Full Detail : £400!

HEADRAT

HEADRAT

HEADRAT

Soldato
Joined
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Cambridge, UK
So I approched my local detailer to get rid of the swirl marks on my Z4:-


For a full paint correction detail on a z4 it would be £400. This includes full wash, clay bar treatment, paint correction, wax / sealant finishing layers, interior clean and leather treatment. Its about 8-10 hours work and ideally needs to be carried out indoors although if its a nice wind free day it can be done outside.


I've got to say that I wouldn't be interested at £400 for basically what is a days work! I'm not tight but that just seems like a silly amount of money tbh.

I'm not saying it doesn't take skill etc but £400 for such a small car is too rich for my blood!

Thoughts?

HEADRAT
 
seems a bit steep like, polished bliss are pretty much the best in the country and they charge £595+VAT for what he's offering and that's at their own premises with the best equipment and products money can buy...and they average 16 hours to complete a minor correction detail
 
I thought that was about the going rate for getting a car "detailed".

I'll stick with 90% of the results for 5% of the cost and do it myself I think ;)
 
a £400 day rate for anything that requires a certain amount of skill is reasonable to be honest. Whether its worth it to you is another matter, that only you can answer.

Personally when it comes to stuff like this I weigh up if I'd rather work at my own job for a day to cover the money, or if its something I might enjoy I'd do it myself. eg, I hate decorating and I'm not very good at it, so I'd happily pay £300 for someone to do a room, in the knowledge that in the same amount of time I could earn the same amount or more doing something I enjoy, whereas when it comes to working on the bike I'd rather do it myself because I enjoy it.
 
£400 seems steep - considering I could wash, clay bar, wax, seal and clean the interior of the car in about 5-6 hours for nothing (apart from materials)

The only thing i couldn't do well was the paint correction.
 
It's a niché product so it will command a premium. Whether it's worth that cost is down to the buyer.

I'm looking at getting a G220 or cheaper Kestrel to do my families cars. It'll cost a fraction of what it would cost a pro to do and if the results meet up to 70% of the pros standards in terms of immediate looks then it's all good imo. I would use some scrap panels for practice first though!
 
I wouldnt pay that kind of money, but rotary paint correction takes a good while to do in my experience, esp on a BMW as the paint is normally bloody hard.
 
£400 for that is a normal price, and for the results you get, I think it's more than worth it, what else can you do for £400 that will get your paintwork looking pretty much brand new?

And people are mistaken if they think they can just pick up a rotary or PC and do the same job with a limited array of pads, polishes, techniques and no understanding of different paint behaviour, I'd like to see an amateur try and machine polish their own car if it had sticky paint, even more so if it was thin ;)
 
Mr_White said:
And people are mistaken if they think they can just pick up a rotary or PC and do the same job with a limited array of pads, polishes, techniques and no understanding of different paint behaviour,
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Perhpas so, but machine polishing is hardly a difficult skill to learn to the stage where you can significantly improve grotty paintwork. People seem to have this idea that you can burn the paint within seconds by using a rotary polisher, IME you'd have to be extrordinarly cack handed to do this, or perhaps use some bath cleaner with a handfull of gravel mixed in rather than proper cutting compound.
 
Spend the money on getting the equipment and take your time to learn how to do it properly. There are lots of resources on the net.
 
I've got a Porter Cable myself however I'd gladly pay a pro £400 to fully detail my car as the results are stunning, far better than I could achieve myself.

It depends on the value of your car and what your time is worth to you. You'd have to pay me more than £400 to spend an entire day detailing somebody's car that's for sure!
 
Dogbreath said:
Perhpas so, but machine polishing is hardly a difficult skill to learn to the stage where you can significantly improve grotty paintwork. People seem to have this idea that you can burn the paint within seconds by using a rotary polisher, IME you'd have to be extrordinarly cack handed to do this, or perhaps use some bath cleaner with a handfull of gravel mixed in rather than proper cutting compound.
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this very much depends upon the paint.

Some of the newer paints can really throw you. Many of the new BMWs paint is resistant to polishing for example, Leading to something neatly called "sticky paint" as the clearcoat doesnt break down properly and just clumps up and clogs the polisher

equally some of the german paints are very hard, and will require heavy cutting compount. wheras vauxhall red is like butter and could be polished by hand with t-cut if you had the time and effort.

Those that have wrecked their paint with a rotary have more done so due to poor choice of polish, rather than being "cack handed".
 
HEADRAT said:
So I approched my local detailer to get rid of the swirl marks on my Z4:-


For a full paint correction detail on a z4 it would be £400. This includes full wash, clay bar treatment, paint correction, wax / sealant finishing layers, interior clean and leather treatment. Its about 8-10 hours work and ideally needs to be carried out indoors although if its a nice wind free day it can be done outside.


I've got to say that I wouldn't be interested at £400 for basically what is a days work! I'm not tight but that just seems like a silly amount of money tbh.

I'm not saying it doesn't take skill etc but £400 for such a small car is too rich for my blood!

Thoughts?

HEADRAT
Click to expand...

Offer him £300-£350, see if he says yay?
 
I wouldn't pay anywhere near that much.. Id happily pay £100 for just the Machining bit but I doubt I'd get it that cheap.
 
Sod that, i'd charge no more than £20 and blow job, and probably still do half a good a job if you are lucky ;)
 
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