Paint correction, worth paying for or DIYing?

[sabian92]

Evening,

My mk2 is in desperate need of a good clean, but above all it needs a damn good going over with a polisher. Little scratches everywhere, paint looks tired and old, that sort of thing.

Is it worth paying for it to be done (keeping in mind the entire car needs doing so it'll be the best part of a serious sum of money, one place I saw in Manchester charges up to £750 depending on the size of the car, the amount that needs doing etc penmouth or saving myself a load of cash, buying a polisher and doing it myself?

I know it'll never be perfect unless I have it resprayed but still, needs doing. Also, keep in mind I only paid 1800 quid for it, so it's not worth mega money being spent on it just making it look a bit shiny.

Any ideas/thoughts?

 

[Bluebeard]

Get a local member on here, a hobbyist, to do it in their spare time. Will cost a fraction of the price.
Being honest, only the most OCD people, or even the incredibly well off people, will want/need a £700 correction.
A day spent with a DA and some quality polishes will have it looking 100 times better.

Where are you based?

 

[Mar172]

I would not pay that it would be worth buying a polisher and have a good go your self if the paint is in bad condition

 

[172_Tom]

Have a go yourself with £50 worth of kit (clay bar, polish, wax) and see if you're happy with the results?

A machine polisher in the wrong hands could do more harm than good.

 

[Bluebeard]

Have a go yourself with £50 worth of kit (clay bar, polish, wax) and see if you're happy with the results?

A machine polisher in the wrong hands could do more harm than good.

That's why I suggested a DA. The only way you'll damage the paint with a DA is if you throw it at the car.

 

[sabian92]

Get a local member on here, a hobbyist, to do it in their spare time. Will cost a fraction of the price.
Being honest, only the most OCD people, or even the incredibly well off people, will want/need a £700 correction.
A day spent with a DA and some quality polishes will have it looking 100 times better.

Where are you based?

Yeah, I wasn't even considering that price. It said "From £250" but we all know "from" means "it's unlikely to cost this little" :tongueout: Plus at the end of the day it's a 10 year old 1.2 Clio. An insurer would write it off if I did £700 worth of damage to it so I'm reluctant to spend £700 making it look nice. I'd begrudge spending £700 on it full stop to be honest!

How much do you reckon somebody off here would charge? I'm in the North west, between Liverpool and Warrington.

I would not pay that it would be worth buying a polisher and have a good go your self if the paint is in bad condition

Have a go yourself with £50 worth of kit (clay bar, polish, wax) and see if you're happy with the results?

A machine polisher in the wrong hands could do more harm than good.

Might do this and see what it's like. Any recommendations as to which you'd suggest?

I wasn't planning on jumping straight in with a polisher but it does need doing. Previous owner decided that cleaning the glass with sand paper was a good idea it's that scratched, paint isn't far behind in some areas.

 

[Adamm.]

Sounds pretty bad so I'd probably pay someone although for a £1800 car I'm not sure its worth it.

Buying a few quids worth of stuff and putting some elbow grease in may be the better option imo but you wont get perfection.

 

[Ol’ Tarby]

Pick up a second hand DA and a few pads/polishes and give it a go yourself. Read up a few of the guides and watch some YouTube videos and you'll have it looking 10 times better after a weekends work

 

[sabian92]

Sounds pretty bad so I'd probably pay someone although for a £1800 car I'm not sure its worth it.

Buying a few quids worth of stuff and putting some elbow grease in may be the better option imo but you wont get perfection.

Yeah, I mean I wasn't expecting it although it is tatty round the edges. That being said there are 10 year old cars with triple the miles of mine that look a lot worse, but still. It's old looking and next year I'm planning on doing little bits to make it look a lot newer (headlights need doing etc) but the paint will let it down if I don't do something about it.

Pick up a second hand DA and a few pads/polishes and give it a go yourself. Read up a few of the guides and watch some YouTube videos and you'll have it looking 10 times better after a weekends work

I'll have a watch and see if I think I can make a decent go of it. I'm one of these "do first, think later" people. :tongueout:

 

[dann2707]

Personally i'd give it a go yourself. The sense of correcting your own paintwork is very satisfying and even if you don't achieve the results you want you can recoup most of the money spent by selling the kit on.

 

[Lawro]

It all depends how perfect you want it.. My advise would be to find a hobbiest detailer in your area to do it for you, that way you cut out the overhead pricing.

Doing it yourself is all well and good but correction is not as easy as you may think.. The amount of jobs I have done when people 'have a go' and it's covered in hazing and buffer trails is unbelievable.

If you are set on doing it yourself, my advise would be to take some time to read up on some threads on here and DW, get yourself some half decent products and a DA and get practicing.

