Thank Matt, I will have to give him a call. I was quoted by one place i went to $500 do cut and polish the car and they said it would look like a new paint job and they would have the car for 2 days. Hows does that sound? Should i ask what products they use first?

Cheers

that is actually pretty damn close to one of my services (about mid to high level) and quite decent price wise.

ask them what paint correction products they use, the machines, what speeds they will run it at, whether they finish with a DA or orbital and if that includes a protection product

ok thanks for that, do you have any pics of white cars actualy shining? lol. I use to use a Meguires cleaning wax that would take alot of the crap off the paint but it would look good for about a week and then start to dull down and get a bit rough. I want it done right and i want it to stay looking good for quite a while. Is there anything that you should do other than washing your car regularly to keep it shining nicely?

Cheers

yes, after every wash use a protective spray detailer like Aussie Gold Showroom glaze, a body shop safe product thats very well priced
thats available directly from aussie gold car care in NSW

if you end up getting the paint glare'd, use Glare Ultrawash and or Sahara as they both add more Professional Polish (the sealant) to the paint so it will never fade.

Ok I have mentioned Paint neutralisation and surface prep a number of times, I think I should explain in more detail why what I do surface prep wise is IMHO better than just washing and claying the paint like the general population of detailers do.

starting off with paint neutralisation systems

For years, sulfuric and oxalic based decontamination systems have been available that offer detailers the ability to break down and remove industrial fallout, pollutants, road grime, bug guts and all other contaminants including tar from the paint

Unfortunately the acid based products etched unpainted/uncoated metals and stung your hands unless you were wearing gloves.
They also had the problem of softening the paint clear coat and made the paint much easier to scratch.
These days oxalic based decon systems are in powder, gel and liquid forms but instead of going with those products, I chose to think and work smarter and custom blended my own system which although does not dissolve industrial fallout (we fix with a clay block afterwards, totally removes soft and hard waxes and sealants, emulsifies tar, sap and all other organic matter, weakens acid rain and alkalinity levels, reduces the surface tension so that water no longer beads or sheets but sits on the paint like a puddle and never dries.
This makes the paint respond better to all my paint treatments including superior abrasive paint correction. the Paint is easier, better and more enjoyable to machine polish and gives almost unlimited working time and less wear on my machine

This is step 1 in chemically cleaning the paint
I use up to three more steps to clean the paint

The next step I do is to clay block the paint to totally remove industrial fallout
Our third step is to use Silicone remover products from automotive paint finish manufacturers such as De Beer, Glasurit 541-5, Chem Spec Metalux and Spies Hecker


the Chem Spec one is used on paints with heaps of silicone buildup as it's much more powerful

From there, I clean the finish with alcohol to remove the solvents that are in the silicone removers and either begin paint correction or start non abrasive paint rejuvination with glare products or apply Glare Zero by rotary to fuse the hills and valleys of the paint together to reduce orange peel and also deep clean the paint, bring the true fresh of the gun colour shade back up and soften the paint (the hard european paints) to make all my treatments work better and be easier for me.

Sometimes I also water sand (aka colour sand, wet sand, dry sand) the paint with certain fine papers before zero to fix very deep scratches )

Here is the first of two videos that shows the befores and afters of my neutralisation wash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwgsmdxdrpg

The next one will be up tomorrow morning

Oh and here's a video showing the results of paint correction and Glare treatment that I did two weeks ago
WATCH IT IN FULL SCREEN MODE, thats alot better so you can see the gloss up close
In 12 months I will glare the car again for an even richer sharper shine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1yCKzQUVa8

Bloody Brilliant job Matt. When ya gonna open a branch in NSW and clone yourself?

Like I have said before, your work ALWAYS impresses me. Thanks for the links.

The second video - showing how the water is no longer sheeting or beading
the paint is now free of waxes and sealants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcCvOoIM1co

Saw that this afternoon when I came home Matt. This Mould polish you can use by hand, do you sell it? Looks bloody awesome

Some great points thier Matty, excellent work as always!

I used to sell it to anyone but now I only sell the DIY version to carefully screened people, (I will bring some to sydney with me for you to keep) and even show you it first hand.

My new Trim Dream V8 Professional Version will stay in house and will not be sold to enthusiasts
Once the trip to Sydney to see Detroit Custom bodyworks, yourself and others is finished, I'll decide what shops will be able to use it

I am just trying to protect my formulation from bad people who would love to test it and make their own version or meguiars for instance who despite having plenty of Research and Development chemists, can't make what I did and would do anything to steal it away from under me.

At the moment I can only see Reflect Effect and Detroit Custom Bodyworks being authorised applicators of it in NSW.
Qld and Victoria we shall see in 2010

Most of the products I'm making in 2010 and 2011 will stay in house for at least a year or two before I give availability to Detroits and Reflect.

And thats the best way to keep it mate! id definately do the same if i were in your situation

Aurora98 I've just stumbled across your excellent posts after searching around the net about car detailing. I gotta say Im very impressed at your effort over the years, and yes I have read all posts here since the star of Part I.

I have a 2002 BA XT Wagon in a Narooma Blue colour and after reading your posts it has inspired me to strive for perfection in my paint job. I bought the car second hand and after a wash i have noticed paint swirls and marring. I thought after a wash the car looked great, however after seeing your AU I really want mine close to that quality.

Tomorrow a friend of mine is coming over and he's offered to lend me some of his Meguiars NXT Tech Wax. I am going to wash the car and then apply this afterwards. I want to see how this turns out first then in a few weeks/months I'll try methods similar to yours ie, ph neutral wash, clay, gtechniq C1, etc... I have full confidence that your method will outperform the tech wax but I like to go and see the results and work my way up, if ya know what I mean.

Anyways, look forward to your future posts and good luck with striving for perfection!

Ill just add that i have used the Megs Next Tech wax 2.0 or whatever it is. Yes it is a good wax (very nice to apply) and it smells fricken awesome!, but unless you do a few coats of it your looking at roughly 3-4 weeks max of water beading. Which for the price you pay.. isnt overly good.

I have been trying out different products as well, and after all the ones i have bought thiers probally only 2-3 that really stand out. CRC paint doctor,i have been using it for over 4 years+ and i still like using it, megs GC car wash & conditioner. and the megs smooth surface clay bar kits. and that stuff is pretty mainstream, but ive found it to be best $$ ive spent out of most products.

But none of that compares to what the pro's use lol...

OK just finished the wagon yesterday treating it with a car wash with high pressure soap, then high pressure rinse then a spot free rinse then I wiped down with chamois. I have to say Im dissapointed in the soap they use in my local car wash because everytime I finish I find that their soap sticks to the paint leaves these dried soap bubbles on the car. Might have to use my own soap in a bucket next time. I removed it with a warm chamois wiping it all off then rinsing chamois after every panel. Came up good in the end.

Used the NXT gen Tech Wax 1 and seemed much easier to apply/remove then what I remember doing to my dads taxi using turtle wax. I also had a bottle of Megs new ultimate quick wax and applied to a separate panel with very similar results. I think I may be using the quick wax because it shaved the waxing process by 80% I reckon.

Anyways its come up deep and only lightly removed shallow swirls. Looks good but scratches in the clear remain.

gonna try other methods later on....