Locating a detailer

[mjoekingz28]

I take care of my vehicles about the best I can. I detail about every piece of the vehicle I have laid eyes to and can get my hand a chemically treated cloth to.

Having said that, I am no pro.

My vehicles look great (to me) in low light situations and I want them to look good in mid summer high noon sun or under those high pressure sodium (or halogen) lights.


I seek a detailer who can correct rock chips and apply a polish to fill in or remove the fine swirling that is in the paint. They are pretty minor, I think, and could be called cobwebs or fine silk strands.



I have already contacted one body shop that used to have great commercials and even had a nice car at the state fair.


I pretty much want this to be a one time deal.


I wash and wax pretty decently and used a clay bar for the first time in recent years.


My cars are a 2003 Silverado LT pewter metallic and a 06 Cobalt LS black (I don't know the exact name if it is one of those fancy colors like dark onyx or w/e).

Thanks

 

[ZebRuaj]

Detailers will vary by location. If you know of a small dealer and like the shape of the vehicles they always have on display, you can buddy up with the owner and get the name of the person who does the work. A lot of the small dealers in my area contract out the work. They can't afford to have a detailer in shop.

Or Google or craigslist. There are quite a few detailing shops and one man show's popping up these days. Quality of work will vary, but always ask for pictures of work done before agreeing to anything. Get familiar with some of the detailing terms and get ready when they do a once over on you vehicle. If it sounds like [censored] coming out of their mouth, it is [censored]. Walk away.

With your vehicle's in question, something you'll need to come to reality with is how much is it really worth it to make them look good? A good 1 or 2 step paint correction can run a couple hundred dollars. You can use the money to grab your own basic gear. DA polishers these days make it hard, but not impossible, to mess up paint correction.

 

[SirTanon]

Just a suggestion, but you might consider going on Autogeek and/or Autopia and inquire in the forums about any detailers in your area. Odds are very good there's someone who does it for a living reasonably close to you who frequents one or both of those sites, and they might even offer you a discount for seeking them out on the forums.

 

[Nick1994]

Be careful with looking on Craigslist.

I had one come out to detail my mom's Patriot. It was a complete nightmare.

 

[mjoekingz28]

SirTanon, I will try to check Autopia. They laughed me off the site when I joined just, I think, days before I joined here.

As I said I intend this to be a one time event. I dont like power tools either. I have plenty of regular detailing equipment, cloths, chemicals, etc and really dont care to try my hand at machine correction.

 

[SirTanon]

In all honesty, it's not that hard to do your own paint correction. I made the leap myself, on my Fusion, back in February of 2015.. but I had watched a lot of video, read a lot of 'how-to' articles on Autogeek, etc..

Went out, bought a Harbor Freight DA orbital polisher and a bunch of Meguiars compounds and polishes. Spent an entire weekend on the car, and in the end, it turned out amazingly good. It was a bit daunting at first, but once I'd gotten into it, I found it was not nearly as scary as it sounded.

The car was COVERED in 'cobweb' swirls.. no doubt from the previous owner taking it through automatic car washes all the time. Here's an 'after' pic of the trunk lid:

Didn't get ALL of the imperfections, but brought it back by about 95%.. and I enjoyed doing it in the end.

Just my $.02..

 

[Bgallagher]

I would try the autgeek forum. There are a lot of good detailers there. Amateur and professional. I used to see a lot of posts of people looking for somebody in their area. They might be a good bet

 

[Leo99]

When I was in high school, my friend down the street convinced some guy that he was a detailer. There is a knock at my door and my friend has a black Corvette parked in my driveway with a 350/350 engine in it. We had a lot of fun joy riding that on the Interstate that ran right past our houses. Moral of the story, it get some references. Actually, the car turned out real nice after my friend polished and waxed it.

 

[mjoekingz28]

I plan on getting my truck dealer serviced in the near future and may just see if they can quote me on the price to touch up the rock chips on the hood. I tried myself with model paint and it looks bad, but the owner's manual said something like 'treating bare metal chips will prevent corrosion' so did what I could with what I had.

Also, I tried a wax for the first time and really like it. It worked out well, so I will probaly pass on a detail and just ask the dealer's body shop to just worry about one panel-the hood.


This new wax seemed to get my car to 50% correction. Its description was pretty sweet, but being a cleaner wax I didnt expect it to actually 'help' the paint as my past experience with cleaners is that they just act like a claybar and provide 'some' protection.