Discuss technical questions about repairing, modifying, protecting your vehicles. Also tips on spare parts and accessories and where to best find them....
Guys where do you take your vehicle for detailing?
ive used sara auto care in the past but their rates seem to be going up (800dhs for a saloon car which is not black)and since they are still getting plenty of customers their quality has gone down.
what are the cheaper professional alternatives? i know of proshine but dont know their rates, then there is x service center, the 3m place, yellowhat.
has anyone used any of the above?
do they all clay, polish, wax the car? cause the cheaper places sometimes just polishes and use cheap wax. how well do they clean the interiors?
I can confirm the one next to Lulu in Barsha does polishing and waxing - I checked with them a year ago and their prices were reasonable,,, I think! Can't remember now how much they'd quoted me.
anyone uses clay here or not? I want to remove swirl marks I have on mine last time I spent 6 hours to do the Megularis 3 step thingy but cant do that again
you cannot remove swirl marks with a claybar you need to polish it out. id suggest you take it to a vehicle detailing shop. yellowhat, sara auto are 2 that i know of.
I would give Zain Car Cleaning a try - they can be reached on 056 125 1856. I haved tried Yellow Hat and Proshine before and in fairness these guys do a much more thorough job. I think they do a lot of the showroom business in Dubai and have recently started doing private work and hence have a high standard of work. I know that they only use Meguiars products unlikes some of the others out there + they are cheaper than Sara/Yellow Hat/Proshine. I used them a month back and got charged 450 Dhs for the full works = a full internal/upholstery clean/shampoo + external wax/polish buffing + engine steam wash. They also provide a very useful pick up and drop off service for I think an additional 50 Dhs.
Also as some of the questions pertained to this - they do specialist work as well i.e. removing surface scratches, swirls, etc and will use products like clay bar to get out bonded contaminants at extra cost if your car needs it. Found these guys really good and well versed in car detailing. Would highly recommend!
I would refer "FINAL TOUCH AUTO DETAILS" for all your detailing needs.. They give your vehicle same day. They are fantastic. Its located near to Emirates malll, opp to Kinara Warehouse. You can contact them on 04-3404455.
For complete Interior cleaning, Emarat petrol station next to Al Twar Center in Qusais. 350 for a full size SUV. They would take out the seats and carpets and wash and dry them, wash the interior, i.e roof, door trim, dash board etc. and then refit everything. Plus a stem wash for teh whole car.
@ Final Touch they are charging around 700 dhs for full detailing incl polishing, waxing, cleaning (int & ext), engine dry clean. Servcices offered by them are recommendable.. try them..
I recently tried Zain for my TT as i read quite a bit about these people. They charged me AED500 for a 2 door sport coupe and believe me their job wasn't as good as the number of recommendations that i had read about them. Firstly, the price was too high for a tinky sports car and secondly, i got the front bumper pasted with a filler and then repainted. Then charged me AED450 for the bumper and these buggers didn't even bother removing it and repainting the whole thing! they just sprayed a section that had cracked and that's it! Moreover, their paint job was not as "professinal" as they claim to be ... i could easily spot a few small bubbles here and there. I would like to praise the engine detailing that they did ... did a pretty good job on that section .... that's after i did a surprise visit and found these guys had not removed the engine cover and they were scrubbing the engine cover and not the engine itself! so much for "engine degreasing". i don't like it when i have to tell people what they have to do and that itself when they are supposed to be trained for the job. A big let down for me when i encounter such a service ...
Bottom line for Zain's Detailing: Engine was good (7.5/10) Exterior was plain Good, no swirl marks thank you (6/10) Interior was just average as i could still spot a few dirt marks on the roof. Plus the leather seats weren't 'creamed' i think so they lost their touch. I had to wipe the cream myself. (5/10)
Paint job: Below average (4/10). Sara Auto is faaar more better in denting/paint jobs (got my 2008 320 panel done and i couldn't make out the difference).
I usually get my car fully detailed in Sharjah ... its this one shop which i trust ... called Mo'tamid. Just near AbuShaghara park ... For the past 2 years i changed like 10 cars (hobby) and i got most of them done at this place. Including my dad's Prado 2005, which came out like new ... this guy does an excellent job inside out and he is like 40% cheaper than all these big names like Zain and Sara Auto ... though you cannot compare Sara Auto as he is in a different league i have to say. Pretty good is you have the dough to dish out ....
Once upon a time: 06 Lumina SS | 06 Audi TT | 06 Audi RS4 | 06 BMW Z4 3.0si | 06 Porsche Cayman S | 07 BMW Z4 2.5si