Do any of you know of a good detailer? In the past I've done it myself but lately I haven't had time. Took it to one guy who came highly recommended, but I wasn't happy with the job he did and don't know how to fix it. And now I'm paranoid about letting anyone else touch her.

Thanks in advance

 

I'll Zaino detail it for 200 bucks. Can come to your house. . Be warned though... I take my time. 5-6 hours.

 

:smile: Check out c3! We hold monthly detailing clinics and you will learn how to give your MINI a superb detailing!

http://www.c3club.org/


Clover
MMC#2

 

Yeah, c3 sessions are good too, loads of fun... and FREE!! They use that new NXT stuff which is very very good. .

 

Although he's getting out of the biz, you might be able to talk this guy into it.

http://www.autoexprs.com/

 

yep as Camelpilot and MINIClo mentioned, I teach the c3/Meguiars detailing clinics. What kind of problems did you have with your last detailer?

Our clinics are free (we just held our 7th clinic), and you get to work on your own car or even have the help of others if you want, or I can do it all for you. I spent about 4.5 hours on the hyperblue below because it had a lot of scratches that needed to be pulled out. We use only Meguiars products as they sponsor us and provide support, not to mention one of my dear friends works there.

We do ask for a small contribution to our charity/c3 organization to help offset the costs for food, etc.. from our clinics. But you can come to our clinic every month if you want to have a shiny swirl free MINI. Plus we offer special Meguiars discounts only to c3 members.

Some recent buff outs I did with my buddy Mike Phillips at Meguiars:







Turned this black MCS roof from:


To:


This:


To:



Our July clinic date hasn't been set yet or we can also arrange a weekend earlier if that's more convenient for you. c3 HQ is in Los Angeles, near LAX/Culver City/Marina del Rey.

Richard

 

If you had issues with a previous detailer and they left "issues" you will not be able to fix them with a zaino detail...lol and at $200 thats way way steep for that kind of detail job. I hope camel was clowning us with that price and offer.

I might do it for you, I recently sold my biz detailing cars, I had been doing it for 11 years. I am only doing select vehicles now.

If you are serious about getting it right Pm me and I will give you a number you can reach me at.

What city are you in?

 

Thanks for the plug !

 

hehe, I know the price was steep, but thats how much I would pay someone if they could do the job as good and as attentioned to detailed as me.
Alot of detailers I know always make swirl marks on cars because they treat it like it's just a car that needs detailing. They even think I'M crazy for not wanting swirl marks.... wtf???!!

But yeah, I didnt think that 200 bucks for 6 hours was unreasonable. I dont mean to rip anyone off. I have no reason to.

 

Actually $200 for 5 hours work isnt that bad. ( $40 per ) I usually get $50 - $100 per depending on what I am doing. First let me say that I completly respect your comitment to the 5 hours of detailing. Where I am coming from is that I can achieve a nearly flawless finish in less than 5 hours. If we are taking it to the level where I spend 5 hours it will be more than $200.

I may be doing a full wet sand on an older benz pretty soon, I will spend at least 2 days on it but it will be around $1000.

No disrespect intended whatsoever, just I have been doing this a long time and I know how to get results in a timely manner. And for the record I use 90% meguairs products and a little zaino :-) I am going to give their polish a try today. ( pc fusion ) I am always interested in seeing what the latest and greatest is.

 

I'd love to do that sometime when my schedule calms down. Thanks for the info

 

Octane guy, you asked, "What kind of problems did you have with your last detailer?"

He clayed and waxed the car and used a ROB in areas where the cat had left some scratches. I'm not sure where things went wrong, but I see some strange swirly marks that were never there before, and marks sort of like spider webs that I hadn't noticed before. I will try to post a pic.






So these are the sort of marks and scratches I'd like to get rid of.

btw, the pictures you posted are gorgeous

 

Yeah I can see what's up with that. I can definitely make that better (i.e. remove those swirls). I will need to take a personal look at it to be absolutely sure--to see how deep those swirls are--but looks like this detailer wasn't all that experienced.

