Just had my car detailed - very pleased
Discussion
I have nothing to do with the company, just felt that a local company who have looked after my "pride and joy" offering excellent service and value for money was worth recommending. Use them, don't use them - it makes no difference to me. I am new to the site, hence i haven't posted much yet, guess i didn't realise that saying positive things about people wasn't a good thing on the site - lesson learnt and thanks
Redsarebest said:
I have nothing to do with the company, just felt that a local company who have looked after my "pride and joy" offering excellent service and value for money was worth recommending. Use them, don't use them - it makes no difference to me. I am new to the site, hence i haven't posted much yet, guess i didn't realise that saying positive things about people wasn't a good thing on the site - lesson learnt and thanks
Of course it's a good thing and good service should always be recommended. However, look at it from another angle - the company has a lot of people recommending them who seem to sign up to review sites purely to post positive reviews, all with similar linguistic signatures. Then you turn up on Pistonheads, and within a couple of posts, you stick a review up, accompanied by a single grainy pic of your Fezza. I can't speak for all posters, but I was just looking for a bit more confirmation that they do a decent job - which has been provided by the guy with the Capri. That's not the same as discounting your positive comments - just looking for corroboration.
ShiDevil said:
Hi,
I've booked mine in for a detail (paint correction) with a chap in Peterborough called prestige valetting. My car is in good condition, but has mild scratches (although barely visible, just about in the sunlight), therefore the paint correction, will resolve this. The cost is close to 130. I shouldn't need to have this done again, given my cleaning regime
So, there are differences,
Steve
Paint correction for £130?? Pull the other one. Even an enhancement costs £400-£600 on a small to medium sized car. Full correction is nearer £1k with all the extras. I can't believe you'll get anything more than a thorough clean, clay and fill the scratches with a heavy glaze, then wax on top.I've booked mine in for a detail (paint correction) with a chap in Peterborough called prestige valetting. My car is in good condition, but has mild scratches (although barely visible, just about in the sunlight), therefore the paint correction, will resolve this. The cost is close to 130. I shouldn't need to have this done again, given my cleaning regime
So, there are differences,
Steve
Edited by ShiDevil on Tuesday 29th May 23:15
david_h said:
Paint correction for £130?? Pull the other one. Even an enhancement costs £400-£600 on a small to medium sized car. Full correction is nearer £1k with all the extras. I can't believe you'll get anything more than a thorough clean, clay and fill the scratches with a heavy glaze, then wax on top.
Minor paint correction mate, maybe I should have been more specific as there are different levels of correction as I'm sure you know, my car is pretty good, I'm just having a tidy up. I clay etc myself, but won't machine polish or attempt a correction.This is his quote for a mid, so mine is at the lower price... It includes wash etc although mine will go there washed clayed already, which he is doing again :/
Mid Range Paint Correction
Mid range paint correction is designed to remove light swirl marks, holograms and fading paint work with either 1 or 2 stage machine polish, which ever is needed. Before we start any machine polishing we use our state of the art thickness gauge to check paint thickness. Although mid range paint correction is effective there is no guarantee to remove heavy swirls, scratches and heavy defects but will help to minimise them. To remove these heavy defects you will need a full paint correction.
Plastic head lights and rear lights can also have swirl marks, which can be removed safely with careful machine polishing.
Time taken:
1-2 day
Price
From £100.00 To £300.00 +VAT
ShiDevil said:
Minor paint correction mate, maybe I should have been more specific as there are different levels of correction as I'm sure you know, my car is pretty good, I'm just having a tidy up. I clay etc myself, but won't machine polish or attempt a correction.
This is his quote for a mid, so mine is at the lower price... It includes wash etc although mine will go there washed clayed already, which he is doing again :/
Mid Range Paint Correction
Mid range paint correction is designed to remove light swirl marks, holograms and fading paint work with either 1 or 2 stage machine polish, which ever is needed. Before we start any machine polishing we use our state of the art thickness gauge to check paint thickness. Although mid range paint correction is effective there is no guarantee to remove heavy swirls, scratches and heavy defects but will help to minimise them. To remove these heavy defects you will need a full paint correction.
Plastic head lights and rear lights can also have swirl marks, which can be removed safely with careful machine polishing.
Time taken:
1-2 day
Price
From £100.00 To £300.00 +VAT
So from the above it's £360 for an enhancement of the paintwork, this is more in line with what I'd expect. i.e. £400 for single stage machine polish.This is his quote for a mid, so mine is at the lower price... It includes wash etc although mine will go there washed clayed already, which he is doing again :/
Mid Range Paint Correction
Mid range paint correction is designed to remove light swirl marks, holograms and fading paint work with either 1 or 2 stage machine polish, which ever is needed. Before we start any machine polishing we use our state of the art thickness gauge to check paint thickness. Although mid range paint correction is effective there is no guarantee to remove heavy swirls, scratches and heavy defects but will help to minimise them. To remove these heavy defects you will need a full paint correction.
Plastic head lights and rear lights can also have swirl marks, which can be removed safely with careful machine polishing.
Time taken:
1-2 day
Price
From £100.00 To £300.00 +VAT
Mind you if you assume 2 days at 8hrs a day that's still only £22.50 an hour, it's very cheap (a few years ago most decent detailers charged £40/hour). I'd want to see a full IPA wipe down before any wax is on the car.
I've been doing my own paint correction for 4-5years now, I know how much effort it takes, it's a very long winded process.
