ardandy

Scratch X will take you days to do by hand. Probably more effective to get someone to do it for you or invest in a machine polisher yourself.

It's a bit grainy! :lol:

It aint difficult with the right equipment and I've spent 4-5 days with other detailers/valeters learning from them by doing cars with them looking over my shoulder. As well as following guides etc from the detailingworld forum for the past year. The only thing you really have to 'learn' is the machine polishing and the best products to use. The rest is just being really anal about getting the car clean and shiny. I've also probably spent £800 in the past month on products and tools. The main thing is, I enjoy doing it and I always believe that if you enjoy a job you'll always do it better than if your not that interested.

Detailer is basically an american word for valeting, from a marketing perspective it's much better for me cause it (I believe anyway) distances me from all the £5 albanian "valeting centres" that are popping up everywhere. The minimum time I'm likely to spend on a car is 3 hours as I'd rather do 1-3 jobs a day that take longer than 6-8 splash and dashes. People come to me, that way they get more personalised service and I can show them better techniques and tips. But at the end of the day I am (what I'd like to be known as anyway) a high end valeter. Detailer is a different way to saying that.

Well I suppose all I did was run a sponge over it. Like when you service your car when in fact you put another engine in it!

Add £100 and you'll be closer to the mark! :) Do you need someone to do yours? :lol:

The swirling will only come back if it's washed badly again. Your effectively taking off a fine layer of paint (only a few microns at the most in this case). Some of the sealants/waxes have filler in them that I suppose might come off over time.

I've started using that as well.

Was a while back this. Use AG degreaser on anything. It's just citrus based stuff I think. I use it on door/boot shuts, engines and alloy wheels! Great stuff! Cover up whats noted and you'll be fine. Get a brush too. Could do it in sections if your worried? If poss, leave it to dry off for an hour or more.

Had a 306 GTI-6 come to me today. Harry wanted it de-swirling and made nice and shiny! No interior work but the engine bay was to be cleaned as well. Here's some pre-clean pics. You can see the swirls and scratches. Some scratches were quite deep but as I was without a paint depth gauge I didn't want to go far. The wheels could also do with a clean Harry! :) Here's a pre-clean pic of the engine bay. We started off by giving the wheels and arches a good blast with the Karcher and then cleaned the wheels with AutoGlym Engine & Machine Cleaner. Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner was sprayed throughout the arches and scrubbed clean. Following that we moved onto the engine bay. Once again using AG Eng & Mach Cleaner. Squirted that all over and agitated with a brush before gently hosing down. Here's a pic of the nice clean engine bay! After that we could finally start cleaning the bodywork. First we hosed the car down and then using Lambs Wool Wash Mitts and 2 buckets (one with soapy water and one with clean water to rinse the mitt with) we give the car a good clean. To make sure any previous wax was removed before the machine polish the car was sprayed with Megs APC before washing. The car was now clean! Or so Harry thought! The car was given a good going over with a clay bar. Meguiars to be precise. This is a picture of one of the clay bars after doing about 1 sq foot of the roof! After the whole car was clayed it was washed once more with AG Car Shampoo and the Lambs Wool mitts. To dry the car we give it a quick spritz with Meguiars Last Touch whilst wet and used a synthetic chamois to dry it off. The cars bodywork was very smooth now, even though there was no wax on it yet! :) Just one more step was needed before I broke out the Porter Cable and that was to mask up all the plastic trim to stop any accidental marking. Blue goes well with Black don't you think! Now it was time to start de-swirling the car. Initially started using Meguiars Swirl Remover but didn't seem to do much so moved onto something a little more abrasive, Megs #83. It certainly reduced the swirls and scratches considerably, even holograms were removed. If I'd have had the Paint Depth Gauge I'd have probably broke out the harsher Menzerna. I used Sonus SFX pad's with the PC and was happy with them. Here's me in action! Harry also did a good part of the car with the PC. We went over the whole car, some parts needing several passes and were happy with the result! I thought I'd give Clearkote Moose Glaze a try and I was definately happy with the result! Applied with the PC it give the black a deeper shine. Following that, we applied Meguiars #16 Professional Paste Wax with applicator pads and took it off with some more Microfibres. AG Fast Glass was used on the the windows and AG Vinyl & Rubber care on the plastic trim, after we removed the 3M Blue tape of course! Bubblegum smelling Rim Wax was used on the alloys and gave them a new lease of life! The result was a deep reflective shine that I'm very pleased with and I believe Harry was too!

Ahem!

Another!

Trying to get the next clean on a new page!

Got a GTI-6 Coming today! Will post soon!

Crap, just tried posting what I said and it's all moderated!

Less just all sign up and put funny reg plates up! P3 NIS - Rammed my mates girlfriend in the back with his long bonnet!

http://www.betterdrivingplease.com/index2.asp I bet the founder is a member of neighbourhood watch!

And learn how to use quotes too! :) I've gone done the Megs & Mezerna route this time. Although I do have autoglym stuff still. Be interesting to see the differences between the AG & Megs etc.

I use a mixture of meguiars, AG, Chemical Boys and Menzerna. And lambs wool mitts are top notch! http://www.cleanandshiny.co.uk are a good place to start.

Exactly. That job I did for £80 was a one off. Wouldn't need a clay bar and full wax every month! As I've said before, the client tells me what they want and I tell them how much. Like many other industries, they get a quote based on hourly rate and materials.

So, for all that about a fiver then? £10 tops! :)

not too shabby! :wink:

It does get on my tits when people say something like this. I mean, for god sake, dealers charge £60 AN HOUR! A plumber, around £50-£75, joiners, sparkies etc. You get what you pay for, go to the albanian car wash for £5 and thats what you get!

Do you offer the XVZ and QWV25 and FRP6000 as an option or as part of a full valet?

I think I'll be over £1000 soon, and thats before any van might come into it, or ins etc!