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Re: The Matt Finish... Detailer to TRL and his customers

11K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  TheMattFinish 
#1 ·
Now guys. I am going to be unpopular saying this to some of you I know.... But... I really did not get the detailing thing until recently.
I thought of it as a bit like modern Art. I went along nodding with everyone's comments; but at the end of the day I still believed that it was all about very expensive wax and people with OCD (acute OCD well beyond my level)..... I thought it was bloody expensive too. I can wash a car with 2 buckets as good as the next man ( or so I thought). then a couple of years ago Matt was called in to our dealership at Croydon to work on a car.
So over that time he has done several cars for me, but never my own. Mainly because I have been driving Renaults and putting wax on those just adds weight. So now that I have my own M140 (and a monthly direct debit to remind me) I asked Matt to do some work on it for me and record his work in his words and his own pics. So this is from the man himself. Now that we have got some proper lights in our unit I am happy for you to engage Matt to clean (sorry, DETAIL) your new car if purchased through me and booked in with him (do let me know though).
Matt can quote you for the work you require. In true TRL fashion, I do not add anything on top - you pay him his price direct to him. He will spend as long as you like sitting beside your car whilst caressing it in a way that no Eastern European ever has....not sure I can print that bit though. Oh well.
So guys and girls meet Matt of Matt Finish.
Feel free to leave him some comments on the pics in the link below. he would love to know if this is of interest to you guys.

info@themattfinish.co.uk 07714310261
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8k7rbyrsib54i6m/AAC5zoM9UN-tzNwzSxRcFGqAa?dl=0

I was kindly asked by Tony to attend BMW Berrys Heathrow to give his recently acquired M140i a one-day new car protection detail. I have been used quite a few times by members on the forum to carry out detailing work to their new car before collection from Tony and after seeing the work it must have persuaded him to have the same service carried out.
I hear you say already, "its a new car why do I need to have a professional detailer carry out a package", this is because at the end of the purchase the majority of dealerships will try to upsell a protection package from many different companies, such as Guard X, Superguard, Lifeshine etc for a very high markup, when in fact the product costs no more than £20
What is not disclosed to you is generally the cars are normally well below the standard that a new cars condition should arrive in, and when the protection is applied via their valeters they are normally rushed and it seals in marks caused in transportation and the wash stage at the dealership. This will not give the protection that you were sold and described upon purchase. You cannot expect any product, no matter the name or price tag, to perform to a satisfactory standard if the preparation is carried out this way.

Moving on to the M140i, On arrival at the dealership the car was looking rather grubby from its journey into the UK and where it had been parked prior to my arrival. As with all the cars I detail at dealerships I have specific requirements that I ask the salesman to adhere to. These are that simply all the transportation film is left on the car exterior and interior (sometimes bits are removed for upgraded parts such as the msport kidney grills on some cars though Im always asked before hand) the most obvious one being that the car isnt washed or wiped as this lowers the risk of any unwanted swirls and damage.
The car then went through a thorough wash and decontamination of the paintwork and wheels. As you can see from the pictures there was plenty of iron fallout on this car, the red/purple runs is where the product is reacting and dissolving before safe removal. White is always a good colour to highlight how much contamination is present even on new vehicles.
After plenty of snowfoam, two bucket wash and claying the car was safely dried and moved around to the holding area and tucked away for me to work on.
Apart from a few areas such as the tail lights and gloss black trim the white m140i was in very good condition. Before any machine polishing is carried out safety checks are made so paint depth readings were taken just to ensure everything should be as it should. With a single stage machine polish, selected pad and polish, this removed the markings found and ramped the gloss and clarity levels up. With this the car was wiped down with an IPA based product to ensure no oils or filling properties were on the surface and would allow maximum bondage for the wax to safely settle on the clearcoat.
Two layers of Swissvax Shield PTFE wax was applied with a 2 hour gap in between layering. Interior protection mats and plastics were all removed and hoovered and dusted accordingly. Fabric mats and carpets were given 3 separate hits with Gtechniq I1 and the leather received a coat of Gtechniq L1.
The wheel faces were given two coats of a heat resistant wax with the tyres dressed with Zaino Z16 a water based dressing with zero sling. With that the engine bay was dressed with aerospace 303 and the glass clean.
 
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#2 ·
Haha love that you didn't get the whole detailing thing. The first thing I do when I detail a clients car is make them feel a nearby car and then feel theirs....the smooth silky gloss they get after a full days hard work and they are always amazed. Great read!
 
#4 ·
Morning

Many thanks for posting and even after all these years of going to all the dealerships with you Tony i know you still think I'm mad, really how long can one person spend with a car :lol2: :lol2:

Ive edited the link to the post so now everyone should be able to see it, tony might be worth copying this into the main post so people don't have to scroll down to far


Of course any questions feel free to ask away or drop me an email.

