Car detailing

[Daz B]

My RS6 is Panther Black absolutely stunning colour when in certain light but have some scratches and bad swirls, out of everyone's experience what is the best route to get rid of scratches, swirls and protect and maintain? I had my RS4 B8 machine polished and ceramic coated which was OK but I've seen a clear wrap which gets applied but you speak to different valeters and all conflict each other so any advice and cost expectations would be appreciated.

[Covkiller]

Buy yourself a Rupes polisher and do it yourself. I did my B7 and wife's Black Golf Edition 30. The RS4 only needed a couple of areas doing and came up mirror shiny and did the whole of the Golf and came up amazingly shiny. Not bad for a pair of old slappers.

[MikeFish]

I started off with a front end wrap with self healing ppf. I was so impressed with it I later had all the doors and roof covered too. So much easier to look after. No need to worry about swirl marks and after 3 years only 1 small stone chip.
The most important thing with ppf is to make sure you get someone decent to fit it. You couldn't see the ppf unless you got up really close and were deliberately trying to see it.
This is it after 3 years and over 30k miles:

Can't recall exactly on the cost but I think it was about £750 for the front end wrap which was on top of a new car detail so prep work was already taken care off.
Think I paid about the same again for the roof and doors.

[Daz B]

Stunning Mike so you basically detail the car and PPF wrap it and the PPF doesn't basically mark no swirls washing it? if you have a contact send me the number as I don't mind travelling to get the job done right cheers

[MikeFish]

Pretty muc yes, except you can create swirls on the ppf but as it is self healing once it gets hot all the swirls disappear.

[innercry666]

It's worth getting Panther Black detailed professionally as it looks stunning once done. I had my RS4 detailed and the ceramic coated and it looked the nuts and was easier to maintain the finish. I had the RS6 detailed as well and then Gyeon Duraflex applied - again looks stunning. The same place that did the work are now doing PPF as well, but will apply the ceramic coating to the PPF to still get the self cleaning effect.

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[ab54666]

It needs a machine polish, you can do so yourself with the right tools, probably a DA for safety, I do all my cars, no need to spend thousands at a detailers.

Tend to get most of my stuff from cleanyourcar.

[doodlebug]

If you’re doing yourself you need all of the kit to measure paint depth.

Wanging away with a circular polisher, even a random orbital after a while, will only result in loss of the top coat. And then you’re fukced.

Frankly I’d sooner have someone do it for me who makes their bread and butter from doing so.

[bn8959]

Had mine done last week. Very pleased, as always!

[zappy-chops]

You are looking at around 4 grand to fully prep (multi-stage paint correction, polishing etc), fully PPF wrap (e.g. Xpel Ultimate Plus all over the car), plus a durable coating on top of the PPF (e.g. Gtechniq). You can work backwards from there if you only want to do part of the car etc. Absolutely must be done at a VERY experienced, and ideally manufacturer accredited detailer. That way they have lots of references you can speak to and have also done all the formal product training with the PPF manufacturer.

I did exactly this to my black RS6. Not cheap, but the results are amazing, and the car is protected all over. It's not indestructible but will see off most normal chips and scratches etc.

Also note, not all PPFs are self-healing in the way Mike describes. Best to go for one that is.

Hope this helps.