Ok, so I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to detailing my car. It's a '97 and bright red, paint looks great from 20ft, but get closer and it turns bad real fast. The whole damn car is swirl marks, and lots of little imperfections. But I'd like to get it looking as good as it can. Mainly I'd like the swirl marks gone and a nice deep shine and I'll just forget the chips and imperfections until I can paint it.

So the question is...
Do I /should I try doing this myself or should I just take it to someone and pay them?
I'm not gonna spend $150 on that popular hand held buffer and then hours trying to do it. I've heard a lot about 3M's swirl remover but never have found it in the store. How much should I expect to pay a detailer to do it? How often? And how do I know where to go/trust?

Thanks for any recommendations

Tim

 

3M SMR will not do anything, especially by hand. You will need to spend at least $120 on a high quality buffer, 50-60 on pads, and then polishes. That, or you can spend $150 on a detail job. You tell me which is better, $150 for a full detail, or ~200 for everything and you can do it yourself, and you still have the stuff left over afterwards. Go on www.autopia.org and click the "learn" button. There's alot of useful info and instructions.

Good luck.

 

My car's black I need a cut polish soooo bad!

 

take your car to a body shop and have them wetsand it. Wetsanding will get out some of the imperfections and scratches that buffing can miss.

 

I'm not sure my paint is nice enough to warrant spending the money on wet sanding it (just assuming it is expensive...) ....?

It could look pretty decent with all the swirls gone and a nice shine though.

 

aint no shine that shines better than a wet sanded car that is then polished out to a brilliant and eye hurting shine

Cory

 

Well....how much should wet sanding it cost?
Wouldnt that remove a lot of the clear coat?

 

Yes it will remove alot of the clearcoat. It's ALOT of work. It depends who you take it to...

 

yes clearcoat will be removed...but not enough to make u worry about it, and yes like stated above, its tough work...so if ur paying someone to do it...they will charge u an arm and a leg.

Cory

 

and a ********!

 

anywhere around 500 bucks.