POLL: How long is your average prep time?

[David Fermani]

I was wondering how long everyone typically spends prepping a car for a complete detail? This would include washing door jambs, engine, body, wheels & tires?

[The Driver]

Easily an hour an half, Wash, clay, wheels, wheel wells, jamps an hood + trunk.

[JSFM35X]

1.5 hours to get is ready for polishing.

[Accumulator]

I went with the longest, but two things have me scratching my head:

1) the implication that one only does those areas for a "full detail" as opposed to doing a regular maintenance wash.

2) most any one of those areas atakes me a lot of time whenever I do even just a regular wash.

If doing a full/corrective detail I do everything pretty much the same way except I`m doing the wash with ABC instead of my regular shampoo and I do more disassembly.

I must be missing something here, and I suspect I`m an outlier, but how can somebody do this stuff in 90 minutes? I work *FAST*, but doing all this stuff simply takes time. What...maybe a dozen surfaces on a trunk/hood/door hinge (some requiring swabs); dozens of slots in a grille; backsides of wheel spokes; removing license plates if correcting/LSPing...and then there`s the undercarriage and engine compartment! There`s just a lot to do!

[The Driver]

Tools chop time, How efficient are you. I work fast but insanely efficient. I have ALOT of off the beaten path tools. I wrote down my whole entire process and what I use, then wrote down what could be optimized an replaced. This is assuming your skill level is already at a top tier an now tools are the only thing holding you back. I shaved off in total around 3 hours for a standard one pass.

Drill brush for Tires + Lug brush
High speed Drill with Ace Turbo stick
Sonax wheel cleaner plus

Foam canon
2 buckets with dollys (Dollies save a good chunk of time an headache)
Pressure washer W/ quick connects

Robo Reel - (Saves alot of time setting up an breaking down)
X-hose pro modified (Saves a ton of time setting up an breaking down)
Working from your shop only (Biggest time saver) - Everything is where I know it is.

Masterblaster 8hp + 1100 GSM towels mean less MF`s an WAY faster drying.

Iron + Tar X means road grime comes off effortlessly
Any type of Polyclay towel or mitt - HUGE SAVINGS on time.
Proper brushes like long boars hair for jambs etc.

Add all these up an you way ahead!

[mnehls86]

I also chose the 70-90 minutes however getting polish ready would take me much longer. I know I could cut down quite a bit of time with more proper tools like TheDriver said but for me to go through all that plus decon and tape I`m looking at probably 3 hours.

[Accumulator]

The Driver- Good point about tools and efficiency! I go so far as to have redundant systems (hoses, foamguns, buckets, air lines, floorjacks/stands, two of *everything*) on each side of the wash bay. And yeah, blowing most of the water off can save a lot of time (and touching).

mnehls86- Yeah, taping can take forever on certain vehicles.

[RaskyR1]

I`d say I`m between 2-3 hours before a polisher touches the paint. This includes washing, jambs, wheels(including barrels), tires, wheel wells, detailing of all the nooks and crannies, decon (IronX/Tar), prep towel.

[Zelfiris]

About an hour and a half

If I use Iron-x then I would have to spray, spread, rinse, re-wash and that takes more time.

[House of Wax]

I chose the longest, but i`ll be the first to admit I`m slow. I would LOOOOVE to see a video of someone doing quality work in 30-45 minutes:wacko:

[Bunky]

Cleaning trim, wheels, body seams, etc takes so much time and then when you wash it and inspect with a good light you see more things to do.

[RaskyR1]

Cleaning trim, wheels, body seams, etc takes so much time and then when you wash it and inspect with a good light you see more things to do.

When I see really fast prep times I wonder if these areas are overlooked. I know when I did volume work we never paid attention to these type of areas, but it`s little details like this that really make a difference IMO. ;)

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i288/Raskyr1/2009/IMG_1073.jpg (http://s75.photobucket.com/user/Raskyr1/media/2009/IMG_1073.jpg.html)

[Merlin]

90 minutes minimum to prep...

[Dellinger]

Depends on vehicle size and condition... obviously.

I complete a lot of 3/4 ton truck, intense corrections.

Typically it takes me...
15min for a focused pressure pre-rinse
30 min for wheel/tire/well cleaning.
60-90 min for a thorough wash... all body seams, textured plastic scrubbed with various chemicals/brushes, jambs cleaned, and rubber seals treated with specific rubber prep
15 minutes for Car Pro spotless scrub of exterior windows
30 minutes for tar/iron removal solutions to work and rinse off
1 hour to decon with clay or clay substitute
30 min to dry (exterior and jambs too)

So, 4+ hours to thoroughly clean the exterior of a 3/4 ton, 4 door, long box with a 4" suspension lift, 4" body lift sitting on 35"s ... and they never have mud guards so the filth and bonded contaminants down the side of the truck are ridiculous.

A family sedan... maybe 2.5- 3 hrs. total

[bswombaugh]

I would say that for the majority of vehicles that I do it would normally be in the 2-3 hr range.