hand car wash goosed my paint!!!!
Discussion
went to see a complete detailer about getting rid of all the swirl marks these monkeys put all over my onyx black(worst colour for showing up marks i know)paint and was told i should expect a bill in the region of £600.another option someone mentioned was autoglym lifeshine which will clock in at about£250.the detailing guy said this treatment would not eliminate the scratches only fill them, hence the price differential.has anyone else had experience of either work and is the expense of either worth it?? has anyone cured this problem themselves?? if i can get away without spending a fortune then all the better. incidently i can`t blame it all on the car wash place as the car was never tip top from new purchase last year. thanks in advance
Would recommend detailing. I had the same issue with my black V8V. Its something that i'll do once a year and put it down as a running cost. The cost should be around £400-£500. I used http://www.elitedetailer.co.uk/specialistdetailing... and they were seem pro and was happy with the outcome. Some photos post-detailing below.....
I'd recommend Paul Dalton from Miracle Detail:
www.miracledetail.co.uk
He's worked on a lot of Astons (as you'll see from his website); apparently the paintwork is very soft and prone to swirls, but he can remove and then protect.
I've used Paul before and the results (even on my 19 year old 911 Club Sport) were fantastic. Well worth the investment.
Kind regards
steve
www.miracledetail.co.uk
He's worked on a lot of Astons (as you'll see from his website); apparently the paintwork is very soft and prone to swirls, but he can remove and then protect.
I've used Paul before and the results (even on my 19 year old 911 Club Sport) were fantastic. Well worth the investment.
Kind regards
steve
the £600 is a bit steep IMO ...round my neck of the woods Id pay £300 for a full-on job
no - the £250 stuff is nowhere near worth it - you could do the same job yourself with £30 of gear from halfords ...if you want a real "lifeshine" then get the detailing done and polymer coat it like they do yachts and planes....in fact, for £300, you could have the swirls removed and polymer done at www.gtechniq.com but there are a long way from you im afraid (thats what I did with my Onyx black Vantage 2 weeks after I got it)
for a reasonable detailing quote - like £300 ish (+ travel maybe) I can recommend Simon from www.exoticdetail.co.uk
no - the £250 stuff is nowhere near worth it - you could do the same job yourself with £30 of gear from halfords ...if you want a real "lifeshine" then get the detailing done and polymer coat it like they do yachts and planes....in fact, for £300, you could have the swirls removed and polymer done at www.gtechniq.com but there are a long way from you im afraid (thats what I did with my Onyx black Vantage 2 weeks after I got it)
for a reasonable detailing quote - like £300 ish (+ travel maybe) I can recommend Simon from www.exoticdetail.co.uk
Not helpful I know, but this is one reason I have avoided black, it is not just Aston, there was a brand new unregistered Porsche 997 series 2 in the display area at Porsches Silverstone track launch & not only could you see the dust, but also it was covered in small swirls & scratches, looked fabulous from a distance though.
Bogie.. do these treatments really work on dark colours, making them easier to keep clean & reducing scratching, just interested as I do like the dark colours but still have nightmares after a previous black car!
Bogie.. do these treatments really work on dark colours, making them easier to keep clean & reducing scratching, just interested as I do like the dark colours but still have nightmares after a previous black car!
Grant
- yes they do work great on black cars...Im a black car fan...nearly every car Ive had in 10 years has been black so as you can imagine, Ive tried everything in car cleaning
lots of pics of my Onyx black Vantage here: http://community.webshots.com/user/t72bogie
its about 16 months on now from treatment on my car by Gtechniq - they de-swirl it and 'detail' it first, then coat it...it dosent 100% prevent swirl marks, short of plastic film on top you cant, but it does make it less susceptible and if you have a good washing technique, can last for years without another de-swirl session with a machine polisher.
The coating itself (supposedly) lasts the life of the paint for things like water-beading and such like, and 16 months on I can agree (theres some pics of 15 months later after a wash on there)
its not magic, its just a proprietary polymer coating invented for the aircraft industry, being put to use on yachts and cars, for people who cant be arsed waxing their car every 3 months (like me!) Im not saying that you just jet-wash your car and it looks like a detailer dude has just spent 5 hours on it, nothing is going to do that, but lets say you wash and dry your car properly and it looks about 95% as good as a fresh 5 hr job - basically like it would a week after a waxing, except this lasts ...errr...forever (well I think theyve got test data for 5-6 years on their site )
thats about it really, whenever I ever pick up a new car in the future, it will just go there for a £300 coat/prep ...in fact I think they may be offering a mobile service in the future so can do it at the dealers .
oh and my experience of the Autoglym 'lifeshine' was not so positive ..it would appear for your £250, a monkey at the dealer polishes your car and sticks on an Autoglym sealant product (seems to last about 3 months), then you get a "free" bag of products (£50 from Halfords anyway) to continue to look after your car. Any swirls present are still there (if not more are put in, during the process!) so for £250 someone just sticks some product on your car and you pay for a bag of polish n wax.
