Noticed lately that my cars paintwork is looking a bit grim… so I've been considering getting it cut and polished by some detailers.
Had a look at some kits in stores but most of them require orbital buffers etc, that I don't have readily available.
So have you guys ever had your car cut and polished? 1 stage paint correction to remove swirls etc?
If so, where from, how much did it cost, how were the results? Was it worth it ?
I would probably go for a non-mobile job, but yeah as it stands, being an ozbargainer, I probably don't want to be spending $500 on this.. I just want to get the swirls all cleared out and protected with a nice tough wax coating, after which I will take proper care of the paintwork. Right now, most of the damage seems to be from the previous owners using the brushes at the self-service carwashes :\
Is it metallic paint with clearcoat or a standard colour?
You would be surprised how well a car can come up just with cloth rags and off the shelf cut and polish, followed by some wax. Takes a fair bit of elbow grease especially if its well worn paint but worth a shot if you have some spare weekends and not a lot of cash, spread the work over two days or two weekends if it gets tiring. If money isn't an issue then get it pro detailed but personally I've never spent money on getting my cars detailed over the last 20 odd years, and once you have kids you tend to give even less of a shit as the clean inside lasts about 2 days. Usually I will give my cars a massive detail just prior to sale as that does help a lot.
I believe it's metallic with clearcoat. There's quite a lot of noticable hairline swirls all over paint if you look at it in direct sunlight, and I've heard the DIY kits really won't help with that unless you use the buffer tools etc. but as other's have said, you need actual skill and knowledge to not ruin your paint further. If i do see a sale on a meguiars kit, I might give it a try if i dont see any decent priced professional around :(
Ah… might be worth letting a pro at it then. You could perhaps try something less coarse such as nu finish or something and see how that goes DIY. Have you ever polished the car yourself?
I've actually used NuFinish polish before yes, it made the car look glossy and very nice, but the swirls do not disappear unfortunately, thats why I was thinking of getting a pro to fix up the swirls, and after that i'd start polishing and waxing regularly to maintain it
Unless your car is from the 60s 70s 80s i wouldnt use any cut and polish.
if its from the mid 80s onwards it will have a clearcoat paint system and you will stuff it.
get yourself a clay bar and rub back the years of old waxes and grime.
use a good spray on wax and see how it looks.
if that doesnt get it the way you want you will need to have it profesionally buffed, the oxidation needs to be removed and try doing it yourself you will probably burn the paint.
I saw an electric buffer for about $25 sometime ago in SCA. It will make it easier work but be gentle or you may do more bad than good.
Spend the amount of money it'll cost to get it done professionally (about $3-400) and learn how to do it yourself.
Spend the money to get it back to how it should look then learn how to maintain it so it doesnt get so bad again. Thats the safest route I think
If you care about the look of your car don't bother with the DIY kits. You need machines to get proper results and there's also quite a bit of technique involved.
I got my last car done by a mobile detailer a few years back, came to my work and did it during the day. Full internal and external detail including paint correction (machine cut and polish with protecting coats) and it set me back a bit over $500. This was for a smallish car and it was a few years back, but he was mobile so he wouldn't have been the cheapest.
If you've got a small car and are looking for brilliant showroom results I'd say set aside around $600-700. If you just want a detail to get it looking much better I'd say $300-400.