No detailing for me this weekend. I'm in L.A. till Sunday, supposed to rain Monday in STL, then I leave for Atlantic City Tuesday at 0 dark thirty

Mark

 

lotsie- is that LA as in Los Angeles or LA as in Louisiana? dang, sounds like a busy month.

 

Los Angeles. I'll be in your neck of the woods in 2 weeks.

Mark

 

things must have been CRAZY out there this week for MJ's funeral. my buddy works in the video reproduction industry and he said his business has skyrocketed.

2 weeks huh? neato!

 

Missed the MJ thing by a few hours, so it was all cleared out.

When I fly into Chicago, I'll keep an eye out for a couple of fits parked outside

Mark

 

hahaha. one of my buddies stopped by the other day to pickup some wheels from me. he also has a FitSport so there were 3 FitS's outside. was kinda werd.

 

So I gave Geoffrey his first post-accident bath today. I was kinda tired but I wanted to give him a bath so I did Wash + Hydro and very light wheel cleaning.

I finished drying him off and drove home and found that my brand-new plastic arch had wax marks all over it. My guess is that they used some cheap dressing to cover up the wax and when I gave him a bath the dressing washed off.

Pics:




So I guess I can assume that they didn't tape off when they "professionally washed and buffed" him at the body shop? (And yes, I am aware of the streak below the fuel door.. that's MY fault for not drying it properly)

 

Yikes... looks like you have some work to do there, Leslie.

That's what they told you... "professional" wax and buff ? I bet my 13-year old son knows more about buffing and waxing than they do.

 

Yep. Black Wow. I spent about 15 mins on that particular arch and then decided to just do ALL the plastic trim. Finished up in less than 45 mins and it was already 80F outside.

I'm almost tempted to bring up their "professional" wash and wax job when Allstate calls with their survey on my experience with their "highly recommended body shop."

 

Hope the BW fixes it permenantly. I've always had the white marks come back... until I tried some Meg Formula 39 (IIRC... not sure of the number ).

And yeah, the shop should be made aware of the problem. You can complain to them directly, might or might not matter to them. Or you can complain to Allstate... then it'll surely matter to the shop because if they get too many complaints, Allstate will remove them from their preferred shop program and that means $$$ to the shop.

 

Is this where we start screaming for Richard to finally release Pre-Wow?

Oh Allstate is already aware of some of the issues I've encountered. The owner of the shop also knows me by name now. I complained when my "COOPER" emblem was crooked when I picked him up. I raised hell when my door handle came apart from the door later on that evening. Same thing happened to a piece of window trim. I raised even more hell the next day when I woke up to a dead battery. And I basically showed them the female version of Satan when I found out that they did not replace the tire, build date, etc. stickers on the inside of the driver's door sill even though their work order showed "REPLACED" and the lady I was working with stated that they were replaced. If they were replaced, then why are they not there? Are they invisible stickers??

I'm really a nice person.. I swear.

 

yeahhhhhhhhhhhh... where the hell is that PW he started talking about 18 months ago ??

And yes, I'm sure you're a lovely person... until someone messes with your beloved MINI, that is.

That body shop sounds like they're a mess. Of course, I'm not all that impressed with Allstate's claim service in general. And I'm not harsh on them just because they're a major competitor... I'd be the first to compliment a competitor if they earn it... like USAA or Liberty Mutual. NOt as good as State Farm, but nobody is.

 

Is a Random Orbital!!

Yeah I know Chirstmas is a ways off, but can't I start my Wish List a little early??!!

But I also need advice on which one to get??

Can the Detailing 101 Guru God's of All Mighty Detailing help out a newbie??!!

 

I could not be happier with my Porter Cable polisher, RJ. It's easy to use and very well built... I expect it to last me the remainder of my life.

I got it from Detailer's Paradise but I don't see it on their website now. Think they're still having problems getting all their items listed on the new site. Give them a call of google it and find it elsewhere. I believe the model number was 7424.

 

Ditto on the Porter Cable

Mark

 

leslie- x1000 on the YIKES for that "professional" detail job.

i read RJKimbell's post and i thought 'wait a minute, which old thread am i reading? only to see you were just VERY EARLY for xmas 2009.

 

My MINI's getting a Porter Cable for his birthday (8/24)! But shhh.. don't tell him. I think he's still traumatized from the "professional" detail job.

Oh and I got a new sheepskin mitt the other day.

 

nice leslie~!

yah, that reminds me of my old local "hair stylist" aftermath. i left without paying.
well, i didnt tip her.

 

Hey, OCDetailers...

I'm looking for an air compressor for the garage. Want to use it for tire inflation and for blowing water out of the nooks and crannies on the MINIs.

Would be nice if it had the capability of running some pneumatic tools if I wanted to add later, but if it's not cost effective, then I don't really need that capability.

Got any suggestions ? Just spent an hour researching in the internet and .

Anybody have any experience with the type of compressor I'm looking for ?

 

I like the small sized one Griot's has. Probably find the same one for less though.

Maybe check amazon?

 

What's cost effective to you? I purchased an excellent 10 gallon one from Harbor Freight for about $140 and it does everything I need. I've used lesser expensive pancake models in 2.5 gallon size and they don't hold enough air to blow water from the cracks. The pump is constantly on to refill the tank, and most of these inexpensive ones are oilless so they can only be used for short periods of time before they overheat.

I have this one but I believe I paid less than $150
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=90234

Here is one for $99 and 5 gallons might be sufficient for your needs.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=94734

I use my compressor for blowing the air out of the cracks and crevices, for inflating my MINI tires, for filling Black Wow (yes it's the air tank I use for my custom filling machine), for powering air tools such as removing lug bolts from the wheels, etc...

 

Yeah, those are cost effective to me, Richard. I saw some larger capacity compressors for several hundred dollars, wasn't sure if I would need one of those to blow water out of the MINIs or to power an impact wrench.

Thanks for the input.

 

How noisy are those harbor freight ones?

 

Good question, Ken... my garage isn't huge by any stretch of the imagination. I don't want something that is going to drown out my Classic Rock on the radio.

I'm laughing, but that is a consideration... something that runs relatively quietly.

 

Well I only have the 10 gallon one, so can't really speak for the $100 model or other HF compressors. The other two pancake compressors I had were from Pep Boys and were purchased for portability reasons. They were loud and vibrated like crazy..they danced all over the floor when they were filling the tank with air.

When the motor isn't running, it's absolutely silent! And that's why you want a tank big enough to do your jobs without having to have it constantly topped off. There is a silencer/muffler on my unit..not sure if it does anything, but neither of my previous models had one.

Richard