# Detailing Mistakes



## mangove21 (Apr 26, 2015)

I thought I'd start this thread as I couldn't find a similar one.

Don't know how successful it will become but might be a good way to learn from each others mistakes and give tips.

I'll start it off with one I'm absolutely gutted about. This past week I've been paint correcting my parents A4, it's pretty old but needed doing. I planned to protect it with a ceramic coating, costing of choice is carbon collective oracle.

Was my first time using a ceramic coating and probably my last, was applying it in sections over the week and outdoors but always careful about dust and such.

So on the first panel I thought I had removed it all but obviously not. It's a black car so very hard to see even with a strong light source, found the suede applicator a pain in the backside so opted for the lint free pads. So I carry on doing the panels and it took me over a week of correcting a few panels, and protecting.

So I finished the last little bits today and the sun was out. All I could see over the majority of the car was micro marring. Don't understand why as I used brand new cloths and no pressure when buffing. It was always carefully wiped down with panel wipe and constantly checked.

All I can say is I'm absolutely gutted and feel like a proper fool :/. I'm just glad I did it on an old car.

But I think if anyone is wanting to do it then try and do it in a controlled environment with plenty of light and maybe better cloths. All I can say is it must be human error.

I think I'll stick to waxes. 

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## crxftyyy (Jan 17, 2018)

Worst I've done, used a new spray and Rinse sealant on a white juke in for a Full Valet. It turned the whole car satin white, and needed machining off... 

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## RossC (Feb 16, 2019)

When I was a teenager I was washing my dads car with him, I sprayed what I thought was the QD all over the car to aid drying and it turned out to be the bottle of tyre dressing.

Thought I'd wiped it clear until the first time he was driving in the rain, turned the wipers on then..... SMEAR! a rainbow, hazy, oily impossible to see through film appeared on the windscreen.

In my defence the beading the tyre shine produced was phenomenal and I was only like 13/14 years old 

As for OP's predicament, don't feel bad or be put off from trying again, it was a family members older car and without a doubt probably looked much better than before

Whoever done this though should feel bad, brand new truck in this picture was what a certain dealership allowed a ceramic coating to be installed over, I had to remove the coating, correct the paint and reapply.









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## mangove21 (Apr 26, 2015)

Blackbeard said:


> When I was a teenager I was washing my dads car with him, I sprayed what I thought was the QD all over the car to aid drying and it turned out to be the bottle of tyre dressing.
> 
> Thought I'd wiped it clear until the first time he was driving in the rain, turned the wipers on then..... SMEAR! a rainbow, hazy, oily impossible to see through film appeared on the windscreen.
> 
> ...


Wow. I'm amazed they even applied the coating in the first place, cos they don't usually!

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## RossC (Feb 16, 2019)

mangove21 said:


> Wow. I'm amazed they even applied the coating in the first place, cos they don't usually!
> 
> Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk


Apparently got someone in to do it at the dealership this was just before lockdown so I'm assuming it was just the valets that work there who were told to slap it on to get the car out before they had to shut, customer seen the condition of the paint went berserk then dealership refunded him.

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## atbalfour (Aug 11, 2019)

mangove21 said:


> I thought I'd start this thread as I couldn't find a similar one.
> 
> Don't know how successful it will become but might be a good way to learn from each others mistakes and give tips.
> 
> ...


Never nice to hear after you've put it the hard yards.

You mention seeing the marring in the sunlight, if it makes you feel any better it's happened me in the past. Polish a car with a cutting compound, looks fine in a garage or under normal light but sunlight can be your biggest critic. I'd guess the holograms aren't from your ceramic application but more likely to be from your polishing stage and the likely need for a product and pad to refine the paint. Alternatively your polishing oils may have masked the holograms until you removed them with the panel wipe.

I haven't a massive amount of detailing experience to commit many balls ups but inadvertently lifted a pad I'd just been using with SRP or similar and proceeded to apply tire dressing with it, thinking it was the fresh one. You can imagine how difficult that was to remove from rubber.

