Is it possible to restore a car from effects of local immigrant carwash

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tylerdurden

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Apr 4, 2010
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Gotta love em lads at my local homebase. Car cleaned and washed in 10 min inside and out.

I'm a very busy person with long work hours etc. So for me these guys provide a valuable service.

However, in my younger days, I was a keen car washer.

My car is 6y old but Obsidian Black. THe car is tip top but as you can imagine there are swirls etc.

My question is

1. Can this be restored easily
2. Will this need a professional detail?
3. If not, what DIY schedule would you recommend? wash > clay > rinse > polish I presume
 
Just pay for professional detailing as said.

Doing it yourself, even with a mop, and you'll get inconsistent and mediocre results for your outlay on equipment and significant effort and learning curve, if you don't cause more harm than good trying. (talking from experience here).

A pro will earn every penny.
 
As others have already said, get it professionally detailed.

I bought my previous Obsidian Black E63 knowing that the paint was in very poor shape and had it professionally detailed with excellent results. To give you an idea of the work involved, Mercedes-Benz lacquer is some of the toughest used, and the detailer spent more than 50 hours multi-stage machine polishing it to get it back to looking good :crazy:
 
Where are you based as I know some good detailers:

Russ @ Reflectology
Harry @ Midlands Car Care
Matt @ The Matt Finish
 
If you plan to return to "£5 hand job", do not bother having it detailed, as within a few washes it will be back to current state.

Invest (£150 may seem a lot but will last years) in a DA Polisher and half decent products (£50) and spend a day "correcting". It is not that difficult - just read up on DW (detailing world) or on here.

I find it relaxing as a weekend hobby. Eg machine polished my car last Sunday and on Monday morning one of the ladies at work commented "I didn't know you had bought a new car" :wallbash:
 
All depends how fussy you are as to the finish, how much effort you are prepared to put in and your view as to the value of your time & effort and the v cost of a Pro. detail.

I quite like cleaning my car, prefer to do it myself and the state of my wallet dictates that I'd rather put the effort in myself.

So I've got a polisher ($200 had it for years) and a load of product, NO I don't but new product because I fancy a change, have heard great reviews of a product I buy product because I've run out of whatever.

Wash - two bucket method
Dry
Clay - this will remove all the embedded bits. Good news takes a while but isn't hard work.
Masking tape over black trim.
Polish - I use either AutoGlym SRP or Maguires. BUT I'm not fussy enough to tackle correction removing swirls etc but then mine would benefit from this but its not that bad.

Above for me is a days work 4-6 hours

Next day - allows the polish to 'cure' quick wipe over and sealant currently AutoGlym product.
Day after/next week might top-up with a pure wax - currently P21S

Car form me looks fab, folks comment on it and its way better then almost everything else I see on the road.

Thereafter its a wash every week/every other week.

I do the full job twice a year.
 
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Try olleys posh wash in Orpington an outside valet is £90 for a full clean , compound , Polish and wax . I'd also recommend them to clean your car rather than one cloth cleans all washes for a tenner .
 
Get it detailed. Hand car washes use all sorts of harmful chemicals that can damage your car aside from the swirls from old rags that probably have gravel in them from when they are dropped on the floor. The alloy wheel stuff that they spray on then rinse off eats away at your alloys and causes them to flake or corrode and will also do damage to any chrome work it contacts too.
 
My advice is to shop around! My Tansanite Blue SLK is the victim of the previous owner's predilection for the local hand wash mob. Her husband was none too careful with his golf club trolley either and caused a lot of fairly deep scratches to the rear bumper. I've had several quotes for detailing ranging from £350 to £800 + VAT which didn't include a respray of the bumper. I just happened to be passing my local Chips Away franchise and so popped in for a quote. I used him years ago and was very pleased with the results. I know several other people who report that his work is excellent. On his forecourt was a gleaming black Audi which he had just finished polishing which was absolutely superb. I asked him for a quote and he immediately said he'd have to respray the rear bumper as the scratches wouldn't polish out and then carry out a restorative polish to the rest of the car and included touch up of stone chips. His quote; £175 + VAT. I mentioned the other prices I'd had and he said he can't believe what people charge now polishing has been given the Gucci name of detailing. I'm also having the wheels fully refurbished. They only have a few blemishes and a bit of corrosion but I don't want them letting the rest of the car down after it's been polished. Total price at Chips Away £522 inc VAT. Car's booked in for second week in May.
***Steve***
 
Generally speaking a £5 hand wash won't kill your car but that said it won't make it look it's best at all!

My Saab has over ten years of mediocre washing, most probably in car washes so it's swirled but generally ok. I know if I had the inclination I'd hand wash it, machine polish it and protect it but I'm happy for it to be washed by them. That said I washed it a while back and literally gave it a hand polish with some AG Super Resin and even that made it look load better.

So the OP, a safe hand wash and a good polish will correct any cosmetic defects inflicted by the car wash. Then you can give it a nice coat of wax.

As mentioned though, literally no point in doing all that to then take it to be re-swirled by the car wash a month later!
 

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