BIG "A" DETAILING Shop Introduction & Pricing

[AndrewBigA]

a few weeks ago Jeurry came back for a nice hand wash, clay & hand wax.
we applied some Collinite 915 Marque De Elegance Carnauba Paste Wax.
its been about 2 months since we did a full wetsanding of the nose & a complete clear coat correction. the car is still looking sharp with no swirl marks at all.
i promised him the free hand wax after taking a little more time than i told him when he dropped the car off. like always, i try my best to make every customer here leave happy with theyre car.

 

[AndrewBigA]

2002 CLK from Deleware.

this customer now holds the title for longest distance traveled to my shop in Queens, NY for a detail. he lives a little past Philly, about 3 hours away without traffic. he drove up for the detail & left the car with me. i first thought a week would be enough time but it wound up being a 2 week job. the customer wanted the swirls out & was very patient with me. he told me to take my time & thats what i did.

this car was really bad. whatever before shots of swirls that i took, that's exactly how every square inch of the paint job looked. extremely dull, tons of deep swirls & lets not forget about a rock hard clear coat. cars with hard clear coats take longer to work on because the swirls & scratches take longer to remove. for cars with softer clear coats it should take a lot less time to do a job like this.

the list of what was done:
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after a long drive up from Deleware this is how the CLK came into the shop.
the customer confessed that its been about 4-6 months since the last wash.
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lets start off with the roof
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hood before
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hood 50/50
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look at all those stone chips. this car has about 127,000 miles on the clock.
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drivers door 50/50
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above the drivers side rear quarter glass 50/50
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above drivers door glass 50/50
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trunk50/50
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after compound & polish
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after- with the lights off
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passenger quarter panel 50/50
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gas cap
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top of the passener quarter panel before
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after
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after passenger quarter panel- with the lights off
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using the lader as a tripod. that's where your supposed to place the can of paint.
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trunk
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rear bumper
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SOME FINAL SHOTS TAKEN BEFORE THE DRIVE BACK HOME TO DELEWARE

hood
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roof
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trunk
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from the back
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from the front
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[City]

Holy crap! Every time I look thru Andrew's photos I'm just plain amazed at his work. Gives me SO much damn confidence that no matter how I screw up my black paint (with my own meager attempts to keep my car clean), I've always got Andrew around to clean up my mess.

Just plain AMAZING :rock: :congrats:work!

Yeah, I know. I never seem to find time to make an appointment. Maybe this Sunday?

 

[AndrewBigA]

Holy crap! Every time I look thru Andrew's photos I'm just plain amazed at his work. Gives me SO much damn confidence that no matter how I screw up my black paint (with my own meager attempts to keep my car clean), I've always got Andrew around to clean up my mess.

Just plain AMAZING :rock: :congrats:work!

Yeah, I know. I never seem to find time to make an appointment. Maybe this Sunday?

i cant wait to detail your viper but we need to set aside a sunday & stick to it. this sunday & the next sunday are no good.
can you figure out which sunday you are free within the next month or so?
i spend sundays in new jersey with my gf so i need to know a few weeks in advance so i know to head to nj on a saturday instead so i can free up the day for you.



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G35: wetsanding the nose 17 pics

NICKSG 03 Black Infiniti G35

wet sand entire nose
remove light to medium over spray on the whole car & glass
rotary machine compound & polish under halogen light for as close to perfect that i can correct the finish!

Nick left his car with me & then went on vacation with his wife to Jamaica! hes probably on the beach right now sipping on an ice cold corona! bastard! when he gets back to NYC hell have his car back.

the orange peel on the nose will be removed & flattened for a crystal clear & super deep & wet shine!
all of the over spray will be removed & the clear coat will have been corrected to as close to perfection as possible. all of the swirls & fine scratches will be removed. the entire car is going to look beautifull when im done with her.

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you guys will have to wait till next week to see how this car comes out.

bye for now.

 

[AndrewBigA]

taking a break to update everyone on Nicks G.

passenger fender:

 

[AndrewBigA]

passenger fender is done


this pic will introduce all of the readers to Nicks 2003 Black Infiniti G35 sedan.



The Best Of James Taylor CD is playing in the background.
Fire & Rain is on & my mind is at peace. its hot but i have much work still to do on Nicks G. hes still in Jamaica & hasnt returned my pms that contained the progress on his car. i guess he just wants to be surprised instead of being teased like everyone else lol.

