[Jimbo]

Hi all,

Just had the full paintwork treatment on my Sapphire Black 335d Coupe, including swirl marks and scratches removed, Zymol Vintage, etc. - All done by Simon Belli of Prestige Detailing.

Have to say, this is the first time I’ve ever had anything like this done to a car (normally do all the polishing, etc. myself) but, the swirl-marks were beyond my skills, so I decided to bite the bullet and get a professional to sort it out, and all I can say is the difference is absolutely amazing!

The problem started a couple of days after I collected the car on the 1st March. Under cloudy skies it looked ok, but when I saw it in bright sunlight for the first time, - I was horrified, it was covered in swirl marks and light scratches and looked a real mess.

Now, whether the scratches and swirls were down to me, or whether they were caused by poor dealer prep is hard to say, unfortunately I had polished the car the first day I had it, so I have no way of telling if it was me or the dealer, but I am pretty careful so I suspect it was largely down to the initial prep (Not an uncommon problem with BMW’s as I understand ).

It’s strange how in an instant you can go from loving a car to hating it just because it’s flawed!

So, I contacted Prestige Detailing, discussed the problem and arranged a visit. Trust me, handing over your pride and joy to a complete stranger with a machine polisher is a difficult thing to do! But, I needn’t have worried, Simon arrived as planned, was extremely professional and worked carefully on my car for 2 days solid (21 hours!) starting at 8:15am and finishing at 7:00pm each day. He did the full treatment including wash, clay, paintwork correction (machine polishing), HD cleanse and Zymol Vintage wax and handed me back a stunning looking car.

If any of you are looking for this kind of service in the future I would thoroughly recommend Simon, he travels all over the country and does a stunning job. I’ve attached a couple of photos, but they really don’t do any justice to the car.

One final comment, I had originally arranged for Paul Dalton of Miracle Detail to do the work, primarily because he has a fairly good and well publicised reputation (although he is ludicrously expensive). Unfortunately, customer commitment doesn’t seem to be part of his remit as he cancelled my appointment four times, each time with a pretty flimsy excuse. Maybe BMW’s just aren’t good enough for his ‘talents’? Who knows. Anyway, as a result, I contacted Simon Belli at Prestige and am very glad I did.

[rjs]

that is a seriously clean car!

[gordonrp]

looking good! black is certainly a pain in the ass to keep looking good, but looks great when its is...

[Z4 Beemer]

Black really does make the car look amazing when clean.

[squeezebm]

And the cost?

[Jimbo]

Originally Posted by squeezebm

And the cost?

The cost was £400. A lot of money to have your car cleaned and polished I suppose, but when you consider it involved about 21 hours graft (75% of which was paintwork correction to remove all the scratches etc) then I'd say it was pretty good value.

Cheers,
Jimbo

[NPDAN]

Love it....

[Trigger2007]

What sort of area do these guys operate in?

I am thinking of having my new car valeted / detailed on a 3 month basis, anyone recommend any good people up in the North West - Liverpool area?

[squeezebm]

Jimbo,thinking thats quite reasonable mate as you car looks did they say anything about how often will need to be done?

[silverbmwz3]

I thought the miracle detail guy is 75 quid an hour so on that basis the work you had done would have been £1575 from him unless I'm mistaken? For that kind of effort doesn't seem half bad to me...what would a plumber charge for that many hours?!

[Z4 Beemer]

That seems reasonable to me, as you say, given the work you have had done.

I have applied Swissol wax only to the bonnet, front bumper, roof and boot lid at the moment. As you say its very time consuming, but hopefully next time the weather is good and I have a day off work, I'll wash the car and wax the rest of it.

[Jimbo]

Originally Posted by squeezebm

Jimbo,thinking thats quite reasonable mate as you car looks did they say anything about how often will need to be done?

Simon at Prestige Detailing suggested I have a clean and re-wax (or 'top-up' as he calls it) every 6 months. I believe Simon charges about £100 for this service based on using Zymol Vintage wax.

Cheers.

[Jimbo]

Originally Posted by silverbmwz3

I thought the miracle detail guy is 75 quid an hour so on that basis the work you had done would have been £1575 from him unless I'm mistaken? For that kind of effort doesn't seem half bad to me...what would a plumber charge for that many hours?!

Yep, he charges around £75/hr - scary eh? Of course, that's assuming he turns up in the first place and doesn't keep cancelling the appointments......

[E92-Mark]

Black Sapphire looks awesome when its clean. Worth the money if you are happy with the result.

[NPinUK]

You might want to consider getting a portar cable polisher and doing the detailing process yourself you will get simular results. You will end up getting few light scratches in the process of washing your car its unavoidable. I had same problem few months after i got my car, cant see them on a cloudy day but when the sun hits the car they appear. All the eqipment will cost less then £400 and you have the freedom of using it when ever