When I first brought my all Black Mountaineer, I never noticed how bad the swirl marks were until it was in the sun. It looked like someone rubbed sand paper all over it, it looked horrable!

The same day, I called my local body shop I have been dealing with for years and asked them for there help to get rid of some of the swirl marks and try to make it show room finish again.

They took me in 3 days later, took 1 1/2 days until I got the truck back, but even though it's still not 100% perfact, it's just abour perfact almost! They used all kinds of buffers (not to sure exactly what they did) but what ever they did exactly worked great! paid about 350.00 to get the entire thign buffed out and waxed over. Would I do it again? YES!

I love black, it's my favorite color when there clean for the 3 seconds after a wash, but those 3 seconds are great! lol

 

Well I got a few starting to show on my truck my old white 2000 never had any show up on it maybe the color hide them but my new Black one after a couple of washes its starting to show the marks on it.

 

$350? Hmm... maybe I'm charging too little... LOL! You know that they probably just sent it off to a reputable detailer and marked up his $200 detail right?

 

naaa, they didn't send it anywhere. I always mark down my milage anytime I leave it anywhere and it never moved when I picked it up.

Bassically this shop I go charges 100 bucks to just wax. I didn't want just wax, I wanted it to be buffed and get the swirl marks off it, and wax it on top of that. Came out to 350 to buff and then wax.

I really have no idea if thats high or not? I never did compare what others have been charged for the same thing?

I'm not complaining about price though, they did a great job and I have very happy with there work and I will go there again if things get bad again with the paint!

 

So you pulled it up on the asphalt/gravel spot out in front of the body shop and they NEVER moved it during the detail?

I'll say again, maybe I charge too little... or I need to start doing work in your market... or, well, I need a sucker.

LOL!

RP

 

I'll have to agree with you, maybe I'm not charging enough as well. I did a complete job on a Suburban, including shampoo and engine and charged 250.

 

Of course it moved like .03 miles or so, just enough to it in, pull it back out, thats all lol

when you guys detail a car or truck, are you guys just low in price or did I just pay to much this time?

 

While I don't have a national average on price...... I'd hope they provided a complimentary tube of vaseline.

 

that was funny!
you probably paid a lot because, like a lot of people, think that body shops are the ultimate experts, but here's the funny thing. I make a lot of money on car that just returned from body shops and dealers because all they do is run a wool pad with some cheap generic rubbing compound and wax. Sure the car looks good for the first week, but then it rains, the coat of wax dissapears and you have swirls up the ying yang! Car looks like a mobile hologram, and people don't know what to do. My advice is talk to people and find a true professional detailer, not a car-washer. If he's honest, you'll get a complete explanation of the procedure, inspection of paint condition and a quote based on your car alone. If you get a price over the phone, or a flat fee, find another detailer. Another thing I want to clear up is the chamy issue. I wasn't specific enough. When I recommended a chamy I meant a syntethic one like "the absorber". You can buy them at wally world or your local parts store. And always rinse them before and after use.

 

What is the best thing to use to dry? Microfiber towel, Water Blade, cotton towel? Any links to drying products would be great.

 

I prefer high quality waffle weave drying towels.

There are many good ones to be found nowadays. Here is a link to some very good towels that are reasonably priced. (P.S. the service is excellent)

http://www.prestostore.com/cgi-bin/s...etail&ct=29280

Mothers' is also coming out with a new drying towel that should be available in the next couple of months. It is a thin foam core sandwiched between two WW towels. I'm excited about trying them. (sad isn't it )

 

Also Boss... I've heard it through the grapevine (actually from the roots of the grapevine, if you will) that DF is going to have a drying towel soon. Hopefully, I'll get to try them out soon.

 

Drying products are much like all the other detailing products that are available on the market -- everyone has their preference.

Like Boss though, I prefer a nice waffle weave MF towel...

Meguiar's actually makes a pretty nice waffle-weave drying towel that is pretty readily available and very reasonably priced... It's called the 'WATER MAGNET' (goofy name because it's a 'consumer' product -- you know, they have to make it catchy and such... LOL!). Pep Boys keeps them in stock and, in all honesty, they are really a nice towel for the money... I believe I have 12 of them now... among oodles of others. (and my towel habit is continually fueled by Boss -- HA HA! He's the worst of them all with towels though... How many do you have man? It must rank in the thousands...LOL!)

Here's my suggestion... give a couple of these a try and, if you like them, upgrade into a nicer towel and reserve these for drying areas that might be more prone to grit/grime (lower accent paint (two-tone), flare lips, bumpers, lower valences etc...). It's important to keep your towels segregated when you're drying an area... for example, you wouldn't want to dry out your door jambs (a place where you typically pick up a lot of grit/grime) and then use that same towel to dry off your tonneau cover. Reason being is that you run the risk of dragging any grit/grime that you might have picked up out of the jamb across your tonneau and, thus, have a higher risk of introducing scratching / swirling (acronyms)... Just another one of those things to think about... Also, consider using the 'blotting method' to dry versus dragging a towel back and forth across your paint -- reasoning is exactly the same as my door jamb scenario...

RP

 

Funny you should ask RP... I was tidying up my "stuff" today, and counted 34 WW towels alone. So, you can only imagine how many regular MF towels... over a hundred for sure.

Of course, if DF Towel comes out with some WW towels I "must" have at least 2... maybe more!

Great advise!

 

Oh god...

I just realized something...

I *MAY* have more waffle-weave towels than you. *cringe*