Detail in a day???

[imported_WhyteWizard]

LOL... I guess the question becomes, how long would it take YOU to get your car clean enough to have US look at it, vs what is a good value for a customer. Like it has been mentioned, anyone can pick apart a detail, even if you don't include the engine bay or undercarriage.

The judges at the concourse were satisfied enough to give it second. The car has wire wheels and the part of the hood and the whole deck lid had been repaired and needed to be colorsanded to deal with shrinkage of the filler. Emblems had to be removed and put back on of course.



Here again, when you charge higher prices you don't end up shoveling out bird cages with wheels. The car was in decent and clean shape and is a nice car. Still, I only had about 5 hours in it, including polishing those damn wheels and the colorsand and a full cut and polish on the paint. Seriously, this stuff just doesn't take that long after you've been doing it thirty years.





A few years ago at the Newport Concourse I had the first place Dusenberg, the second place Packard and the first place 1967 Cobra. After the show a couple of other detailers came over and started pointing to things on my cars. I let them go on for awhile, mostly about dust and fingerprints people had put on the cars after the judging then asked where their cars were and what places they'd gotten. They said they hadn't gotten anything but that my cars weren't perfect either. So, I told them, "I never claimed my cars were perfect, just better than yours."



BTW, I lost the overall to a Cadillac that was absolutely stunning and definitely deserved the win, and that's what I told the man who detailed it.



Robert

 

[Envious Eric]

I finished a black Maserati (flawless finish) on Saturday in 8 hours with 2 employees. One followed me with a PC (removing any buffer trails) as I rotary buffed and the other worked on the interior and exterior trim details i.e. wheels, exhaust tips, etc..



Richard

Thats still a 24 man hour detail if each worked all 8 hours...thats still a 1800 detail if you charge $75/hr...done in one day yes! one a day and you are making a very ludcrative business....



**** i knew I was doing something wrong! Brain storming commencing now!!!

 

[Richard@BlackWOW]

Haha yeah that would be nice huh? Too bad I still charged him $550! But he brings his car back thrashed every 3 months, so atleast its consistent! The same with the Z06 the day before $550 and that was done over 2 days.



I'd love to be able to get that kind of rate on a job! Oh and no, they didn't work 8 hours. One guy worked maybe 2 hours doing the interior and the other guy did maybe 3 hours..I had to be finished with each panel before he had something to do, so I'd work and he'd go work on something else.



Richard

Thats still a 24 man hour detail if each worked all 8 hours...thats still a 1800 detail if you charge $75/hr...done in one day yes! one a day and you are making a very ludcrative business....



**** i knew I was doing something wrong! Brain storming commencing now!!!

 

[Turbocress]

The judges at the concourse were satisfied enough to give it second. The car has wire wheels and the part of the hood and the whole deck lid had been repaired and needed to be colorsanded to deal with shrinkage of the filler. Emblems had to be removed and put back on of course.



Here again, when you charge higher prices you don't end up shoveling out bird cages with wheels. The car was in decent and clean shape and is a nice car. Still, I only had about 5 hours in it, including polishing those damn wheels and the colorsand and a full cut and polish on the paint. Seriously, this stuff just doesn't take that long after you've been doing it thirty years.





A few years ago at the Newport Concourse I had the first place Dusenberg, the second place Packard and the first place 1967 Cobra. After the show a couple of other detailers came over and started pointing to things on my cars. I let them go on for awhile, mostly about dust and fingerprints people had put on the cars after the judging then asked where their cars were and what places they'd gotten. They said they hadn't gotten anything but that my cars weren't perfect either. So, I told them, "I never claimed my cars were perfect, just better than yours."

BTW, I lost the overall to a Cadillac that was absolutely stunning and definitely deserved the win, and that's what I told the man who detailed it.



Robert

thats pretty classic. it always seems to go that way though, everyones an expert and knows more, yet they just cant seem to get their work to reflect their words.

 

[imported_WhyteWizard]

thats pretty classic. it always seems to go that way though, everyones an expert and knows more, yet they just cant seem to get their work to reflect their words.

The guy who beat me had no problem at all on that score. :bigups



Robert

 

[Dan]

Here again, when you charge higher prices you don't end up shoveling out bird cages with wheels. The car was in decent and clean shape and is a nice car. Still, I only had about 5 hours in it, including polishing those damn wheels and the colorsand and a full cut and polish on the paint. Seriously, this stuff just doesn't take that long after you've been doing it thirty years.

