I really like the green color of my Mini and want to see it shine for years to come, so I have to protect it from the scorching, sometimes unforgiving Florida sun. My dealer offered to apply some sort of UV treatment on my car and while I like the folks there, the quoted ~1,000$ is a little too much. I'm new to owning a car, so is there any bargain ways to protect my Mini? Thanks in advance.
Lol Find a local detailer with a good reputation and ask how much for a “new car detail,” and get a separate quote for a “ceramic coating.” You can of course go to detailing classes in Jupiter at AutoGeek HQ, and it will become a very satisfying hobby keeping your new car looking good for years.
I put Mother's ceramic coating on our 07 sedan with 125k at the time, three years ago. Every year since, around this time I put a few more coats on. I must have applied over 30 coats on our cars, and on the metal gazebo we put together during lockdown, and I am still on bottle 1. Come winter I pull out the power washer and watch the dirt roll off the car. I wiped each car down with prep all. Oh, the car didnt go through car washes so there were zero swirl marks, and it was garaged until about six years ago. Still, today the car looks much newer than 15 years and 136k miles. I give the thumbs up to Mother's ceramic in the silver spray bottle.
I would second the ceramic coating. While it won’t protect against chips, it does wonders for protecting against gunk sticking to the clear coat and causing it to look dull, even after a wash. ProjectFarm did an EXCELLENT review of a bunch of coatings and found that Hybrid Solutions (by Turtlewax) was the most durable and provided the best protection (for a ceramic coating) and was also, shockingly, the cheapest. See the video here: Note, ceramic coatings do NOT prevent abrasion/chip/physical protection for the paint. Only a PPF will really do that, and only then for a couple years before it needs to be replaced. Ceramics WILL provide protection from grit and grime building up in crevices and whatnot in the paint, and are effectively more durable, highly hydrophobic waxes. Modern paint and clear coats are pretty UV resistant and wear resistant (at least, Honda/Acura paints are) and only physical impacts or abrasions will degrade the clear coat in any appreciable amount of time, assuming good paint/clear coat coverage during manufacture. Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
Last night I ordered CQuartz UK 3.0 and CQuartz SiC to top it. This morning I realized I’ve been driving beaters so long, and stopped doing sideline details for probably the same amount of time, that many of my products are way past their shelf lives. I still have new-in-sealed-box CQ UK and Exo v3, but they’re so old (circa 2017) that I didn’t want to chance them on a brand new car. Also realized my bottle of Essence is almost empty (and clumpy), so I called to add Essence Extreme to my order. I’ll likely use the older coatings on my wife’s daily driver.
Most things in life require knowledge, time and money. A deficit in any of the three can be compensated for by an increase in the other two. In short, watch a bunch of YouTube videos on ceramic coatings, including "Pan the Organizer" while you wait for Amazon to deliver CARPRO CQUARTZ UK 3.0 30ml Kit for about $75. Once you are addicted, order some DLUX for your wheels and GLISS to top off both.
I spent over 10 hours getting the clear bra off our 07 volvo during lockdown in 20. I used the 3M eraser wheel, goo gone, a steamer, pressure washer, wd40, the nubs of my fingers and nails, heat gun, and I know I am missing something. When it was finally off I noticed the micro scratches in the clear from my plastic scraper. I also have a line across the hood, into the clear from where the expert at the Volvo dealership cut straight across the hood of a then brand new 55k car. I took it off because it was shrinking, just like the hood stripes on a the mini the guy next to me had at the autocross this past sunday. Our car had about 125k when I took off the clear bra, and had been an outside car only the last four years so the bra was still pretty clear.
Wow, I've never tried to remove it, but that sounds brutal. My stripes were cracked in a few spots on the upper hood and roof, but under the film they still looked good. I didn't notice issues with the PPF shrinking, but maybe it was subtle.
A good friend went through much the same experience with his early F10 M5, using a panoply of my products and tools to try to remove a shrinking PPF bra from that striking Monte Carlo front end; in the end he paid a pro $800 to do it, revealing the same cut line. Rather than getting the front end sprayed and blended for thousands more, he sold it (for more than he paid - used - five years earlier). Ugh.
Rather than getting it fixed right we are leting our kid use it. She can park it at the rink she works at, and at school. She took good care of the 323Ci we sold when she graduated HS and moved away last year (bought from original owner who babied it from 2000 to 2017. He didnt realize I bought it to possibly sacrifice for a new driver. Sold it for what we had into it to a retired gent who wanted a nice toy). She doesnt like that it is an automatic, but since it has butt toasters with monkey butt ventilaton, and SiriusXM plus me paying for gas she is accepting the automatic. Our little princess. I raised her right to want 3 pedals.
Wash a car once a month ,dry every time with a blower ,applay Mothers California Gold spray Wax and don’t worry , don’t pay a scammers a $ that paint will last as long you get tired of a car bc you are in Florida no salt on road and try keep car in a shade or garage . Good lack with a go cart.
Good for you and great for her. So many people can’t drive a manual transmission these days. I’m in my fifties and even my generation has many people who can’t do it. Nowadays, it’s a great theft deterrent. Years ago when I was dating, I broke up with a girl because she couldn’t drive my manual transmission car and had no desire to learn. My wife is a car junkie like me and loves driving the manual as much as me.
In my years ago off-the-thread girlfriend story, my girlfriend's 1966 6-cylinder Mustang notchback was in the shop and she needed a car to get to her job as an occupational therapist at the hospital. I said if she knew how to drive a stick shift she could borrow my Fiat-Abarth OT-1000 sports car (an unreliable but fun 1-liter stroked-out Fiat 850 convertible). She assured me she could drive a stick, grabbed my keys, and drove off without a problem. I later learned she had never driven a stick-shift car in her life. She had used her skills as an occupational therapist to observe my driving and emulate what I did with the clutch and shift lever. That car had only 60 hp and no torque to speak of, but she backed out of my parking space and exited the parking lot like a pro. I'll forever be impressed by her sight-acquired driving skill--and I told her so last month when we got together again for the first time in 45 years.