 

[Bluebeard]

@Knuckles is your man. He's cheap and good.

Sadly, he looks like shaggy from scooby doo.

 

[sabian92]

It all depends how perfect you want it.. My advise would be to find a hobbiest detailer in your area to do it for you, that way you cut out the overhead pricing.

Doing it yourself is all well and good but correction is not as easy as you may think.. The amount of jobs I have done when people 'have a go' and it's covered in hazing and buffer trails is unbelievable.

If you are set on doing it yourself, my advise would be to take some time to read up on some threads on here and DW, get yourself some half decent products and a DA and get practicing.

That's what worries me - making it look worse than it already is. From a distance it looks okay but up close you can tell it's been neglected. I don't want it to look crap from far away as well!

@Knuckles is your man. He's cheap and good.

Sadly, he looks like shaggy from scooby doo.

I'll give him a bell on here, see what he'll quote me. Cheers :up:

 

[Lawro]

That's what worries me - making it look worse than it already is. From a distance it looks okay but up close you can tell it's been neglected. I don't want it to look crap from far away as well!

There are a fair few of us dotted around the country.. As Dan said, get on to Knuckles and he will sort you out!

 

[sabian92]

There are a fair few of us dotted around the country.. As Dan said, get on to Knuckles and he will sort you out!

Have done, I've sent him a PM asking for a quote.

Cheers for the recommendations :up:

 

[Knuckles]

@Knuckles is your man. He's cheap and good.

Sadly, he looks like shaggy from scooby doo.

Cheers.

But Y U such hurtful!

 

[Welsh.Dan]

I'd buy a das 6 pro kit for about 150. Worth doing as you'll have a polisher then for any future cars you buy.
It'll only cost you 30 ish quid in pads and compounds to do a car in future.
I did mine myself and cars vastly improved. Not perfect, still some minor swirilng etc. But it's not a show car.

It does take a lot of time and a LOT of patience. So if you don't think you'd be up to spending 12 odd hours doing it then pay someone else to do it!

Best thing would be to watch junkman 4 part video guide. You'll know wether you want to DIY by the end of watching them......
Here's part 1=
How To for Novice to Machine Polishing - Part 1:

 

[sabian92]

Not planning on replacing this for a while, I'm a skint student :smile:

Plus any extra that needs doing will cost a lot less than having it done in its entirety anyway as it'll just be maintenance work rather than the entire car.

I don't have patience whatsoever so I'll pay somebody to do it I think. I don't want to dick it up :tongueout:

Cheers for the video though. I'll give it a watch. That guy is entertaining as buggery :smile:

 

[Welsh.Dan]

He's funny. Makes watching what would be a boring series of videos, quite entertaining.

You won't dick it up. I was nervous as hell. As long as you take your time and follow the guide you'll b fine.
But if you say you have no patience, might be best avoiding doing this yourself.

 

[KyL3]

Paint ehancement should be more than enough £150 with nice protection added. Thats what i would go for.

 

[sabian92]

I'm going to go with @Knuckles - £10 per hour and for that it's a wash, decontamination, polish then protected etc. He's quoted between 10 and 14 hours depending how much actually needs correcting so I'm pretty chuffed with that, and he's only about 15 miles from me or so.

 

[Goodj]

Sounds a much better plan than forking out 50% of the worth of the car on a wash!

 

[sabian92]

Sounds a much better plan than forking out 50% of the worth of the car on a wash!

You're telling me, it's a mental amount of money to spend on it. Even if it was £350 because it's a smaller car it's still ridiculous.

£100-£140, I can justify a bit more. That and it's closer to where I live :tongueout:

 

[Goodj]

If I was going to be brutal, I'd say that jigging around with the paint on an 11yr-old Clio is like sweeping water uphill will a broom made of £50 notes.
But if it keeps the car fresh-looking, it can only be a good thing when you come to off-load it

 

[sabian92]

If I was going to be brutal, I'd say that jigging around with the paint on an 11yr-old Clio is like sweeping water uphill will a broom made of £50 notes.
But if it keeps the car fresh-looking, it can only be a good thing when you come to off-load it :smile:

I can understand that although it's only done 40k miles, so while it is an 03 plate car, it's only really got 3 year's worth of miles on it or so. The appearance lets down an otherwise sound car.

Like I said, I'm not looking for it to be perfect, but it does need doing. The windscreen and door windows need replacing too as they're scratched to crap as well. Clearly the woman before me wrapped a sponge in sandpaper before cleaning it.

 

[dann2707]

You should post some pics of the bad parts mate

 

[Welsh.Dan]

That's a great price from knuckles. Fair play