Hello everyone.
I have been thinking about taking my car to get detailed at some time in the near future. I have numerous rock chips, some scrapes, and one or two scrapes under the front bumper. Would getting my car detailed fix these imperfections? Also, I live right outside of New York City in NJ. I am planning to store my car in the garage from December to February give or take a few weeks at either end depending on weather. So when would the best time to get my car detailed? In November/December right before I put the car away or in March/April after I take the car out from Winter storage?

 

do you have photos of the issues on the car that you would like addressed?

timing on your detail it can be any time just depends on what works best for you.

 

Personally, I would get it detailed when you're ready to drive it. No reason to spend hundreds while it collects dust.

Second, scrapes under the front bumper, no. Rock chips, no. These are considered permanent damage. Detailing will take out some minor surface scratches and the luster back to your paint. It cannot fix what is already too far damaged. If you can feel the scratch with your finger nail, its highly unlikely it will come out. Now you could request they wet sand out the deeper scratches, but this will cost you more money. It's going to depend on how much money you want to spend. This photo below is a good example. I just detailed this over the weekend. You see the paint is extremely shiny, but if you look closely there is still a lot of rock chips on the front end. Most of the time these chips are filled in with dirt, and polishing removes the dirt exposing the chips again. not the end of the world because its a major improvement from what it looked like before.

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[attachment=84877:IMG_2960.JPG]

 

I would do it now, or before storage to ensure a protective coat on the paint. Get an OEM cover, which is basically a dust cove, when you store it and you'll be fine.

You live close enough to this forum's sponsor, Phil at Detailers Domain. If your paint is damaged, but can be fixed, he would be the person to see. He is a magician. His shop is in Norwood, NJ. He has a number of threads here on S2K showing his work. You can also check out detailingbliss.com to see his work.