Cut & Polish in Auckland?

[dogmanjunior]

 Shale said:

This is true. I've just ordered more compound too.

What do you think guys, is $150 all good with y'all?

Fo sho

[newsuba]

Geezus, you're a bunch of slackers !

If you have $150, go buy some products and learn to do it yourself.

It ain't hard.

Most car care product sites (eg. Mothers, Meguiars) have heaps of info on how to clean your car properly.

There is/was ? also a very good thread on this very forum about car cleaning.

[Scoobydoo]

Yeah for the amount of time I spent on my own car, i know what's involved in claying, polishing and waxing a car. $150 is decent.

GC8E2DD - I'll be happy to do yours for $150 one weekend.

[Drunkenmonkey]

 newsuba said:

Geezus, you're a bunch of slackers !

If you have $150, go buy some products and learn to do it yourself.

It ain't hard.

Most car care product sites (eg. Mothers, Meguiars) have heaps of info on how to clean your car properly.

There is/was ? also a very good thread on this very forum about car cleaning.

its the matter of being bothered to sit there for 6-10 hours

[WRXER]

Yup thats the one, u can easily flag a whole day to do the car... But damn is it worth it mate.

[dogmanjunior]

It's not about being bothered or not for me. If I knew how to do it properly I would happily do it, but from what I've heard you can seriously **** your paint if you don't know what you're doing. I'd much rather part with $150

[dogmanjunior]

 dogmanjunior said:

seriously **** your paint

My bad :-\

[Shale]

Perhaps what you have missed, newsuba, is that a few of these people have clearly never done it before. There are a few reasons people will just cut to the chase and ask someone who has had good results before to do it again.

- Good products are expensive. No, it is NOT good enough to simply wash the car then wax it. It'll still look like poos. You mention the same products I use - Meguiars, Mothers. Excellent products. $30 per bottle, $60 for clay. $45 for the compound I use because it doesn't scratch, and is VERY gentle. You're looking at close to $150 for all your own bits at this point anyway... then throw away a weekend. Let's not even talk about getting proper cloths.

- You'd be surprised how many people won't wash the car twice with soap (instead of wash & wax), with double buckets to avoid contamination, let it dry... then proceed to drop the claybar, scratch the paint, decide to use products out of order, focus too much on one area and wear through clearcoat, then leave patches of wax behind to bake in the sun. It's not hard, but it certainly ain't easy. Watching others do it, I've seen a LOT of rubbing clay against dry paint nonsense - yes, lube is good in all applications ;D

- Patience is a virtue...that many males lack. I'll get a wee bit bored doing it all dang day but given we're dealing with the attention span of squirrels here (the guys whose cars I've done can vouch for this), it's all too easy to lose focus on your own car and simply never finish the job.

Scoobydoo - that's really it eh. Once you know what's involved and have done it several times, it gets easier (particularly in understanding exactly what each product does and when/how to use it) - it's not a big deal to sit down and do it again just to avoid someone fecking their beautiful paint up.

At this point I've done my own three cars (oddly the sh!tbag broken BC5 sedan came up the best of the lot), Dad's Honda, Drunken and Reuben's BG5 wagons, most of Drunken's BF5, Becca and Dave's Fozzes...

[Guest]

I can attest to the attention span thing... I get tired of doing it after a couple of hours, hence why I've only waxed the bonnet, front guards and a third of the roof!

$150 sounds more reasonable to me too.

[Shale]

And to think that wax is only the last step...

[Guest]

I was doing the mothers three step process, pre wax cleaner, glaze and then wax.

I'm not looking forward to washing the car on Saturday... it is all manner of filthy what with 1000km over the weekend, most of it at night. The front looks like a dead insect convention or something!

It's interesting seeing where the dirt and water trails run... you soon get an idea of the aerodynamic hot spots

[Shale]

Ah ;D Wee bit more thorough. For the win!

I do a claybar and a cut before I get into those...for added shiny. Removes scratches and poo burns too.

[Guest]

 Shale said:

Ah ;D Wee bit more thorough. For the win!

Yeah, but it takes hours and I get bored lol! It is pretty obvious where I've done it when you look out the window in the morning and it's been raining lol!

