04-20-2023, 05:43 AM | #23 | |
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OP- either force the people that did the damage to pay to fix it, or you pay to fix it. After that, make sure in the future you have an experienced car detailing company that knows how to wash ceramic coated cars take care of your vehicle from now on. Either that or you learn to to it yourself and invest in all the materials and liquids to properly do it, including and probably most importantly, distilled water. Lesson learned. |
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04-20-2023, 05:55 AM | #24 | |
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Pros care about getting through as many cars as they can in a day whereas we care about getting the most quality as we can. Anybody smart enough to earn enough money to buy a BMW can learn to wash a car properly and can certainly afford the $50-$300 to buy the stuff. You can buy all of that stuff for < $50 & you don't need a bunch of specialized stuff. * Deionized water is available at most grocery stores in the bulk water section for $0.49/gallon * Microfiber is available at walmart, costco, or home depot for $3.50 for 50 of them * A gallon of concentrated auto shampoo is $11 at O'Reilly's (like $0.10/wash) Sure, you might not WANT to take the time to learn, but if you do we're talking $300 for a sweet setup and 20-30 min / week. Any noob can learn to wash a car well; if you don't, then sure a pro will be better ... but if you do take the time to learn (like 30 min total?), then any of us will do a WAY better job than any pro.
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04-20-2023, 05:56 AM | #25 | |
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I met some people that said the same thing about installing their own air conditioning system. You have a blessed day, sir. |
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04-20-2023, 06:07 AM | #26 |
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If, for most people, washing a car properly is a similar difficulty level to installing an air conditioning system then all of my days have indeed been blessed!
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04-20-2023, 06:25 AM | #27 | |
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I have a professional mobile detailer come to my house twice a month to do two cars in my fleet. He spends over two hours on each of the vehicles he does that day. He has a giant tank of distilled water and a ton of materials to properly wash it. He’s been to schools to learn how to care for ceramic coated vehicles and PPF coated vehicles and also how to to use the chemicals properly. If you wish to think light of that and feel you can do the same job he can do then you go for it. I personally don’t have the time to spend four hours every two weeks on my precious Saturday to wash cars. I also don’t have a giant tank filled with distilled water. Probably most importantly, I have no freaking idea what I’m doing and would more than likely screw it up. Now to close this post I want to let you know why I get irritated during these type of conversations. It irritates me when people make light of other peoples professions. In our country we have experts in different fields that are the best at what they do for that field. I have found out that Car Detailing is absolutely a precision type job. These men and women are sometimes working on million dollar+ cars. My guy does. My M5 cost 120+ as did most of yours. My Porsche 250+. I can’t speak for you, but I absolutely wouldn’t want some inexperienced jackleg washing them and that would include myself. Now doing a quick wash on my daughters 2014 Honda Civic would be a different story…… |
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04-20-2023, 09:43 AM | #28 | |
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04-20-2023, 10:22 AM | #29 |
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Ceramic coating does not protect from physical damage that creates swirls. The average person a ceramic coating is useless as they do not wash their car often enough to benefit.
Ceramic coating provided chemical protection and shine, PFF offers physical protection. Most swirls come from washing the car, and can come from just driving the car from dust in the air and rock from the road. Washing car is easier with ceramic coating because of hydrophobic properties. I wash my care everyone 2-3 weeks mainly because of break dust I do no want the dust to build up where I would need an iron wheel cleaner. Polishing a car every 6 months is excessive and will ruin paint in the long run. |
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04-20-2023, 11:45 AM | #30 | |
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04-20-2023, 12:44 PM | #31 |
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Don't go to a detailer that tells you he's gonna polish the car and that won't remove the ceramic coating lol, but then he's going to apply another coating? Not sure if scam is the right word, but maybe "up-selling" isn't even strong enough.
As a hobbyist detailer with a black car, I've just had to come to terms with the car having some very light swirls after some time goes by. I take the precautions, but it's still going to happen to some degree. Other than the aformentioned mitigations, my approach is to lightly polish the car once a year, so lightly that I can do it almost indefinitely, but where the combination of soft pad and light polish (2500-3k grit and finer) are still enough to remove the swirls so that I can enjoy the car almost swirl free for several months, and then just try to minimize it till the next polish. Because of this approach, I don't spend much on long term coatings, but the quasi-ceramic sprays and 1year types like cancoat or wolfgang uber ceramic. I did just buy Gyeon Pure Evo becuase I want the deep candy gloss. I won't need its 18-24 month lifespan, but for $50 (with coupon), I don't mind at all. I don't need a $200 5 year coating. With a quality coating, you can blow dry the car so you don't introduce more swirls. You can also spray some sio2 boosting sprays, and just rinse them off for even more "touchless" protection, before then blow drying it - but I think this was already mentioned above.
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04-20-2023, 12:47 PM | #32 |
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I mean for $250 that ain’t a bad deal. Might as well do that and have his swirl free finish. But overall yes I agree with you and the hype surrounding a lot of things in the detailing industry.
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04-20-2023, 04:19 PM | #33 | |
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04-20-2023, 05:24 PM | #34 | |||||
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Good convo, Patton! FWIW, my thoughts ...
