Paintwork Protection

[rocker4500]

Whats the thoughts on paintwork protection products like supagard and that? I was thinking of applying something to the car to attempot to protect the paint work. Does any of it work.make a difference and what would you suggest?

Cheers
Gary

[ianking]

None of it works. I used to apply several different brands when I was a valeter. 6 months if you are lucky later its all worn off. There are quality waxes for less money which last longer and give a deeper shine.

Remember though that a quality finish is all in the prep work. You will need to have a nice smooth scratch free surface. No point in waxing over all the surface defects.

[AndyP & Lenore]

Gary we Jewelultra Diamondbrite paint protection on our blue MINI. For the red MINI I wanted a project to work on and pamper so we didn't get anything applied to that. I polish and wax the red MINI.

Supaguard is cr@p, in my humble opinion. We had it on the silver Cooper and also on our Merc ML. We stripped it off the ML and had Diamondbrite applied.

In my opinion, Diamondbrite is a cracking product - providing you keep to the monthly conserver wash routine. Although I know almost everyone will disagree with me on this.

With Diamondbrite you wash the car as often as you like - weekly is reccomended as a minimum. And once a month you MUST wash the car over with a solution you buy from Diamondbrite. This replenishes the diamondbrite coating on the car and is required if you were to make a claim against their paint protection guarantee. The dealer dealing with the claim can check to see if the monthly coating is being used or not - so beware.

The simple fact is, once both cars have been washed and treated to either wax or the conserver, there is very little difference in beading quality, shine or smoothness of paint.

You should NOT wax a car with diamondbrite protection on it. And you should use shampoo with no waxes in the solution. Halfords basic car shampoo is ok, but we just buy the diamondbrite stuff anyway.

I've no doubt folk will be on here any minute to shout at how the diamondbrite is a dealer rip-off and the £200 odd cost is a waste of money. However, since I bought the red MINI, I've spent over £300 on waxes, polishes, and other treatments for it. Diamondbrite would have been cheaper, easier, but much less satisfying and fun.

If you want any more info, feel free to give me a shout.

A.:thumbs up:

[AndyP & Lenore]

None of it works.

Sorry Ian, but that is completely, utterly and totally untrue. Perhaps in your experience, but certainly not in mine.

A.

[rocker4500]

Very interesting, its something that i was considering and i will certainly look into the Diamondbrite :thumbs up:

Cheers for the info :thumbs up:

Gary

[ianking]

Andy I would have to dissagree with you there my son.
Remember that I worked in a garage as a valeter for for 4 years and have been a keen enthusiast of detailing for some time and charging out for my efforts with many happy punters.
'You are young and you will learn, the force is strong with you young Poole':thumbs up:

Superguard is pants. Autosmart gold kit is pants. Autoglym life shine is slightly better and diamondbrite is prob the best but I still dont think they last anywhere near like the time its meant to. Dealers make soooo much money from selling this stuff. As do independant valeting firms. I know the cost price of these kits. We used to get cars traded in that were 2 years old that had the dealers certificate in them and you could see where the treatment had started to strip off and was blotchy.

Any person would be better buying a decent tub of wax, even a £50 tub and re-waxing the car every 4 months or so which doesnt take long and they will get a better finish.

the garage I used to work in doesnt even sell the stuff anymore as they all knew it was pants and would rather just be honest with the customer.

[euan]

It came on my last car as a freebie, and it's done a not bad job in that time, the paint is certainly in better nick than on my previous 3 series after the same time.

In saying that, it's been over a year and the stuff you get given to put on every 6 months is MUCH harder work than anything I've got in the garage that I use on the wife's Polo.

As it was free, I'm happy enough with it - the car certainly looks good with less effort. But if I was paying out 300 quid for this stuff, I'd rather give it to a professional every now and again to keep the car in top nick.

Just my view though!

[AndyP & Lenore]

Ian, I know you're a keen valeter and worked as a valeter for a dodgy back-street dealer for a while:moonie:, but I speak from my own experience:computer:. That said, the longest we ever had a car with diamondbrite on would be 2 years. By the time we traded it, it was as good as new. BUT! We religiously kept to the monthly treatment programme.:thumbs up:

I would imagine if folk don't keep to the monthly treatment programme with diamondbrite it would all go pants within a few months and would be money wasted. Supaguard is money wasted anyway. Full stop.:argh:

A.:D

[ianking]

Yes completely agree with you on Superguard Andy. Its pants.

You have followed the instructions to the book but I feel you are in the minority when it comes to this type of product.
The point I am trying to get across though is that most folk that buy this stuff are not into cleaning the car. Hence they hear the words from the salesman 'you dont need to wax the car etc' and they go for it. They are hardly the type of people to hand wash the car religiously and use the correct wash solution. Therefore product is wasted.

You like to keep your car nice and im sure 'rocker' does as well. Therefore why not spend less money on a quality wax and even just every 6 months give another coat of wax and im pretty convinced that the finish will be better. :smilewinkgrin:

[Scottie]

I thought the auto glym stuff on my A3 was good and you can satisfy your detailing bug buy keeping the car good using all their other products.

Not that I would pay to put it on the car it was a free.