Car body protection

[thomvic]

I Had my last car given the full Supagard treatment when I bought it at two years old and it was brilliant. Made the need for cleaning, inside and out, far less frequent and much easier. The treatment though was expensive - about £300 as I recall including the after-care kit.
I'm just about to get another car but am reluctant to pay the extra for the Supagard treatment this time. The "professional" kit can be bought for about £70 as a DIY project. Has anyone any experience of doing the job themselves with Supagard or Autoglym HD or similar? Any advice will be much appreciated.

Richard

 

[pip1954]

hi my son used to do car valeting working for his self at a big brand name, he used to laugh at people who used to have it done as they buy the kits for about £2-00 a can.
he used aerosols and just sprayed it on. he did my and took him about half and hour
pip

 

[thomvic]

Hi Pip I'd be interested to know what your son used. It was clearly something other than Supagard. I watched the Supagard agent do mine in my drive. The exterior was first washed then cleaned by hand with a degreasing agent and then finished with an application of Supagard wax (or lacquer) by hand and polished by hand. The interior though was sprayed. The whole job took nearly four hours.

Richard

 

[Lons]

Hi Richard

I agree with Pip. It's one of the biggest rip offs in the car industry.

First came to my attention years ago when they "threw in a £250 Diamondbrite on my wifes new Clio, i persuaded them to do my Omega estate as well and watched them do it.
Took them about an hour to do both cars and still had stuff left over. Diamondbrite is one of the 2 part systems whereas Autoglym and others are 1 part but both do a similar job. Only recently, a friend who is a senior manager with one of the big mulifranchises admitted (after a few drinks) that they make a fortune from it.

A £70 kit is still rediculous!
What I did was buy some diamondbrite from ebay for about a fiver and tested it on the van then did my BMW and wifes Mini. Excellent so I bought more for the future and people I talked to asked if I could get it for them. I bought a dozen "kits" and a further discount and sold them on for £15 a go. 2 more Minis another BM and an Audi A6 plus another van later and I have one bottle of each left.

Takes me about 2 hours for the A6 and an hour for the mini but I do it very thoroughly. Excellent results though I still wax the cars on top about once a month. I got a huge discount on my current car and still managed more than £1000 over top book on my trade in as the paint was so good.

Autoglym is pretty good btw and I've seen it in JTF wholesaler for about £6 +vat though it's pretty cheap on ebay. The guy I bought from isn't selling any at the minute so shop around but be aware there are some fakes being sold as well.

Just had a very quick look and here's a full kit at a very good price http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jewelultra-Di ... 1e738802b7

And Supaguard - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SUPAGUARD-PRO ... 3cc3a5506d

Note they often don't sent the box ( cos it's spare after ripping off the customer by doing 2 or 3 cars with 1 kit).
cheers
Bob

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Honest John in the Saturday Telegraph motoring supplement always reccommends Autoglym.
Just a statement - I have no connection!

 

[thomvic]

Thanks for the comments and advice Gents. I will certainly be doing the job myself after "listening" to you. I don't know which product I shall use yet but I'll let you know in due course.

Richard

 

[Dodge]

Several of my friends rave abour Armorall Shield - A manually applied finish like wax but once applied its as slippery as hell and nothing sticks to it. It is then re-invigorated when the car is washed again

http://www.whiteheads.biz/armor-all-shi ... 1156-p.asp

Havn't used it myself but have heard many compliments about it