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heres a pic of Neds car, i mean some hot chicks with slammin bodies. taken at one of the 2 shows Ned attended during the weekend. this was right after i did the correction detail. im waiting for Ned to send me more pics of hot chicks posing next to his car. thats alot of asssss!

hey watch those finger nails on the hood!

 

[AndrewBigA]

NICKS G was picked up yesterday. i took a total of 220 pics. as soon as i get some free time one of these nights, ill put the writeup together.

 

[AndrewBigA]

in progress crappy cell phone teaser shots 1,2,3

BOMBS

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[FXchris305]

nice work andrew . n damn i cant wait to see that gtr finished . gonna look sick .

 

[AndrewBigA]

nice work andrew . n damn i cant wait to see that gtr finished . gonna look sick .

i should have most of it finished by late tonight. its an exciting car to polish out. its nice to have something that you dont see often in the shop ya know.

 

[AndrewBigA]

03 350Z Heavy Clear Coat Correction + wetsanding 134 pix

this detail was from a few months back.


2003 Gold 350Z Heavy Clear Coat Correction with some extra surprises

heres a few pics of the car after 3 washes, 3 times clay barring & all prep tapping finished. this car is ready to be sectioned off for a handfull of 50/50 shots. ill try to let the pics do the talking to save some time typing every little step up. the pics will take you from start to finish. i hope you all enjoy reading the writeup. this will be a big one!

i try to concentrate on the big jobs that require a lot of heavy machine work since neither of my 2 guys know how to buff & i dont plan to teach them either. my job is to book them as much work as they can handle to keep the shop as busy as possible. they do help me a lot on these big correction jobs. i have them do the prepping & i work side by side with one of them so this way theres 2 sets of eyes checking each panel as im buffing. ill have him follow a few panels behind me with a damp microfiber towel as he inspects the paint a second time under the halogen light after ive already done so. as the panel is being double checked, im already working out the swirls & other defects on the next panel ahead.

we go around the car once during rotary machine compound then do it again for the rotary machine polishing steps.

after were done polishing the car well remove all masking tape & hose the car off to loosen any dust from the compounding & polishing. then the car gets brought back inside & wiped down with an absorber to remove about 85% of the water. a leaf blower is then walked around the car & the water drips are collected with another absorber towel. me & my guy will go over the car one more time with the halogen light, one holds the small 700 watt unit in his hand while the other guy is looking into the paint to see if weve removed all of the defects 100% or not. if there are still some swirls & scratches left over ill tape the car again & give the car one last round of machine polishing till each panel is completely glassed out to perfection & ready for a coat of sealant then wax.

i wasn't going to put together a writeup but this one has a few surprises. the hood has been resprayed by a body shop. on the passenger half the clear coat seems to have faded a bit. i hope i can pull everything out without going past the clear coat & burning right through. im going to try to save the hood by wetsanding it with 2000 grit. to make the sandpaper soft ill rub 2 pieces of 2000 grit together then soak them in a cold bucket of water with a few drops of soap for lubrication between the paper & the clear coat. if i can save this hood ill save the customer a lot of money that he wouldve spent on the respray. at first i didnt want to wetsand the hood but the customer agreed if i burnt through i wouldnt have to pay for the respray. i over heard his friend who owns a body shop say something like "i dont think he can do it or hes scared to do it but it can be wetsanded". i cant stand when someone doubts me. i didnt want to risk it just in case i did burn through i wouldve ended up doing this entire detail for free then laying out the $ to fix the hood with a respray. thanks to the customers friend he will cover repainting the hood if i should burn through. well see what happens. this should be a fun one!!


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if you've made it till the end, i thank you very much.

feel free to ask me whatever questions you have about any of the work that was done for the 350Z.

-Andrew

 

[ocal21]

Andrew your work is amazing i know for a fact that when i go to Queens or Long Island to visit my family i am def going to stop by and have you work on my FX35 and make it look shiny as if it just came out the factory.

 

[falcondrgn]

Sorry for the dumb question but when u wet sand the car are u actually taking out a layer of the factory clearcoat? Im a noob to detailing and was curious what are the benefits of that technique. Thanks

 

[AndrewBigA]

Andrew your work is amazing i know for a fact that when i go to Queens or Long Island to visit my family i am def going to stop by and have you work on my FX35 and make it look shiny as if it just came out the factory.

thank you very much. when will yo ube around the area lol? thank you so much. i am amazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing.

