Newb questions about detailing…
What all exactly is involved when you pay someone to detail your car? Just a thorough wash and wax, or is there more involved? Do they polish at all?
My POS Mustang has VERY oxidized paint- including what look like little pock marks on the roof. It drives me crazy. Would a good detailing job take care of this, or should I just get it painted next year?
They have different ranges when it comes to detailing. Some places will just start off with a wash and wax on the outside and vac/windows on the inside for some prices starting at like $75… And then they go up from there depending on how bad the paint is/how good you want it to look. They can go further with possibly using a foam compound on the paint which will almost be like wet sanding the paint only not as harsh, and then go over it with a finer wool pad compound and then polish. Sometimes you can get up over $200 easy for a good detail.
Detailing is only going to help it so much, especially with the marks in the roof and the oxidation. They can cut into the clear and then buff it out some, but it’s only going to serve as a cover up for now. Ultimately repainting the car is going to be the best way to make it look great.
My uncle does detailing and I do it a little bit on the side, but I haven’t gotten into too much as far as foam pad and whatnot. There are also quite a few guys on here who will be able to add more or give you a price to detail it.
I had a 93 Accord previously and the paint on the hood and roof was beginning to look cloudy/hazy and had what looked like permanent pock marks like you are talking about. I didn’t want to pay to have someone else do it since it was an old car, so I went to Pep Boys and asked what I should use to revive my paint. They gave me a 3 step system from Meguiars that I used and it actually looked amazing. The paint was shiny again, the oxidation was gone, and I didn’t have to spend tons of money to have someone else do it (I have my own obital buffer). But as 4Door5Gears said, it will only look good for so long. I got my paint looking good and then put a few applications of a good wax on top and it looked ok for a few months but then I noticed that it was starting to go south again. A really good detail would be a temporary fix, but I think you will eventually need to repaint if it is that important to you. I would not invest in a $200+ detail job though because it really is not that hard and the buffer that I have cost like 20 or 30 bucks from sears so it’s not like you need a ton of tools.
yep, it’s not that hard, just time consuming. I would be willing to look at it some time if you are in the south hills. Still trying to hone my skills, but so far things are going well. My 02 gti still shines, and I was able to bring a friends prelude back from the dead twice. Here is the most recent before and after.
before:
after:
as you can see if you have real metal to work with you can get a pretty good result. The bumpers / mirrors came out OK, but not as great as I would have liked. Once that old plastic starts to oxidize there seems to be nothing left but to repaint. If you want some more pics or more detailed ones, let me know.
chris
^^^^ That turned out really well.
Thanks for the feedback guys. 1stv-dub, that looks great. If you don’t mind me asking, what did you use to get it to look like that?
thanks for the compliments guys! I was pretty impressed myself, as was marks_lude, the member on here that I did this for.
We were pretty aggressive with his car. Usually wash the car, dry, clay bar the car, then wash it again, and dry.
Then I use a 3m rubbing compound (usually fine cut if the car has good clear left, regular rubbing compound if it’s a super oxidized single stage which his was as it was painted once I believe). Either way his paint was pretty faded.
Then I think we used a Meguires Paint cleaner which is just a finer cut.
Add in some 3m Imperial Hand Glaze to fill some scratches.
Top with 2 coats of mother’s carnuba wax (old school stuff in the metal tin) I think it has one of the higher carnuba percentages of the things you can buy at pep boys.
Used a wool pad for the rubbing compound and polish. Cotton plush pad for hand glaze and regular cotton one to take off the wax. I usually end up spending at least 4 hours on a car, but I’m slow and my arm gets tired, even with an orbital buffer, lol.
Sounds like the same process that I used on my accord. Luckily most of the accord was metal and the plastic parts actually were not too faded at the time. I traded that car in for 500 bucks at Rohrich when I bought my Mazda and then saw it a month later on sale for $2,750 at one of those POS dealerships on route 51 going into the city :bash:
A good compound will fix it right up. A D.A. Polisher will take care of it with aggressive enough pads and polish, but you might want to find someone with a rotary buffer if it’s bad. I removed some very faint water etchings from my hood with a D.A. Porter Cable with an Edge Medium Cut (Green) pad and some Poorboy’s SSR2.5.
I have a porter cable if you want to burrow
Hope this offers open to a few people. I might have to hit you up sometime.
truth, dans car came out EXTREMELY well after a good detail
anytime. just hit me up i got pads also
took the blurry right out! lol
Thanks for all the feedback…I might just give it a try. Can’t hurt anything, right?
Meguiars Medium Cut Cleaner
Meguiars Show Car Polish
Meguiars #7 Yellow Wax
ftw
that’s exactly the attitude you need to have. If it’s already effed up, how much worse can it get???
If you need any help, message me and I’ll give you a hand.
chris
If you are going to be buffing I would be careful and all the corners/edges…it is easy to burn the paint
With a Dual Action Polisher and foam pads, it’s impossible to burn the paint. With a rotary and a wool pad however… That can be dangerous.
