NoVA detailer...highly recommended...w pics

hey guys,
just want to highly recommend a detailer i used this past weekend. this guy is good. i mean, i've seen some cars that were detailed...and they were as smooth as butter, but you could still see swirl marks and stuff. not with this guy. smooth as butter results without the swirl marks (any marks left he said he didn't want to take out cuz it would take off too much clear coat...basically the scratch was too deep).
anyway, i got the exterior and interior done. leather feels good again. here are some pics....
btw, i got the car detailed, then drove up to northern jersey that night. so these pics were the next day after a long trip...

exterior....








My hood had the most swirl marks and defects...








obligatory reflection shots....




interior...




engine bay (yup, he even cleaned the engine bay a little bit...trust me, it was much dirtier before)


final:


this guy took 10 hours to finish my car (including lunch and dinner). a LONG time, but i rather he took a long time and did a good job than rush to finish. i did a spot visit (thinking he'd be done) and saw that he had certain areas taped off, had a headpiece with an LED light on it, had my plates off...i mean, it was very professional. even my trunk was immaculate (it was dirty as hell before since i had my stock suspension parts rolling around in there). and as you saw in the pics, he even cleaned up my engine bay a bit.
i would HIGHLY recommend him. this is his job. not a hobby. AND he's mobile.
only downside i would say is the amount of time it took. but i, personally, do not find it a downside, really.
anyway, the guy's name is Thomas and he works under New Shine Detailing - Fairfax Va.
PM me if you want more info.

wow she looks good glad you are pleased!

(i think i have a before shot, of your swirl marks at the last Rockville meet, haha)

Originally Posted by simsima325

wow she looks good glad you are pleased!

(i think i have a before shot, of your swirl marks at the last Rockville meet, haha)

hey brendan.
nice...well, then i guess you can attest to the before and after results...

how much?

Originally Posted by 3rd_collective

how much?

if you ask the guy how much he'll tell you that he has to see the car before he can give you a quote (which makes sense to me). anyway, he told me that detailing exterior and interior may be in the $350-400 range. after seeing the car, he told me that it'll be $300. first off, i think $300 isn't too bad for both exterior and interior since i've seen many places charge $200+ for just the exterior (at least the places i've checked...unless i've been checking all the places that are trying to rip me off ). second, he actually went down on his quoted estimated which leads me to believe he's pretty honest...imo at least comments?

Looks great! Little pricey though.

That does seem a bit high. What products did he use on the car? Detailed by hand, or with an orbital buffer?

$300 seems excessive but it looks nice

is that Thomas Dekany or whatever.. I heard good things about his work

Price is about right, but maybe a little high for his quality of work. I used to detail cars though and it would take me the better part of a day and a half... but I did way more than this guy. For that price, not only should the paint and surfaces be reconditioned, but the entire car should be IMMACULATE. If you look in the ///M side grills, you can see that he didn't detail in between those. And when I would charge $250 for a full car, that would include an entire engine bay detailing including a wax of the engine bay painted surfaces. From what I've seen in the area and the type of work done... I've been thinking about starting up my business again. Only problem is that being a one man job, if you want it done RIGHT, it would take more than 10 hours to complete...

I wish I had of taken photos of the cars I have done in the past. I wasn't working on new cars... I mean one car was an 85' Toyota Camry station wagon, and when I was done, it was like factory new. I'm not impressed with detailers who post pictures of newer cars, because there simply is not as much wear and tear on a model year 2000+ car as a 15+ year old station wagon that is used for hauling kids around all day. One project was almost a borderline restoration project with the amount of work invovled, and it took me 2 full days to complete!

wow that is some good detailing a little expensive for my taste as well but nice. What product do you guys use for your businesses? I want to start my own detailing business as well. =)

niice he did a really good job on the rims too.

Originally Posted by simsima325

That does seem a bit high. What products did he use on the car? Detailed by hand, or with an orbital buffer?

hmm, i thought it was a fair price in the area...but i couldn't say that i asked A LOT of places for estimates. also, this was a quote for MY car. it may be cheaper for someone else's. i can tell you that i had a good amount of swirl marks and bigger scratches even. i'm not sure what products he uses...maybe he can tell you...but i'm pretty sure it's top quality stuff, from what i hear. i think he was detailing both by hand and orbital.

Originally Posted by budman

is that Thomas Dekany or whatever.. I heard good things about his work

yes, he's the guy.

