collapse collapse

* Cafe Shout Box

Sorry, this shoutbox does not exist.

* Board Stats

  • stats Total Members: 339
  • stats Total Posts: 40588
  • stats Total Topics: 3350
  • stats Total Categories: 13
  • stats Total Boards: 33
  • stats Most Online: 829

* Calendar

March 2024
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 [28] 29 30
31

No calendar events were found.

The Cafe is OPEN
Detailing today? Check the Weather  http://www.weather.com/

Author Topic: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer  (Read 14610 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Too Stroked

  • Café Moderator
  • ***
  • Posts: 4680
  • Don't just be good at what you do - be the best!
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #30 on: March 26, 2021, 01:09:25 PM »
Ram 4500 crew cab.  Cab only though.  The bed is a 10’ stake body/flat bed.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do you have any coarse grit clay ( old school ) ?

The cab only on that should be quick with clay and you don't have to worry about it.

I think you could get pretty good with iron remover and standard clay before starting in on it.
- Maybe 1st pass use your old pads,
I did have a bar of more aggressive clay but I’m not sure if I still do.  Aside from the roof it would be a simple and relatively fast process.  The roof of crew cabs suck.  Maybe if my work schedule next week gives me a day off I will bring the truck home to give it a clean up.  We are hit and miss right now as the weather clears and warms up so we aren’t back 100% full time yet. 

For shits and giggles, I took this yesterday.  It’s the area between the door windows.  It’s not even the worst part of the truck. 




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another dealer detailing dirty little secret. I only do the roof on vehicles where one can actually see it. For trucks and most SUV's, a wash is as good as it's going to get because why waste the time when nobody sees it?

Offline sscully

  • Café Member
  • **
  • Posts: 1713
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #31 on: March 26, 2021, 06:49:56 PM »
Another dealer detailing dirty little secret. I only do the roof on vehicles where one can actually see it. For trucks and most SUV's, a wash is as good as it's going to get because why waste the time when nobody sees it?

Wait all this time I was not supposed to be making sure every mark is out of the roof of my trucks ? :wow:
Steve

Offline sscully

  • Café Member
  • **
  • Posts: 1713
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #32 on: March 26, 2021, 06:51:03 PM »

I did have a bar of more aggressive clay but I’m not sure if I still do.  Aside from the roof it would be a simple and relatively fast process.  The roof of crew cabs suck.  Maybe if my work schedule next week gives me a day off I will bring the truck home to give it a clean up.  We are hit and miss right now as the weather clears and warms up so we aren’t back 100% full time yet. 

For shits and giggles, I took this yesterday.  It’s the area between the door windows.  It’s not even the worst part of the truck. 



Is that tar or pitting ?
Steve

Offline Kitzy

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
  • OCDer formerly known as ESF
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #33 on: March 26, 2021, 06:56:08 PM »

I did have a bar of more aggressive clay but I’m not sure if I still do.  Aside from the roof it would be a simple and relatively fast process.  The roof of crew cabs suck.  Maybe if my work schedule next week gives me a day off I will bring the truck home to give it a clean up.  We are hit and miss right now as the weather clears and warms up so we aren’t back 100% full time yet. 

For shits and giggles, I took this yesterday.  It’s the area between the door windows.  It’s not even the worst part of the truck. 



Is that tar or pitting ?
Its a mix of two different epoxy coatings designed to be applied to asphalt.  One is a cement base and the other a water base. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If you always do what you\'ve always done, you\'ll always get what you\'ve always got.

Offline Kitzy

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
  • OCDer formerly known as ESF
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #34 on: March 26, 2021, 07:03:07 PM »

I did have a bar of more aggressive clay but I’m not sure if I still do.  Aside from the roof it would be a simple and relatively fast process.  The roof of crew cabs suck.  Maybe if my work schedule next week gives me a day off I will bring the truck home to give it a clean up.  We are hit and miss right now as the weather clears and warms up so we aren’t back 100% full time yet. 

