Hello all,

I sent my car for detailing using one of those Groupon packages. The one I bought is as below:

18-step auto detailing

Nano car wash
Engine cleaning
Claying
Meguiar’s D155 polishing
Meguiar’s 150 polishing
Meguiar’s 250 polishing
Headlamp cleaning
Waxing
Nano waxing
Windscreen cleaning
Rim cleaning
Oil stain removal
Side door cleaning
Vacuuming
Carpet cleaning
Dashboard protection
Tyre shining
Fragrance rectifier

Now, this is the first time I've sent my car for any polishing so I was not sure what to expect. When I went to pick up my car, I was not able to properly inspect their work due to the poor lighting at the place. On top of that, I was rushing to beat the rush hour traffic.  But one thing that felt weird was that my car was already dusty when I went to pick it up.

When I got home however, I felt something was amiss. Take a look at the photo below.



Sorry for the poor quality of the photo. On the left, side you can see that it is more polished with better reflections. The right side however, is hazy and filled with water spots. The thing is the left side was polished by some other car wash shop a few weeks ago to show me the effects of polishing. They only buffed that area for less than 1 minute. The right side was untouched then. So when I sent my car to polish this morning I was expecting to get more or less the same results. But now it seems like nothing was done at all to my car. It was just washed and then left to collect dust for the 4 hours I left it there.

So I went and asked the place about this. Their reply to me was that the package I took was a basic detailing package, I would need the nano glass coating costing Rm1300 to solve the water spots issue.

On top of that, my engine bay was not cleaned at all. Their reply about this was "engine is rubbed by hands and spray chemicals..not direct wash whole engine...". But screw that, no big deal.

Before I go ape shit on them for the polish, can you veterans please have a look and advise if the package I bought is really not meant make my car nice and shiny?

quite heavy lah compared to Makita.

Makita can buy from Osren. DeWalt can check with KrisMas

I've seen plenty of them around in hardware shops that sells DeWalt...price could defer and should cost you on the high side of RM600 but shouldn't reach RM700.

Congrats on the new car.

I just want to add a few words only in addition to all the good advice above.....

1. Work Clean - anything that touches the car paint must be as clean as you can get it cleaned. Eg. when washing the car, wring off the cloth to force out those dirt that you've just 'wiped' off the car so that it won't go back onto the surface of the paint to minimise wash-induced swirls (scratch).

2. If you want to apply anything onto the car, be it onto the paintwork (wax/sealant), glass (water repellants), plastic (dressings), leather (protectant) etc., the rule of thumb is SURFACE PREPARATION. Get the surface as clean or as defect free as you possibly can, then only you apply anything onto it. This would ensure the effectiveness and performance of the products applied.

3. For detailing products, in general, the 'good-things-don't-come-cheap' quotes applies..... . Do look for, at the very least, products from a well established brands like Soft99, Turtle Wax, etc. If you can afford, try to consider the other 'better' brands like Meguiars, Sonax, Mothers, 3M, etc. My suggestion for a decenet enough brands to start off are those from Osren.

Cheerio