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.
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.