[Shale]

Wax is FOR THE WIN ;D Water sitting on it is a fantastic look...especially once you get moving!

You may note that if you do the ol' plastic bag trick (get a sandwich bag, stick your hand in it, and give your paint a grope) it still feels a bit gritty...despite the wax... yer, needs clay.

[Guest]

It does, there are tar spots in places.

The other problem with doing it is it can be rather depressing as I always discover new scratches, dings and stone chips. She picked up a heap of them over Christmas

Oh and I haven't had that graze on the door fixed yet... hmmm.

[Shale]

Try having the entire front end of your car try and peel off. You've seen my beloved Impreza

[Guest]

 Shale said:

Try having the entire front end of your car try and peel off. You've seen my beloved Impreza

[newsuba]

 Shale said:

Perhaps what you have missed, newsuba, is that a few of these people have clearly never done it before. There are a few reasons people will just cut to the chase and ask someone who has had good results before to do it again.

.

.

.

- Good products are expensive.

Some people are just so lazy !!!

:

It's not brain surgery, the basic techniques are easy to learn, you'll only **** your paint if you're a moron.

While good products are expensive, you don't have to use the best to get good results.

IIRC PFS correctly, the choice of product only accounts for ~10% of the result.

[Shale]

Yerp - it's not like you use ALL the product in a bottle.

However, ~10 cars and I'm almost out. Just had to replace it all.

It's not rocket surgery as it were - but sh!t I've seen some shockers. It SHOULDN'T be hard, but surely you've seen the damage from completely innocent attempts at resurrecting paint.

I personally don't find it hard. Apparently it can be.

PFS charge as much as they do because their techniques and tools are some of the best. You're guaranteed a mint result and a near-new car. You pay for quality. End of story.

[Scoobydoo]

Im just glad I have a white car and the paint is still in good condition... the polish stage isn't required. But on any colour basically apart from white, polishing does bring out the colour a lot more.

[newsuba]

Polishing works on white too

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=98413

[Guest axeman]

Meguiars have regular car club nights where you can go and learn about car care. Could be worth an investigation.

[newsuba]

 axeman said:

Meguiars have regular car club nights where you can go and learn about car care. Could be worth an investigation.

Excellent idea !

[Guest]

Well, I must applaud Shale ...your posts are insightful and your methodology sound.

(i haven't seen your work, but a line of satisfied customers (like you have here) is really the only important measure!)

Having said that - I personally think you're doing yourself a disservice by charging $10 per hour. I completely understand your motives (and the concept of mates rates) but that isn't even minimum wage, let alone the hourly rate that a tradesman would charge for his n00b 'apprentice' to learn a trade at...

Certainly not wanting to stick my nose in other peoples' business here, but if you're looking to line Shale up to work on your car, you might also want to consider bringing a couple of boxes of beer (or other appropriate beverage ) along to say thank you with, because you're practically getting a day's labour for free...

All the best

Ian.

 Shale said:

Yerp - it's not like you use ALL the product in a bottle.

However, ~10 cars and I'm almost out. Just had to replace it all.

It's not rocket surgery as it were - but sh!t I've seen some shockers. It SHOULDN'T be hard, but surely you've seen the damage from completely innocent attempts at resurrecting paint.

I personally don't find it hard. Apparently it can be.

PFS charge as much as they do because their techniques and tools are some of the best. You're guaranteed a mint result and a near-new car. You pay for quality. End of story.

[Shale]

Thanks for your post bro. I knew you'd show up and was hoping it would be 'Dude GTFO you SUCK!'

It's a good point, have had my arse kicked several times about charging so little for a day's work. I guess my justification is, who's going to pay several hundy for work by an 'amateur' (ie: no 'professional' experience in the field)...and I don't want to charge mates the earth even though it starts to become hard labour after a few hours.

Whatever people are offering is fine at the end of the day - setting the bar low for those who can't really afford it off the back of a recession. We all know how important it is to avoid your paint getting oxidised and battle-scarred and poo-burned.

If y'all wanna be more generous...

(and for the record, I drink Japanese spirits ;D)