The MCS with the black roof that I showed below had lots of cat prints and scratches there. Entirely up to you if you want to hire a pro like Detlman or Camelpilot or come to one of our clinics where you can not only restore your finish, but learn how to do it yourself next time. All the tools we use are very safe and our participants always leave with enough knowledge to continue doing it themselves, or just come next month for another free full detail. Of course once your paint has been properly prepped, you won't need as much maintenance unless your MINI isn't garaged and gets a lot of dirt on it on a daily basis.

Thanks for the complements on the pix. My buddy Mike Phillips is a super friend, an expert, my teacher and the guy who answers the questions and teaches the detailing clinics at Meguiars, and we've been working on a series of detailing videos together. This experience comes right back out to my students!

Although he's the one in front of the camera--off camera-- we usually tackle the cars 50/50--he does one side and I do the other. Plus I've detailed probably over 70 MINIs in the past 9 months just from the clinics I've held.

I'm not a pro, but a serious detailing enthusiast who learns fast, and I've been exposed to a wide variety of cars in a fairly short period of time (2 years). I'd be glad to take a look at your car in person and show you how we can improve things right away. PM me with a weekend that you're available and I can make time, or we can do it our next clinic in July. Either way is fine by me.

Richard

 

rwd, I was at the c3 clinic a couple of weeks ago, and can highly reccommend it. Not only do you get an excellent detail (for free), you get to hang out with some really cool people.

 

OctaneGuy and Detlman, I'm thinking about trying THIS for a rock chip on my roof, is it doable or should I leave it to the pros (you guys).

Hope I didn't hijack the thread...

 

CamelPilot
Thanks for the nice words! Yesterday, one of our newest members was telling me the reason why she preferred c3 over other MINI clubs, and that's exactly what she said. And you met her at the last clinic.

Xman
Wetsanding isn't something I've ever done on my MINI. I've seen the pros do it, and they make it look easy, but I'm just really not comfortable doing this on my own car. I might try it on a rental or some other non important car first. In the same way, the pros make using a rotary buffer look really easy too--but in the hands of an inexperienced person, you can burn right through your paint in a few seconds and do a lot of damage.

I've tried another chip repair product that I forget the name right now [edited: LANGKA], but involves putting a big glob of paint over the chip, letting it set for several days to weeks, then coming back over it with a cloth and a plastic squeegee with this product to level it out. When done right, the chip can't be seen anymore. I've had limited success with it. Their website showing a pre teen globbing on paint to me is misleading, because that girl isn't removing the glob--she's just doing the easy part of filling the holes back in. I'll have to go find that product in my garage today--unless someone else posts it here.

While it's not something I recommend (because I put a lot of scratches in my paint trying to learn how to use it), personally I'd feel safer over wet sanding.

To this day, I have lots of chips that I'm afraid to repair.

FWIW, even the pro detailers think it's a huge pain to repair rock chips, atleast I know Mike Phillips feels that way!

Richard

 

And the results are usually marginal at best. I dont touch up th echips onmy own car for that very reason.

 

Hey OctaneGuy "Richard"
When is the next detailing clinics at the C3???????

 

Richard, Mike, thanks a lot for your feedback.

 

I am very interested in the next detail clinic. Please let me know when it will be. Thank you.

 

Hey AC_MINI and Bar10girl,

Seems c3 has a bunch of stuff going on this month already, so our next clinic will be in August. Keep an eye out in the c3 Club forum here on NAM, the SoCal area, or http://c3club.org

Bar10girl---PM your email address so you can get notified.

Thanks!

Richard

 

I have been going to George's Auto Detailing for over 25 years for handwashing and detailing. His handwash is basically a mini (no pun intended) detailing. Call him and set up an appointment. Mention that I sent you. You will not be dissapointed.

Phone: 310 231 1933 - ask for George

 

I forgot to mention, that while c3 may not be holding a group clinic this month, I'm still game for hanging out with a few MINI friends and just detailing/cleaning our cars. While detailing 20 MINI's is fun, just focusing on 1 or 2 is just as much fun --PM me if any particular weekend works for you and we can arrange something.

This goes for AC_MINI, Bar10girl, rwd, or anyone else.

Richard

 

Love to be there on the weekend but have to work. Don't you have anything going on on Wed or Thur............... Maybe on Juyl 13 or 14.............

 

July 13 is bad---I got Wednesdays reserved for my video shoots. July 14 is a possibility, but being mid week--isn't something that impresses the wife!! LOL. Let me confirm that date.