To buy or not to buy.That is the question.

J

jakblade

Active member
 Lincolnshire
DA Polisher??? Do I buy one or not?? :?

Or do I trust the local detailer who said he could do it for £80ish..? :?

If I decide to buy, which one do I get?? Bit of a novice when it comes to detailing cars as the Zed is the first one I've ever been proud enough with to do it.

Please bear in mind I'm a tight sod, so £200-£300 DA's are a definite no no. :rofl:

Any advice/experiences greatly appreciated.
 
£80 and "detail" do not go hand in hand. At all. Ever.

DA is a very easy machine to pick up. It's perfectly safe and I always suggest people to give it a go. But it depends how far you go... A decent machine is over £100. Plus pads, Polish, tape, decent decontamination stage products, wax/sealants etc etc etc.
 
I have got most of the other products you mentioned. Just I have been trying to polish by hand and have got as far as I can with that. Still got some stubborn marks and micro scratches I can't get out by hand. So I was wondering if a DA was the way forward?? Oh and advice on which one??
 
I have one of these and it's an excellent bit of kit :thumbsup:

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polishing-machines/das-6-pro-dual-action-polisher/cat_81.html
 
I have the same as Hopz above. It is a good bit of kit for sure and one of the cheapest for the type of work you sound like you're going to take on - I'll second the recommendation. If you were a bit closer we could meet and I'd show you the machine and you can have a go yourself - I'm sure you will have seen them in action on YouTube. It's very difficult to gauge what the paint is like without seeing it in person, so without knowing that, no recommendation or advice can be perfect. I was in a similar position to you previously - loved my (then) new car so much that I wanted to detail it so I invested in a bit of kit. What I can tell you is that it takes TIME and then some... If you have a large indoor garage, it'll be much easier - I had to build a gazebo outside to try to minimise any dust etc getting on the car mid-detail!! I put a thread up around a 9-12 months ago so feel free to browse as I went into a bit of detail there. I bought 105 and 205 (amongst other things) and lots of hexlogic pads - they're all great bits of kit but they didn't remove my swirls, so I went for the microfibre pads (more expensive, are you keeping track?) and the correlating polish (more money again). The work I did on the wheels was really worthwhile but the paintwork still leaves something to be desired - and worth adding that even two coats of Black Hole didn't cover the swirls either...

If I had my time again - and don't get me wrong, I did enjoy doing it - I'd think twice about buying all the stuff. I don't know how much a pro detailer would charge to get rid of swirls but I'm not sure I'll ever really get them out without taking risks on the paintwork. On the other hand, if you've got all the gear bar the DA machine - which you can use on any car and a lot more besides - you'll probably enjoy the work, too and it's certainly one of the cheapest machines around.

Final thoughts are that I hope your car isn't black - mine is so swirls are visible in good light but it gives a beautiful wet look in low light. First proper detail took me three days. Second time round that moved on to 4-5 days and I could still see the swirls!! I haven't spent that amount of time since I bought the MF pads but I have done the bonnet only with those pads and they have reduced the swirls a bit. A bit. :headbang:

Tape. Clay. Lots of MF towels. RainX type product. Paper towels (borrowed from work). Spray wax. Water mist sprayer. Pad cleaner. Clean environment. Time investment. Wheel sealant. Small pads, large pads (buy a small backing plate for these - think mine are 5.5 inch and 3 inch). Sealant. Filler. Paint. Polishes (cutting and finishing). Wax. Disposable gloves. The list goes on and none of that is for the interior either... It'd be cheaper to have bought a silver car....

Stevo
 
stevo///m3 said:
It'd be cheaper to have bought a silver car....
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They still show the swirls, just not quite as much :oops: I'm surprised you've not been able to sort the swirls though, I have the same kit as you and had mine looking great with no swirls until B&M Care washed it last year :x Are you sure you're not correcting them and then accidentally inflicting more as you're cleaning up? Come round if you like and we can do a some tests to work it out, I have a paint depth gauge too to test and see if anything is being taken off.

To the OP: Doing it yourself has reasonably high set up costs and takes quite a while, but it will be worth it in the end when you can see what you've achieved. I'd never trust anybody to go near the car who said they'll do an £80 polish, there's just no way anyone can afford to do a good job for that price. You'd probably end up with a dealer special once over possibly covering your cars in holograms, which in a lot of ways looks worse.