Sorry for the dumb question but when u wet sand the car are u actually taking out a layer of the factory clearcoat? Im a noob to detailing and was curious what are the benefits of that technique. Thanks

of course. wetsanding removes some clear coat. benefits are wetsanding can be done to remove deep scratches as well as flatten out any orangepeel the clear coat has.
when the clear coat is flat, the shine is deeper & more reflective.

 

[AndrewBigA]

06 STI Halogen Light Correction 62 pics

06 STI Halogen Light Correction

the car had spent the previous week in the shop getting a few things fixed under the hood. it went straight to me afterwords & i had it since Monday (6 days). the customer was dying to drive the car. 2 weeks without his Suby was heartbreaking lol! it was sat afternoon & it was finally ready for him.

when Josue came into the shop tonight it was about 630 pm & it was still light out. i watched him walk over to the car & suddenly his face was glowing with a really big smile. he was deffinitly impressed with the work. im pretty sure i went beyond what his expectations were for what the car would look like after i was done with the detail.

it was difficult to find the time to take the pics but i found a way.
i selected the hood, passenger fender & front passenger door because they were right next to eachother.
i tried to get as many after shots as i could.

view all of the pics & you will see what products were used.

shout out to LISC.
thanks for the support through the years.

www.longislandsubaruclub.com


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orange pads for the compound
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my money maker, luv this machine!
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blue pads for the polish
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bottom of pas fender.
thats the rough texture paint thats on the rocker panels & the first 2" or so of the fender & doors as well.
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a little bit above the rough textured paint
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front passenger door. rocker panel.
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hood scoop
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hood
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finished photographs: it was cloudy out =/
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Josue distracted by the muscle car. i bet at this point he cant wait till im done taking some pics so he can beat the crap out of his Suby. after 2 weeks of not driving here he was really looking forward to the parkway ride back home =)
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if you have any questions, just post them up & ill reply back.

thanks for looking.

-Andrew

 

[AndrewBigA]

01 Type-R 31k orig miles 33 pics

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FINISHED!
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thanks for looking.

 

[bleedingsujit]

hey andrew, where's the CLAYBAR?...:tongue (2):

good god man your work surpasses my ability to explain it...simply amazing.

 

[AndrewBigA]

hey andrew, where's the CLAYBAR?...:tongue (2):

good god man your work surpasses my ability to explain it...simply amazing.

lol


thank you very very much. i know i work my ass off, i know im a workaholic. it really makes me happy inside to hear some of the compliments that people tell me.

thank you.

 

[AndrewBigA]

E60 Correction+Acid Water Stains 66 pix

the clear was tricky to work with. i would say i got the acid water stains removed about 95%, not perfect like im used to doing. i was a little upset about that. the car came out really good anyways.
the customer was really happy so that was a good thing. he luved the job i did for his 5 series BMW.

when i put a car under the halogen lights i aim for 98-100%.
95% probably bothered me more than the it bothered the customer lol.

the acid water stains were really hard & deep. they were in there. it looked like the car was left outside without any wax & then got rained on. perhaps the car had been sitting around not being driven for a few months?

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Rondel Correction.
i thought this would be fun =0)
it had those crackling like defects before i put the machine to it.
the swirls were annoying the crap out of me.
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i think that is much better now!
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tail lights corrected
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ooooooo, so nice
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back to my roots with the good old stuff. theres only one reason why this product is still in production after all of these years. because it works! the dust isnt too bad. when it dusts, the dust doesn't cake up like what other detailers say about Meguiars M105 Ultra Cut Compound. this is still a great compound for when you need a little more of an aggressive bite to the paint!

ive tried a bunch of different brands but my luv for 3M has grown larger today than it ever was.

i love you 3M Compounds & Polishes, youve made me lots of money through the years.

thanks.
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@ 1,500 rpms
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ive been using this forever as well. great product, great working time. it really lets you spend time on the panel, as long as you keep the pad moist with one spritz of water. it takes longer to dry out before you need to wipe off & apply some new product for another round of polishing. longer to dry out then say Meguiars M205 Ultra Finishing Polish which seems to dry up fast. it makes you curse at Meguiars because you know the product works really well but you hate working with it because of how messy it can get.
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a couple of really deep scratches still remain. my finger nail got cought pretty deep in them.
they were reduced a lot but not removed 100%. wetsanding would not have removed them fully.
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FINAL SHOTS

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thanks for looking. questions & comments are welcomed!

 

[FXchris305]

WOW awsome job . ur work is simply amazing ! lol let me ask u something ? how do u clean ur pads and towels ? or do u use new ones every time? also what kinda towels do u use to take off wax and compound ?