POLL: To Coat or Not to Coat????

[David Fermani]

I raised this point on another forum and wanted to share it here in the sake of brainstorming and good discussion. This is to be considered in a hypothetical scenario where you had the chance to Opticoat/Guard approximately 35 vehicles for a potential client. They are all about 1-2 years old, white in color and are company cars that go through the tunnel wash on a regular basis. They are willing to pay $350 per car to wash, decon and apply coating to the paint only. Nothing more is needed, requested or wanted by the client. That's an easy $10,000+ in revenue for a client who has ZERO confirmed interest in the swirls that are already in their paint. Now things to consider are each vehicle could certainly benefit from paint correction, but the client is only interested in clean and protected paint. The decon process could also consist of light tar and brake dust removal. Again, no scratch removal.


AS A PROFESSIONAL BUSINESSMAN & DETAILER: Do you say "YES" or "NO"????

[Garry Dean]

I say hell yeah... Bring em on!

The ocd, perfectionist detailer in me says yuck, but the thought of that much extremely easy money hits me harder... I would love to say i got to do what the car needs everytime, but very seldom does a client tell me to have a ball and go crazy making their car perfect. I wish they did, but in most cases i am working with the clients budget.

If i were approached with that opportunity i would schedule those jobs immediately.

[BadCompanyVPWS6]

I say hell yeah... Bring em on!

The ocd, perfectionist detailer in me says yuck, but the thought of that much extremely easy money hits me harder... I would love to say i got to do what the car needs everytime, but very seldom does a client tell me to have a ball and go crazy making their car perfect. I wish they did, but in most cases i am working with the clients budget.

If i were approached with that opportunity i would schedule those jobs immediately.

I'm with Garry! I would love to be able to correct each one correctly and net way more money but the client is already willing to spend X amount of dollars. I say go for it and get them scheduled and get the easy money.

[Deep Gloss Auto Salon]

I don't see the question here?

[BadCompanyVPWS6]

I don't see the question here?

Do as the client says and just perform a wash, decon, and opti-coat. (with existing swirls in the paint)

OR

Inform the client the appropriate thing to do is to correct the paint, THEN apply the coating. Which would in turn net a higher return but more work. OR less work and still a ton of money.

[WhyteWizard]

For that amount of money I would do a better job than they're asking for.

A good car wash with decon, then a good pass with a forced rotation orbital using an orange pad and appropriate polish, then ipa and coat would take less than three hours per vehicle. I can live with that every day.

So, I'd say yes, but I'll give you what you're paying for, not just what you're asking for.

Robert

[C. Charles Hahn]

For that amount of money I would do a better job than they're asking for.

A good car wash with decon, then a good pass with a forced rotation orbital using an orange pad and appropriate polish, then ipa and coat would take less than three hours per vehicle. I can live with that every day.

So, I'd say yes, but I'll give you what you're paying for, not just what you're asking for.

Robert

THIS.

ABC
Optimum Hyper Polish
Wipedown
Coat
Done.

[Nth Degree]

I would say go for it too. The one thing I would make sure of, though, is that the customer fully understands what the coating is and is not capable of. I wouldn't want to do all that work, then a year later have them upset that some RIDS have been acquired and find myself having to deal with that problem.

[TOGWT]

No question about it...

[Quenga]

It's just business. If they don't want an Autopian detail, screw it. Being in San Diego puts me around a lot of cheap and worthless labor/competition. When people ask for discounts I walk away. When they only want what they are paying for, whether it's an Autopian detail or not, I never question putting food on my table over my personal bias towards their decision. For $350 though, I agree that a once over with some polish would be worth giving them.

I just threw Opti-Coat on my girlfriends silver Mazda3 after only compounding with D300/MF cutting disc. Still has a lot of defects, but the car needs a repaint. A repaint is not in the budget, but $30 (DIY and using 1/2...if that, of the product) for a coat of OC to preserve what's left for a few more years...easy decision. (Paint was reading between 68-85 all over the car. Any further polishing would eat through whatever clear coat is left.) The car looks good enough for a DD and saved me a couple thousand dollars on repainting it.

[David Fermani]

A good car wash with decon, then a good pass with a forced rotation orbital using an orange pad and appropriate polish, then ipa and coat would take less than three hours per vehicle. I can live with that every day.

Granted it takes another 3+ hours to buff/reclean, but that adds up on 35 cars. Like over 100+ extra hours for this job!!! Another 2+ weeks of lost income potential just to pacify yourself because remember the customer doesn't care. Don't forget, his cars are already swirled and will continue to be even more swirled so your slight polishing will go down the crapper in a couple of scratch n washes.

[RaskyR1]

While I don't like the idea of coating paint that is swirled up, that is a lot of money and it is what the customer wants. Currently I don't offer OC/OG without at least doing a claying/decon and a mild polish, and I also explain why to the client. If the customer absolutely insists on it then I may be willing to do it, but I don't agree with it.