ive been talking to a local garage and they've offered me a full valet inside and out and a Autoglym LIFESHINE Protection all over for £300 for my ml320, has anyone had this done before and is it worth it?
All good advice on here but when I was looking into it and I cannot remember the products the detailers I spoke with were at their cheapest around £300 and some were around the £500 mark.
I love doing my car but as I get older even a wash followed by a wax is a daunting task but I’m too OCD to trust many with my car.
Oh apparently the wife says it’s our car but that only applies when a shopping trip is required not when the cars need cleaning or maintaining.
Robin
My wife will drive around in a filthy car for weeks until, I am washing mine then it is "seeing as you have everything out, will you do mine as well please - it is sooo dirty"
@ OP ...Prepare yourself for a lot of smoke and mirrors.
All the reputable manufacturers have excellent products, and as mentioned earlier, good preparation is the key.......if you put a sealant or coating (different products so work out which you need) over a poorly prepared surface it is still going to look bad.
Longevity claims are exaggerated and are probably based on ideal circumstances and some products need to be "maintained". Do your research and consider your needs. You can pay hundreds of £ for a small tub of wax........there are 1000's of videos testing various products on YouTube.
"Detailing' is just a marketers way to say "giving the car a thorough clean" there is no science to it. If I wanted my car "detailed", I'd look for an established business with a building and covered/enclosed cleaning bays and very neat and clean looking - they are around.
Certainly wouldn't use a 'man in a van' or my local garage who is going to wash ("detail') my car in the sun on a windy day.
Fair comment and I doubt anyone is questioning you but, there are a lot of cowboys out there and even more misleading information.
I always thought that detailing was different to paint correction or am I missing a detail?
Are you doing detailing in the ME? Where are you? I've spent several years in Qatar!
I struggled to remove the pain swirls using my cheap DA. I didn't know if this was down to the sponge pad, polish or my lack of experience, or all three?To give a proper answer as someone who details cars.
Correct, preparation is the key. But some products work better and give a better level of preparation than others.
EG Mercedes use a very hard ceramic clearcoat on their modern cars (circa 2005 onward). You will find it extremely difficult to remove swirls and random deep scratches with a dual action polisher. It can be done. But only with the right polisher, pad and polish combination. It also takes a damn sight longer than doing it with a rotary polisher. Using a DA in this instance requires a specific type of pad, with an aggressive polish and a higher speed. This itself causes issues for the inexperienced as you can rapidly burn through paint in a few seconds flat if your not careful. Especially on areas of styling lines or sharp contours to the body work.
Some, not all, longevity claims are exaggerated. They are normally based on a car that experiences light use. Not a daily driver chugging up and down the motorways every day. However there is quite a lot of science that goes into the creation of these sacrificial layers/protective coatings. Especially when you start getting into the realms of ceramic crystal coatings (GTechniq Crystal Serum and Gyeon MOHs etc)
Detailing is not giving the car a thorough clean. I can give any car a thorough clean in a few hours. But I can’t remove all the swirls and random deeper scratches in anything less than a few days. As a rough rule of thumb (it is all dependent on the car and it’s condition) when I speak to people I tell them I can achieve the following.
1 day - approx 60% correction (minor swirls removed). Interior hoovered and wiped down. Engine bay pressure washer rinse but no thorough cleaning. Exterior glass cleaned.
2 days - approx 75% correction (all swirls and some lighter scuffs/scratches removed) interior hoovered, seats cleaned (and nourished if leather) engine bay cleaned, degreased. Exterior and interior glass cleaned. Rain repellent applied to windscreen.
3 days - approx 90% correction (all swirls/scuffs and scratches gone unless have breached the clearcoat completely) remainder as for 2 days regarding interior, engine and glass.
4 days - as for 3 but a full deep clean of the interior and engine bay, all external windows cleaned, polished and treated. Interior windows cleaned, polished and windscreen and front side windows treated with anti fog coating.
There are then the custom jobs where people pick and choose various aspects and that then creates a bespoke quote.
Ideally you want a decent unit to go to. But not all detailers have that luxury and it depends on the level of correction the customer wants. Most decent ones that offer a mobile service will generally only be maintenance washes and a one day light correction. They also usually carry a lightweight gazebo so they can work out of the sun/wind when doing the polishing.
The thing to remember is that detailing is done to make the car look the best it can (often better than the day it was new in terms of paintwork condition) and then make subsequent cleaning a lot easier. There is however no ‘miracle’ product out there that will keep an in use car pristine forever.
As for the likes of Lifeshine, StarGuard etc. They are not worth the money they charge as it’s applied by some young lad who doesn’t have a clue about the preparation required. You can buy the stuff for circa £50 and apply it yourself.
The money charged by detailers sounds a lot. But it isn’t.
Eg a 3 day detail I would charge around £450 depending on the size of the car and what type of clearcoat it had. This would be approx 36hrs work on the car. Out of that I would expend around £60-70 of products (cleaning and preparation agents, polish, destroyed pads, coatings etc). So if we take as a rough rule £390 left. That means I’m earning just under £11/hr for the actual work I’m doing. So it’s not actually a lot. You are basically paying for a detailers time and experience. Then there is the overheads of insurance (public liability, vehicle insurance etc) rent of unit space, utilities (electric, water and gas) licence from councils etc etc.
So it’s not just giving a car a thorough clean.
If that comes across as a bit arsey,confrontational it’s not meant that way. Just putting the viewpoint across from the detailing side.
I’m not doing it the ME as I don’t have the time. But once I return the UK then it will be something I take up again.
Sorry - bit confused as you come across as a pro detailer. Enjoy the heat!
Just think "Carl's detailing school Ltd".I’m in the military. But detailing was also something I did when I was in the UK mainly at weekends when not working and during leave. However it’s not something I can do over here as I just don’t have the time.