Want your car dipped? Not got space or time so you need to get someone to do it for you. Then read all below

Quick guide;

• Make sure they are insured (ask to see certificate if need be)
• See some previous work of THEIRS
• Is their own car dipped even? (no confidence in their own ability if not)
• Who is their supplier? Genuine dip or copy?
• Check with supplier if you want. If genuine, they will be happy to comply
  

You can use less and many people out there offering to do your car for £3/400 are not doing it properly. As in any walks of life, there are always people willing to cut corners and get away with whatever they think they can. But it is YOU who will suffer in the long run. How do they do it so cheap?

Firstly. They are probably putting the bare minimum on, 3 coats, using hardly any material. This is ok for black / gunmetal etc as they cover very well. But it will not be strong at all. It will scratch VERY easily, damage very easily and most importantly when it comes to peeling, it will come off in tiny pieces as it is not strong enough. Therefore will take days to remove instead of a couple of hours.

Secondly. They are probably not even using genuine plastidip - some poor Chinese (pretend made in UK) knock off or home made mash up. Some of these are REALLY bad for your car. The worst ones are the guys using clear dip and filling it with car paint. Yes, some actually do this! It means it has great coverage and you can use hardly any product. They do this for other colours than black or gunmetal due to coverage issues for lighter colours. But, there's always a BUT. Once cured it behaves exactly like car paint funnily enough. And becomes permanent. I have people turning up every week who have fallen for this, some have to bare metal sand there car to remove it. Then get it resprayed. But hey, they saved £100 getting their car dipped :) .......

Thirdly. Cheap thinners. Guys using cheap thinners, 2k cellulose, even 'good quality' cellulose. It dries too fast and leaves a horrible texture, sometimes as bad as sandpaper texture! You can generally tell the guys using this as they say drop the car in and pick up later in the day. Genuine stuff needs overnight to dry. End of.

Fourth. A lot of these guys are not insured to even be in your car, let alone move it. YOUR car is not covered to be worked on. If where they do it burns down, you have lost your car. If they damage it, it is not covered. Check to see at least a traders policy minimum before you let them loose. They generally also do not pay TAX or are not a proper business.

Someone will find a way to extract money from you. They will get as much as they can and use as little materials as they can. Simple economics. On average look to spend £150-£300 on materials for an average size car. That's everything though, tape, masking, razors, pre dip, dip protect, dip. Everything.

When you get someone to do it, ask yourself, bearing in mind materials are £300 and they are asking £350 to do your car, would you work for two days for £50? You then need to take a portion of that off for TAX, rent, insurances etc..

A customer actually paid someone to do this to their car!

If you are willing to save a few £ after reading all that, then expect there to be problems. It is totally your decision though. We only use proper dip, proper equipment and that's all there is to add really. The end choice is yours, but as I have learned over the years, buy cheap, buy twice.