Originally Posted by Lugnut2683

Price is about right, but maybe a little high for his quality of work. I used to detail cars though and it would take me the better part of a day and a half... but I did way more than this guy. For that price, not only should the paint and surfaces be reconditioned, but the entire car should be IMMACULATE. If you look in the ///M side grills, you can see that he didn't detail in between those. And when I would charge $250 for a full car, that would include an entire engine bay detailing including a wax of the engine bay painted surfaces. From what I've seen in the area and the type of work done... I've been thinking about starting up my business again. Only problem is that being a one man job, if you want it done RIGHT, it would take more than 10 hours to complete...

I wish I had of taken photos of the cars I have done in the past. I wasn't working on new cars... I mean one car was an 85' Toyota Camry station wagon, and when I was done, it was like factory new. I'm not impressed with detailers who post pictures of newer cars, because there simply is not as much wear and tear on a model year 2000+ car as a 15+ year old station wagon that is used for hauling kids around all day. One project was almost a borderline restoration project with the amount of work invovled, and it took me 2 full days to complete!

well, i wouldn't necessarily say he didn't do a lot or his quality is not good enough. i think his job will last a good amount of time...imo. and i think he did have some older cars that he took pics of, that were pretty impressive. he spends a lot of time making sure that he doesn't remove too much of the clear coat layer, which some other places tend to do. the M gill is a bit dirty, i guess. but, in his defense, i did take these pics after driving up to n.jersey. not sure if it would get dirty from the drive up, but maybe a little of it is from that... i've never checked how dirty that area gets from a drive (before and after) so i couldn't tell you.
it'd be cool if you did open up your own business. i'd like to see your work. since i haven't heard of your work, i guess i had to go with the next best person, i guess... . thing with this guy is that he'll take the time to tell you how to detail properly and how to take care of your car and stuff. he'll show you how to do things, almost like a tutorial. so, he's very "giving" i guess you could say. he won't try to steal your business away from others and stuff, you know what i mean? i like that quality in him.

some links for you guys to check out....

link1

link2
starts at post #25

link3
around post #9

maybe these will answer some questions...
i'm not saying he's the BEST in the area (mainly cuz i don't have A LOT to compare him to...just a handful), but from my experience i think he's VERY good. just wanted to give you guys some other options, i guess, for detailers.
just trying to help out!

Well if those pics were taken AFTER you had driven the car, I may have to retract my previous statements concerning the quality of his work.

As a detailer myself, I always thought it would be interesting to have someone else detail my car for me, just to see the resulting level of quality. When you are picky yourself, are a detailer yourself, and it's YOUR car, you will be the most harsh critic. Maybe one day I'll have this guy detail my car for me instead of doing it myself... just to see what I'm up against!

Originally Posted by Lugnut2683

Well if those pics were taken AFTER you had driven the car, I may have to retract my previous statements concerning the quality of his work.

As a detailer myself, I always thought it would be interesting to have someone else detail my car for me, just to see the resulting level of quality. When you are picky yourself, are a detailer yourself, and it's YOUR car, you will be the most harsh critic. Maybe one day I'll have this guy detail my car for me instead of doing it myself... just to see what I'm up against!

yeah, and if you find out you're better then maybe you can charge more too...
should've kept some pics...would've been nice to see.

looks great it'd be worth it on an interval schedule, i.e. once every 6 months or something, just to keep everything looking/feeling nice for the overall health of the car

not to jack this guys thread, but if any of you need ur car done, i offer detailing services as well.
My charges are $215 exterior
interior + exterior is $315.
includes all clay, buff, wax and whole 9 yards.
I have won many concourse and all my work is guaranteed.

Originally Posted by Lugnut2683

Well if those pics were taken AFTER you had driven the car, I may have to retract my previous statements concerning the quality of his work.

As a detailer myself, I always thought it would be interesting to have someone else detail my car for me, just to see the resulting level of quality. When you are picky yourself, are a detailer yourself, and it's YOUR car, you will be the most harsh critic. Maybe one day I'll have this guy detail my car for me instead of doing it myself... just to see what I'm up against!

PM me, i will detail your car, so you can see the quality of work.

Nice job and car looks CLEAN!! Do you know what products he used? Did he use a clay bar?

Just to let other fanatiks know, Ferrari of Washington (next to BMW of Sterling) also does amazing detailing job. They use all the products they use to shine Ferraris. Their cost of complete detailing (interior/exterior/engine bay/ claybar) is I believe $375. I had their price chart, but can't find it right now. One of my friend's got his 330i detailed from there and it just looked superb.

Originally Posted by LIL RAJA

PM me, i will detail your car, so you can see the quality of work.

You're so random Raja. I still want to set up a detail with you, btw!!