Heavy scratches- to polish or "pay the man"?

[Z3 Mark]

So the z3 has always been a bit of a dream of mine and after finally buying one in the closing months of last year I am trying to bring it up to speed as it were.

Unfortunately it is an old car now, lets not kid ourselves and I have no choice but to use it everyday as a commuter and sole mode of transport, it does appear that a lot of cars on here are second vehicles and can be off the road for nice long periods to be lovingly cared for.

Anyway the paint is really quite bad, just wear and age, nothing too bad but it has pretty deep paint swirls and scratches that I am confident would polish out with a nice deep machine polish and buff.
The question is whether I should buy "all the kit" or get a decent "one off" detail from a professional place and then just keep on top of it by keeping it clean and polishing / wax / clay myself by hand in future.

I figure maybe taking it somewhere and spending say £100 on a decent once over might be worth it in the long run to give me a good starting place?
Also I'm in south east london if anyone can recommend somewhere to take it.

[Althulas]

If you have the motivation and spend some time yourself you can get some good results I bought a Das6 kit from http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polishing ... at_81.html which has served me well and I've done a few friends cars as well. There are plenty of guides on Detailing world. If you have the time I recommend Junkmans channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP-eAdd ... GHmR-CbWJR He has several videos that makes detailing look so easy plus he is funny to watch as well. On some deep isolated scratches I have taped off the area and applied a few spray coats just covering the scratch and then buffed in for a invisible repair I'm no expert but just get better with practice and could never compete with a professional detailer who does this day in day out which can cost quite a lot of money but to be honest for panels that have a lot of scratches down to the primer I would have re sprayed. As for stone chips I use this guide http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/s ... hp?t=20127

[sirius-c]

Junkman's videos are great, very informative

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[Z3 Mark]

thanks for that, junkman is awesome, I guess I'm just going to have to bite the bullet really.

I get VERY little free time and the car is parked outside so not ideal conditions really, ho hum

[mnbrennan]

I decided to bite the bullet and buy my own kit rather than pay the man. It was only marginally cheaper but it means that I can reuse on other cars, which I have done. See my old journal for more

I'd say buy the kit!