Washed microfibre towels on a 90 degree cycle after seeing a video about boiling microfibre to release dirt. One gyeon silk dryer plus some relatively new edgeless towels ruined.

Also applied G5 glass sealant in direct sunlight on a hot day. The results were not so nice


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## mangove21 (Apr 26, 2015)

atbalfour said:


> Never nice to hear after you've put it the hard yards.
> 
> You mention seeing the marring in the sunlight, if it makes you feel any better it's happened me in the past. Polish a car with a cutting compound, looks fine in a garage or under normal light but sunlight can be your biggest critic. I'd guess the holograms aren't from your ceramic application but more likely to be from your polishing stage and the likely need for a product and pad to refine the paint. Alternatively your polishing oils may have masked the holograms until you removed them with the panel wipe.
> 
> ...


You think? I used a one step compound. Looked good under a light.

And applying anything in direct sunlight never ends well 

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## Itstony (Jan 19, 2018)

If you don't makes mistakes, how can you learn?
Not be too afraid to push the envelope if you need or want to. If you don't how will you ever know the limits?
You have learn't one good one, detailing in the Sun or heat isn't compatible with exterior work.
Don't worry, many don't share their mistakes.

Tip's as you asked. 
Make a habit of removing your watch, and rings jewellery and spin the belt buckle around to the side before going near the car. :wall:


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## mangove21 (Apr 26, 2015)

Itstony said:


> If you don't makes mistakes, how can you learn?
> 
> Not be too afraid to push the envelope if you need or want to. If you don't how will you ever know the limits?
> 
> ...


Well this is my point. We should be admitting to our mistakes and share them so we don't go down the same path

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## sebjonesy (Dec 15, 2011)

I've been doing valeting/ detailing as a job now for 3 years (10 years as a hobby) 

2 years ago I was asked to quote a job of wet sanding some scratches out of a recently newly painted Ford Escort. I saw the scratches and thought, yes, I'll be able to rectify that no problem. 

When wet sanded, the scratches seemed to have gone so then I polished up the sanding marks and those scratches made the appearance back again! 
After seeing this, I spoke to a chap who works at a car accident repair centre to which he said, "that's poor prep and they've spray painted over those marks, don't waste any more time". 
I polished the remainder of the sanding marks at the top of the bonnet, and then it just went from bad to worse - I polished down to the original paintwork on the vehicle!

Straight up filled my pants seeing this. I spoke to the customer and explained I have insurance etc but they just asked me to do a big valet on another car of theirs and they'd sort out the Escort themselves (I got off pretty lightly in hindsight, the customers were incredibly understanding)

I know now to ask more detailed questions and try and get as much history of the car as possible on any big jobs and if my gut says no, walk away rather than bite more than I can chew


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## Fatboy40 (Apr 15, 2013)

Worst Mistake: Leaving fallout remover for far too long on an alloy wheel badly marking / staining the clear coat, had to polish it out for ages, and it never looked quite the same again.

Best Thing for Preventing Mistakes: A test panel, look on eBay for a black bonnet off of a small car within say a 50 mile radius so you can pick it up, if it's scuffed and marked all over even better. If you can turn it around, coat it successfully with all manner of coatings, then you're good to (then get out a plastic pot scourer and scratch the f**k out of it and start all over again to hone your skills).


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## roscopervis (Aug 22, 2006)

Loads! I can't remember them all, but pretty much all the classics. 

One thing is not to practice. I make that mistake.

One thing I do now is intentionally make mistakes so I can learn how to fix them. Or see if they are actually mistakes. They usually are, but sometimes they aren't.


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## BrummyPete (Jun 10, 2010)

Left iron remover too long on hot alloys, strike through on one of my cars and used a rinse off ceramic on a my car and a friend's before trying to rinse off, causing bad staining and both cars had to be polished. 

