"Am I taking too long to detail a car?"

Blink21Me · 03-02-07, 01:31

I've always thought that I am taking kind of slow when detailing a car. It generally takes me around 6 hours to detail a car that's in about good condition. Today I detailed a 2000 Volkswagen Beetle Turbo S, and it took me almost 6.5 hours, and that's even without an engine compartment detail.

I would like to hear some tips from you guys so I can do the job faster... Here are the detailed steps I took on the Beetle and the approximate time spent on each of these steps today.

1. Took out the carpets, sprayed and washed them with detergent, air-dryed them.
***~15 minutes

2. Vacuum-brushed the rear driver side part of the interior (there were so much pet hairs that couldn't just be removed that's why it took me longer to vacuum).
***~15 minutes

3. Vacuum-brushed the rear passenger side part of the interior (there were also so much pet hairs that couldn't just be removed that's why it took me longer to vacuum).
***~15 minutes

5. Vacuum-brushed the front driver side part of the interior (there were also so much pet hairs that couldn't just be removed that's why it took me longer to vacuum).
***~15 minutes

6. Cleaned the rear seats with Buttler's Secret Leather Cleaner
***~10 minutes

7. Cleaned the 3 rear windows with Sprayway Glass Cleaner
***~5 minutes

8. Cleaned the rear panels with AutoGlym Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner
***~10 minutes

9. Applied Buttler's Secret Leather Conditioner on the rear seats
***~3 minutes

10. Cleaned the front seats with the same Leather cleaner
***~10 miutes

11. Cleaned the whole center console with AutGlym Vinyl & Rubber Cleaner
***~10 minutes

12. Cleaned the whole dashboard (radio, clusters, steering wheel, steering column, AC vents, knobs, glovebox, etc) with miscellaneous products and materials.
***~15 minutes

13. Applied leather conditioner on the front seats
***~5 minutes

14. Buffed the rear interior (windows, seats, panels, etc.)
***~10 minutes

15. Vaccum-brushed the trunk and cleaned the panels with AutGlym Vinyl & Rubber Cleaner
***~10 minutes

16. Cleaned both the front door panels with AutoGlym Vinyl & Rubber Cleaner
***~15 minutes

17. Cleaned the 3 front windows with Sprayway Glass Cleaner
***~10 minutes

18. Buffed the front interior (dashboard, door panels, seats, windows and windshield, radio buttons, clusters, steering wheel, steering column, AC vents, knobs, glovebox, etc)
***~15 minutes

19. cleaned the Door jams
***~5 minutes

Total Time Spent on the Interior: ~3 hours 47 mins!!!

20. Cleaned the wheels/wheel wells with diluted Simple Green/water and MF towels
***~15 minutes

21. Washed the car
***~10 minutes

22. Clayed the car
***~10 minutes

23. Washed the car again
***~10 minutes

24. Dried the car with MF waffle weave drying towel
***~5 minutes

25. Applied Poorboy's Wheel Sealant on the wheels
***~5 minutes

26. polished the car using a rotary with PB SSR 2.5 on a ight cutting pad
***~10 minutes

27. Applied and buffed Klasse AIO by hand
***~5 minutes

28. Applied and buffed Klasse SG by hand
***~10 minutes

29. Buffed the wheels
***~2 minutes

30. Cleaned/buffed 6 outside windows and side mirrors
***~10 minutes

31. Polished the headlights with Meguiar's ScratchX by hand
***~2 minutes

Total Time Spent on the Exterior: ~1 hour 30 mins

Total labor time: 5:17
I'm not sure where there other minutes went but I know I started around 10:30 am and got completely done 5:00 pm, with short brakes.

I apologize for the long post, but please give me some tips on ANYTHING in order to speed up the process, I hope to hear suggested changes and comments about products I use and/or style/order of process I do to improve my detailing habits. I am pretty organized with all my things so I know I didn't waste time running around and prepping my materials.

