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      09-30-2008, 07:47 PM   #1
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Question Sad In DC (Please Help… In Need Of A Professional!)

Hi all.

I’m just devastated. Today I took my black sapphire metallic 2008 BMW 135i to my regular body shop to have an ugly four-inch scratch removed from my rear bumper (some idiot biker hit me at a gas station last week). My body shop guy has been really, really good to me and my dad for many years, and because of it, we continue to use him, even though his shop is skuzzy and the location is gross.

Well, as usual, the work that the body shop did was terrific, but the price that I paid in my paintwork was… to say the least, awful. This particular body shop has never washed my car after performing work before, so I’ve honestly never thought to tell them up front to make certain that they don’t (knowing quite obviously that the two bucket method would NOT be utilized there). But today they washed the car, and I just KNEW as soon as I rolled up into the parking lot that I was in for big trouble.

Frank, the owner of the shop, had personally washed and dried my BMW. Bless his heart; he was trying to do a nice thing for me for free. But he completely screwed up my paint. I mean, HORRIBLY screwed up my paint. Scratches galore. Light surface scratches mind you; I don’t want to be TOO dramatic about this, but bad, bad swirling and scratching. I mean, seriously, you would think that he went at my paintwork with a piece of sandpaper, I’m not even kidding. We’re talking about the ENTIRE car here. Now, to be fair, the local soccer moms in their Benzes probably would have just thanked him for his generosity and been on their way… but I was practically inconsolable.

I managed to hide my emotions pretty well in front of Frank, paid for the bodywork and left the shop with my heart in my stomach. This car is only two months old. I cannot even BEGIN to explain the irony and pain of having spent hours upon hours outside in the summer heat working with a can of ScratchX any time I even so much as feared that someone had possibly BREATHED on the car, only to have all of my work completely destroyed in the span on minutes. Crushing.

Anyway, the long and short of it is, I came home, grabbed my tube of ScratchX and tried to set to work at seeing what I could do to repair the damage. The ScratchX, of course, did make SOME immediate progress… but I ended up just laying on the ground laughing at my terrible, terrible luck and the horribleness of the situation. I work a 40+ hour week, I have a serious girlfriend, I live in an apartment complex, and I’m not a true blue car guy. There is absolutely NO WAY that I have the time and/or energy to repair the incredible damage to my car’s paint. And that includes by learning how to machine buff. Simply not gonna happen. I’m not saying that it can’t be done, especially with Megs products, I’m just saying that I won’t. I’m tired, upset and disgusted. I’m done.

I need a professional detailer, and I need someone good. Someone who will LITERALLY make my car look like new. Not good, not pretty good, AMAZING again. I’ll pay what’s fair – but I want my baby back. I want the paint fixed, the shadowline trim fixed if there are any scratches in it, and the chrome finish on the twin kidney grills to look perfect again.

Can someone please help me? I need a detailer I can trust, and if they can come to me… even better. I live in Washington, DC.

Thank you kindly.
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2008 "Year One of the 1" 135i Black Sapphire Metallic/Coral Red ...seriously, do you really care about any of the other stuff??
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      09-30-2008, 09:22 PM   #2
x97Melbourne
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post pics..............
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      10-01-2008, 08:09 AM   #3
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im not sure of any detailers in DC....but NEVER use scratchx on your car EVER. That stuff is horrible... if you lived in Houston, I would help you out, but then again you gave me a hard time for having expensive wax.....

Good luck, and if you decide to try to detail it your self, hit me via PM and I will recommend the products/tools you need. :w00t:
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      10-01-2008, 09:04 AM   #4
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Thanks J-Sud... I appreciate your offer to help. Hopefully, someone will be able to recommend to me a really awesome pro in the DC area.

Out of curiosity, why do you feel so strongly about ScratchX?
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2008 "Year One of the 1" 135i Black Sapphire Metallic/Coral Red ...seriously, do you really care about any of the other stuff??
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      10-01-2008, 12:48 PM   #5
esses
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Start with these sites:

http://www.autopia.org/directory/Cat...uto-detailing/

http://www.detailuniversity.com/find-a-detailer

After that it is just a matter of calling up a few and asking questions about what they do and how they do it. Should be able to figure out pretty quick how meticulous someone is by asking them about the products they use - if they say they always use the same thing and don't ask you about your car's color/age/damage/etc, call the next guy. Count on $300-400 for a complete detail. Good luck.

You can also look into getting some hand-applied polishers, which would probably solve your problems (hard to say without pics).
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      10-02-2008, 04:46 PM   #6
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http://www.detailsdetailsdetails.com/

Done and done. Rockville, MD. Hands down the best detail shop. Only one I have ever been to that I would let touch my car. I just wish I still lived in the area...

EDIT: Check out the car I just found in the gallery!

http://www.detailsdetailsdetails.com...toFP1/FP47.jpg
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      10-04-2008, 08:45 PM   #7
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Wow, from what I see, this place is meticulous about their work. They do work on cars that'll put our 1ers down a few notches. They even posted a picture of their clean bathrooms!
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      10-05-2008, 10:16 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cris View Post
Wow, from what I see, this place is meticulous about their work. They do work on cars that'll put our 1ers down a few notches. They even posted a picture of their clean bathrooms!
lol That's got to be a pretty good sign, right?? :wink:
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2008 "Year One of the 1" 135i Black Sapphire Metallic/Coral Red ...seriously, do you really care about any of the other stuff??
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