Well, I just let Ben (and his rather less verbose colleague) loose on my car with the machine polisher, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. Unfortunately I wasn't bright enough to take any "before" shots, so imagine a pretty grotty looking E36 Cabby which a passing seagull had used for target practice the previous day...
Anyway, it came up with a nice deep shine. It's a standard June day, overcast and grey, so the pics don't really do it justice, but the holograms have all gone, the lighter scratches have all but gone, the deeper scratches have remained (obviously) - the overall effect is of a car in much better nick, which is what I was going for.
Ben ignored the roof as instructed, as it is pretty much beyond all help, and I'd rather he picked his battles. Perhaps my only two gripes would be that they got some compound flecks on the hood (but removed them when I pointed them out) and used so much tire-black that my tyres now appear to be made from jelly - but I guess some people like them like that.
I'll put some more pics on when it's sunnier, including some of the interior, which I asked him to focus on and which I haven't thoroughly inspected yet.
The cost was £60 including a £10 fuel surcharge (I'm in Stevenage so I'm over a 60-mile round trip from his base). The time taken was around three hours, and they brought their own water supply. I'm certainly no detailing nerd but as someone who just wanted a nicely clean-looking car (in order to take my niece to her leavers' ball in a bit of style - what can I say, she has low standards!) I am very pleased.
Anyway, it came up with a nice deep shine. It's a standard June day, overcast and grey, so the pics don't really do it justice, but the holograms have all gone, the lighter scratches have all but gone, the deeper scratches have remained (obviously) - the overall effect is of a car in much better nick, which is what I was going for.
Ben ignored the roof as instructed, as it is pretty much beyond all help, and I'd rather he picked his battles. Perhaps my only two gripes would be that they got some compound flecks on the hood (but removed them when I pointed them out) and used so much tire-black that my tyres now appear to be made from jelly - but I guess some people like them like that.
I'll put some more pics on when it's sunnier, including some of the interior, which I asked him to focus on and which I haven't thoroughly inspected yet.
The cost was £60 including a £10 fuel surcharge (I'm in Stevenage so I'm over a 60-mile round trip from his base). The time taken was around three hours, and they brought their own water supply. I'm certainly no detailing nerd but as someone who just wanted a nicely clean-looking car (in order to take my niece to her leavers' ball in a bit of style - what can I say, she has low standards!) I am very pleased.
Just had my X Type done by Ben @ Smartclean and it looks superb, particularly considering it was covered in Saharan dust / sand, as well as all the swirl marks that have been there for ages.
Took them just over three hours, wash / clay / wash / machine polish / wax etc etc, did the full interior too and it looks great. Most of the swirls have gone, a couple of deeper scratches look much better too, but I wouldn't call it 100% - that would be impossible in the time and for the money.
Happy bunny. Although it is about to rain.
Took them just over three hours, wash / clay / wash / machine polish / wax etc etc, did the full interior too and it looks great. Most of the swirls have gone, a couple of deeper scratches look much better too, but I wouldn't call it 100% - that would be impossible in the time and for the money.
Happy bunny. Although it is about to rain.
callahan said:
Just had my X Type done by Ben @ Smartclean and it looks superb, particularly considering it was covered in Saharan dust / sand, as well as all the swirl marks that have been there for ages.
Took them just over three hours, wash / clay / wash / machine polish / wax etc etc, did the full interior too and it looks great. Most of the swirls have gone, a couple of deeper scratches look much better too, but I wouldn't call it 100% - that would be impossible in the time and for the money.
Happy bunny. Although it is about to rain.
At least you had yours done AFTER the dust storm Took them just over three hours, wash / clay / wash / machine polish / wax etc etc, did the full interior too and it looks great. Most of the swirls have gone, a couple of deeper scratches look much better too, but I wouldn't call it 100% - that would be impossible in the time and for the money.
Happy bunny. Although it is about to rain.
mig25_foxbat2003 said:
At least you had yours done AFTER the dust storm
Very true, at least the rain that has fallen since has been relatively dust free.Just for completness, here's a photo of the worst scratch (and the dust) before Ben started:
And here is the same scratch afterwards:
It hasn't gone completely, but it is now barely noticeable and he even touched in the chips on the rear of the front door.
Rain is now beading nicely
I'm glad that the general feedback from all of you that have used smartcleen seem to be generally pleased. I was confident when recommending Ben that his service and price was worth mentioning on this forum and although i did recieve some negative comments for my post it seems that at least some of you have benefited from the recommendation.
Redsarebest said:
I'm glad that the general feedback from all of you that have used smartcleen seem to be generally pleased. I was confident when recommending Ben that his service and price was worth mentioning on this forum and although i did recieve some negative comments for my post it seems that at least some of you have benefited from the recommendation.
I wouldn't take the negative comments to heart. People just become cynical when brand new posters' first post is a recommendation. Too many people use it as a cheap form of advertising.Anyhow, you need to do the custard test with your Ferrari....
Negative and suspicious aren't the same. I'm pleased these chaps are very good and people have benefited from them. I don't think it's unreasonable to be suspicious of someone, whom even to this day - after 4 months, has only ever posted about this company and nothing else.
Whether you were being helpful or plugging a company, it worked either way.
Whether you were being helpful or plugging a company, it worked either way.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=smart+clean&h...
second one down.....
please post before and after pics please, thanks
second one down.....
please post before and after pics please, thanks
70proof said:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=smart+clean&h...
second one down.....
please post before and after pics please, thanks
Try this second one down.....
please post before and after pics please, thanks
http://www.smartcleanvaleting.co.uk/
Edited by woogie on Thursday 2nd August 16:53
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