Blink21Me · 03-02-07, 01:33

Here are some before and after pics, well these pics don't justify the real results good enough... but yeah;

BEFORE:

AFTER:

steveo3002 · 03-02-07, 03:44

26. polished the car using a rotary with PB SSR 2.5 on a ight cutting pad
***~10 minutes

you rotary polished the whole car in 10 mins?

Jimmy Buffit · 03-02-07, 04:09

Several of your times seem out of line...

Buffing a car in 10 minutes??? No way.

Why wash the car twice? Wash, clay, rinse, dry

Wheelwells and tire dressing?

06E90 · 03-02-07, 06:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by steveo3002

26. polished the car using a rotary with PB SSR 2.5 on a ight cutting pad
***~10 minutes

you rotary polished the whole car in 10 mins?

That's the first thing I noticed. There is just no way if cleaning the rear glass also takes 10mins. You are just taking way too long in that interior. I could remove the seats, detail the interior, and re-install the seats in that amount of time, and I am not a pro! (Semi joking here)

JoshVette · 03-02-07, 06:21

you claybar'd the car in 10 min.???

No way. You cannot do a quality job claybaring in 10 minutes. Same with buffing.

dietoremain · 03-02-07, 06:26

Scratchx on headlights? that makes no sense. its for paint. Meguiar's makes a product called Plastx and trust me its great on some clouded headlights(if yellowed, its too late) but clouded it cleans em right up.

Eliot Ness · 03-02-07, 06:36

Since you had a lot of problems with pet hair here is a thread with some tips:

http://autopia.org/forum/car-detaili...r-removal.html

1.5 hours for the exterior isn't bad considering all you did, but the 10 minutes to polish with SSR 2.5 also caught my eye. How did those scratches on the back bumper turn out?

It's the interior that killed you on this job and there are a few other times that don't seem right, like 10 minutes to clean the 3 front windows but only 5 minutes to apply/remove AIO to the whole car?

Some tips for the interior would be to get a good vacuum if yours isn't up to snuff. You'd be surprised how much faster it can go with a powerful shop-vac like a Ridgid. An air compressor would also help to dust and blow junk out of nooks and crannies.

It often takes me longer than I think it should to do an interior or an exterior. A trashed interior can be a real time eater, especially if you don't have the right tools and products. Something that saves me time on hard to reach windows is something like the Glass Master.

Blink21Me · 03-02-07, 10:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by steveo3002

26. polished the car using a rotary with PB SSR 2.5 on a ight cutting pad
***~10 minutes

you rotary polished the whole car in 10 mins?

I may have been off with some of these times, but consider polishing the car with SSR2.5 took at least 15 minutes. I know it seems it wouldn't make a difference but that's all I spent polishing, that's because I couldn't make the swirls go away more when I worked on the hood (I'm doing more research on that), so I spent not more time to work the other panels than a quick pass because that's all it took to minimize the swirls...

Blink21Me · 03-02-07, 11:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by dietoremain

Scratchx on headlights? that makes no sense. its for paint. Meguiar's makes a product called Plastx and trust me its great on some clouded headlights(if yellowed, its too late) but clouded it cleans em right up.

My mistake!!! I meant to type Meguiar's PLASTX!!! I don't even own a ScratchX

I don't even own a ScratchX... It's this stuff!

Grimm · 03-02-07, 11:15

Wow, I knew a rotary would cut down work time, but 10 minutes to polish? Holy cow! It took me that long to do a quarter of the hood with a PC.

Blink21Me · 03-02-07, 11:17

Thanks for the Prt hair removal tip!

I don't see why I would need more than 10 minutes to clay a car.

about applying Klasse AIO, trust me 5 minutes is all it takes to apply it and buff it by hand... I've started using these Klasse twins 2 years ago and I used to take much longer... We know it is a wipe-onwipe off product and very little amount goes a very long way...