Car Polishing - Wrongs and Rights

[Car Care Products]

Hi Guys,

I wanted to share some information and pictures from a well respected detailer in Sydney - Dan (DMS) to show you the perils of getting your car 'detailed' by car wash cafes or so-called detailers - cheap is nearly always not better!

Cheers,
Mike


"Today i was tasked with cleaning up the mess left by a cheap car wash cafe 'cut and polish'. As you will see in the befores the person that completed the job obviously had no skill in using a polisher at all, or any idea on how pads and polish work. They have used an aggressive compound that left a huge number of marks in the paint.

I performed a Double Stage Enhancement to attempt to get most of the marks out. I'm proud to say it worked! There are still some swirls remaining in the paint but you have to look for them now, whereas before they smacked you in the face as you walked past.

It makes me sad that people think its acceptable to do this to peoples pride and joy!!

Anyway enjoy the pics and as always comments and questions are welcome!!

Its the first time on the DSLR as well so be kind lol

Dan"

Before






After

[VLC86]

Why he would need to use a compound that strong in the first place i don't know. But it looks like you have brought it up to a nice shine now

Nice car by the way mate

[davey g-force]

Good lord!

Name and shame them I say! Those holograms are horrific - imagine how bad it would have looked on a black car.

Nice job on the correction too btw... What products/pads/machine did you use?

[Bravotwozero]

Good lord!

Name and shame them I say! Those holograms are horrific - imagine how bad it would have looked on a black car.

Nice job on the correction too btw... What products/pads/machine did you use?

Dan doesn't work for CarCarProducts. He posts on the Final Inspection forums though

[Adds_05]

shit,the first pics are really bad,i cut and polished my old vq with stuffed paint and left swirl marks but not that bad

[RicheCV8]

Correction looks awesome, DNS is in Sydney but who can do this in Melbourne, Need my car done. Swirl marks etc.

[Car Care Products]

I know of a couple of guys in Melbourne but no-one that I could actually recommend at the moment, although I am waiting to see some photos of work from a couple of guys down there. Failing that if your car is in pretty good shape why not buy a DAS6 Polisher Kit - it gives you a great polisher, pads and polish and is pretty easy to master...

[Bravotwozero]

Correction looks awesome, DNS is in Sydney but who can do this in Melbourne, Need my car done. Swirl marks etc.

Final Inspection - Auto Detailing

End of story!

[SV6SidiUTE]

Good lord!

Name and shame them I say! Those holograms are horrific - imagine how bad it would have looked on a black car.

Nice job on the correction too btw... What products/pads/machine did you use?

unfortunately i have to look at mine every day... the ****en dealership tried polishing the car before handing it to me and left two noticably large areas of swirls .... the dealers excuse was "it happens, there's nothing that can be done"

[davey g-force]

unfortunately i have to look at mine every day... the ****en dealership tried polishing the car before handing it to me and left two noticably large areas of swirls .... the dealers excuse was "it happens, there's nothing that can be done"

Aah, so you got the DISO as well? (Dealer Instilled Swirl Option).

They did it to me too. When I blew up, they offered to fix it but I told them I had absolutely no faith they could do so after seeing their first effort.

I ended up taking the car home (at a significantly reduced price) and correcting the paint myself. Looks like a million bucks now

I'll never let a dealer touch my paint again. I've heard you can ask them not to remove the plastic off the panels - might be an option for future cars. I already put a big "DO NOT WASH" sign on the dash when I drop it in for a service lol...

[trev_11]

sounds pretty shit if cars are coming out of dealers looking like that
unfortunately i bought mine 2nd hand with swirl marks already in it. will get that kit that ccp recommended when i get the cash

[Dan@DMS]

Good lord!

Name and shame them I say! Those holograms are horrific - imagine how bad it would have looked on a black car.

Nice job on the correction too btw... What products/pads/machine did you use?

Thanks!

Products were
Polish
Menzerna Intensive Polish 91L
Menzerna Final Finish 85U

Pads
Festool Orange Pad
Festool Beige Pad

Machines
Festool Shinex RAP150
Festool Rotex 150

LSP
Duragloss 601
Duragloss 105

Dan doesn't work for CarCarProducts. He posts on the Final Inspection forums though

Nope I haven't posted on his forum for a couple of years now. I dared question his photos and I was banned so haven't been back since.

[BerlinaBen]

Hi Guys. Great recovery on that car Dan. It came up really nice.
I guess one of the worst things about the swirl marks to start with is not only have they reduced the thickness of the clear coat for no reason, but recovering the shine would have also unavoidably reduced it's thickness a little more. You only get so many polishes before your clear coat is gone, then you will either have to put up with deteriorating paint, or put up the cash for a respray.
I know detailers that deal exclusively with high end import euro cars and the like always measure the coating thickness, and if they are a good detailer they will measure the clear coat as well as the colour coat, to determine how much life the coating has left in it, and to make sure they aren't taking too much coating off when they polish a car.
The pics at least show that some things are best left to someone who knows what they doing!

Oh yeah, just a last comment - I have mates that USED to work for dealers and i know what sort of things would go on with cars where they worked so I would have to be pretty desperate to let them anywhere near my cars!

[Bravotwozero]

You have to be careful even with genuine detailers. There are so many people out there who call themselves detailers that do really horrible work. A mate at work had his VX SS detailed a few weeks ago for a wedding. I went with him when he picked it up and they were just finishing up when we got there. The detailer was giving the car a final wipe down and dropped the cloth on the ground. He simply picked it up and continued on his merry way! He was also using a toothbrush to clean around the badges and along the panel gaps. How do you think that would look on a black car?

[Dan@DMS]

Thanks for the kind words Ben

I measure the thickness of the paint with every car i machine polish before i start. This way i know if someone has had a good go before me or if the car has been painted etc.

Those gauges that test thickness of individual layers only work if the car is painted a specific way unfortunately. the thing they are awesome at is telling the thickness on plastics, carbon and fibreglass, which a standard PTG cant do

[BerlinaBen]

Thanks for the kind words Ben

I measure the thickness of the paint with every car i machine polish before i start. This way i know if someone has had a good go before me or if the car has been painted etc.

Those gauges that test thickness of individual layers only work if the car is painted a specific way unfortunately. the thing they are awesome at is telling the thickness on plastics, carbon and fibreglass, which a standard PTG cant do

No Problem Dan. I have had a little experience with various coating thickness gauges. The newest ultrasonic versions are pretty good. Usually the only time they wont distinguish between individual layers is sometimes if there are two layers of the same coating (e.g two colour coats of eactly the same coating may show as one coat). A bit of an overkill for the average detailer though when your looking at at 4 grand for an ultrasonic gauge. Awesome on composite panels though like you said!

You can get some pretty cheap gauges on ebay and stuff now. I wouldn't personally use them for anything important like monitoring my clear coat, but for people that are looking at buying a second hand car they can be a great indicator of whether a car has been in a smash or bogged up. Sure to make the dealer sweat a little when they see you pull one out. lol.

Keep up the nice work Dan.
Ben.

[toey]

Damn, it hurts me to see DAMAGE caused when you pay for a service expecting a decent level of competency. That's a very nice car and it was a good job getting the swirls out, but looks like it must've taken a long time!

[Grouse-mouse]

Fwoarrrr,you were lucky to get away with that,came up majic,well done...cheers

[macca69]

job well down yards do it on the cheap pay peanuts ya get monkeys

[DarkEnvy]

Looks very nice afterwards good write up

[SUSS8]

Find anyone reputable in melbourne ? ?

[davey g-force]

Umm, ok then ^^