The Art of Detail: SL Restoration...

[Gally]

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=298274

Nick imo is the best in the business. Helps when you own a bodyshop aswell!

Check out his Tiguain write up also. The way cars should be painted and polished.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Jebus H.

 

[DB.]

Would probably have only taken half the time if 4297 pictures weren't taken. lol!

Great work.

 

[Adamm.]

Blimey that's some finish as well, bet it looks amazing in person.

 

[mace¬]

I could make that car look good with bucket, a mop and some fairy liquid.

 

[Chip-mk1]

Would probably have only taken half the time if 4297 pictures weren't taken. lol!

Great work.

Must effect how much the customer gets charged all this stopping and posing with the bottle pointing exactly the right way to show the label etc.

I also think the "50/50" shots (I notice this person doesnt do them) are particuarly bad when done with tape as you are deliberately introducting a step in your paintwork, it always shows more like you are more interested in nerd points on a car cleaning forum than in the actual result I think for you to deliberately cause that sort of fault in the middle of your panel.


Car looks nice and clean, well done to the guy who cleaned it

 

[Scrooge]

Before and afters> 50/50

 

[Gally]

Must effect how much the customer gets charged all this stopping and posing with the bottle pointing exactly the right way to show the label etc.

I also think the "50/50" shots (I notice this person doesnt do them) are particuarly bad when done with tape as you are deliberately introducting a step in your paintwork, it always shows more like you are more interested in nerd points on a car cleaning forum than in the actual result I think for you to deliberately cause that sort of fault in the middle of your panel.


Car looks nice and clean, well done to the guy who cleaned it

Fpmsl @ step. Maybe venture back into the oily section Chipster.

 

[Adamm.]

It always shows more like you are more interested in nerd points on a car cleaning forum than in the actual result I think

Lol yep pretty much. I would rather they just got on with it rather than ponce about taking fancy pictures.

Still nice to look at for the rest of us though I guess.

 

[DB.]

It's nice to have an insight to the full process, but they do it on nearly all their details and it is BORIN'ELL! Also agree with Chip's comment with regards to the 50/50's!

I still look though as I just want to see the before, and the after, so scroll down and miss the 4295 photo's in between.

 

[rickyquicky]

The guy clearly knows what he's doing being a painter, and clearly takes it very seriously (a bit too seriously)

There were a few bits that IMO was unneccessary such as taking door handles etc off and spending 3 hours trimming the adhesive behind the badges.

But fair play thats as detailed as 'detailing' can get, but can't help but feel just a little dissapointed with the end result. I was expecting more, but i'm sure thats down to the photo's and in real life it looked great, but for all that effort I thought the finish would be something really special.

 

[Gally]

The guy clearly knows what he's doing being a painter, and clearly takes it very seriously (a bit too seriously)

There were a few bits that IMO was unneccessary such as taking door handles etc off and spending 3 hours trimming the adhesive behind the badges.

But fair play thats as detailed as 'detailing' can get, but can't help but feel just a little dissapointed with the end result. I was expecting more, but i'm sure thats down to the photo's and in real life it looked great, but for all that effort I thought the finish would be something really special.

I don't understand how you can take it too seriously? It's not a hobby it's a business. His business is being the best. As for taking the handles etc out i'm not sure why you would leave them in when wet sanding a full car especially if you're painting some bits.

Detailing write ups are to show the detail. A showcase of your work. Advertisement of the work carried out. I can't believe people don't get "it".

Product placement is something I never thought you guys would miss. Think about it for a minute.

 

[Yellow Dave]

that's certainly a well thought out advert for AF!

 

[Adamm.]

I can't believe people don't get "it".

I get it, I just wouldn't be arsed about them taking 100's of pictures if they was doing my car I'd rather they focus on the job rather than stop and starting with pictures all the time.

I agree its certainly a good advert though lol only thing is they will probably take as many pics on the next one and then the next one and then the one after that and so on.

 

[Gally]

Ever thought the customer might be paying more to have the car "written up"???

Mental? Not so much mate.

 

[Scrooge]

It's a great thing to add in the cars portfolio so the more pictures detailing the project the better.

 

[rickyquicky]

I don't understand how you can take it too seriously? It's not a hobby it's a business. His business is being the best. As for taking the handles etc out i'm not sure why you would leave them in when wet sanding a full car especially if you're painting some bits.

Detailing write ups are to show the detail. A showcase of your work. Advertisement of the work carried out. I can't believe people don't get "it".

Product placement is something I never thought you guys would miss. Think about it for a minute.

I understand all the photo's, and I also think it's an excellent write-up. The whole point of making a thread is to show off all the work that went into it.

