Car detailing kits?

donnyb28

Hey guys, so I got a second hand car with some pretty poor paintwork in places, could someone tell me whats the best way to start on the car very small scratches etc? I already have a car polisher, wash mitt, microfibre cloths etc and I would like to put in the work to achieve a nice finish.

Ideally I'm looking for some sort of detailing kit, with some compound, maybe clay bar? Is there any decent sets available online or in the likes of Halfords etc. Looking for your recommendations!

Any tips would be really helpful! Cheers.

kay 9

Get onto Curran on here. Very helpful and good advice.

vectra

What polisher have you got?

edburg

Curran on here runs http://www.detailingshed.com, I got a chemical guys polish sample kit, that should give you enough hopefully for compounds/polish's.

I would recommend Bilthamber gear myself for wax/cleaners/clay bar etc

nd

If you wanted to just remove swirl marks would that sample kit be the best option or would something like CarPro Reflect, or CarPro Fixer be a better option? Or something else.

Curran

Any light polish, finishing pad, on a machine polisher, will do a good job on light swirls (those inflicted over time even with the best wash techniques)
If the swirls are heavier, you will obviously need a polish and pad with more cut. So it very much depends on the condition of the paintwork, and the type of paintwork it is - its possible to have heavy swirlling without too many random deep scratches. Jap paint is usually soft, and will correct easily, but also scratch easily, whereas German is usually very hard.

If you choose the sample kit, and two pads, say a finishing and a medium, you have 8 different combos, and a heavy cutting compound on a medium pad will do a good job on any paint, no matter the condition; even if you needed two passes to get good resutls.
CarPro Fixer is designed to be a polish for all conditions of paintwork - it will do a good job of compounding, but will also finish down nicely, and just needs Reflect to really make the paintwork pop. Whereas other polishes, you might need to compound, the polish with a medium cut and then finish it nicely.

Stoned Since 2011

How many hours does that take Curran?

Curran

How many hours to machine polish a car?

How long have you got! :P

There are so many factors....
- condition of the paintwork; is it just light swirling or heavy defects
- hardness of the paintwork; soft Jap paint is easy to correct but sometimes a nightmare to finish it nicely, German is hard, which is toufh to correct but easier to finish
- the finish you want to achieve; is the car a daily driver or a show car, will you be happy with the odd defect here and there that cant be see from 10ft away or will that eat you inside
- depth of the paint; if there isnt much paint to work with, you have to measure, polish a small amount, re-measure, polish, re-measure
- the material of the panels; metal is easy to work with, fibreglass and plastics (bumpers, etc) are more delicate


It very much depends on the condition of the paintwork and what you hope to achieve. Firstly approx 2-3 hrs to prep the car for polishing.
Then for example, an Enhancement, which would be a single stage polish, where you try to remove as much defects as possible, but without having to re-finish due to buffer trails, could be another 5-8 hours depending on the size of the car. And then another 2 hours to protect and put the final touches on the car.

Ive also done jobs where 30hrs of work has gone into polishing the paintwork alone.

vectra

Stoned Since 2011 wrote: »

How many hours does that take Curran?

Curran wrote: »

How many hours to machine polish a car?



Ive also done jobs where 30hrs of work has gone into polishing the paintwork alone.

I have spent 80 Hours Plus on some of my sons cars.
It was worth every minute of it.

Curran

With dodgy hands and a DA :P

MetzgerMeister

I spent 30 hours on my Mazda6 MPS i.e. soft paint, "easily" polished and damage was fairly bad. I then spent 20 hours on my 335 which has hard paint but wasn't anywhere near as badly damaged.

Shane732

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

I spent 30 hours on my Mazda6 MPS i.e. soft paint, "easily" polished and damage was fairly bad. I then spent 20 hours on my 335 which has hard paint but wasn't anywhere near as badly damaged.

Off topic but are you still driving the 335?

vectra

Shane732 wrote: »

Off topic but are you still driving the 335?

He tries to :pac:

MetzgerMeister

Shane732 wrote: »

Off topic but are you still driving the 335?

I sure am! Have JB4 on it now and it's costing me a set of Eagle F1's on the rear once a year!

Was that your one I saw for sale on Carzone or am I confusing it with the same colour M3 Vert?

Shane732

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

I sure am! Have JB4 on it now and it's costing me a set of Eagle F1's on the rear once a year!

Was that your one I saw for sale on Carzone or am I confusing it with the same colour M3 Vert?

I never got to the bottom of a tyre - bloody run flats and alloys meant regular trips for new tyres.

Nope it's not my one. I'm told my one is off to South Africa!!