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However, with that, washing cars properly (ceramic or not) doesn't require much knowledge or training (more on why pros are different below). Quote:
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I mean making a good grilled hamburger requires proper tools & training and I would NEVER make light of it. A great grilled burger is delicious! But I also believe most all people can learn to make a great grilled burger, but it does take time, tools, and intention; and that just might not be something one is willing to do. Quote:
Washing a car is something many people just don't want to do. That said, I've yet to meet a single person with a spendy car who, when shown how easy it is to do properly, doesn't start doing it themselves, and I bet you'd be no different. Quote:
These are not the same things. So, since we're sharing, here's what irritates me: I've had a lot of careers: engineer, IT, financial, corp strategy consulting, startups, etc and every time I get involved in them I always run into people who tell me I can't learn what they know because it's black magic and it takes years of training and schools and etc. And then I learn it, do it, and start training other people who previously didn't learn it because they were told it was super duper hard, and then they marvel at how fast they were able to learn it. My point is, false knowledge barriers irritate me. Nothing any of us do for a living is necessarily hard to learn - after all, we learned it! BUT. The difference is, some things - i.e., 'professions' using the word in the literal sense - do require licensure and large amounts of practice & training: legal, medical, accounting, engineering, piloting, etc. Cleaning a car isn't one of those; that doesn't make it inconsequentially easy, but it's not hard either. I can teach most anyone how to properly clean your cars in 20 minutes. That doesn't make light of auto detailing, it's just a fact; but it's also one that hides reality: The real skill pro detailers have is learning how to wash & detail a car FAST & WELL and THAT'S where all the expensive special tools & knowledge come in. Polishing is the same thing: any noob can paint enhance - polish - their car no problem with no risk. Cutting starts getting more tricky, and then doing all of that fast is where the skill comes in. NET NET Auto detailing is a trade and the real skill in most trades is learning to do the job fast without losing any quality. DIY detailers don't need that skill, thus it's not making light of the trade, it's understanding it well enough to know the difference. Finally a thanks for your comments & thoughts - most people would just be a dick about it
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04-20-2023, 07:22 PM | #35 |
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It's easy to deep dive into detailing and mistakenly assume that one needs a DI system, 2k pressure washer, the finest soaps and microfibers in order to do it properly. All that stuff is a lot of fun, but it isn't required to properly wash a car without scratching. That is done with technique, which is practically free. 2 bucket method, $10 Meguiars soap, and a decent wash mitt and you can wash a car virtually risk free.
I say that as I guy with a 3k washing pressure washer, DI setup, and hundreds of dollars in detailing supplies. |
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04-20-2023, 07:49 PM | #36 | |
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There is one thing I will disagree with you on and that is I still don’t think you’ll be able to do your car as efficiently and meticulously as someone that does it on the daily and has been trained to do it. You’re free to disagree with that and that’s fine. These things take a level of patience, consistency and skill to do it properly. And I don’t care what anyone says I know for a fact that if you don’t use distilled water you’re going to F things up. So I hope you have a tank at home. |
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04-20-2023, 07:51 PM | #37 | |
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04-20-2023, 08:36 PM | #38 |
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No. Like most everything, there are levels. You can buy a pair of shoes at Walmart or a pair of Jordans. Both protect your feet from the pavement, but they accomplish different things. You can buy a Mitsubishi or a BMW. Both get you from point A to point B. My guess is you already know this but you seem to be disgruntled about this topic of detailing, for whatever reason.
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04-20-2023, 08:38 PM | #39 | |
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04-20-2023, 08:42 PM | #40 |
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So basically you’re trying to justify your desire to pay someone else to take care of your cars, which is fine. But why tear others down in the process? Makes no sense to me.
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04-20-2023, 08:51 PM | #41 | |
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My point has been that in order to properly wash and maintain ceramic coated and PPF’d cars you need the right materials, supplies, experience, and time. No one has argued with me about that. Are you? What a couple of people did say is that they feel they can do everybit as good of a job as a professional company. I can somewhat believe this. What you said is that you could do every bit as good of a job as a professional company with very little and very cheap materials. I have a difficult time believing that. That’s not putting you down. That’s disagreeing with you. |
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04-20-2023, 10:24 PM | #42 | |
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04-21-2023, 08:18 PM | #43 | |
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I won't be as efficient since I neither need to nor want to be efficient, but I will be more meticulous because it's my car; I don't care about the time nor do I have to finish by x time so I will ALWAYS be more meticulous than any pro, especially since I enjoy the hobby. It's not a job for me. If a pro skips out on that dirt under your door handle or that small scratch on your bumper will you notice? No! But I will because I do my own car so I know every single millimeter and one can't be more meticulous than that. Also you seem super hung up on distilled water like it's unobtanium, so FYI about *de-ionized* water:
Grocery store deionized bulk water, $0.49/gallon, fills up in a minute or two CR Spotless inline water de-ionizer, connects to your garden hose The CR Spotless high volume deionizer has stainless steel quick disconnects so I can hook it up in about 5 seconds, but I generally always have a hydroshot ready w water from the grocery store. Generally I pre-wash & wash with normal water out of the hose and then rinse with de-ionized, usually with McKee's N914 in there as a drying aid.
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04-22-2023, 04:59 AM | #44 | |
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The direction this topic has gone has made me feel like we are not in a BMW M5 sub forum. |
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