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## Brian1612 (Apr 5, 2015)

I burnt through my paint while polishing the black trim on my side skirt. Was a rough edge of the side of the MF pad & didn't realise it was pressing against the paint while correcting the gloss black trim. Added it to the respray I had planned 

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## Bristle Hound (May 31, 2009)

Detailing Mistakes?

Got an hour ... :lol:


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## Nick-ST (Mar 4, 2013)

My biggest mistake was probably getting into detailing altogether! 

1. I used to be able to go look at buying a car and they all seemed pretty decent. Now I come across as the most stuck up fussy  you have ever met. I have traveled some pretty long distances to buy cars and ended up having the long trip back without.

2. It has cost me nothing short of a fortune. I could probably have bought another decent car with the money I have spent over the years on products.

3. Washing a car never used to particularly interest me. Then if by some miracle I did wash it. It would only take me 20minutes at most! Now I am lucky if I can wash a car (outside only) in under an hour!

4. The time. I must have spent weeks if not months worth of time polishing/cleaning cars since getting the bug. I could have probably got to know my wife in that time. The rona virus has sorted that though. She seems nice.

5. When it rains within a couple of days of washing the car it gets on my nerves. Also when you go to look at your lovely clean car the day after and it has a nice big bird  right down the bonnet. Cheers!


But in the end it is all worth it when you get a compliment off the neighbour and the usual, "there's another one round the corner". Isn't it? :lol:


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## mangove21 (Apr 26, 2015)

Brian1612 said:


> I burnt through my paint while polishing the black trim on my side skirt. Was a rough edge of the side of the MF pad & didn't realise it was pressing against the paint while correcting the gloss black trim. Added it to the respray I had planned
> 
> Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk


Ouch

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## mangove21 (Apr 26, 2015)

Bristle Hound said:


> Detailing Mistakes?
> 
> Got an hour ...


As long as it takes haha

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## mangove21 (Apr 26, 2015)

Nick-ST said:


> My biggest mistake was probably getting into detailing altogether!
> 
> 1. I used to be able to go look at buying a car and they all seemed pretty decent. Now I come across as the most stuck up fussy  you have ever met. I have traveled some pretty long distances to buy cars and ended up having the long trip back without.
> 
> ...


I totally understand this, I sometimes wish I just washed my car with a bucket and sponge 

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## Taxboy (Aug 23, 2006)

Years ago I thought I'd dress the rubber mats with Back to Black. They had a lovely sheen ...... until I got out the car with leather soled shoes. Was like walking everywhere on black ice 

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## GSI-MAN (Sep 12, 2017)

I tipped away pretty much 3/4 of a bottle of BSD
I had transferred it to another spray bottle as I was not happy with the spray head.
Was looking for my spray bottle and thought there was just water in there
So I tipped it down the drain


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## Carscope (Sep 4, 2019)

Got to be applying a spray wax in direct sunlight, was literally steaming off the panels 

Also not IPA wiping the panels after polishing and applying an LSP and wondering why I could still see some imperfections 


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## roscopervis (Aug 22, 2006)

Nick-ST said:


> My biggest mistake was probably getting into detailing altogether!


This is the answer! Since I've been into detailing (following a respray of my old S14a back in 2006), I've always had 2 cars, one for nice, and one for work. The nice cars I've always justified by not doing many miles in them and having low depreciation (if I'm lucky) so I look after them. The work cars are just that. I used to do 50 miles a day, sometimes more and did site visits sometimes to farms and often along single country lanes with passing places. That means the work car gets scratched to hell and takes a beating. Last summer I tore a hole in my sump on a farm track. Lucky I realised when I heard the crunch. Point is, mechanically it is looked after - serviced etc, but you'd never tell it's a detailers car, apart from the often weird patches of beading or other things on it.

On Monday I was doing my FSe test on it and I was thinking to myself that the car would look no different now if I had just washed it with Fairy Liquid and a rag for the 8 years and 90k miles I've had it for. It didn't stop me going through the motions though, wheel wash with brushes, snow foam sections with brush work around the intricacies,(it needed it mind you :tumbleweed and then on to testing Wash Plus again, FSe test of doing fallout, fallout removal and a light polish, paint cleaner and IPA of the flat panels ready for the test. Took from about 12:45 until just gone 6pm. I loved it though!

