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This car was brought to me at night where I could see swirls but had no idea it was as bad as it was. The paint on this car was absolutely horrendous. To make matters worse the owner tried to correct the paint himself using an over the counter swirl removing wax he bought at wallmart. The wax stuck to the paint really bad and he could not remove it all so there were residue spots everywhere. I am new to detailing for money so I am kinda lost when it comes to properly pricing out a job. I just don't know how you guys do it for a living. These jobs burn me out. I spent 16 hours on this car. I probably could have cut out 2 hours or so but thats it. My process: Washed with Dawn/Foam Gun, Clayed, Polished with my UDM with Menzerna PowerGloss Compound on a Yelow LC CCS pad, followed by 106ff white pad, topped with WolfgangDeep Gloss Paint Sealant. The interior wasn't bad at all so that was pretty easy. Also the area that I live in is just outside Washington DC. The area is very affluent and in Fact labeled the Wealthiest County in the Country so these people are not poor out here. I was thinking of charging between $40-$50 an hour but if I did that this detail would cost btw $500-$600. Is that reasonable do you think? What do you all charge for jobs like this. Thank you and any tips you have will be welcomed.
On with the pics. Sorry if they are all thumbs? Hopefully I fixed it so you do not have to click on them to see the larger size (I don't know why it's doing this?)
Before:
Did you touch the inside at all? If not that would've been an $80 detail over here at my shop for a fully paint corrected exterior detail.
Sorry you had to spend so much time on it. The reason the "Pros" get to do this for a living and make it is because we usually come stocked with all the proper equipment to save alot of time. That really shouldn't have taken any more than 3-4 hours tops to get done. But when your first starting out it takes forever... I remember spending 8 hours on one detail... Drove me insanse having to spend that much time on a single car. You'll get alot faster the more you do it. You're obviously already putting out good quality work. Just keep it up.
I would absoultly LOOOOOVE for you to come to my area and try to charge even $10 more LOL... You'd get laughed right out of business around here. I understand alot of guys on here live in the right areas and get alot more money. $80 for a full exterior paint correction detail in Flint is actually almost double the normal rate and is considered very very good money around here... Just FYI eventually I'll move to an area where I can get your guy's rates. But for now I'm not complaining.
But back to the OP question.... Just call some other local detail shops and see what they would charge.... Then base your price on competitive wages. It's a good place to start.
80$ Way to low. For me a Full would have been around $235, outside only around $185
$190. I try not to give a price untill I see the vehicle and do a walk around evaluation.
This has been a good practice for my business. No surprises for me or the customer!
Also, you may want to determine how you will price jobs like these before hand to let the owner know. You don't want to say "Okay the total is $600 when they come to pick it up" because they may be outraged, but then again if price was an issue they should have brought it up as well. I would not under-charge though to be on the safe side..You worked hard and it came out looking great, reward yourself with a justified price.
Seriously though guys... Before this thread goes cocoo in the friggin brain of all these guys telling you that you need to charge $250-$10,000 for this detail you have to check your local compitition. Just because one guy can get away with charging $300 for a detail dosen't mean by any means at all that you can. I know full well I couldn't. My skills are up there I'm very good at what I do but I know my local economy and what my prices can get. I hope you can get a few hundred. That would be awesome. But just because some detailing in Texas or Cali or wherever can fetch those prices all day long dosen't mean you can. Don't listen to what anyone on this board tells you about setting prices. Their prices are set for thier locations and they get what they can because thier local economy lets them get their fair market price. I told you what I would charge because you asked. I know full well a few guys could easily get $500 for that detail and no one would think twice about forking over the cash. you absoultly HAVE to set your prices based on your local. Otherwise you'll be out of work here very very soon.
This was my old neighbor and I just started detailing for money so I told him I would do this car for $50 to cover costs. I told him I was basically looking to get my work shown around town and if he liked what I did for him he could tell others. When he picked up the car he was so happy that he handed me $300. He then asked me if I could work on his black Mustang. I'm sorry but there is absolutely no way I would even bother doing this kind of work for less than $250-$300. Serioulsy I have to hand it to you guys who do this full time. That would wear me out. I agree I def need to figure out how to do this kind of quality work but in much less time. I am thinking i need to invest in a rotary buffer or see if I'm working my polishes too long with the UDM and wasting too much time there? This car was super bad though and I had to do several of the panels several times to really clean them up nicely. Again please continue with the feedback and tips for pricing. Thanks Guys!
eventually I'll move to an area where I can get your guy's rates. But for now I'm not complaining.
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