If you don't want to do it yourself, either spend more and get it detailed properly, or buy some fillers and see what you can do. The 50cal glaze I keep seeing looks to do a good job, although I've not tried it myself. I've not had time to spend on doing mine properly since it was messed up last year, so it's just clean with white diamond on for now which makes it better, but the swirls are still visible in the wrong light.
 
MickAdams said:
If you don't want to do it yourself, either spend more and get it detailed properly, or buy some fillers and see what you can do. The 50cal glaze I keep seeing looks to do a good job, although I've not tried it myself.
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Fab product - really does a great job of filling... but my God take the advice on the bottle of wearing gloves. Seems to be a careless point from most these days, even when de-tarring etc... a mate took it as overly cautious and his hands turned bright red from the irritation!
 
Cheers for all the input guys. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Must have taken you ages to type all that Stevo :o . Leeds ain't all that far away from me,bit of a boring drive tho' (M18,M62), can get to John Charles Sports Centre in 50 mins from my house...

Anyhow thanks again guys DAS6 Pro it is then........and a possible trip to Leeds.... :wink:
 
I have that machine, it's a really capable product and can't recommend it highly. Personally I prefer this over others I have used in the past.

Clean your car guys are great if you are after some advice as well.

If it was me I wouldn't go anywhere near that £80 detail service, for a full paint correction I charge 4times as this can take 2+ days so as someone said above I would be sceptic of their abilities. I would look into buying 50cal product and a good wax to see if you're happy with the results. If not then look into buying all the relevant items.

I would all over so frequently in Lincolnshire if you want any help/advice.
 
Can't help with the polisher question but Leeds and Lincolnshire... thoughts of a mini meet / hoon? I'm in Doncaster so somewhere in the middle of you all and no-one to play out with. :lol:
 
DAS6 Pro and meguiars microfibre Pad+Polish has worked great for me. So far have done the bonnet and wings and they came out great and took very little time.

Will take some 50:50 shots when i next do some polishing (working my way over the doors next).
 
junglist said:
Can't help with the polisher question but Leeds and Lincolnshire... thoughts of a mini meet / hoon? I'm in Doncaster so somewhere in the middle of you all and no-one to play out with. :lol:
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Well I'm not too far away at all, Sunny Scunny in fact. Trying to get out of going to MeadowHell with the missus on Sunday and if I do was planning on just going out for a drive.Soooo..... :driving:
 
Oh well!!!! Guess I'll have to wait another month for the DA. Just spent the money put aside on a Double Bass Drum Pedal for my 13 year old daughter on her ever expanding drumming obsession. :x

At least she may stop wittering about one now!!!!
 
bony_13 said:
DAS6 Pro and meguiars microfibre Pad+Polish has worked great for me. So far have done the bonnet and wings and they came out great and took very little time.

Will take some 50:50 shots when i next do some polishing (working my way over the doors next).
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Spent 8hrs on Sunday after polishing & a few other bits.

The Meg DA system is amazing, and can vouch for the 6pro :thumbsup:

My thoughts afterwards, break it up vs full car in one go for the first attempt as got a little tedious
 
Did you mean the polisher or the work for £80. If it was the polisher, there is a 500w and an 850w. The best price I could find for the 850w 'pro' was £139 at clean my car. Great service. I'm using autoglym 2 stage then their wax. I'm really pleased. Photo on 'picture of the day' thread.
 
My thoughts afterwards, break it up vs full car in one go for the first attempt as got a little tedious
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So you did the whole car on two microfibre pads? One of the reasons I'm doing it a couple of panels per session is that I was worried how matted and dirty the mf pads would get. So after every session I wash the mf pads on a quick cycle with no softner.

The other main reason is that polishing, and especially claying does get very repetitive and boring!!
 
The second one, by the time it was all done, I still had to apply nano sealant & was shattered / fed up! Now that I am back from the brink of insanity doing it all in one to, it is nice to have got all panels perfect at the same time :thumbsup:

Once you clay the whole car, you are committed to finishing it though!

I only used 1 pad for the whole car, cleaning it after every pass with a brush & spritz of QD to ensure it was clean. Stayed fluffy to the very end & then cleaned up perfectly after a wash. I did buy the Megs backing plates as well, to reduce the heat build from the larger std hook set up.

Think my biggest issue is it being a daily drive & garage being full of my BBQs so had to combine weather & my availability. If it do it a few panels at a time, it could take me months to finally finish it.
 
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