1-step polish?

[Mr. Clean]

yeah im having a very hard time actually saving time as i am stuck with a PC7424
for a full interior shampoo/detail, car wash and paint correct/polish/wax

can take me up to 9 hours and even more ...

interior shampoo's usually take me 3 hours
wheel detailing - 25 minutes
washing - 30 minutes
light drying - 20 minutes
claying - 30 minutes

im lucky if im left with exactly 4 hours to polish/wax and do windows and prep for pick up ...

i definately need a faster method to polish

i also rarely have my brothers help so this is mostly a one man job and i try to be as quick as i can but im still working on getting a paint polishing method down to 2 steps then wax instead of 3 and 4 steps to get all swirls and crap out of the paint .

Believe me, there are a lot worse things than being "stuck" with a PC. A few of us here remember the days before the PC made its appearance as a auto detailing tool.

What is your interior process? 3 hours seems that it might be excessive. Are you pulling seats? Is this your average for all of your clients?

I'm guessing you might not be spending 20 minutes drying.

After 3-3.5 hours of polishing, (allowing 30-60 minutes for glass and assuming intermediate sized sedans) you a probably giving a very highly polished (close to if not defect free) end product. Are these daily drivers? Is that the level of service your clients want and want to pay for?

Those are two areas where there is a potential for time savings. And one area that you might be spending less time than your estimate. It looks like you're moving right along in the other areas.

 

[cheapshot]

This seems to be a very popular topic! Everyone's looking to speed detail. Is this worthy of a new section?

Depending on if your going for absolute perfection in correction, or a nice job. I have come to the conclusion that many people don't care about perfection in correction. Unless it's a classic or a show car.

Knowing your polishes and choosing your pad, technique wisely, could save you a bunch of time. For example: I did a section on a car, with 205, did it cut enough not quite. I then tried 105, swirls were gone. now you would think I used 105 for the job. I decided to use 205 with a little more added pressure, I felt this was my best bet for a one step. on this particular finish. There are still some little scratches here and there but 90% or more are gone. These areas you could second hit.


For my last few complete details I used SSR2.5 with orange pad or polishing pad, depending on the finish. Then followed with PwC. I sometimes Like to SSR1 and then EXP after 2.5 depending the finish.

These steps still take me time, and I have come to the conclusion that to do a good job it takes time. but getting your polishes down (knowing there capabilities) helps speed things up.