Detailing thread

[jonnywaffles11]

I *stupidly* enjoy detailing so I have always done my own cars. Here's a breakdown of a typical car for me.


starts on a thursday night (I wfh Fridays and will start early or over lunch) - thorough wash, clay bar, decon.

Friday and Saturday I spend on average 8 hrs polishing depending on how bad it is (4bw took 8+, my buddies 3 year old GLI - 5 hrs, other friends' brand new BRZ that was actually built less than a week prior was 3 hrs).

Saturday evening I then spend another 2hrs applying ceramic coatings.

total ~8 - 14 labor hrs

I would not find it unreasonable for a shop to quote $2k+ for a fully detail and ceramic coat. Could I work faster? sure! but its my car and being a few beers deep tends to slow down the process. I also did not apply any PPF which would also really jump up the price.

 

[Ergoc5]

Paint correction, full PPF, ceramic full car, wheels, brake calipers, ceramic window tint (6 windows), etc....$8200...

That's actually not too bad

 

[rubberduck]

Paint correction, full PPF, ceramic full car, wheels, brake calipers, ceramic window tint (6 windows), etc....$8200...

Ouch. Instead I think I’ll do nothing and just buy a new BW every year and come out making money. I have a 22 5BW and have a position for a 23. So far, so good.

 

[burn813]

I think I paid about 4k for full Ceramic coat and front PPF

 

[Ergoc5]

I think I paid about 4k for full Ceramic coat and front PPF

Whole car ppf is a whole different story since a lot of stuff needs to come off to do it right

 

[burn813]

Whole car ppf is a whole different story since a lot of stuff needs to come off to do it right

agreed... I will eventually do full stealth PPF

 

[Ergoc5]

Car baking outside after full ppf....ceramic next .

 

[bloominguez]

Starting to get in and start to compound and polish to prep for ceramic coating. Anyone else have progress pics from yourself or your detailers?

Progress video from my car. Gotta love GM. Let the car sit for five months, what could possibly go wrong.

 

[565565]

Car baking outside after full ppf....ceramic next .

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It doesn’t look like they stuck down the bottom edge of the drivers side of the rear spoiler. I’d check that area when you get the car back

 

[Ergoc5]

It doesn’t look like they stuck down the bottom edge of the drivers side of the rear spoiler. I’d check that area when you get the car back

That's a bit of black gloss ppf ...very difficult to wrap around edges ...they gave me a heads up. I will be swapping that with Terrance's rear wing anyway

 

[565565]

How much are ya'll paying for your paint correction and ppf. Looking at correction and front end ppf for the incoming 4BW and don't have a trusted shop here in Denver. Getting estimates ranging from $1,500-$5,000 for the same thing.

For me it was 7500 for full PPF. I did the ceramic on the car myself because once the PPF is on, putting on ceramic coating really isn’t much more difficult than a good wax/sealant, as most of the difficulty with applying ceramic is the paint prep. 3 coats can be put on in one day.

No one has ever really managed to prove the professional stuff lasts any longer than the best of the DIY products (like Cquartz UK 3.0) in those longevity tests.

I've tried to do small sections of PPF myself in the past on my other cars and I wouldn't try it on the whole car. On simple flat panels it's pretty easy but on complex shapes it takes more work. I estimated that if I tried to do PPF myself it would have taken me about a month working on it on my nights and weekends and my time is just worth more than the 7.5k to pay someone else to do it.

The PPF shop really went above and beyond PPFing like everything, like almost all of the black plastic trim etc, headlights, tailights. Basically any surface that could possibly hold PPF.

For me getting the PPF on the whole car was about avoiding swirls as the PPF melts a bit in the heat/sun and heals swirls. GM clear coat on my corvette swirls no matter how careful I was, and I spent many a weekend correcting or covering it with sealants. Now I just don't worry about it, wash it when I feel like it.

 

[Ergoc5]

It doesn’t look like they stuck down the bottom edge of the drivers side of the rear spoiler. I’d check that area when you get the car back

Here is an updated pic ..

 

[bloominguez]

 

[Ergoc5]

Just curious when people quote prices for full ppf does it include detailing/paint correction and ceramic? My full ppf was $7200 but detailing, paint correction and ceramic was extra...I think the end result was worth it

 

[565565]

Just curious when people quote prices for full ppf does it include detailing/paint correction and ceramic? My full ppf was $7200 but detailing, paint correction and ceramic was extra...I think the end result was worth it

For mine PPF was 7500 including paint correction and detailing, not including ceramic.

 

[Ergoc5]

For mine PPF was 7500 including paint correction and detailing, not including ceramic.

Yeah this is probably NY upcharge for me ...but they did give me a loaner for 6 days

 

[Furinax]

Did a full strip wash x 2 with Adam's strip wash, then surface prep spray down, followed by Adam's Graphene Ceramic Spray. It will be my daily so I coated 2x the horizontal surfaces, then added ceramic boost.

It'll probably last a few months before I will have to coat it again, but I think by then I will have the car wrapped in vinyl.

 

[John]

How it started:

 

[John]

During

Left side is compounded right side is polished

Before an after

Before/after polishing center caps

Wheels/tires before coating both.

After coating wheels with Gyeon Mohs and tires with Tuf Shine tire coating ( 3 coats)

Calipers got coated with Gyeon Mohs as well.

It's still in progress as finding spare time with an 8 month at home is proving difficult. I still need to polish the glass and coat it with Gtechniq G1, finish the paint correction, and coat the leather. The car goes in for full PPF and tint the week of the 29th. Afterwards I will coat the PPF for easier maintenance. I will update as my work progresses.

 

[rubberduck]

Taking mine in to the detailer on August 23, soonest appointment. Paint is pretty decent so will just go with decontamination, clay bar, polish, spot correction as needed. STEK PPF front end and ceramic (two layers of CQUARTZ UK and one layer of CQUARTZ SiC) including wheel and calipers. Total OTD $3.5K.