Detailing, etc

[CoventryCapri]

I was also looking at the gtechniq... Has anybody had this done? Roughly what cost are we looking at for the 3 year stuff?

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[Manders Mustang]

[MENTION=21766]CoventryCapri[/MENTION] IIRC [MENTION=8914]Big_G[/MENTION] and [MENTION=14447]Centurion07[/MENTION] have them (Correct me if i'm wrong guys!)

 

[Heretian]

Gtechniq depends on which one you go for. I had quotes around £420 for C1 with EXO and £500 with Crystal Serum Light with EXO. I believe list price of a full Crystal Serum with EXO is around £700 or more. C1 is 3 years. Light is 4-5 and full Serum being 7+.

Those prices are full detail including inside, wheels, machine polish and Windows all in Gtechniq products.

 

[SteveS]

I was also looking at the gtechniq... Has anybody had this done? Roughly what cost are we looking at for the 3 year stuff?

Had mine GTECHNIQ'd last week. Crystal Serum Light, so 5 years (though we'll see). Just had the paintwork, wheels and glass done. I'll look into the interior myself. At around £500 I think I paid a little more than some on here but the detailer was highly recommended to me and relatively local. And its Scotland, so more limited in choice. When you consider the dealer offering is £350 and this stuff is much better.
Them flies can't get a grip now ;)

 

[NornIron91]

I was also looking at the gtechniq... Has anybody had this done? Roughly what cost are we looking at for the 3 year stuff?

I got quoted £350 for the Crystal Serum Light and EXO. If you want the full Crystal Serum (7 year one) the detailer has to be Gtechniq accredited to do it.

 

[Big_G]

I was also looking at the gtechniq... Has anybody had this done? Roughly what cost are we looking at for the 3 year stuff?

I had mine 2 stage machine polished, crystal serum topped with Exo, wheel armour & glass. 7 year guarantee.
£530

Took this pic after a quick 2 bucket wash & dry (hour tops)

 

[SteveS]

I got quoted £350 for the Crystal Serum Light and EXO. If you want the full Crystal Serum (7 year one) the detailer has to be Gtechniq accredited to do it.

Assuming its a reputable detailer i'd bite his hand off at that price. The Gtechniq site quotes £575 for CSL/EXO paintwork only. Most places will give a good reduction on these prices however.

I had mine 2 stage machine polished, crystal serum topped with Exo, wheel armour & glass. 7 year guarantee.
£530

This is a cracking deal imo.

 

[NornIron91]

Assuming its a reputable detailer i'd bite his hand off at that price. The Gtechniq site quotes £575 for CSL/EXO paintwork only. Most places will give a good reduction on these prices however.

He is a good guy, he lives on my post run. I also got the same quote from a different detailer, I don't know how everyone else is getting quoted so much more.

 

[SteveS]

He is a good guy, he lives on my post run. I also got the same quote from a different detailer, I don't know how everyone else is getting quoted so much more.

The EXO part alone is 3 hours labour plus the coating seemingly...
Guess it depends on what your detailer is charging for labour.

 

[Heretian]

EXO is a spray on and wipe off product. No curing time. The rest all need to cure between 3 and 12 hours. Serum and Serum light being 12 hours so preferably indoors. Easy enough to apply though and if I had a garage I would do Serum Light myself. As it is I'll be doing C1 and EXO at home in the shade.

 

[NornIron91]

The EXO part alone is 3 hours labour plus the coating seemingly...
Guess it depends on what your detailer is charging for labour.

He sent me this photo showing the price of the products, so the labour is £220.

 

[stiggy]

He is a good guy, he lives on my post run. I also got the same quote from a different detailer, I don't know how everyone else is getting quoted so much more.

Because it's a shed load of work! Either he's genuinely incredibly cheap (and there's not reason why this shouldn't be the case), or he's not doing the job properly or using cheaper products.

 

[stiggy]

@stiggy is our resident detailing nut here, but we're got quite a few of us who do a fair bit in terms of keeping the car clean, some prefer different methods to others.

I don't know about being a detailing 'nut', but I do like a clean car

The world of detailiing is awash with a lot of snake-oil product and massively varying opinions. What works on one car, doesn't necessarily suit another.

I opted to take delivery of my car absolutely untouched by the dealer as the likelihood was that they'd do more damage to the paintwork than good when prepping it. Your typical PDI valet team (with respect) don'\t have the time to spend hours prepping your pride and joy, so it's grubby water, old sponges and silicon drying blades for the win.

In terms of advice. Simply put, the paint will never be as good as when it is new. So it makes sense to protect it as soon as possible. This also makes subsequent cleaning easier and safer.

The basic steps are:
Complete clean and decontamination (taking the paint back to just paint)
Paint correction - polishing out any swirls/scratches/defects
Polish - getting max shine from the clean/corrected paint
Seal - this protects the shine/paint and is where the ceramic products like Gtechniq come into their own as you effectively create a new protective layer on top of the paint- which can be a very involved process depending on product used
Final stage - various other waxes/sealants etc.

In this age of nano products (substances that chemically bond to the paint to protect it) GTechniq is my - and plenty of others - recommendation. There are varying degrees of protection as has already been said, 3,5, 7 years. However, the longer duration products do ideally require professional application. The reason being that once they are on - they are ON! You can only remove them by mechanical means, ie. correcting with a rotatry or DA polished to 'skim' a layer of material off.

To be honest, unless you are a serial detailer or have clean car OCD (like me ) it's probably cheaper to get a pro to do it - especially at some of the prices being quoted here, though you won't get anywhere those prices daarn saarf). By the time you've bought a rotary or DA polisher, various compounds, foam pads, cloths, decontaminants, sealants etc.etc.etc the cost runs into hundreds of pounds anyway.

I'm self taught, purely by picking up tips online. Detailingworld is a great resource for this. It helps that I'm mates with Dom, who started/runs Dodo Juice which I also highly recommend.

Happy to proffer advice if you need - but plenty of more skilled/knowledgable peeps out there who can help too

 

[stiggy]

He sent me this photo showing the price of the products, so the labour is £220.

£220 labour is insane!

How long did he say it would take?

 

[Centurion07]

I paid £250 for Gtechniq Crystal serum light & exov2. Whatever that is. :lol:

I take my car back to them when it's got a bit of grime on it so anywhere from a week to a month, depending on how many miles I've done and in what conditions, and they charge a tenner for that which is a snowfoam and wash, which is all it needs.

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