up a fender and the like, to make the car uniformly bright. Make your detailer fix it or pay for the work of someone who knows what they're doing. The molding may have to be replaced, if the scratches can't be polished out. Are they plastic? Sometimes you can steel wool or scotchbrite abrasions out of plastic, or paint them. Take it to a body shop and get an estimate if this doesn't work. Personally, I never wax or buff. It just shortens the life of the paint, and once you start waxing, you can never stop because the oxidized wax in the pores of the paint make it look dull in no time, then you have to wax again, and so on. Good base/clear should never need it. 'Course, in 1990, clear was not all that. My black '90 is getting repainted this year...You may have to take these blokes to court if they can't satisfy, I'm afraid. Lesson to us all: Nobody touches my SC! Best of luck, Scott
 
k2k2

I don't like to say this often but You're dead wrong on the "not waxing your paint" deal.

By using a good quality wax on your paint on a periodic basis is going to provide a layer of protection that will stand up to the elements. The biggest problem is UV rays and enviormental fall out. But hey tree sap and bird **** take their toll on a paint too. Even acid rain can etch under a clear coat.

A good quality wax shouldn't oxidize the way you describe. And if you want to clean the "pores" in your paint, you should CLAY BAR the paint. It will get the paint looking new again (barring any other problems).

Buffing on the other hand, I do agree with you, buffing just wears the paint down to expose layers that are brighter. If you have a car with a normal amount of paint thickness, you can buff that paint to get professional results. The problem with Ford during the early 90's was that they had a problem with paint application when they switched to water based paints. Therefore many of our t-birds had much thinner coats of paint on them than they "Should" have gotten. This leaves many of us struggling to keep it looking new.

Consider a good quality wax like "liquid glass". I use it and it lasts a long time. Just make sure to clay bar BEFORE you wax to pull dirt out of the pores. It's like a Biore' face strip for cars.
 
Good call Deep6, you are right on.
Try the "cigarette wrapper" test to prove you the effectiveness of clay......get a cigarette wrapper, tear it as to only have one layer, lay it on your paint and run your fingers across in a side to side motion. Feel that? that is fallout on your paint that you cant feel with our fingers alone. Use your clay bar per the directions and try the wrapper again again....the paint will be smooth if done properly. NOW you are ready to buff or wax.
 
Clay bar

Deep6,
I've heard of clay barring, but never have seen the stuff. Where do you get it and how is it used? Sounds cool. My SC is soon getting new paint, the original '90 black has just had it, as it was a NY car, driven on salty/sandy winter roads, and waxed (and probably buffed, too!) into oblivion by the former owner. I don't dare put a shine to it at this point, the paint is micro-thin! As for my no-wax theory...hey, whatever works for you. My 280zx was painted with Ditzler bright silver base/clear in 1995 and still looks like it just rolled out of the booth. Our t-birds are painted with garbage paint, and I'm sure everybody here struggles with the stock paint to make them look good and last. Also, waxes are much better than they used to be. Inasmuch as there is not much or no "wax" in any of the good ones. Maybe I need to try some of the stuff out. Cheers, Scott
 
Here is what I use....

As you can tell, I'm from the NY area and I've had my SC for 3 years so far (it's seen daily driving for three winters) and I do my best to keep it looking good.

Go to auto-zone and get something called "clay magic" there is a picture of a blue "gumby" on the box. The clay bar itself is blue.

When you first use it break it up into 3 or 4 peices. That way if you drop a peice no big deal you'll have a couple more to use.

When you wash your car make sure to use a good quality car wash that will sud up good. Armor all car wash works decent. Also No.7 car wash is a powder and that works nice too.

When you are done washing the car (make sure you wash from the top to bottom and use a different sponge for the lower panels) rinse everything off. Then re-sud the car up again (use new soap) and whip out the clay bar, use your fingers to form it into a handsized "pancake" and with a back and forth motion rub the clay bar on the panels of your car (in the soap).

The soap is a much better lubricant than the spray bottle they give you in the package, and instead of clay barring and then wiping the lubricant off, you just keep moving from panel to panel.

With an old peice of clay, I clayed my dad's saturn LS1. When I was rubbing the bar against the panels you could actually "HEAR" an abrasive sound as it pulled the dirt from the finish. My dad looked at his car and he was like "looks like the day it was new" and I hadn't even waxed it yet.

I use "liquid glass", it's expensive about $21.00 per can, but it's worth it. It's very versitile and goes on easy and comes off easy. You can also "layer" the coats of liquid glass but I usually will just put one or two coats on.

It lasts a very long time (about 4 months) so Its good for the winter time. It resists just about everything, so having a black car in sunny florida, I wouldn't want to be without this stuff.

I worked at a dealership and our detailing dept couldn't buff a car for the life of them. They would do the same thing, they would use the same buffing pad on multible cars till it was falling apart before they would change it. Then of course when I was showing a car to a customer, the customer would look at the paint and be like "geez, the paint has been buffed to Sh!t on this car". You would be able to see swirl marks all over the car. It's amazing that we even sold used cars at that dealership.
 
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