To Detail Or Not To Detail

J

Josh1

New member
My detailer told me he would do the whole exterior and could get it almost perfect again for $88. I have all the SSR's and I also have some Optimum Polish and a PC with 7.5 pads and was wondering if I should just do it myself. There are some water spots and bad bug spots that last time I could not get out and he has a rotary and is good with it. I saw some pics of another Lightning he did that was pretty bad off and he got it back to 98% show room looking.
 
The 7.5 pads on the pc are a bit big for real correction work, however what do you have to lose? What have you done to try to get rid of the problem spots? What compounds/polishes are you using?
 
Ask you detailer what he uses chemical wise before allowing him to touch your car. Since it sounds like he might do most of his work with a rotary I am guessing he uses more glazes with fillers.



But if it was me I would just do it myself. You have the tools and with autopia.org you have friends who will help.
 
He has alot of Meguiars products. I have tried to get stuff out with Optimum and it work pretty good on troubled spots like my roof that had some oxidation and bad scratch marks from a tree limb that rubbed up against it. I have all the SSR's, but when I tried to use 2.5 last time it really did not seem to work as good as Optimum did. It kept dusting really bad. I probably was going at a too high of speed and not giving it a fair chance. I will try again. I went ahead and order some 4 and 6.5 inch pads. I mainly only got yellow and orange since they are good for correcting paint problems. I will use the white and blue ones out of the 7.5 for the other things I need to do with the PC. I also ordered another set of Zaino since I can not find my ZFX. Also, I think my claybars have got alittle too dirty to use anymore. I will probably hit up the paint like this:



Wash

Clay

Wash

SSR1 (Start out light since getting smaller pads)

SSR2.5 (If necessary)

Wax and Seal Paint
 
Do it yourself. Think about it, he's not going to charge anything less than $30-40 per hour. So if he's saying it will only cost $88, he's expecting it to take 2-3 hours tops. I highly doubt he is going to wash, clay, do a proper polish, and wax in that amount of time. Like Danase said, he is probably just doing a quick filler job, then some wax.
 
If you already have a PC and some new pads on the way, it would be no question to DIY. Use the 4" pads on the water etchings and bug etchings and use the 6.5" on the rest of the car for correction.
 
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