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Paint Protection. Should I get it or just use a GOOD Polish

VFSV6FORME

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Next week I will have another car for the Family Collection as I purchased a 2013 MY14 Caprice V in Phantom Black. The car itself was always garaged from day one and in a very good condition. Now the Big Question::::: Should I get Paint Protection mainly for its shine as I want the car to be Shinny like the SV6 Storm in Heron White is. Yes the Caprice will be locked in Garage, not driven in wet roads and not left in the Sun so what do you think Should I get Paint Protection or a GOOD polish
For Paint Protection what do you recommend me to gey.

For Polish what type and Brand should I get

Thanks
 

Forg

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My opinion is that paint protection is for when you can afford to pay quite an exorbitant price for the luxury of not having to regularly wax every 6 months or so. Given that it won’t suffer too much UV, I guess ask yourself whether you can justify that cost to avoid that effort.

Sorry, I don’t have any opinion WRT product. But IMHO the top-notch stuff is all pretty similar. Probably better to get a recommendation in Brisbane, as the right place will use the right stuff.

For DIY stuff, ie. the polish, I think the old-skool products are still good, and as long as you keep up the maintenance they’ll be fine. I’m thinking Meguiars, Mothers, their 3-step products. There are probably good products from the mobs that make professional stuff, such as Geon, but I bet they cost more.
 

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If you go the polish path, make sure you also use a wax to seal and protect the paint.
 

MaxCommie689

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Add paint protection for the areas that take a hit regularly - like the front bumper, quarter panels and the bonnet. It comes down to two factors:
1. Does it suit your usage pattern? If you only take the car out when the weather is clear and there is no one else on the roads, then it’s not worth the cost
2. How much are you willing to spend? And do you have a good installer around?
 
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Clay1391

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Modern day paint is so versatile, it cost me 450$ to sand back and respray a hard lid for the ute. Keeping that in mind if you wanted to just polish and wax every 6 months, if go that option, I also remember you saying your an old fart? Id suggest paying someone who's actually a professional to polish when it needs it done as you can do more harm than good. Gone of the days of putting metho in the car bucket wash
 

Clay1391

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If you go the polish path, make sure you also use a wax to seal and protect the paint.
A good wax, not a wax out the bottle. I use autoglym canabara wax on mine and wow you certainly notice it. When I just do a wash I top up with aqua wax by Auto glym.
 

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If the car is showroom mint in terms of paintwork with no major finish damage (chips, unresolved touch ups, dents or fades), consider a ceramic sealing coat through a professional applier. Yes, it is very expensive, but will protect the paintwork for years, additional to making frequent washes very unnecessary. Not even waxing. Car Detailing Geelong did my VF (wet look high gloss ceramic sealing coat) and set me back $2,400 (car yard contractor had previously gone over minor road blast touching up and sealing). All I do is rinse the grime off then chamois dry - - no time anyway to spend an hour getting wet!! This outfit has very recently finished working on a Tesla EV, which I had a natter this am with the owner when coming back with shopping. Welllll... If that car is a glimpse of the future, it needs a beauty treatment.

Their website for paint protection is down, but you can see their lush work on any and all ordinary and exotic rides on Facebook:

https://m.facebook.com/CarDetailingGeelong/?__tn__=C-R

There are similar professional outfits all around Australia.

If nothing else, have the car professionally waxed and buffed. DYI invariably introduces swirls. Electrobuffing is recommended.
 

VFSV6FORME

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If the car is showroom mint in terms of paintwork with no major finish damage (chips, unresolved touch ups, dents or fades), consider a ceramic sealing coat through a professional applier. Yes, it is very expensive, but will protect the paintwork for years, additional to making frequent washes very unnecessary. Not even waxing. Car Detailing Geelong did my VF (wet look high gloss ceramic sealing coat) and set me back $2,400 (car yard contractor had previously gone over minor road blast touching up and sealing). All I do is rinse the grime off then chamois dry - - no time anyway to spend an hour getting wet!! This outfit has very recently finished working on a Tesla EV, which I had a natter this am with the owner when coming back with shopping. Welllll... If that car is a glimpse of the future, it needs a beauty treatment.

Their website for paint protection is down, but you can see their lush work on any and all ordinary and exotic rides on Facebook:

https://m.facebook.com/CarDetailingGeelong/?__tn__=C-R

There are similar professional outfits all around Australia.

If nothing else, have the car professionally waxed and buffed. DYI invariably introduces swirls. Electrobuffing is recommended.
Good info.
 

VFSV6FORME

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Modern day paint is so versatile, it cost me 450$ to sand back and respray a hard lid for the ute. Keeping that in mind if you wanted to just polish and wax every 6 months, if go that option, I also remember you saying your an old fart? Id suggest paying someone who's actually a professional to polish when it needs it done as you can do more harm than good. Gone of the days of putting metho in the car bucket wash
The Caprice will be retired like me, only used in on good Sundays to go for a drive.
 

Forg

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If the car is showroom mint in terms of paintwork with no major finish damage (chips, unresolved touch ups, dents or fades), consider a ceramic sealing coat through a professional applier. Yes, it is very expensive, but will protect the paintwork for years, additional to making frequent washes very unnecessary. Not even waxing.
This is what I was saying about justification of cost for reducing effort
The best coatings will last 5 years if it’s generally garaged when not being driven, 5 years with SFA effort. Actually, a mate of mine bought his car & had it coated by the bloke all the Porsche people were recommending, and it still pills really well - that was just over 5 years ago.
But I don’t think that you can get the best product, applied in the best way, for much change from $2k.
If you’ve got the time (and if you’re not working full time then car detailing is IMHO a very rewarding way to spend productive time with your car) then spending that looooong day every 6 months to clean/polish/wax the paint isn’t costing you anything near $400/yr.
 
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