you planned to DIY?

have not heard of Opti-Coat but if you want to DIY then you can consider the range from OSREN. they are relatively affordable and plus, their support staff is quite good as in you can consult them on how to apply the coating and they will teach you.

take note though, you'll need to properly and carefully prep your car surface before applying the coating otherwise it will all go to waste or worst case scenario, mar your paint.

you referring to Fusso F7?

not sure about the cleaning properties of it but i've tried it before, it is ok but costlier and does not last as long as the paste wax. at the end of the 3rd month or so, you'll notice the hydrophobicity properties starts to dwindle.

some of the product also gets blown away by wind if you work outside leading to wastage and accidental spread to other unintended parts of the vehicle

always live by this notion; cheap things not good, good things not cheap.

i suspect that they are just going to wash the car and then apply a layer of spray-on "graphene coating" like those made by turtle wax and then call it a day.

it's difficult (if not impossible) to imagine how can a proper detailing job costs so cheap considering the amount of work and time that one needs to put in so either you really found the GOAT deal or it's a fly by night business.

if i'm not mistaken, a bottle of ceramic coating from IGL also costs about nearly RM200 already.

i've sent all of my 3 cars for coating and they always average between RM1,800.00 - RM2,100.00 like that.

Not ok.

The coating needs to bond with the paint and if there's a layer of contaminants in between the paint and the coating, it won't last.

how much are these?

you can consider OSREN's Bubble & Wax (4litres - RM48).

depends on what kind of detailing job you are looking at and to where you are sending them to.

if you want cheap, you can get your car washed, polished and waxed for less than RM300.00 at random pop ups stationed in petrol kiosk however satisfaction is not guaranteed here. good if you don't really care about your car and just needed to "shave off" some contaminants however there's a high chance that you'll end up with more swirl marks than before.

a decent properly carried out job should costs around RM600.00 ~ RM800.00 but you'll need to do some research yourself as prices are not an indicative of quality. plenty of scam jobs out there.

This post has been edited by shaniandras2787: Apr 4 2025, 05:25 PM

detailing is basically; wash, polish, wax etc (the whole package) and you don't do it unless absolutely necessary, it's like a hard reset you do for your car paint. if you are really determined, just wash your car weekly and wax it every 3~6 months (depending on the hydrophobicity) YOURSELF with the right method/product and you'll be golden.

many neglect the fact that the humble car wash IS the way to maintain that good looks of your car and despite its simplicity, it's notoriously difficult. do it wrong and you'll strip your LSP prematurely and mar your paint.

do not polish your car unless necessary. no doubt it will give your car that showroom shine because it removes all the swirls/scratches but it also wears down your clear coat (thin the paint) and if you do it often enough, you'll eventually burn through and get to the point of no return.

4 months old is still very new and you won't need any detailing unless you wanted to get your car coated which is highly recommended if you intend to wash your car yourself throughout the entire duration of your ownership as it makes the car washing experience way way more pleasant and less tedious, especially the drying part.

you literally "dry" the car with water.

#iykyk

Waxing is generally safe because it adds and not subtracts, polishing subtracts. Even if you use too much waxing product, they will wear off eventually and your car paint returns to normal.

With that being said, if you wax your car improperly (ie: using unsuitable pads/apply too much pressure, you'll still mar your paint albeit micro ones but they do stack up overtime resulting in micro marring. The danger of marring the paintwork is at every stage but is evidently higher during the "buff-off" stage, it's basically masturbating with a very dry penis.

Black colored cars are a treat to look at if properly cared for but that task is an extremely difficult one to do.

Not to rain on your parade but if you take a lightbar around the 4000k spectrum, you'll be shock at the amount swirls on it. Somehow these swirl marks don't appear well on daylight (anything higher than 4700k). This is also why you tend to see "detailing shops" always use lights that are cooler, they hide the imperfection of their works.

Only true detailing shops have warmer standing work lights to ensure everything is perfect and this is where you pay the "premium" for it.

This post has been edited by shaniandras2787: Apr 7 2025, 12:41 PM

the problem i have with all these measuring device is that the sample area is too small to be an indicative of the condition of the entire surface. for example, if i want to measure the hood, i would plot a random surface of it and then take the reading but that would only tell me the story of that plot itself but not the other parts, unless of course you actually measure every inch of the car

then again, keep up the good work - love to see pristine black colored cars. not many on the streets.

i used to have a Crystal Black Pearl 3rd-Gen Honda City that was a treat to look at but a pain to maintain.

good ceramic coatings doesn't need a "topper/reload", they bind microscopically to your paint and will generally last the period between 4~5 years before they start to deterioriate/breakdown in which case, you need to reapply the coating.

putting anything on top of a coating is a waste of time and money because the point of having a coating is to have the paint protected, the hydrophobicity will prevent/hinder contaminants to stick. if "topper/reload" works then your coating is defective.

if you still insist to apply liquid on top of a hydrophobic surface, a reputable spray on wax such as from Turtle/Soft99 will scratch your itch but will hardly do anything other than introducing swirl marks with your microfiber cloths/pads.

chances are, your paintwork is already marred.

don't take my word for it though - next time if you do send your car to a car wash again, sit down and observe them. look at the foam/pads/mitts they used to scribble around your car, look at the cloths they used to dry your car, observe everything - more importantly, the "snow foam" they used which are generally very alkaline in nature is quite damaging to the paint in the long run.

i also can guarantee that 10/10 car wash centers do not properly clean and rinse the foam/pads after every wash which means they use the same foam/pads/mitts they washed the muddy/covered in crap car before you to wash yours hence cross-contamination. they also don't use a separate foam/pads/mitts to wash the wheel arches/bottom part of the car and that would mean road debris, stones, tars gets rubbed all over your paintwork.



swirl marks/scratches are inevitable for contact washes but you can minimize the damage (2 bucket system) and only move your wash mitt in one direction (forward and backwards), not circular.

i considered myself to be a very careful person and wash all my cars myself and yet i still notice fine hairline scratches here and there so imagine what would a car wash center that is trained to maximize output can do to your car

This post has been edited by shaniandras2787: Apr 7 2025, 05:14 PM