Also I think it's excellent work, I completely agree that the guy must be one of the best in the business. Don't take what I said the wrong way.

Re-reading the thread I can understand why he took the trims out, I didn't notice the 'shape' of the door handles. I do think spending 3 hours cutting the adhesive for the badges was overkill though.

I also don't think his completed photo's done him justice to be honest, which is a shame because the quality of the wet-sanding, the attention to detail were worthy of much better photo's of the end result!

 

[Adamm.]

Like I said I get it but I'd rather they just got on and focused on getting the best out the paintwork not making it look as best as possible in pictures. I certainly wouldn't pay extra for it!! lol.

A few pictures is all good but there is an awful lot in some of these detailing threads, like I said earlier though I'm happy to look at them all I was just agreeing with chips statement.

 

[Ads_172]

Put it this way. If I had a car worthy of spending the money that these people charge I would research who to use using the available resource, of which DW is the best.

I would then make my decision based on how confident I would be that I would get the desired quality of work completed. The way these professionals do this is by showing the incredible levels of detail they go to.

One of their main selling points is advertising just how obsessive they are over detail. That's what paying customers expect when they're looking after their pride and joy.

As for product placement; it's a bit forced in his photos but it helps pay the bills obviously...

 

[Yellow Dave]

If it were my acr and my money, and he'd removed the badges and aimlessly backed them and put them on the car, sticky sided foam all visible, kind of defeats the point in going to all the trouble in which he had to remove them in the first place, and I'm sure there's more than just a couple of awkward shaped badges to deal with.

It's all in the name

Detail

 

[Gally]

Lols, as an apprentice I used to spend hours taping up badges! f**king cut myself hundreds of times. Those badges could be expensive to replace hence why I had to tape hundreds up in our bodyshop.

 

[Chip-mk1]

Fpmsl @ step. Maybe venture back into the oily section Chipster.

Why are you laughing at that?

To me the concept of detailing is that you should be chasing perfection with what you are doing, and the perfect way to polish or otherwise prepare a surface is NEVER with a straight edge masking half of it as then if you have given the perfect amount of attention to the other side of the straight edge you then end up over polishing it when you peel the tape off and do the bit you deliberately missed.

Im looking at this from the point of view of the microscopic changes to the surface of the paint when you do something like cut/polish the pink back to red on a car, you absolutely cannot do as good a job of doing so evenly if you do a 50/50 as part of that process.

I dont see how if if you keep doing it, you will not end up with negative effects eventually, surely that totally defeats the point of having the "pursuit of paint perfection" as a hobby?

 

[JD]

Pads, pressure, polishes, ambient temperatures and machines all affect the area you work on. Thus taping in such a way helps the detailer ensure each of the aforementioned variables are at their optimum.

I tape the bonnet into six sections if it's warm, 8 if it's cold, 4 if I'm glazing/using a finishing pad etc etc. It produces some fantastic 50:50 shots, for the sharing geek side of me. But in the same breath, I wouldn't detail a car without working out the area I'm going to attack properly to ensure the finish is as desired - perfect.

 

[Gally]

I'm laughing at "Step" hence the "@" symbol.

 

[Chip-mk1]

I'm laughing at "Step" hence the "@" symbol.

You dont think there is a microscopic step as a result of polishing one side and not the other?

 

[Chip-mk1]

Pads, pressure, polishes, ambient temperatures and machines all affect the area you work on. Thus taping in such a way helps the detailer ensure each of the aforementioned variables are at their optimum.

I tape the bonnet into six sections if it's warm, 8 if it's cold, 4 if I'm glazing/using a finishing pad etc etc. It produces some fantastic 50:50 shots, for the sharing geek side of me. But in the same breath, I wouldn't detail a car without working out the area I'm going to attack properly to ensure the finish is as desired - perfect.

So once you have that finish you desire - PERFECT - right next to the tape, what do you do to that now perfect area? Because if you remove the tape and then polish the area where the tape was, you are now going to be polishing your - PERFECT - bit of paint, so surely its now had too much polish and isnt perfect anymore.

Forgive the use of the word "polish" im not into all the correct detailing terms but it should be obvious what I mean anyway.

 

[Gally]

Chip is practically saying you have to polish a whole panel with the same amount of passes or it'll all be uneven.

 

[Gally]

You're missing out the fact if the tape wasn't there you would have an invisible box/tape/line as JD says 12x12 or whatever.

 

[Chip-mk1]

Chip is practically saying you have to polish a whole panel with the same amount of passes or it'll all be uneven.