By your own admission, this car was in good shape. If you look at the context of my initial post, its the average daily driver I'm asking about.

 

[AeroCleanse]

By your own admission, this car was in good shape. If you look at the context of my initial post, its the average daily driver I'm asking about.

What's average? Paints can be easy to work with or hard to work with.

 

[Dan]

What's average? Paints can be easy to work with or hard to work with.

And some interiors are more trashed than others.

 

[Turbocress]

And some interiors are more trashed than others.

depends on who owns it.



before i got into detailing and paint correction, i used to keep my car clean all the time, washed often, waxed twice a month etc. and my interior would have a bag with any kind of bottle or trash (i like to drink while i drive...... diet coke ).



and ive seen people who find it acceptable to leave fast food containers in their car for weeks on end, and end up with a rotten smell. and dont get me started about the trunks of peoples cars. haha.







if you advertise a full detail in 1 day, you need a disclaimer in 100 point font bolt italics stating that it is only possible if the car doesnt require 4 passes with a hot water extractor, 3 degreasings for the engine bay and wheel wells, and you wont need to do any major correctional work on the paint.





but if your advertising a full detail, and all your doing is a simple 1 step polish with an AIO product, simple carpet cleaning, and applying JUST a sealant or just wax (cure times). then sure, you can do it in 1 working day.

 

[Accumulator]

I guess that is where the difference is. To make myself happy, I go after all the spots where I know dirt is hiding. A good interior detail takes me 5 hours.

That's the way I am with my vehicles, and it's a big part of why every wash takes me hours, even though I work as fast/efficiently as possible. So no, I don't do a full detail, to my standards, in a day. Not by a long shot.



You have the Audi rings for your avatar, so consider the grille of an Audi- many slots, each with four surfaces and four "corners" that can trap stuff. Doing every slot properly will take how many seconds (add in inspection time)..or how many *minutes*? First you clean during the wash, every slot. Then you prep with, say...AIO. Then you apply something like KSG...same thing for every slot, every surface, every coat of product. Doing just the grille of an Audi can take quite a while.



But that's *my* vehicles, being done *for me*. Nobody "normal" would ever know whether a lot of that work was done or not, and they wouldn't care. When I prep my pal's showcar for concours competetion, we joke about how I'm not trying to get it as nice as my minivan, a comparison he finds quite accurate; the judges don't care and neither does he.

 

[Turbocress]

That's the way I am with my vehicles, and it's a big part of why every wash takes me hours, even though I work as fast/efficiently as possible. So no, I don't do a full detail, to my standards, in a day. Not by a long shot.



You have the Audi rings for your avatar, so consider the grille of an Audi- many slots, each with four surfaces and four "corners" that can trap stuff. Doing every slot properly will take how many seconds (add in inspection time)..or how many *minutes*? First you clean during the wash, every slot. Then you prep with, say...AIO. Then you apply something like KSG...same thing for every slot, every surface, every coat of product. Doing just the grille of an Audi can take quite a while.



But that's *my* vehicles, being done *for me*. Nobody "normal" would ever know whether a lot of that work was done or not, and they wouldn't care. When I prep my pal's showcar for concours competetion, we joke about how I'm not trying to get it as nice as my minivan, a comparison he finds quite accurate; the judges don't care and neither does he.

i thought the concourse judges did care about all the little details.... when every car is absolutely perfect, the only option is to find the tiniest flaws or smallest amount of dirt or defects. just what i thought though, never been to one for that matter

 

[Accumulator]

i thought the concourse judges did care about all the little details.... when every car is absolutely perfect, the only option is to find the tiniest flaws or smallest amount of dirt or defects. just what i thought though, never been to one for that matter

Different concourses are different. Jaguar Club cars aren't in the same class as, say, those competing in the Porsche Club (where, AFAIK, the factory's entry has never won). Completely different judging criteria; with Jag's I hear a lot of "why bother with that, nobody scores it..".



The car I was referring to does well in JCNA and mixed-make regional shows (it won its class at the Stan Hewet Father's Day show right after I did it) and wasn't outclassed at the Glenmoor Gathering, a pretty highly-regarded concours where a whole *LOT* of the competitors aren't as nice as many Autopian daily drivers.