- yes they do work great on black cars...Im a black car fan...nearly every car Ive had in 10 years has been black so as you can imagine, Ive tried everything in car cleaning
lots of pics of my Onyx black Vantage here: http://community.webshots.com/user/t72bogie
its about 16 months on now from treatment on my car by Gtechniq - they de-swirl it and 'detail' it first, then coat it...it dosent 100% prevent swirl marks, short of plastic film on top you cant, but it does make it less susceptible and if you have a good washing technique, can last for years without another de-swirl session with a machine polisher.
The coating itself (supposedly) lasts the life of the paint for things like water-beading and such like, and 16 months on I can agree (theres some pics of 15 months later after a wash on there)
its not magic, its just a proprietary polymer coating invented for the aircraft industry, being put to use on yachts and cars, for people who cant be arsed waxing their car every 3 months (like me!) Im not saying that you just jet-wash your car and it looks like a detailer dude has just spent 5 hours on it, nothing is going to do that, but lets say you wash and dry your car properly and it looks about 95% as good as a fresh 5 hr job - basically like it would a week after a waxing, except this lasts ...errr...forever (well I think theyve got test data for 5-6 years on their site
)thats about it really, whenever I ever pick up a new car in the future, it will just go there for a £300 coat/prep ...in fact I think they may be offering a mobile service in the future so can do it at the dealers .
oh and my experience of the Autoglym 'lifeshine' was not so positive ..it would appear for your £250, a monkey at the dealer polishes your car and sticks on an Autoglym sealant product (seems to last about 3 months), then you get a "free" bag of products (£50 from Halfords anyway) to continue to look after your car. Any swirls present are still there (if not more are put in, during the process!) so for £250 someone just sticks some product on your car and you pay for a bag of polish n wax.
bogie said:
Grant lots of pics of my Onyx black Vantage here: http://community.webshots.com/user/t72bogie
She certainly looks stunning, thanks for the tips, but I have the feeling you also look after the car very well & she looks that good because you pamper her well??? I have the DiamondBrite included FOC with the car, so will see how this pans out,I'm not expecting too much though!
I wouldnt expect toooo much out of the Diamondbrite either in my experience another dealer few hundred quid option - to be fair the dealers just get taken in with the demo of this type of stuff and its an easy few hundred quid option for them to sell.
Yes, i do look after my car, I wouldnt say its pampered though. Close up theres plenty of battle damage - 31K miles, inc 3K miles hard touring and some track days has seen to that. Its a daily driver, and would usually get washed every 2-3 weeks - 2 buckets, 2 wash mitts, snow foam on and jet wash off. Dry off with microfibre towel things...some screen cleaner and tyre gel and that would be it....most importantly all the cleaning mitts and towles would go into the washing machine after.
I think thats a big problem and one that I had many years ago - not washing the cleaning cloths and things after doing the car and keeping them for a few more sessions - very easy to inflict swirls with what looks like a clean cloth, thats been used a few times before (check out the dealer monkeys walking aronund a showroom of new Astons with the same cloth all day!)
Every 3 months i would put some Gliptone on the leather and clean the interior out of all the rubbish ...thats about it really. I must admit most recently to getting Simon around from Exoticdetail to give her a good clean and slap a coat of wax on the top - reason being, since my car accident in Jan, the car hadnt been cleaned and was looking pretty sorry for itself (im just not mobile enough yet to do it myself) - Simon commented on how good nick and relatively swirl free the paint was, which was nice to know.
So I guess I do look after it more than 'normal' but not so anal as to be polishing it every week..and certainly my 6yr/83K mile old Elise often looked better than someones new pride n joy black car, fresh from a dealer ...so yeah, if anyone wants a well looked after Vantage going cheap, just because its got a few miles on it then drop me a line...im not going to be able to drive it for a year or so, if I get a fair offer I will let go ....but not £40K trade value for cash buy thanks
Yes, i do look after my car, I wouldnt say its pampered though. Close up theres plenty of battle damage - 31K miles, inc 3K miles hard touring and some track days has seen to that. Its a daily driver, and would usually get washed every 2-3 weeks - 2 buckets, 2 wash mitts, snow foam on and jet wash off. Dry off with microfibre towel things...some screen cleaner and tyre gel and that would be it....most importantly all the cleaning mitts and towles would go into the washing machine after.