I could see on the car some scars of mistakes made in the past - a lot on the wheels - wheel acid left on too long, iron remover left on too long, tar remover taking off the SEAT badges. I also remembered how good the Meguiars Stage 1 Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner is. The wax, was still rubbish though, at least it was back in 2006.

Point is, we will all make mistakes. I've burnt through using an old rotary and some 3M Fast Cut but I did it on an old panel. Practice on things that it's ok to make mistakes on so that when you go to put that practicing into use, you know what to do. That way, you can have an old SEAT as beautiful as mine!


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## nicks16v (Jan 7, 2009)

The biggest one for me is washing the car in the sun and heat !! We dont get that alot in the UK, so thats the best time surely ? = fail
Trying to clean glass in the heat = fail
Doing the wheels, then spending ages cleaning the rest of the car, then when I drive it, the wheels get covered in rust from the disks. After all thats what I bought the atom mac for, so why not use it ? = fail


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## Itstony (Jan 19, 2018)

sebjonesy said:


> I know now to ask more detailed questions and try and get as much history of the car as possible on any big jobs and if my gut says no, walk away rather than bite more than I can chew


I will never forget Margeret Thatcher being asked "Do you go with head or heart"? 
In that hoity-toity voice replying, "The head, always go by the head".
And I'm thinking Huh? I always go with my gut feeling, heart just a posh way.

If it don't feel right then those incredible senses we have is telling you something, no matter what anyone else says until you are sure :thumb:


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## sebjonesy (Dec 15, 2011)

Itstony said:


> I will never forget Margeret Thatcher being asked "Do you go with head or heart"?
> In that hoity-toity voice replying, "The head, always go by the head".
> And I'm thinking Huh? I always go with my gut feeling, heart just a posh way.
> 
> If it don't feel right then those incredible senses we have is telling you something, no matter what anyone else says until you are sure :thumb:


Funny thing is - I had a bad gut feeling about this job before hand too, I said to my girlfriend in the morning that I didn't want this job at all 
So yes, the gut feeling is definitely not one to be ignored


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## Peter77 (May 29, 2016)

Used a spray and rinse for the first time. Sprayed the WHOLE car in one go. By the time I got back round to the start it had dried lol. Looked like the car had been shot at with a paintball gun using clear paintballs. Took hours to remove it


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## Nordboy (Mar 20, 2014)

Attempting claying for the first (and now last) time. Put a foot long scratch on my BRG XF. Ended up having to get it corrected.

I've been too scared to try it again. Got my new 5 series outside that I really want to keep in good condition, but I can't bring myself to try it all so pretty much stop at a good wash and dry!!


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## Christian6984 (Dec 20, 2007)

Nordboy said:


> Attempting claying for the first (and now last) time. Put a foot long scratch on my BRG XF. Ended up having to get it corrected.
> 
> I've been too scared to try it again. Got my new 5 series outside that I really want to keep in good condition, but I can't bring myself to try it all so pretty much stop at a good wash and dry!!


Did you figure out where it went wrong? Don't be put off by claying, it should only leave some light marring thats easily polished out. Just need to research the process. What was the clay, car clean? claying using clean side of the clay, good lubricant like ONR? Had the Tar been removed prior to claying?

Alternatively try and find a scrap panel and use this to practice on before going near the car itself


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## alfajim (May 4, 2011)

claying has lost its appeal these days. most are happy with a chemical decontamination.


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## mangove21 (Apr 26, 2015)

Nordboy said:


> Attempting claying for the first (and now last) time. Put a foot long scratch on my BRG XF. Ended up having to get it corrected.
> 
> I've been too scared to try it again. Got my new 5 series outside that I really want to keep in good condition, but I can't bring myself to try it all so pretty much stop at a good wash and dry!!


