Well said!! I also own my own detailing business and perform such concours level details.

As you stated, once a car is machine polished to perfection, the results are permanent....as long as the paint is cared for properly.

A concours level detail performed by a highly trained professional produces comparable results to a full factory repaint...at a fraction of the cost. A full repaint of an exotic car can seriously diminish it's value; a concours detail will not.

There is a new product that has arrived here from Japan call Gzox. From waht I know it is only available here in Scottsdale, AZ. It is basically a glass coating that they apply to the car and it does not melt until upwards of 600 degrees. They do the buffing and removing of all scratches before applying the coating. I had it done to my Gallardo and it looks incredible. Almost like a mirror on the finish. It is especially goods for darker cars. My borthers black 07 Prosche looks phenomenal. Better than new! It is fairly cheap too. I had it done with a full 3M bra for $2500. Here's the site to check it out. It does the similar effect of the Vintage as far as the water running off.
http://www.glazcoat.com/

I'm not sure if this is spam or what but I've heard of thousands of such products. They use fancy descriptions and promise the world and inevitably under-deliver or are even worse than what's available at the local auto parts store. Forgive me for being a bit skeptical.

Regardless, it's not what you use but who is doing the work. A properly prepped car with no LSP (Last Step Product) will look infinitely better than a car with no prep at all and $30,000 Zymol Solaris. A beautiful polished car has another advantage. It will still look as good as the day it was performed a year later (provided it received proper maintenance). The Solaris would be gone between the end of months 1 and 2 (more if garaged).

Sorry if that sounded like a sales pitch!! These guys are definitely for real and do an incredible job.

OK. Since they do an incredible job, I have a couple questions:

1) Why don't they post their work on Autopia, Detailing World, or any of the other great detailing forums? If they do, please give me their username so I can view their work.

2) Do they examine their work with a halogen light, xenon light, or any kind of intense light designed to reveal imperfections in the paint (fluorescent light and general light doesn't perform well in this application)?

3) Do they use paint safe techniques? Do they employ the use of the two-bucket wash method? Do they use a grit guard? Do they use a sheepskin washmitt (the safe kind, not the auto parts store kind)? If not, what steps to they take to prevent swirls and other marring during the wash process?

4) Do they use claybar? If so, how do they ensure complete removal of embedded contaminants? What do they do in the event the clay drops on the ground? Is the claybar they use on the car clean, or full of contaminants?

5) Do they use separate pads for each step or do they apply compounds and polishes to the same pad? Do they perform multiple-step compounding or is all their work a single step (polish and pad)? Do they toss their pads in the garbage when they are worn or do they continue to use them?

6) When they apply protection to the car do they do it in full sun or in the shade? Is it from a Gallon container and a name you don't recognize, or is it from a reputable manufacturer? Do they use multi-steps for this task, or just apply the wax and go?

7) A few weeks down the road, does your vehicle appear to have regained swirl marks and other defects? If you have been washing your vehicle correctly (98% of the population does not), then there is a problem.

Geez man. Sorry for mentioning anything....obviously this is a sore spot with you! All I can say is that it has been 6 months and there is not a swirl mark or spot at all and it still looks like the day I got it back. Completely flawless. I've washed it several times as well. Same for other people I know who have done it.

that's OCD to another level. maybe worth the price of his intensive labour but c'mon it is going to get dirty in a few days anyway

That's outrageous for a car wash and wax. I would rather do it myself and save myself $9000. I wonder why people still go to him...

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