For shits and giggles, I took this yesterday.  It’s the area between the door windows.  It’s not even the worst part of the truck. 



Is that tar or pitting ?
This is one of the products we do and it shows you the products that get sprayed down.  On big jobs where areas are spread far away from each other we carry all the spraying equipment on the truck, leaving it up there.  It’s an air powered sprayer so it goes everywhere in the form of either splatter or mist depending how close something is.  When you see the guy dumping the bag in to the mixer, that is a bag of cement. 

https://youtu.be/WCWlAyKmCUY


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If you always do what you\'ve always done, you\'ll always get what you\'ve always got.

Offline Too Stroked

  • Café Moderator
  • ***
  • Posts: 4680
  • Don't just be good at what you do - be the best!
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #35 on: April 03, 2021, 05:06:04 PM »
I don't have a lot of time to get proper before and after shots of some of the stuff I do, but last week I somehow managed to grab a few. Here's a 2018 RAV4 with only 26,000 (very rough) miles on it. I had to pull out the extractor to even have half a shot of getting the carpets clean. And you don't even want to know what was under the back seat.




And then there was this train wreck 2018 Highlander with just under 40,000 miles on it. The interior was just trashed. In fact this one should have been subbed out because it was so bad. Just take a look at the way back.




Offline Kitzy

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
  • OCDer formerly known as ESF
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #36 on: April 05, 2021, 07:04:49 PM »
There’s not much left to say.  You keep banging out these fantastic turn arounds.  The dealership is lucky to have you.  Especially since apparently you’re too cheap.   Haha


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If you always do what you\'ve always done, you\'ll always get what you\'ve always got.

Offline Too Stroked

  • Café Moderator
  • ***
  • Posts: 4680
  • Don't just be good at what you do - be the best!
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #37 on: April 08, 2021, 07:09:43 PM »
Interesting news the last few days. The Toyota dealership I work for has been a family run affair for many, many years. I actually bought my first new car - a 1976 Toyota Corolla Liftback SR5 - from them when I got my first big job at Kodak. 

Well, that's about to change. We were bought out by the West-Herr Automotive Group out of Buffalo, NY. (We will be their 28th dealership.)  Listening to the owner of West-Herr yesterday, I'm kind of looking forward to the change. He really sounded down to earth and honest about putting employees first. We chatted later and he assured me that they will be offering me a job in the new organization. This might be interesting.

Offline Kitzy

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
  • OCDer formerly known as ESF
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #38 on: April 08, 2021, 07:52:46 PM »
Interesting news the last few days. The Toyota dealership I work for has been a family run affair for many, many years. I actually bought my first new car - a 1976 Toyota Corolla Liftback SR5 - from them when I got my first big job at Kodak. 

Well, that's about to change. We were bought out by the West-Herr Automotive Group out of Buffalo, NY. (We will be their 28th dealership.)  Listening to the owner of West-Herr yesterday, I'm kind of looking forward to the change. He really sounded down to earth and honest about putting employees first. We chatted later and he assured me that they will be offering me a job in the new organization. This might be interesting.
Interesting for sure.  Hope it works out.  They’d be a fool to let you go. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If you always do what you\'ve always done, you\'ll always get what you\'ve always got.

Offline Blown F-150

  • Café Member
  • **
  • Posts: 3255
  • Don't ask me if I read the instructions
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #39 on: April 08, 2021, 08:38:22 PM »
I know you have the experience with acquisitions, however they often make a good sales pitch in the beginning, lol.

You’re a money maker for them, not a chance they wouldn’t at least give you some options. They very well know that they can’t farm out that level of quality for a reasonable price.

I think you’re in for a raise and bringing on a young apprentice!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
2014 F-150 FX4 Blue Flame
2021 Explorer ST Atlas Blue

Offline sscully

  • Café Member
  • **
  • Posts: 1713
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #40 on: April 08, 2021, 10:55:37 PM »
We chatted later and he assured me that they will be offering me a job in the new organization. This might be interesting.

