Cheap machine polish.

[Integroo]

Chaps.

My car is a milano red Honda and the paint has seen better days - all swirls and blemishes. I have it in at a local body shop next week to get a damaged bumper and wheel arch trim repaired. I enquired about machine polishing and they say they do it for £150.

I had looked at premium detailers and paint correction seemed to start at £300 ish all the way up to £800+. Is a £150 machine polish at a body shop worthwhile, or is a once over with a machine not going to do much at all for my paint?

Just want a lot of the swirls buffed out really.

Cheers

[hkz286]

at that price (and time, materials etc) your going to be exchanging swirls for holograms, marring etc

I personally wouldn't bother as more damage can be done.

paint correction is a tedious and long winded process involving lots and lots of different consumables (if done properly), hence the high price.

[Summit_Detailing]

As above, you'll be replacing the swirls with buffer trails, holograms and probably new swirls.

It may appear acceptable if/when you first pick it up but that'll be the flller's left behind by the old school compounds/polishes that most bodyshops use.....give it a couple of weeks of rain and a wash or two and the true picture will be revealed.

Honda's typically have soft clearcoat so defect removal is relatively easy, a detailer will still take his/her time in the refining stage to ensure the end result is acceptable - free from the machine inflicted defects mentioned above.

cheers

Chris

[DetailBear]

Bodyshops are generally heavy handed with this type of work, as these guys have said it may look good at first but it will wont last long.

For £150 I can't see them doing a decent job. It also depends on what your cars worth and what your expectations are.

[cardigankid]

For correction short of painting, try the following:-

Wash. Dry. Remove Road tar with copious amounts of tar remover. Go over all bodywork with a clay bar and lubricant (water usually works for me in a garden spray bottle). Then apply T-cut polish very carefully, panel by panel. T-cut must not be left on for long and must not be applied too heavily. Then use a polish system. Everyone will have their own view on this, but I would either use Meguiars three stage system, Turtle Wax followed by a top sealer, or good old Simoniz, followed by a top sealer. There is nothing but nothing like a good coat of top quality wax.

That is a lot of elbow grease but it is not a huge car, and if that did not make your swirls and scratches vanish I would be astounded. Your car will also stay clean for longer but should be washed gently with warm water before applying a further coat of wax, in due course.

The pros can no doubt do a much more professional job, but I assume this would be at serious cost.

[cardigankid]

I would also say that you can buy a rotary buffer from Halfords which will give you a better effect than hand buffing, but prepare to use a LOT of buffing covers as you can cause serious damage using a dirty one.