Nah, you're a hack , and so am I when compared to these guys. Simply incredible work. It also doesn't hurt they're doing one of my favorite cars of all time. Enjoy.

I guess I need to refine my carbon fiber detailing skills. Oh wait - no I don't!

And my skills on a couple year old $1.3MM car with 3,000 miles on it. Oh wait - no I don't!

Technically that was a repaint. I admire the skills and the financial commitment of someone to the process.

Wasn't a good wash and wax enough? I enjoyed watching that, but cannot imagine that kind of perfection. I wouldn't dare take it out in to the rude, rude, public like a normal car.

So my Lowe’s bucket and some dawn soap is frowned upon?

That’s a beautiful paint job.

The owner doesn't need to wash and wax; he just has the car repainted whenever it gets a little dirty.

I like it a lot too big deal. Beautiful car.

My most expensive detail was a car that was in LaSalle coupe Harlem nights. The owner had passed. His wife turn his car collection into a shrine of sorts.

Cira 2009ish

La Salle in the film

That's it from the movie.
I billed 89 hours for inside and out. it was about a 2.5 week job. The actual time on sight was about 3 weeks or 120 hours. I took off the testing phase. The car had 3 types of nearly perfectly matched paint. What sucked was all the chrome. It had fine pitting. So it was polished a fair deal by machine, then by buffed by hand. Insane amount of work.

I've noticed over the years, I've learned to appreciated Porsche and it's many models and iterations. The 918 is bad ass.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
Technically that was a repaint.

Ignore the repainting of some of the panels. A few years ago I decided I needed to expand my detailing knowledge and learn how to wet sand and perfect paint. So I bought a dark blue Ford Taurus hood from a local salvage yard to practice on. No way was I going to use one of my cars to try that. I divided the hood into four quadrants (so if I screwed up, I could move to fresh paint) and I got after it. I only managed a decent amount of success on one of the four quadrants, and that quadrant wasn't anywhere near good enough to please me. I can't begin to tell you how easy it is to burn through the clear and the base coat on compound corners like that car has everywhere. These folks have mad skills.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
Technically that was a repaint.

Ignore the repainting of some of the panels. A few years ago I decided I needed to expand my detailing knowledge and learn how to wet sand and perfect paint. So I bought a dark blue Ford Taurus hood from a local salvage yard to practice on. No way was I going to use one of my cars to try that. I divided the hood into four quadrants (so if I screwed up, I could move to fresh paint) and I got after it. I only managed a decent amount of success on one of the four quadrants, and that quadrant wasn't anywhere near good enough to please me. I can't begin to tell you how easy it is to burn through the clear and the base coat on compound corners like that car has everywhere. These folks have mad skills.

I remember watching a detail video a long time ago and the guy had a tool that he could hold up to the paint and see the thickness of the clear. That’s how he knew how much he could polish it.

quote:

I remember watching a detail video a long time ago and the guy had a tool that he could hold up to the paint and see the thickness of the clear. That’s how he knew how much he could polis

Pretty basic tool. Too bad you can’t just hover it over the paint while you’re polishing it and have an alarm go off. You know, like when you burn through that junkyard Taurus hood!

When I say basic, I mean for people that are making corrections on abused paint. I’ve been tempted but never bought one. But I’ve also probably never had any of my paint exposed to raw air due to constant layers of wax over a decent polish and sealant.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
Too bad you can’t just hover it over the paint while you’re polishing it and have an alarm go off. You know, like when you burn through that junkyard Taurus hood!

Burning through the clearcoat with a rotary is one thing, but wet sanding is truly an art. Even sanding carefully with 3,000 grit paper, you can blow through the clearcoat in a heartbeat. And I'm sure you know what the solution is to correct that kind of screw up....

I once had a neighbor come down to my house begging for help to correct a screw up he'd committed (i.e. a man with no detail experience who took a rotary with a wool bonnet to the hood of his wife's Lexus and totally destroyed the finish). I gave him the contact number for a good local body shop and told him to go visit them to have them wet sand and then re-clear the hood. That was about a $600 rookie mistake. Oh, and his wife lit him up big time, and banned him from ever touching her car again.

I've set sanded a lot of guitar bodies and necks and you constantly have to fight the temptation to use a larger grit or to sand just a little more. You've got to pull back, check your work and slow down. You're always just one little mistake away from burning through the clear coat.

That’s quite the job they did. A lot more than just a detail. Beautiful car.

Beautiful autobody work and detail work.

I grew up with a father in autobody. Over the years he painted a few show cars and even a few cars that are in museums. Even in his prime, it would be 12+ months in between doing it as it was so much work and the owners were pains in the ass. Dad wasn't one to shy away from hard work either as evidenced by one time he sawed two cars in half to make one daily driver.

Isn't this the car model that the guy from "Fast and Furious" killed himself with?

If so as I recall hearing this car has ferocious power and light weight. Must be something to drive one.

HK Ag

quote:

Originally posted by HK Ag:
Isn't this the car model that the guy from "Fast and Furious" killed himself with?

If so as I recall hearing this car has ferocious power and light weight. Must be something to drive one.

HK Ag

No, that was a Carerra GT. This one is a 918, and it's a hell of a lot faster.

quote:

Isn't this the car model that the guy from "Fast and Furious" killed himself with?

No - that was a Carrera GT. The car above is a 918 Spyder, a hybrid. An economy car, in fact, for the 12-18 mile all-electric range at least!

I pulled into the service bay at Porsche of Plano a few years ago and a GT was sitting there. When writer was through with me I walked over to it, he was puzzled and asked if I'd seen one before. Told him sure, but I'd never had one given to me as a loaner and really appreciated it!