Feel free to have a look at whats involved in the process-
Matt
info@themattfinish.co.uk
 
#7 ·
Can I add my pennys worth here? Matt worked on my car before I picked it up. Again I didn't get all the hype until I started looking into it... Matt's work is simply awesome with customer service to match. My car is even on his IG feed [emoji1316]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#9 ·
HI Matt..... I'm new to this "detailing" world....up until now it's very much been £5 to the local car wash!....however: I've just ordered an M140i from Tony, collecting in March, and thought maybe I should look into exactly what it's all about....

It looks fantastic.....but obviously just a touch more expensive than those £5 car washes!....

a quick question....what sort of time do the effects of such a treatment last?..... I'll have a 200 mile journey back home and then clearly can't have this done each time....so how do you maintain the benefits of the work you'd do at the dealer upon collection, when back in the real world of owning the car?

Cheers,
Chris
 
#10 ·
Hi Chris,

Most are new to the detailing revolution that is sweeping around at the moment, and it is very interesting to see the expressions pulled when explaining why not to use the local £5 guys..

Congrats on the new purchase, there are various levels of protection that can be applied to paintwork, waxes generally last 4-7 months realistically, polymer sealants 12-18 months, ceramic coatings 2 years plus. All of this of cause with correct maintenance and trying to stay away from the local guys.

At the end of the detail and whichever package is chosen I hand over a shopping list of products that work and i would purchase to keep the car in the best condition along with a step by step guide to washing.

Feel free to give me a call on 07714310261 to talk over bits and help you decide which package to go down. My best advice is don't worry about the drive home, your be enjoying the car to much to worry anyway, though the protection applied is where the money is well spent. The idea of a detailed car is to protect the surface and for dirt/grime etc to not bond to the surface allowing for easier washing.

Look forward to chatting more soon

Matt :D

ChrisGJ said:
HI Matt..... I'm new to this "detailing" world....up until now it's very much been £5 to the local car wash!....however: I've just ordered an M140i from Tony, collecting in March, and thought maybe I should look into exactly what it's all about....

It looks fantastic.....but obviously just a touch more expensive than those £5 car washes!....

a quick question....what sort of time do the effects of such a treatment last?..... I'll have a 200 mile journey back home and then clearly can't have this done each time....so how do you maintain the benefits of the work you'd do at the dealer upon collection, when back in the real world of owning the car?

Cheers,
Chris
 
#11 ·
Thanks Matt. Appreciate the info. I'll give u a call. It's a long time until March but quite fancy looking into this more.

My only concern is I know I won't be out there washing it all day on a Sunday! (i.e it might get those £5 washes again!)....but it seems that is required to keep the benefits for longer?

Cheers
Chris
 
#12 ·
You can always pick my brains on information. I would estimate that until the wax needs topping up, if your maintaining it yourself and no £5 car washes it will take around 2-3 hours maximum to maintain.

Taking a car to the £5 car washes would half the rate of durability especially on a wax where the products used are very harmful. Ive recently had a customer who chanced it 3 weeks after his new car with a £10 job as he was running late and didn't want to drive with a dirty car.

He parked up that evening to fill the tank with fuel and under the fuel court lights could see horrendous markings. He came in this week to have it looked at and is now in for a correction detail in January due to the damage. I would therefore strongly always advise people to avoid them like the plague

Even though we have some distance till March, Im currently booking fast for those dates and with the rush at the dealership Tony may advise to delay by a week to allow me the space and time to work on the cars that are wanting the special touch.

Im in the unit all day tomorrow on a rs so ill happily take a call, i would say tonight however the headphones are now going on with a can of red bull and machine away at this beast.

Matt

ChrisGJ said:
Thanks Matt. Appreciate the info. I'll give u a call. It's a long time until March but quite fancy looking into this more.

My only concern is I know I won't be out there washing it all day on a Sunday! (i.e it might get those £5 washes again!)....but it seems that is required to keep the benefits for longer?

Cheers
Chris
 
#13 ·
Afternoon Guys..

Very fast moving start to 2017 so haven't been on social media or able to get on any forums so I hope you all had a lovely festive period.

Thank you for all the emails that have been dropping in the past few weeks many people now are looking forward to pick ups in the new plate month of March.

Now a little insight from behind the scenes, I'm afraid i won't be able to do any details on site at Heathrow for the first week of March due to the large amount of cars that Tony and the Berrys team are handing over that week. Tony will confirm that I'm a nightmare and due to need all the available space it was decided to not do any in the first week. This has made a slight back log of cars and availability is fast filling up so anyone who is interested needs to raise their hands quickly yo avoid disappointment.

Also after chatting to many of you on the phone, it has come to light that a few of my emails are landing in peoples junk/spam boxes. I do apologise about this and the man who does everything technical for me is looking at options to solve this. In the mean time if you have emailed me and the reply hasn't landed back in the inbox please have a check in the spam/junk folder.

Of course any questions feel free to email me on info@themattfinish.co.uk or give me a call on 07714310261

Matt :thumbs:
 
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