Yeah definitely give it another go. You must of picked something up because Clay doesn't do that

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## roscopervis (Aug 22, 2006)

alfajim said:


> claying has lost its appeal these days. most are happy with a chemical decontamination.


That may be true, but it doesn't remove the bonded contaminants that clay does. I'm sure that most of us will have clayed a car after a good chemical decon and still had a lot of dirt being picked up.


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## ianrobbo1 (Feb 13, 2007)

The worst thing I ever did was let two of my boys clean an old Cavalier, they were 16 & 18, I showed them exactly what to do, and left them to it, BIG MISTAKE, they made the Asian car wash look good, both for some reason were wearing rings and watches, and after dropping "the sponges" :doublesho repeatedly just picked them up and carried on scrubbing away. No prizes for guessing what the paintwork looked like after.


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## uruk hai (Apr 5, 2009)

The first time I ever tried (I say tried because I didn't really "use" it !) Autoglym Super Resin polish I made the stupid mistake of doing what I wanted as oppose to actually following the instructions and doing what was best ! I spread it liberally all over my bonnet on a nice warm cloudless day and stepped back to admire my idiocy and watched as it dried like a thin skim of plaster. I don't need to into graphic detail about the frantic rage filled moments that followed as I attempted and failed to remove it with a cloth ! In the end I had to wash it off, which took ages and I didn't use again for about 10 years !
I found this forum and Viper the then senior mod explained exactly how to use it properly and I haven't stopped using it since !

Roll forward, first time using Bilt-Hamber regular clay !
"Plenty of water" I told myself, so I proceeded to simply play the hose on the bonnet as I merrily slid the clay around. The problem was I should have been misting the water, not sheeting it off the panel, I dried the panel, stepped back and as my heart began to race I was faced with what I now know is marring. It's safe to say I was having kittens and rushed in, fired up the iPad in the search for answers and salvation! Fortunately and as usual someone quickly came to my aid and it was quickly sorted.

I wonder what's next ?


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## sevenfourate (Mar 23, 2013)

I spent 15 minutes trying to rid of a light spot off the carpet today (Hoovered, brushed, APC'd, dried, played around with, pondered over) that turned out to be a light reflection off the dashboard....


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## Guest (Aug 10, 2020)

Getting home late after a road trip. Being the car caked in bugs and dust and knowing it wouldn't be a good day to wash tomorrow, bust out the ECH20 (waterless) and go heavy on a wipe down. Wake up this morning to fine scratches on the bonnets nd a nice sunny day I coulda just washed it properly. Now it needs a light polish and re-coating the ceramic on the bonnet (and anywhere else I find later). Thankfully I have everything I need, but man sometime I just need to let the car be dirty for a day or 2 till I can wash it right.


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## sevenfourate (Mar 23, 2013)

DannyRS3 said:


> Getting home late after a road trip. Being the car caked in bugs and dust and knowing it wouldn't be a good day to wash tomorrow, bust out the ECH20 (waterless) and go heavy on a wipe down. Wake up this morning to fine scratches on the bonnets nd a nice sunny day I coulda just washed it properly. Now it needs a light polish and re-coating the ceramic on the bonnet (and anywhere else I find later). Thankfully I have everything I need, but man sometime I just need to let the car be dirty for a day or 2 till I can wash it right.


NOTHING good happens quickly......:thumb:

You remind me of me. And i speak from experience 

Good luck !


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## Guest (Aug 10, 2020)

sevenfourate said:


> NOTHING good happens quickly......:thumb:
> 
> You remind me of me. And i speak from experience
> 
> Good luck !


Sage advice there . OCD and impatience are a bad combo!


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## muzzer (Feb 13, 2011)

Spending god alone knows how long cleaning my Noddymobile ( a Mk1 XR2 in about a billion different colours ), polishing it using srp but using Muslin cloth both to apply and remove it. Instead of buying the same thing from a well known UK based manufacturer, i bought some cheap from a market stall and cut it to size.






Yep






Fibres and lint went flippin everywhere.


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