BBQduck

Hi all,

I bought my S2k late last year and intend to do a bit of tracking with her, already been on the skid pan and really enjoyed it (not as tail happy as I would have thought).

I'm thinking to protect the paint a bit more, the main telltale signs being stone chips on the bumper and on the lower sides panels. It is a fairly old car (53 plate) with soft paint and I would rate the paint condition about 7/10, small paint chips here and there with light to medium swirls everywhere. I intend to fix them up myself or with a pro in due course as I'm a detailing enthusiast.

I am also contemplating on coating it like with Ceramic Pro or using PPF perhaps at the front and sides as I would like to preserve the original paint as much as possible. My drawback is that I'm not sure if it's worth doing either of those options as they're not cheap (relatively to the car's worth) but I do love my racing as well as protecting my car.

Any recommendations or opinions welcome
Thanks in advance.

Richie2garage

I've had mine done , the detailed got rid of every swirl and scratch , protected it and looks awesome. Washed at the weekend for the first time in about 9 months and the dirt just falls off it.ill post some pics when I get round to it

Nottm_S2

You could apply protection wrap maybe?

if its really pricey just keep the cash for paint

wat_der

Interested, in for pics

Bodyboarder1981

...... I've also had mine paint corrected and ceramic coated and it is really good ..... however if you like to wash your car on a regular basis then you will end up putting swirl marks back on to it . I'm pretty particularl about the washing process ( light jet wash , snow foam, 2 bucket method , pure water rinse off ) and yet the car has still picked up loads of light swirl mark again . I believe it to be very soft paint and even with the ceramic coating it suffers . So in light of this I would probably save your money and use wax with a view of polishing every year .

BBQduck

Yes please post your pics. Are you finding the below as well?

Wow thanks for the info, that's really surprising. Will ask a ceramic pro applicator if that's what expected. Would you know how to fix the new scratches on the coating? Heard it's a tough job since the coat is perhaps too hard for the typical poilishing job?

Richie2garage

I use the two bucket method snow foam etc , found the wife's black car shows some swirls but when I cleaned the S this weekend and realised I hadn't washed it since I had it detailed last sept! It is garaged btw. Think the swirls are more down to my technique as oppose to the quality of the paint and the ceramic process. The man I used was brcardetailing.co.uk in Colchester near to my work. Check his work out and a really nice guy to work with. He has customers from all over the country book in with him.
try this video he posted of mine , more pics available on his FB site on 12th sept 16

Richie2garage

And some pictures

BBQduck

Awesome! Thanks for sharing, your car looks mint!
Unfortunately just slightly too far for me, I'm based in London. I'll try to decide which direction I'll go hopefully before my next track day

Richie2garage

Thanks, it's not bad for 16 years old! There are probably detailers nearer to you with good reviews.Im really happy with his work, Its not the sort of thing you fork out for regularly but imo well worth it and far better than the garage auto glym sales pitch, my year old DD is booked in for August, looking forward to getting it back to better than new.