Detail on top of Dealer Detail
04-06-18, 09:39 AM
#16
Lexus Fanatic
I also have additional services as well I rejuvenate seat foam with steam remove wrinkles for $200-$400. Sand down headlights and respray them with a oem style uv resistant gel coat thats another $150, there is different stuff that add up, I do it by myself unless its my brother cause he knows my name is at stake if there is a sloppy job.
People buy a $80,000 car then ***** about a $600-$800 detail, there reply is "I could bring it to hoffmans car wash and get it done for $45"....this mentally truly baffles me, my response to them is you are more than welcome to.
What do you use to scrub leather seats? I use a badger hair brush that come with shaving kits.
If anyone charges you less than $200 to repair exterior panels that have been keyed they have no idea what they are doing, you cant buff out key marks you have to using glazing putting and stuff its very time consuming.
People buy a $80,000 car then ***** about a $600-$800 detail, there reply is "I could bring it to hoffmans car wash and get it done for $45"....this mentally truly baffles me, my response to them is you are more than welcome to.
What do you use to scrub leather seats? I use a badger hair brush that come with shaving kits.
If anyone charges you less than $200 to repair exterior panels that have been keyed they have no idea what they are doing, you cant buff out key marks you have to using glazing putting and stuff its very time consuming.
I have sanded and polished headlights though I warn it will not be permanent in many cases unless I use a 2 part clearcoat. What oem style uv resistant gel coat do you use, how does it hold up? I tried Opti Lens but it still did not last much longer then a sealant.
04-06-18, 11:36 AM
#17
Lexus Fanatic
On soft clears like Lexus or Acura, yes you will swirl/scratch your paint if you clay and there were contaminants you were removing with the clay. They may not be very visible but if you take a bright light and look at the finish after claying you will see them. You should remove the wax or sealant before you clay because they can build up and contaminate the clay and make it not as effective just like before you polish as wax/sealant builds up on pads and makes them less effective plus it effects your results and you can have issues finishing down, plus stronger sealants and some wax's are very difficult to remove with claying alone.
Originally Posted by Bikexcoupe
It really depends on how soft the paint is. I've had over the counter clay bars swirl paint jobs before, but they were on incredibly soft aftermarket paints.
04-06-18, 12:06 PM
#18
Pole Position
People scratching their paint from claying must have some really heavy contaminants on their car. I've clayed for years and never had scratching issues. Seems odd that you'd have to strip your wax prior to clay/correction. I know you have to strip finish with an alcohol/water blend prior to ceramic coating.
04-06-18, 03:21 PM
#20
It's not deep scratches, but it mars the paint. Similar to how a towel can mar a single stage paint job during polish removal (this is a nightmare during coating removal). I've experienced what UDel is describing on black Hondas and early model black lexus, but I didn't have many issues claying obsidian black on my old is250.
in regards to stripping the wax before claying, it really depends on how much time has passed from the last application of wax. I agree with UDel about stripping the wax before claying because it does clog up the clay when the wax is fresh. Plus it's easy to change your soap for the presoak and initial wash to strip wax.
If haven't encountered scratches whIle claying, then great, but it doesn't mean scratches aren't possible. There's no blanket statement that is always true in car detailing. Every car and situation is different. When I get asked to work on cars I'm not familiar with, I do research on the characteristics of their paint to be prepared for what I got myself into.
in regards to stripping the wax before claying, it really depends on how much time has passed from the last application of wax. I agree with UDel about stripping the wax before claying because it does clog up the clay when the wax is fresh. Plus it's easy to change your soap for the presoak and initial wash to strip wax.
If haven't encountered scratches whIle claying, then great, but it doesn't mean scratches aren't possible. There's no blanket statement that is always true in car detailing. Every car and situation is different. When I get asked to work on cars I'm not familiar with, I do research on the characteristics of their paint to be prepared for what I got myself into.
