Professional Vallet

[Matt Hillyard]

Hi All,

Well after a lot of dual carriage way miles my IS is starting to show some signs of battle scars and its getting me down. The front is starting to loose its shine and dull where stones and general road crud has been chucked up i thought that one way of trying to breathe a bit of life back into her was to get a professional vallet done and get them to get some proper stuff on it.

I regularly wax and polish it myself with Meguiars products but wondered if anyone else had taken their car for a professional vallet and what their thoughts on it was.........

.....Ideally i want them to go nuts on it and get some compound on the front and get the swirls out which i know wont be cheap but i thought would be worth it in the long run...........

What are your thoughts and advices??

Cheers!

[janey]

Fidgits had one of his cars pro valeted thread about it here and although it was a few quid the result was very good.

[Matt Hillyard]

Thanks Janey, thats a great help as thats the sort of thing that i was looking at, think i might have to ring round a few places near me to see what they can do as i was expecting to pay around £200 for it but thought at the end of the day it will be worth it in the end..........i hope!!! lol.......

Just want to try it out and see if its really is worth the pennies in the end!!!

B)

[trooper00]

I want my car to look like that black porker in the thread! Lovely.

My paint is in a bad state and I need to get this done too.

[Steviewevie]

You might want to check out some of the detailers who advertise over on Detailing World

There are some guys there who will get your car looking better than new, but you get what you pay for, so that's going to be pretty pricey.

[Matt Hillyard]

Cheers mate will check it out and yeah was expecting a price tag so thats not a prob just thinking if im gona do it may as well do it properly!!! B)

[Steviewevie]

Cheers mate will check it out and yeah was expecting a price tag so thats not a prob just thinking if im gona do it may as well do it properly!!! B)

Some of them have threads showing their work there (check out the "Studio" and "Showroom" forums here and here), and the results can be absolutely amazing. If you really want someone to come and get rid of all your swirl marks etc then it certainly can be done.

[Matt Hillyard]

Well ive looked and i am amazed, simply stunning work and it really is an art in itself to professionally detail a car!

I have seen a company i am keen to speak to so will contact them and see what they can do, its not cheap in fact its madness but the result would mean that the car was in better condition that when i bought it so i know every penny would be well spent!!

Will keep you guys updated and let you know how i get on!

[Scarlet Pimpernell]

Nice one - but I'm for DIY if you have the time...for a car that is caked all over with flies and cr4p just get a claybar kit and possibly a polisher (even a cheapo Halfords one will do). Get some decent polish and wax and it'll come out as good as any detailer can do....trust me! You'll be amazed at what you can do with a little effort...

I was a complete novice at detailing and left it to the specialists - until I joined this forum, now all my friends and relatives are stacking their cars up every weekend...

Just check out Autopia and the "How To" section. It tells you everything you will ever need to know...

[WylieCoyote]

I agree that in most cases DIY is the best and cheapest, but you have to buy all the stuff, get a day when it's not raining, take hours to do it properly, listen to the nagging from the other half, put up with the irritating 'you can do mine if you want' comments from the neighbours and so on. Added to which a professional really knows what they're doing and in most (not all) cases they'll get it better than you or I can - provided of course you're prepared to pay. I'd say £200+ for the full works. Worth it I think.

[Matt Hillyard]

Well the place im looking at is from £350 for full works and paint correction and are going to spend about 3 days on it!!!

I didnt think that was too bad as they would go to the effort of taking the wheels off to clean them all inside and out and clean out the arches etc.....

I am still torn as i love cleaning my car but for the level of cleaning that they would go too it seems like it would be money well spent...im still torn......think im just going to have to say sod it and go for it as otherwise im just gona umm and arrr about about it and never get anything done! Especially with winter rolling in I want the wheels protected as i know how bad Lexus wheels corrode and bubble if they arent well cared for through winter!