Awesome news.
Steve

Offline Too Stroked

  • Café Moderator
  • ***
  • Posts: 4680
  • Don't just be good at what you do - be the best!
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #41 on: April 13, 2021, 05:04:20 PM »
My first rule of detailing is "I can heal the sick, but I can't raise the dead." Well, today was apparently raise the dead day at the dealership. First up was a used 2018 Camry with 27,000 miles on it. How bad could it possibly be you ask. Well, if you park it under a tree dripping sap every day and then let it bake in for a few years ... Here's what the hood looked like after a wash:



Those spots are all sap. They were generally about 1/4" in diameter. I tried my favorite Sap Remover. No dice. I tried Isopropyl Alcohol. No dice. I tried ProSolv. No dice. Well, gotta polish them off. I went with a Blue Pace Cutting pad and Menzerna 400 at full blast on the Flex. Ever so slowly, they almost all came out. Then I followed up with a Hex Logic yellow pad and 3D One to finish it out. Here's the end result:



Next up was a brand new 2021 RAV4 in my most unfavorite color - black. My co-worker was doing a new car prep and called me over for a consultation. This was the hood:



Now a closeup:



I have no idea what this crap was, but it was all over the hood. It was slightly raised and white - and it was not coming off with anything but a buffer or polisher. So, out came the Flex and I used the exact same process as I used on the Camry. Here's the result after about 20 minutes of work:



It may not look perfect - and I'm not sure why - but it was. The problem was, the paint is supposed to be perfect on a new car, so almost nobody knows what a good job I did. Bummer.

Now here's tomorrow's challenge waiting in my bay. This is a 2019 Camry in a very desirable trim level and color. The only problem is that somebody had some truly hack paint work done to the right rear quarter panel. The sales department wants me to see what I can do with it before they decide if they're going to ship it out for paint. I'm betting it's going to burn right through and / or fall right off as soon as I hit it. What do you think?


Offline Blown F-150

  • Café Member
  • **
  • Posts: 3255
  • Don't ask me if I read the instructions
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #42 on: April 13, 2021, 08:19:43 PM »
Yup, probably super thin clear. That’s not gonna be fun.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
2014 F-150 FX4 Blue Flame
2021 Explorer ST Atlas Blue

Offline Too Stroked

  • Café Moderator
  • ***
  • Posts: 4680
  • Don't just be good at what you do - be the best!
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #43 on: April 14, 2021, 03:08:44 PM »
You guys are absolutely not going to believe this - especially because I didn't believe it either. I went in this morning and - as I promised the sales staff - wailed away at the Camry starting with the right rear quarter panel because it was the worst. I kept checking the pad to see if it turned black indicating that I burned through the clear. It didn't. In fact I did the whole first stage cutting process with Menzerna 400 on a blue Rupes Cutting pad and no black appeared. I then went to a second pass with 3D One on a Hex Logic Cutting pad and still didn't get any black. Man, as hacked as the paint was, they must have just buried it in clear.

I know you're all wondering how much "less awful" I could make it. Drum roll ...





I was absolutely flabbergasted. Other than the fact that the masking job prior to paint was pathetic and left some really ugly edges, the quarter panel actually looked pretty damned good. Based on that success,  I decided to go on with the rest of the car. I'm going to finish it tomorrow and I'll get some final pics, but it actually looks pretty awesome. Your thoughts?

Offline Kitzy

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
  • OCDer formerly known as ESF
Re: Adventures of a Dealer Detailer
« Reply #44 on: April 14, 2021, 05:58:40 PM »
Obviously this is a different vehicle...

Haha.  Man, you can’t argue those results!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If you always do what you\'ve always done, you\'ll always get what you\'ve always got.

 


* Recent Photos

Snow Storm 3

Views: 3
By: Kitzy

* Recent Topics


* Recent Posts

No posts were found.

* Top Boards


SimplePortal 2.3.3 © 2008-2010, SimplePortal