04-07-18, 03:59 PM
#21
It's not deep scratches, but it mars the paint. Similar to how a towel can mar a single stage paint job during polish removal (this is a nightmare during coating removal). I've experienced what UDel is describing on black Hondas and early model black lexus, but I didn't have many issues claying obsidian black on my old is250.
in regards to stripping the wax before claying, it really depends on how much time has passed from the last application of wax. I agree with UDel about stripping the wax before claying because it does clog up the clay when the wax is fresh. Plus it's easy to change your soap for the presoak and initial wash to strip wax.
If haven't encountered scratches whIle claying, then great, but it doesn't mean scratches aren't possible. There's no blanket statement that is always true in car detailing. Every car and situation is different. When I get asked to work on cars I'm not familiar with, I do research on the characteristics of their paint to be prepared for what I got myself into.
in regards to stripping the wax before claying, it really depends on how much time has passed from the last application of wax. I agree with UDel about stripping the wax before claying because it does clog up the clay when the wax is fresh. Plus it's easy to change your soap for the presoak and initial wash to strip wax.
If haven't encountered scratches whIle claying, then great, but it doesn't mean scratches aren't possible. There's no blanket statement that is always true in car detailing. Every car and situation is different. When I get asked to work on cars I'm not familiar with, I do research on the characteristics of their paint to be prepared for what I got myself into.
Yeah if you owned and clayed 7 Lexuses and that's ALL the experience you have, than perhaps you should not comment and make it sound like the other guy is doing it wrong if he was not getting your results.
I can do the dumbest sht possible on a light colored paint and it will look perfect after a clay bar session, now try that on a black Tesla, or a black Porsche, or a dark colored ANYTHING, come back and report your results. I guarantee you, you will change your mind.
We don't even offer clay bar at the detail shop I work at unless it's part of some kind of polishing service. If you want your car clayed, at a minimum we would have to do a light machine polish for best results. And for the record, we do like 5 silver cars a year and at least 3-5 dark colors every single week in for big jobs (paint corrections, PPF, and coatings).
ALL of the cars in our family are silver, light metallic of some sort, or metallic/pearl white. You could not pay me to buy a dark color car as a daily driver. Weekend driver/show car maybe but definitely not something that will get dirty and see bad weather.
04-07-18, 05:25 PM
#22
Lexus Fanatic
I’m not a professional detailer, but I’ve been detailing my own cars for 25 years, I’d consider myself more than a novice. I’ve never had a black car, but I’ve had dark grey, dark burgundy, dark green, etc. I’m not shining halogen lights on my cars looking for marring, but I’ve never marred my paint to where I can see the marring with my eyes by claying.
04-08-18, 02:04 AM
#23
Intermediate
Claying a car properly will not induce swirls in the paint. If you use a good quick detailer for lubricity, or even car wash soap and an over the counter mild clay you buy at a car parts store, as long as you're careful not to drop the clay, etc you won't swirl or scratch the car.
I've clayed my cars many times and never swirled or scratched them. If you're using super aggressive professional grades of clay, then maybe.
Also no need to remove the wax before you clay. The clay will likely do most of that anyways, and if you're just going to use a wax afterwards just wax away.
The issue is going to be that once you remove the glaze/wax from the paint you are likely to find that the swirls and scratches are still there, just covered up by the dealer's "detail".
A proper full compound and polish job on a car the size of the LS could well reach $1,000.
I've clayed my cars many times and never swirled or scratched them. If you're using super aggressive professional grades of clay, then maybe.
Also no need to remove the wax before you clay. The clay will likely do most of that anyways, and if you're just going to use a wax afterwards just wax away.
The issue is going to be that once you remove the glaze/wax from the paint you are likely to find that the swirls and scratches are still there, just covered up by the dealer's "detail".
A proper full compound and polish job on a car the size of the LS could well reach $1,000.
04-08-18, 02:08 AM
#24
Intermediate
Best way to prevent scratches and swirl on the dark car is to not touch the paint excessively and also, using a quick detailer spray when the car gets dusty. I had a black is350 2009 and the paint was in great shape for the 8 years I had it thanks to my washing technique.