I think thats a big problem and one that I had many years ago - not washing the cleaning cloths and things after doing the car and keeping them for a few more sessions - very easy to inflict swirls with what looks like a clean cloth, thats been used a few times before (check out the dealer monkeys walking aronund a showroom of new Astons with the same cloth all day!)
Every 3 months i would put some Gliptone on the leather and clean the interior out of all the rubbish ...thats about it really. I must admit most recently to getting Simon around from Exoticdetail to give her a good clean and slap a coat of wax on the top - reason being, since my car accident in Jan, the car hadnt been cleaned and was looking pretty sorry for itself (im just not mobile enough yet to do it myself) - Simon commented on how good nick and relatively swirl free the paint was, which was nice to know.
So I guess I do look after it more than 'normal' but not so anal as to be polishing it every week
..and certainly my 6yr/83K mile old Elise often looked better than someones new pride n joy black car, fresh from a dealer ...so yeah, if anyone wants a well looked after Vantage going cheap, just because its got a few miles on it then drop me a line...im not going to be able to drive it for a year or so, if I get a fair offer I will let go ....but not £40K trade value for cash buy thanks bogie said:
...so yeah, if anyone wants a well looked after Vantage going cheap, just because its got a few miles on it then drop me a line...im not going to be able to drive it for a year or so, if I get a fair offer I will let go ....but not £40K trade value for cash buy thanks
Blimey Bogie that must have been a bad smash, amazing it hasn't put you off cars altogether, most importantly hope you are 100% again soon.Grant3 said:
bogie said:
...so yeah, if anyone wants a well looked after Vantage going cheap, just because its got a few miles on it then drop me a line...im not going to be able to drive it for a year or so, if I get a fair offer I will let go ....but not £40K trade value for cash buy thanks
Blimey Bogie that must have been a bad smash, amazing it hasn't put you off cars altogether, most importantly hope you are 100% again soon.
luckily I have 'trauma amnesia' and have lost about 4 weeks memory so cant remember anything to scare me off 
...of course im a nervous passenger, but will be getting back something quick again next year I will never be 100% again and might have to get a sportshift car so im considering selling the one I have. If I dont get any good offers I will just keep it though and trade it in if need be when (if) the time comes...just means the girlfriend has a choice of cars to drive me about in You can't beat getting out there and doing it yourself, not this side of £300 quid anyway. I got a pile of stuff from an outfit called Performance Motorcare, with whom I have no financial connection by the way, for something in the region of £65 and clay barred and three stage Meguiarred my Midnight S-Type Jag. Anything resembling a scratch or a swirl vanished and it felt like cashmere.
I'll take some over the weekend if the weather is reasonable. Though I'm sure the pro's could do better, I really couldn't fault the results. It took a full weekend to do, starting with a careful wash and removal of any tar spots by squirting Autoglym tar remover pretty liberally over the sides of the car. If you use enough, and leave it a few minutes, it dissolves and just wipes off. I just took PM's advice what to buy, and followed the instructions. I heated tyhe clay bar a bit to make it more manageable, and used plenty of the lubricant. Then there are three stages, cleaner, polish and sealant. You need plenty of the applicator pads and non-scratch dusters. When I started there were a few small scratches which you would only have noticed if you were very particular and looking. When I had finished they had just vanished.
On the professional side, there is a thread, 'One for the old Aston Lovers' on 'Yesterday's Heroes' recently from a pro who had detailed a black DB6, and it looked very impressive.
On the professional side, there is a thread, 'One for the old Aston Lovers' on 'Yesterday's Heroes' recently from a pro who had detailed a black DB6, and it looked very impressive.
stefan1 said:
I'd recommend Paul Dalton from Miracle Detail:
www.miracledetail.co.uk
He's worked on a lot of Astons (as you'll see from his website); apparently the paintwork is very soft and prone to swirls, but he can remove and then protect.
I've used Paul before and the results (even on my 19 year old 911 Club Sport) were fantastic. Well worth the investment.
Kind regards
steve
I used Paul as well to get the swirls out of my XKR. He is pricey (£75/hr + VAT) but you get what you pay for and my car turned out immaculate. www.miracledetail.co.uk
He's worked on a lot of Astons (as you'll see from his website); apparently the paintwork is very soft and prone to swirls, but he can remove and then protect.
I've used Paul before and the results (even on my 19 year old 911 Club Sport) were fantastic. Well worth the investment.
Kind regards
steve
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