So I recently detailed a 1988 Corvette in which the driver's side door had been repainted because of a collision the previous owner had been in. After moving from one panel to another I noticed that the entire car had CC while this door was single stage because of the obvious transfer onto the pad. I brought the owner over and described to him what I noticed and explained the difference between the two methods of paint and why this was happening so he new in advance what was going on. I used a PC on the lower panels of this door as they did not need as much correction. He just called me and stated that he now noticed that on the bottom part of the car that the paint was slightly faded. I did not notice this while I was on the site. He is now wondering if it was my fault because he saw the transfer on the pads. I do this as a hobby and I don't have insurance to cover any projects I do if he ends up coming back to me and saying I did it. I am a stand up guy and said I would cover a small portion of the cost if he ends up getting it resprayed. I now feel like I put my foot in my mouth. I know I did not do this to his car, paint was already flaking off this door and I avoided all of the spots and marked them off on inspection so I wouldn't go near. This is a bummer. I also have pictures of the car post detail but they hardly show any part of the lower door. Am I screwed?
Tell him there is no way polishing a non CC'd door will cause fading. If he doesnt believe you ask him how he thinks antique cars are polished for concours shows! If he still persists tell him also that you conferred with many professional detailers who all say the same thing. Send him this thread (hopefully many more will reply) and prove it was not your fault. Dont be too defensive, be relaxed and just tell him it was a prior issue and now that the door was polished it probably became more prominent.
I agree with David. Polishing the panel, especially with a PC will not cause the paint to lose its luster. Its an issue that was probably already there but the owner hadn't noticed until you brought it to his attention. You mentioned paint flaking off that panel in certain areas?
Any chance since you were avoiding parts of the door it's simply LESS polished than the rest of the panel rather than faded from transfer? Thus giving the appearance of being faded?
I agree with Dave and Ken. What I have noticed is that after people drop good coin for correction they look at their paintwork closer than they ever have and as a result, notice things they never did before.
Yeah I considered that it might be place where I might have just overlooked by accident as well. The paint was extremely faded in some areas. The flaking areas were on the edges of the door. This is the only good picture I have but it doesn't show the lower portion... [/IMG]
Extremely good point, this is probably the most plausible cause for the appearance of fading where you avoided.
You brought this clear and single stage issue to the owners attention. Thats good, but what did he say then, continue or work around the area in question? If you worked around the area, your in the clear, correct. Also you mentioned paint flaking, did you mention this to him, just so you don't get blamed for that also. All in all, you fore warned him about the paints condition and i would think he should go back to his paint guy for a cheap job done on his car, seems like you're taking the brunt of this because of someone else's poor paint job.
I have found through quite a few details, that customers find things they hadn't notice before. The corrected paint shows defects that could not be addressed sometimes, things that have been there for awhile but not noticed (RIDS). Polishing a single stage paint will not cause it to fade, it likely has been faded for quite some time and the condition of the surrounding paint made it less noticeable or a poor coverage condition from the original repair and the primer is showing through.
I took some of your advice in regards to this situation. I gave the customer a few things he could try and do to alleviate the situation. I had him go over the area with cleaner wax to see if that would clear it up and BINGO it cleared up the area. Either it was residual or a small spot I passed over by accident. I apologized to him for the remaining issue and it has been all resolved.
Glad to hear it! These are the types of things that have kept me from doing paint correction to any customer's cars. I also just do this part time on the side and don't have insurance. Glad that it wasn't anything big though!