04-08-18, 06:08 AM
#25
Lexus Fanatic
I think the crux of the disagreement here is what do you define as “marring”. Claying my vehicles has not created any marring that I can see while looking at my cars in normal lighting or gas station lighting. A few months ago I clayed paint overspray off of the lower passenger side of our Pacifica which is a deep dark red, I saw no marring and felt no need to polish, just put a coat of CarPro Reload on it and called it a day. Every car I’ve owned has been clayed soon after delivery to remove any rail dust etc, I can see no marring.
If I shined a bright halogen light at the car would I see marring after claying? Maybe...but I’m not so obsessed to have my cars paint be 100% perfect that I have any desire to do that. I want my cars to look great in the world in the sorts of lighting and situations where they appear in the world, that’s enough for me.
At this stage in my life, I found a good quality automatic car wash and I run my cars through that at least weekly. Is there marring? If I get down on all 4s and shine a light at the sides of the doors, there is some marring, I have done that and I see that. However, under no circumstances where I look at the car in the real world under normal lighting do I see marring, and even with a bright light, there’s no marring on the horizontal surfaces of the car.
Guess what else I use, a car duster...and I see no marring from it.
I havent polished she’s one of my cars in years without setting out to fix a specific issue, and even after 3+ years of care in this way I don’t see enough marring with the naked eye in normal light to bother me.
I can respect that to those of you that are serious detailers and obsess over paint condition defects of any kind there May be marring there. However I maintain that an ordinary person coming in here asking about clay can use an OTC mild clay without seeing any defects that will cause them to want to polish out the paint as i never have, unless those defects are uncovered with the removal of whatever covering product the last dealer/detailer used.
If I shined a bright halogen light at the car would I see marring after claying? Maybe...but I’m not so obsessed to have my cars paint be 100% perfect that I have any desire to do that. I want my cars to look great in the world in the sorts of lighting and situations where they appear in the world, that’s enough for me.
At this stage in my life, I found a good quality automatic car wash and I run my cars through that at least weekly. Is there marring? If I get down on all 4s and shine a light at the sides of the doors, there is some marring, I have done that and I see that. However, under no circumstances where I look at the car in the real world under normal lighting do I see marring, and even with a bright light, there’s no marring on the horizontal surfaces of the car.
Guess what else I use, a car duster...and I see no marring from it.
I havent polished she’s one of my cars in years without setting out to fix a specific issue, and even after 3+ years of care in this way I don’t see enough marring with the naked eye in normal light to bother me.
I can respect that to those of you that are serious detailers and obsess over paint condition defects of any kind there May be marring there. However I maintain that an ordinary person coming in here asking about clay can use an OTC mild clay without seeing any defects that will cause them to want to polish out the paint as i never have, unless those defects are uncovered with the removal of whatever covering product the last dealer/detailer used.
04-08-18, 07:54 AM
#27
Lexus Fanatic
Its all about focus, while I love my cars and I enjoy detailing, I hate washing cars (it’s messy, etc), and I work 6-7 days a week and have young kids...yet I want clean cars on demand (don’t want to wait for a regular detailer to come wash them by hand). I don’t have a lot of choices.
I am lucky to have access to a good one. They pre-spray cars well before they go through, it uses lots of lubricating soap, no wheel brushes, all the guys wear aprons and use microfiber towels. Cloth mitters not brushes. Sure it does damage, but not damage I can see unless I really look for it...so I don’t look. If it bothered me I could polish out the lower panels periodically.
Id much rather go get the car washed and spritz it down with a QD and have a clean car than drive it around filthy for weeks until I had time to wash it right.
04-08-18, 09:06 AM
#28
I think the crux of the disagreement here is what do you define as “marring”. Claying my vehicles has not created any marring that I can see while looking at my cars in normal lighting or gas station lighting. A few months ago I clayed paint overspray off of the lower passenger side of our Pacifica which is a deep dark red, I saw no marring and felt no need to polish, just put a coat of CarPro Reload on it and called it a day. Every car I’ve owned has been clayed soon after delivery to remove any rail dust etc, I can see no marring.
