Thread: Becareful when choosing who you let touch your car...

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Be careful who you have take care of scratches on your vehicle as the results can turn out like this car. 2003 VW Passat came to us with heavy buffer swirls from a less experienced auto detailer and the funny thing is they didnt even remedy the isolated deep scratch at the top of the door. Here are a few more photos which speak for themselves, followed by a video of the steps it takes to correct the paint.

The heavy buffer swirls were installed by an inexperienced buffer whos buffer "trails" or holograms leave behind a trail of the erratic method to his madness.



Luckily the entire car wasnt as swirled as the passenger rear door (Where the original scratch was, which was supposedly removed, although still visible) and rear quarter panel





Buffing compound left in the seal of the rear door



Before touching the vehicle I gathered some paint depth's using a special gauge to read the paint thicknesses around the entire vehicle and on average we saw a reading of 2.7-3.1Mils of Paint/Clearcoat available. Most vehicles come from the factory with 1-2 Mils of clearcoat:



These two panels of which had been buffed heavily before, read between 2.3 and 2.5Mils of paint. I estimated that this particular vehicle had 1Mil of clearcoat available so wetsanding buffing and polishing had to be done with extreme caution as to not fully remove the clearcoat as the previous person had gone WAY too aggressive to remove that much paint (The clearcoat is what provides the gloss you see on the vehicle as well as a UV protection from the paint or color underneath from fading)



The following video shows a method of machine wetsanding to remedy said scratch, as well as the removal of the bufferswirls installed by the previous detail, using proper paint correction techniques. Hope you enjoy.



Here is a 50/50 Comparison on the rear quarter panel:



Heres the corrected panels:





Finals of the entire car:








Click here for the full res shots on our Flikr Album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/northwe...n Passat Wagon

- Blake
NorthWest Auto Salon
Seattle's Premier Auto Detailing Facility

World of difference there. Great job on that car.

Great work!

I need to drop by and check out what you have going on sometime.

Amazing work... the before photos look like the first time I ever cleaned my car.

Wish you guys were in Orlando. Some guy scraped his car against mine today... Nothing to major but it still feels like a kick in the gut.

Damn that is a seriously good job. You guys know your shit!

Originally Posted by jchurch

World of difference there. Great job on that car.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Rain City

Great work!

I need to drop by and check out what you have going on sometime.

Feel free to come by sometime, give me a call in advance to make sure I am around.

Originally Posted by EChris

Amazing work... the before photos look like the first time I ever cleaned my car.

Yikes! Hopefully it didnt cost too much to remedy

Originally Posted by JasonV

Wish you guys were in Orlando. Some guy scraped his car against mine today... Nothing to major but it still feels like a kick in the gut.

If you can feel it with your fingernail, its through the clearcoat, if you cant, youre in luck and if you choose wisely a professional, knowledgeable detailer in your area should be able to get it taken care of for a minimal charge.

Originally Posted by secure

Damn that is a seriously good job. You guys know your shit!

Thanks Secure!

Excellent job. I'm referring my parents as well as everyone else that I know to NWAS. Impressive work.

damn Blake, i wish you guys were a lot to closer. you would be the only one touching my car.

yup, awesome job...