Detailing a hammered car is horrible.

B

BluBrett

New member
I normally only detail my own cars, but sometimes my neighbors or friends ask for a wash and wax. I "wash and waxed" my neighbor's 2005 Tahoe for $30 the first time in its life a few months ago, and it is really disappointing having to put twice the amount of work as one of my cars into it and have it come out just okay. Today, I washed and waxed (well, I guess it would be called "wash and seal", considering I used AG SRP) my neighbor's beater 2000 Ford Explorer. Not only did it have paint burns everywhere from a hack, but the entire roof clearcoat was failing, the hood was matte, there were horrible water spots from sprinklers all over the paint and glass, and the whole car had heavy swirling. Oh yeah, did I mention it was black? It sucks seeing all this hard work go into a car like this. It sucks more knowing it only has 86,000 miles, but that's a whole different rant. Sure, I could have said no, but they're friends of mine, hence the $30 charge. Hopefully this motivates them to actually sort of care about the car? :confused:
 
nope--if anything they're likely to put less care cause they're just ganna say "well brett'll fix it for 30 bux" I know how you feel but sometimes you just gotta let it go lol--One of my buds kept it up and told em that I can't keep doing it so next time he brings me a trashed car--he's getting charged much closer to usual rates...needless to say he thinks twice before he decides to abuse his car
 
Scottwax said:
I absolutely don't do "friend" prices.
Click to expand...



If they are good friends, I just do it for free or in barter for something if I want to give them a "deal". For example I did a detail on a buddies car in exchange for him printing a stack of color mailers for me.
 
OP'er: Hammered cars are fun when you bid the price right. Not because you can make a killing on them, but you really get to see a transformation. It's a great feeling.





I agree with Scott. This is the deal I offer my friends and family(sans mom or grandmother -those who can't help but deserve it):



I don't do discounts. Only 2 different ways will I do the job for ya...



If you want it for free, you will be my gopher. You will need to be right there with me the whole time. It's hard work, be prepared to be sore the next day.



You pay full price and I treat your car like a clients.



When folks give buddy discounts they usually end up regretting it.
 
Jean-Claude said:
OP'er: Hammered cars are fun when you bid the price right. Not because you can make a killing on them, but you really get to see a transformation. It's a great feeling.





I agree with Scott. This is the deal I offer my friends and family(sans mom or grandmother -those who can't help but deserve it):



I don't do discounts. Only 2 different ways will I do the job for ya...



If you want it for free, you will be my gopher. You will need to be right there with me the whole time. It's hard work, be prepared to be sore the next day.



You pay full price and I treat your car like a clients.



When folks give buddy discounts they usually end up regretting it.
Click to expand...



The worst scenario is:

After the "friend job" is done at a very low (almost insulting) price...his other friends get to know about it, and approaches you for a similar thing....on their cars which are much worse than the 1st car.



The main problem with not only friends, but relatives and family members is, they have no idea of how much work is involved, actual market prices....and they still think of those el 'cheapo "polish/wax" jobs.



That's why, if I see a commoner/non-enthusiast/mum and pap belonging to the above category, and they ask me about these things, 10mins is all I'll spend on them. The questions they ask you have already revealed what kinda car owners they are. Depending on your business policy, you might or might not wanna accept these jobs.



One of my detailing friends who hv to accept these jobs (he's a basic polish wax guy, part time), says that he's virtually "squeezing his balls" while doing these cars, because magical results are expected, the budget is insultingly low, and the cars are often in crappy condition.
 
Now you have word of mouth, You need to create different detail packages. $30 being the cheapest wash and wax and then charge all day jobs accordingly. This way when people come up to asking for the $30 service you can explain to them what it is and then 9 times out of 10 sell them one of your higher end services. Print out info sheets stating like protection last x weeks for each service this is a simple way of people understanding levels of detail.
 
gigondaz said:
The questions they ask you have already revealed what kinda car owners they are. Depending on your business policy, you might or might not wanna accept these jobs.
Click to expand...





TRUE ,

i always quote the car by it`s needs and by the condition , NOT BY THE OWNER!

if owner has multiple vehicles , he is interested in long term service and he is a cool guy , than he can get some extra here and there, but no freebies .

u ask me for discount and u get 100% , bye bye
 
CosminTX said:
TRUE ,

i always quote the car by it`s needs and by the condition , NOT BY THE OWNER!

if owner has multiple vehicles , he is interested in long term service and he is a cool guy , than he can get some extra here and there, but no freebies .

u ask me for discount and u get 100% , bye bye
Click to expand...



Are you insulted or something if they ask for a discount?



Have you never heard the saying, "you miss all the shots you don't take"? It's very popular in business and one needs to recognize it applies to our patrons as it does to us when we are looking for a deal.



I encourage an open line of communication. Hopefully, they will ask/inform me of whatever is on their mind. :D
 
AeroCleanse said:
I always do family members cars for free, because I use them to test new products and techniques (shhh, don't tell them)
Click to expand...



:nixweiss I wouldn't expect my brother with a lawn care business to take care of my lawn for free, nor expect my other brother to do me computer builds for free. I'll trade equal work for equal work but that's about it. This is how I make my living.
 
BluBrett said:
Hopefully this motivates them to actually sort of care about the car? :confused:
Click to expand...



Probably not. If they let their cars get in that condition to begin with, why would they change now?



I did my sister-in-laws 10 year old bmw. wheels with baked on brake dust (absoute worst that I have ever seen), cat scratches on the hood, water spots...you name it. Made it look pretty good after doing my routine on it. Several weeks later: she has not even washed it and it is starting to look like crap again....I won't be doing that again.
 
While I sympathize with you pros on a few different levels (customers bringing in trashed cars and expecting miracles, people expecting you to do your profession for free as a favor, etc.), I gotta say that as an amateur I can almost enjoy doing really trashed beater cars for people, at least if the car in question piques my interest. Heh heh, regulars here know that I seldom really *enjoy* this stuff period, so for me to say that really means something!



It's usually pretty easy to effect a huge improvement, and sometimes I think that I'm given some neglected car its last (perhaps short-lived) chance to look good again.



I had a ball doing my mechanic's >300K mile, rusted out 300SE Benz from the mid-80s. OK, so it probably looked like crap again after a few months...for a little while it was a really nice 20 feet/20 mph car again and the interior was pretty livable for while I was driving it (I ended up liking the car so much that I delayed giving it back! Drove it for another month after getting my car back from servicing... cool, if slow, old car).



Heh heh, maybe I missed my calling as an auction-prep hack :chuckle:
 
I like hammered cars sometimes. I had a friend with a beat-to-crap '99 Ranger that let me practice rotary polishing on. That truck got me two customers!



-Drew
 
My best friend growing up gets a full interior/exterior right before summer. Then for the rest of the summer he sends his workers to cut and edge my yard since he owns a lawn care business. I'll barter with a friend, I don't do freebies or discounts for them. I place too much value on my time I spend in my garage pouring over a vehicle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top