If I shined a bright halogen light at the car would I see marring after claying? Maybe...but I’m not so obsessed to have my cars paint be 100% perfect that I have any desire to do that. I want my cars to look great in the world in the sorts of lighting and situations where they appear in the world, that’s enough for me.
At this stage in my life, I found a good quality automatic car wash and I run my cars through that at least weekly. Is there marring? If I get down on all 4s and shine a light at the sides of the doors, there is some marring, I have done that and I see that. However, under no circumstances where I look at the car in the real world under normal lighting do I see marring, and even with a bright light, there’s no marring on the horizontal surfaces of the car.
Guess what else I use, a car duster...and I see no marring from it.
I havent polished she’s one of my cars in years without setting out to fix a specific issue, and even after 3+ years of care in this way I don’t see enough marring with the naked eye in normal light to bother me.
I can respect that to those of you that are serious detailers and obsess over paint condition defects of any kind there May be marring there. However I maintain that an ordinary person coming in here asking about clay can use an OTC mild clay without seeing any defects that will cause them to want to polish out the paint as i never have, unless those defects are uncovered with the removal of whatever covering product the last dealer/detailer used.
If I shined a bright halogen light at the car would I see marring after claying? Maybe...but I’m not so obsessed to have my cars paint be 100% perfect that I have any desire to do that. I want my cars to look great in the world in the sorts of lighting and situations where they appear in the world, that’s enough for me.
At this stage in my life, I found a good quality automatic car wash and I run my cars through that at least weekly. Is there marring? If I get down on all 4s and shine a light at the sides of the doors, there is some marring, I have done that and I see that. However, under no circumstances where I look at the car in the real world under normal lighting do I see marring, and even with a bright light, there’s no marring on the horizontal surfaces of the car.
Guess what else I use, a car duster...and I see no marring from it.
I havent polished she’s one of my cars in years without setting out to fix a specific issue, and even after 3+ years of care in this way I don’t see enough marring with the naked eye in normal light to bother me.
I can respect that to those of you that are serious detailers and obsess over paint condition defects of any kind there May be marring there. However I maintain that an ordinary person coming in here asking about clay can use an OTC mild clay without seeing any defects that will cause them to want to polish out the paint as i never have, unless those defects are uncovered with the removal of whatever covering product the last dealer/detailer used.
You own a car in an easy color. End of story.
04-08-18, 11:00 AM
#29
Lexus Fanatic
Hence why I don’t buy black cars lol
even darker colored cars I’ve had though, I’ve never had marring that I could see without really trying to look for it.
even darker colored cars I’ve had though, I’ve never had marring that I could see without really trying to look for it.
04-09-18, 09:24 AM
#30
Lexus Fanatic
It's not deep scratches, but it mars the paint. Similar to how a towel can mar a single stage paint job during polish removal (this is a nightmare during coating removal). I've experienced what UDel is describing on black Hondas and early model black lexus, but I didn't have many issues claying obsidian black on my old is250.
in regards to stripping the wax before claying, it really depends on how much time has passed from the last application of wax. I agree with UDel about stripping the wax before claying because it does clog up the clay when the wax is fresh. Plus it's easy to change your soap for the presoak and initial wash to strip wax.
If haven't encountered scratches whIle claying, then great, but it doesn't mean scratches aren't possible. There's no blanket statement that is always true in car detailing. Every car and situation is different. When I get asked to work on cars I'm not familiar with, I do research on the characteristics of their paint to be prepared for what I got myself into.
in regards to stripping the wax before claying, it really depends on how much time has passed from the last application of wax. I agree with UDel about stripping the wax before claying because it does clog up the clay when the wax is fresh. Plus it's easy to change your soap for the presoak and initial wash to strip wax.
If haven't encountered scratches whIle claying, then great, but it doesn't mean scratches aren't possible. There's no blanket statement that is always true in car detailing. Every car and situation is different. When I get asked to work on cars I'm not familiar with, I do research on the characteristics of their paint to be prepared for what I got myself into.
Still, nothing looks better polished and waxed then black paint.