buy a machine or pay for someone to do it?

[Jme34]

hey all, I like to make my car look shiny but with the sunshine being out more, I can see minor swirls, but lots of them, in my bonnet a lot more and its causing me a bit of heartache haha. the question being, is it worth investing in a (budget?) machine polisher (80-120 quid) or just paying a company for a one off detail!? if you think the latter option, know any good quality detailers in west sussex/Hampshire?? want this thing to look like a blue mirror :wink: haha

 

[imprezaworks]

if you have the time do it yourself. If you are into keeping the car looking spot on that is.

Great satisfaction if you do all the work yourself, and can pick a das pro 6 or similar up within the budget.

 

[alistairolsen]

It depends if you enjoy it or not.

I bought the kit, did mine once, hated it. I like the effect, just detest spending the time on it as there are always other things I'd rather be doing. If you can enjoy it as a hobby in its own right then buy the kit, otherwise find someone who does enjoy it and pay them.

 

[Jme34]

that seems to be a similar message from yous both! considering I spend 5/6 hours on a sunday going mad with the wax and so on, maybe its a good investment! even if it only gets used once, itll probably still be put to good use on other jobs now and again. me and my brother both have M2PH2s with headlights that need clearing up so it could be good for that too!

 

[imprezaworks]

You spend that time on the car.

Do it yourself mate you obviously enjoy it

 

[Budgie]

Pay someone to do it properly once, and then keep it well maintained.

@VIICarCare isn't a million miles away, and Dawn's work is very good from the results i've seen!

 

[alistairolsen]

Also depends on the car, mine was fairly bad when I got it, so by the time I'd cleaned, detarred and clayed it, touched in various bits of damage with primer, colour and clear and then done 3M fastcut, two grades of menzerna polish, a sealer and a wax on every panel, restored the headlight lenses (3 grades of wet and dry and then the same as the bodywork) and got the wheels to clean up, then cut, polished and waxed them, Shampoo'd the interior and dressed all the plastics/rubber I think it was evenings for a couple of weeks by the time it was done!

Maintaining it afterwards is MUCH easier.

 

[MJRacing]

I doubt £120 will get you much with a pro detailer but obviously get better results than you could with a DA.
Buying a machine and having a go yourself will get you ok results that can get better with time and practice. If you decide it's not for you, sell the machine and ready coupe your money.
Personally for me I enjoy it, find it reduces stress and satisfying when you finish, sit back with a beer and admire the results of your hard work.

 

[Jme34]

Also depends on the car, mine was fairly bad when I got it, so by the time I'd cleaned, detarred and clayed it, touched in various bits of damage with primer, colour and clear and then done 3M fastcut, two grades of menzerna polish, a sealer and a wax on every panel, restored the headlight lenses (3 grades of wet and dry and then the same as the bodywork) and got the wheels to clean up, then cut, polished and waxed them, Shampoo'd the interior and dressed all the plastics/rubber I think it was evenings for a couple of weeks by the time it was done!

Maintaining it afterwards is MUCH easier.

it sounds like you really went to town! penmouth: fortunately I have put those kind of hours into cleaning already, so really I suppose im after stripping the existing wax etc off, repolishing, sealing and waxing using the DA to achieve a better standard than my current attempts. think im pretty sold on buying a DA now, as its a hobby of mine anyway!

 

[Jme34]

I doubt £120 will get you much with a pro detailer but obviously get better results than you could with a DA.
Buying a machine and having a go yourself will get you ok results that can get better with time and practice. If you decide it's not for you, sell the machine and ready coupe your money.
Personally for me I enjoy it, find it reduces stress and satisfying when you finish, sit back with a beer and admire the results of your hard work.

I know exactly the feeling you mean, the sunset beer after a solid day of cleaning up is bliss! :beers: and youre right, I imagine id improve over time, any thoughts on a paint depth guage?? necessary or not?

 

[Budgie]

@Jme34 If you're correcting, then you should know how think the paint is, yeah.

 

[Jme34]

damn, that would be a massive investment, might do a bit of preowned hunting for that one...

 

[Budgie]

Oh, noticed you said DA- that'll be fine without.

 

[MJRacing]

I know exactly the feeling you mean, the sunset beer after a solid day of cleaning up is bliss! :beers: and youre right, I imagine id improve over time, any thoughts on a paint depth guage?? necessary or not?

I started out having never picked up a machine, read a lot, u tube ect and learnt a lot. Once I got into it is spent a day with a pro detailer (not cheap) and learnt a lot. Well worth it. Since then it's been practice practice practice, now I'm learning the art of wet sanding.
Paint depth gauge like above, not really needed with a DA but more with a rotary or sanding. A decent level entry would be a paint detective pd8 but this will only give the total thickness not the layers. For £100 second hand they are a good buy but don't come up often.

 

[Al_G]

I paid 375 for a stage 2 correction and ceramic coating.

 

[Grier]

You seem to be into detailing already.......5-6 hours on a clio sort of tells us this.
I've recently borrowed a DA and honestly it is simple to get decent results. Don't worry about damaging the paint.
I think you'd get a great sense of achievement from getting the results yourself and you could always get one up on your brother for having the cleanest car aha.

 

[Kieran527]

What DA do people recommend for a beginner?

 

[andy_coops]

Happy to help. I have DA and rotary machines, over 15 years' experience in messing about with swirls and enough polish to keep a polish fetishist happy. PM me if you're interested

 

[imprezaworks]

What DA do people recommend for a beginner?

Das pro 6 seems popular mate

 

[Jme34]

You seem to be into detailing already.......5-6 hours on a clio sort of tells us this.
I've recently borrowed a DA and honestly it is simple to get decent results. Don't worry about damaging the paint.
I think you'd get a great sense of achievement from getting the results yourself and you could always get one up on your brother for having the cleanest car aha.

You thought correct! Bought one the other day, not sure I'm getting the results id really like with it just yet though! Think it'll be a case of trial and error with a few different pad/polish combinations

 

[MrBlonde]

Im also thinking of gettting one or maybe paying someone to do it for me & then i'll just keep on top of it,whats the average price on a detailer to mop a car??