DiamondBrite

[Silent Shark]

My dealer is going to put a DiamondBrite coat on my car when it arrives. With this being the first 'nice' car I've owned, I thought I'd let them do it as It would help keep the car looking good, and I might be motivated to actually put the effort in to maintaining the protection and thus its looks.

However, some stories have been popping up over the last few days, about dealers who do shoddy jobs preparing cars for pick-up. I'm now left wondering if I should tell them not to bother, and just do it all myself...? I don't want them to ruin the car :( .

Has anyone else had DiamondBrite applied by their dealer?

[paulworthing]

Is he charging you for it?

[Silent Shark]

Is he charging you for it?

Yeah. It's not a large amount. I think it's a little bit more than buying the stuff yourself (obviously you have to pay the labour cost, and it's applied to the fabrics too to make them soak-resistant, so it's probably a fair amount of effort).

I don't have the invoice to hand right now, so I can't check how much it costs.

[paulworthing]

If it is free or near as damn-it then I wojld say get it done - if it is, as I would suspect, over £100 then I would give it a miss and get something sorted out privately after you have taken delivery . .

[Flic]

I got mine done and I would say if you want an easy way of cleaning your car, literally a wash then another wash with the preserver then I'd say go for it, if you enjoy waxing your car then I'd say no! I'm pleased with the results of mine when I wash it, but miss waxing :(

[DanGull]

If you must get it done - ask for the kit and apply it yourself or have it applied professionally.

Someone really should do a sticky thread on paint protection products. I'll ask Vinny if he'd like one.

[Silent Shark]

Thanks for the tips. It is over £100, so it might be worth giving it a miss. However, I'm very lazy and generally not interested in washing my car, so if the maintenance effort is fairly low, which it sounds like it is, then I'd be more inclined to making some effort, if that makes sense .

Looking at Dan's thread, while the results are obviously spectacular, personally I wouldn't want to go to so much trouble. As long as it looked decent I'd be happy. That's why I like the idea of the DiamondBrite, because all it needs is a wash, rinse and an application of conserver.

My main worry really is the dealer will do a poor job, and I'll be left with streaks, swirls or something like that. I wondered if it was a common thing Ford dealers do to cars and what other peoples experiences with it were.

I could just get the kit off them and do it myself, but I'd be worried I'd do an even worse job. A quick google around says getting it done professionally is more expensive than the dealer is charging.

Flic, have you had any problems with yours? Was it a good job by the dealer?

[DanGull]

You don't have to do half of what I do to get a great result, I'm just a bit sad

Wash, dry, wax is probably the bare minimum - but it'll give you better results than Diamondbrite.

For £100 you can get a bottle of Born to be Mild, a wash mitt, a couple of drying towels and a decent wax - that keeps your car clean for a year at very least.

[Silent Shark]

Hmmm, I'm going to have to think about it. I've noticed Flic's comments in your thread suggesting she's not 100% happy with it.

I might ask the dealer when I see him in a few weeks if I can look at a car that's had the treatment, so I can see if they do a good job or not, and what effect it has on the 'shinyness' of it.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

[DanGull]

You'll struggle to spot the difference between a diamondbrite car and a non diamondbrite car - let alone a badly applied diamondbrite car and a well applied one, so I wouldn't let that enter into your decision making process.

The difference will only be obvious in a few years/10s of thousands of miles I would think.

[Flic]

I'm very happy with it Mr Shark. It's been applied flawlessly, as Dan said I can't tell it's been applied. I just like waxing cars and the treatment recommends you don't do it otherwise it may affect the protection. If you're not arsed about polishing it and such then go for it :)

[Silent Shark]

I'm very happy with it Mr Shark. It's been applied flawlessly, as Dan said I can't tell it's been applied. I just like waxing cars and the treatment recommends you don't do it otherwise it may affect the protection. If you're not arsed about polishing it and such then go for it :)

While I don't share in the car cleaning enjoyment, I do understand why people like doing it ;) . I used to have a small collection of scale models of planes and cars, and making them all shiny again used to be great fun. I can't imagine translating that to a full size car though. There's far too much surface area to do, and as I said before, I'm just far too lazy .

Sounds like the DiamondBrite is exactly what I want then! Thanks.

[hedgepig]

While I don't share in the car cleaning enjoyment, I do understand why people like doing it ;) . I used to have a small collection of scale models of planes and cars, and making them all shiny again used to be great fun. I can't imagine translating that to a full size car though. There's far too much surface area to do, and as I said before, I'm just far too lazy .

Sounds like the DiamondBrite is exactly what I want then! Thanks.

Before you commit to having it done why don't you pm Greeny as what he doesn't know about car protection etc isn't worth knowing or Michelle as her other half is a professional valeter and these guys would be best placed to advise you.