No im saying you need to work each area exactly the amount it needs if you want it perfect, and if a specific point on the bonnet is only a couple of mm away from the tape, and you then specifically to show how "epic my mad detailing skilz yo" are decide to polish fully that point, whilst doing NOTHING to a point 2mm away, how are you then going to polish the point 2mm correctly without going back over excessively on the bit you just got perfect?

This sort of thing:

 

[Gally]

I've decided you either really don't understand correction work or you're trolling, either way... i'm oot.

 

[Chip-mk1]

I've decided you either really don't understand correction work or you're trolling, either way... i'm oot.

I certainly wouldnt claim to be any sort of expert on detailing, but im also not convinced that a lot of the people on here who preport to understand it actually do either TBH!
I just know that if I was looking for a perfect even finish on a surface, irrelevant of what that surface is, and wether we are talking machining or polishing or painting or anything else, I would never think it was a good idea to introduce a straight edge to the middle of the surface as part of that process.

When they polish an F1 car to make it perfectly aerodynamic (they want it smooth at a molecular level) I bet they dont do that with the panel, its counter productive IMHO

 

[Adamm.]

I know what you mean chip lol.

I thought the art of detailing was to remove the least amount of clear coat as possible?

 

[Lal B3N]

Some amount of work gone into that!

Wish I could be bothered to even wash my own car lol.

 

[Chip-mk1]

I know what you mean chip lol.

I thought the art of detailing was to remove the least amount of clear coat as possible?

Exactly, if you want to detail a car for the next 50 years to keep the paint as perfect as it can be, then to continually be applying slightly the wrong amount of effort to the paint in certain areas just for a photo is a counter productive measure.

Bearing in mind these guys are going around with paint gauges that are accurate to a fraction of a micron etc, I would have though that these VERY tiny steps that Gally is laughing and saying doesnt exist, would actually seem quite significant to someone like that TBH

 

[Chip-mk1]

Ps

This is the sort of image we used to get of a paint surface at a place I used to work:

Thats what something that to even your well trained hand and eye would feel and look "perfect" actually looks like if you look at it VERY close up, and what I am saying, is that introducing a step that at that level would look like the white cliffs of dover, (although not something the human eye is going to spot) surely is just knowing that ultimately you havent done it quite right, so if your hobby is the pointless pursuit of detailed perfection, surely the last thing you want to do is know that you are introducing (tiny and to me irrelevant but im not a pedantic detailer) imperfections into the surface?

 

[treemanx]

I'm not sure a micron difference in the clear coat around the taped areas, is going to show up on our f1 cars?

 

[JD]

That's the point/step you perhaps misunderstood. I generally two stage. So the tape will either move or not be present on the second stage (except to protect plastics/edges of course).

Polish, tape re/move, finish, glaze etc

 

[Chip-mk1]

That's the point/step you perhaps misunderstood. I generally two stage. So the tape will either move or not be present on the second stage (except to protect plastics/edges of course).

Polish, tape re/move, finish, glaze etc

People doing a 50/50 which is what I am talking about, will often do it as a "before and after" shot, so they are deliberately doing that whole part process with the tape in place.

Thats what I am on about, people who are so worried about a dramatic picture, they are prepared to sacrifice the finish, surely the best and most dramatic 50/50 detialing pictures are kind of by definition of the worst detailing? lol

 

[JD]

I know what you mean chip lol.

I thought the art of detailing was to remove the least amount of clear coat as possible?

Exactly, if you want to detail a car for the next 50 years to keep the paint as perfect as it can be, then to continually be applying slightly the wrong amount of effort to the paint in certain areas just for a photo is a counter productive measure.

Bearing in mind these guys are going around with paint gauges that are accurate to a fraction of a micron etc, I would have though that these VERY tiny steps that Gally is laughing and saying doesnt exist, would actually seem quite significant to someone like that TBH

You can't polish a whole bonnet in one go, due to pads clogging, polishes drying out etc etc. So even if the tape wasn't there, you'd still be polishing in at least four stages with different pressures/temperatures etc. You can't prevent this. That's the end of it.

You do realise you position the tape on the other side of the line when reapplying and polishing the other side of the 50:50 line?

 

[JD]

I know what you mean chip lol.

I thought the art of detailing was to remove the least amount of clear coat as possible?

People doing a 50/50 which is what I am talking about, will often do it as a "before and after" shot, so they are deliberately doing that whole part process with the tape in place.

Thats what I am on about, people who are so worried about a dramatic picture, they are prepared to sacrifice the finish, surely the best and most dramatic 50/50 detialing pictures are kind of by definition of the worst detailing? lol

Hmm, I don't agree but I understand your misunderstanding. 50:50s are generally not finished articles. Hence you'll note Russ and Jim on here posting "pre refining".