Heavy scratch removal - pay or DIY

The paint on my C2 has seen better days. I brought the car to a detailing shop who want $450 for heavy scratch removal. Another $600 to put a ceramic coating on the paint that wil make it "perma-waxed." I looked online and I get all the stuff to do it myself ~$150. Never doing this before, what are chances of me mucking the paint up if I try to go cheap and do it myself, and, is the ceramic coating really worth it?

The ceramic coating is absolutely worth it. And yes, you can DIY as long as you have the right tools. Im not sure how you are doing it for $150 unless you already have the tools. Youll need a good buffer and a cheap one will cost you more than $150. Theres lots of you tube videos out there on how to use a radom orbital polisher. Thats the kind you will want as that it the most user friendly version. The porter cables, rupes, zentool, buffers are very user friendly and youd have to have a complete lack of common sense to burn the paint with one of these machines. Depending how bad it is, you may have to perform a paint compound 1st, then a polish. The final step will be the ceramic clear coat. I recommend microfiber (MF) and foam buffing pads. Youll probably want a a heavy cutting pad and a polishing pad. 5" pads fit in most places and will work for most weekend warriors. I have 3 different buffers with 3 different pad sizes ranging from 3" to 6". Start with a good compound/cutting polish. I like the Optimum stuff: http://www.canadacarcare.ca/products/optiumcompndsmler I would use that with a hard yellow (or orange) foam pad or a Compound MF pad Then follow up with a nice polish to remove the haze introduced by the compound: http://www.canadacarcare.ca/products/optimumhyper Then use a ceramic clear coat like optimum gloss coat http://www.canadacarcare.ca/products...at-new-formula Book a weekend to get this done. It will take a newb up to 12 hour to polish the exterior of the car. You will need to let the ceramic clear coat cure to the paint, so keep that in mind also.

Posting a picture may help. It all depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If the scratch goes through paint to metal - you may have a difficult time repairing it perfectly. +1 on a good buffer, they can work wonders but you can also muck things up if you aren't careful especially on corners and edges.

^^^1+ Post a picture so that we can provide more informed responses.

He said "the paint"....so I assume it needs a nice 3 step polish reguardless . here are some of my DIY pics. these were done with either a porter cable or rupes buffer. IMG_2539-1.jpg IMG_0056-Copy.jpg IMG_0082.jpg

^^^nice work! It's all about knowledge of the pads/chemicals and patience throughout the process. Rushing a job like this will definitely damage the paint beyond repair.

there's no way you will get the above results rushing it. impossible. this is why it costs $1000+ to properly prep a car for a ceramic coating. like I said in my 1st post. put a weekend aside to do this if it's your 1st time. don't be suprise if it takes you 12 hours + to polish the paint. I wouldn't be scared of tackling this from a DIY perspective. ...then again, imma DIY kinda guy

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+966 I consider myself a semi-pro detailer mainly because i don't do it as a job and only a hobby. Prep will take the longest and if you've never polished before, it may be in for some surprises. Also, if you've never applied any kind of sealant or coating before, you may lack the minute techniques and such to do a stellar job. I would definitely practice on another car first if I were the OP. I would definitely recommend the coating regardless. It helps protect the paint from future scratches better and keeps the car looking clean longer, especially dark colored cars. For my wife's dd black suv that's always parked outside, I would have to clean it once or twice a week to keep it looking clean. After I did a two step polish(Megs 105, 205) and CQuartz UK, followed by Reload, I usually wash it every 2-3 weeks now followed by Megs UQW during the drying process(only because it is black paint) as a topper. If you aren't thrilled with manual labor and rather not chance on screwing something up, I think it's worth the $1k to pay someone to do it. Most of that is really going into the long labor involved. my $.02