First day on site doing washings. What a day!

Jngrbrdman

Jngrbrdman

New member
I tell ya... I've got to be crazy or something. Steve (Smoker) and I started work at an office today where we are assured probably 12 cars a day twice a week for most of the year. We got on the west side of the building and had some great shade till about 11:30 or so. By the time we left it was 108 according to the thermostat on Steve's truck!! Unvelievable!!! We were only able to crack out 2 Yukons, a Sequoia, a Concorde, and a little Mercedes CLK. We started too late and it got too hot. It was a huge feeling of acomplishment though. We are going to start working earlier in the day from now on. Today was our first day so they wanted us there at 10 but we'll be there at 8 from now on.



I remember when I first saw guys out in front of a business washing cars. I remember looking at them and saying to myself that I wanted to be like that someday. I've been detailing for the last 6 years but most of it has been on location at the client's house. I've also picked up cars from offices and taken them back to my garage to be done. This is the first time that I have set up a deal with an office and scheduled weekly visits to do car washing. It was hot and I learned a lot about setting up to do multiple quick washes. When I say wash it was just a wash, wheels, tires, carpets, dash kind of thing. No serious detailing action really. Its kind of hard to restrain myself from doing the full treatment on some of these cars. When you know that a quick once over with AIO will improve the look dramaticly it is hard to just dry it off and let it be. I took opportunity to upsell the treatments and polish jobs to the owner's when they came to get their keys though. We even managed to pick up a boat detail job. lol Anyone know anything about detailing boats? lol This is going to be great for Seve's business and my own business. I'm just glad that I found an Autopian to work with. We both have the same standard of excellence in detailing and know the process well. I'm looking forward to working with him on this.



To the rest of the detailers who set up shop on location to do quanity work, how did you go about getting the gigs? This one sort of fell into our laps. I didn't go out actively looking for it. Did you get referals or how did you do it? I'd like to set up more than one location this summer and split the week between the two of them.
 
Agreed !



Damn that sun got insane towards the end.

We had to put off a rather sick-looking Saturn and the MD's Cadillac till Friday morning.

No doubt we'll get a few more "Do ya think you could just give my car a quick wash?" when we turn up on Friday.



Ya gotta love women tho, we gave a nice black CLK a quick clean (the car we hwere eyeing up as a ' I wouldn't mind detailing/driving that' choice parking lot car) and noticed the paint was rather badly treat, alot of nasty watermarks, confirmed when the owner casually mentioned taking it thru a car wash and leaving it out in the sun to dry.....





:scared :scared



Anyways, always one to exploit a situation we thought she might want the full treatment on our next visit, we asked, after a 'how much' she agreed to the price without batting eyelid.

I guess we got her thinking as the same person returned (again) to ask if we could detail her boat.



:bow :bow





Gotta love customers like that... I wonder if she needs anything else detailing while we're at it.......



All in all a grand first day, they were well pleased with our work and said things will only get busier.



Once we master the 'production line quick wash' technique I guess it'll gain popularity elsewhere and hopefully fill up the week.



Its an awesome way to get new business and certainly to get more full details, most average folks are pretty uneducated as to just HOW good you can make their pride n joys look.



I'm sure Jngrbrd (Tony) will be posting more photos of our day, and a huge



:xyxthumbs :xyxthumbs :xyxthumbs



To the guy in Vegas that put Larry Olsen onto us.



Thanks, dude.
 
We got lucky and this site gave us access to water through their sprinkler system. We just plugged our hose in and we were off. We ran an extention cord around the corner into their stock room and we were set for that too. Its the perfect setup for a couple guys who aren't equiped with a trailer full of goodies.
 
Well, we are cutting them a sweet deal in exchange so they don't really have much room to complain. The place they were taking the cars before is just horrible. You can see protectant overspray all over the place when they bring them back. One of the owners just had his Expedition done on Monday and you can see the overspray all over the fenders and running boards. Pretty shoddy work for a "professional" car wash. I think they see that we really care about the cars and are doing it because we appreciate fine looking clean automobiles and not so much for the money. I'm willing to cut them a good deal if they will keep me knee deep in cars all summer without me having to beg. They said that it is even busy for their old detailers in the winter too because they want to get all the salt off. That would be a switch. I'm used to business drying up in the winter. This is going to be a great place to do business at. :)
 
Sounds like you guys had fun!



With QEW, I can usually knock out 5 cars in 4 hours by myself (including vacuuming, tires and windows), or 4 SUVs in 4 hours. The key is to do them all at the same time. Vacuum them all, then line them up to wash the body of the vehicles, then the door jams and tires, then do all the windows and then the wheels. Doing them one at a time takes longer overall, and you always feel like you are starting over when you begin the next car.



You definitely did the right thing in upselling. Our version of 'do you want fried with that' is a real money maker. Best of all, once you have them detailed, the weekly washing is a lot easier.



My boys will be helping me this summer. If my Dad and I can QEW his ES 300 in 15 minutes (including door jams, tires and dressing them), my sons and I should be at least that fast. Best of all, they are still under 18, so no withholding!
 
That's good advice Scott. We are still working on merging our technique and process into one smooth team. We both know what we are doing and we did really well for our first day as far as not getting in each other's way. I'm going to have to think about this QEW. I've read a lot about it but haven't ever tried it. How much does it take to do one car? What would you consider the cost to be for an average sized car to use QEW? If it was cost effective then I would use it. Depending on if it would save me time compared to using water. The time I save would have to be enough to cover the cost of the product at this point. I am curious though... I'll tell you what... Get a cooler and send me a bucket of Blue Bell ice cream and some QEW and I'll be your best friend for life. :D
 
Calestus said:
Speaking of protectant...what did you guys use to dress the tires?
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Eagle One Wet. I've been using it on my customer's cars a lot lately and just thought it would be a classy touch. I've got enough rubber/vinyl protectant to last me a lifetime but I thought I'd make this first group of cars look a little better than usual because they were the cars owned by the brass of the company. I wanted them to spread the word that we were good. The big SUV tires looked good with the EO Wet on. Steve uses Meguiar's Endurance and that looks real good too. We'll probably keep using one or the other for now. We won't make as much per car as if we used something cheaper but they sure will look good. ;) If someone has a suggestion for a product that is less expensive that looks really good then I'm all ears.
 
I pay about $35 for a gallon of QEW and it will wash about 150 cars or so. I carry a five gallon water jug with me, you'd probably need two if you are doing a lot of cars though. One gallon will wash one dirty car, or two reasonably clean ones before you need to change out the water and add QEW again. You just wash a section and dry it immediately. Really saves time if you are waxing because you end up with very little water in the side moldings and mirrors so almost no drips. In addition, if you work on a crowded parking lot, you don't have to worry about getting other people's cars wet, no one will be slipping on wet pavement, etc.
 
Interesting.... Steve and I are going to have to discuss that option. How much time per car do you figure it saves you compared to using a hose and bucket?
 
It cuts down the time down probably a good 30% since you only go around the car one time. One of you could start washing and the other follow around with a terry cloth towel (first pass, leaving some water behind) and drying with an mf towel. Like I said, my Dad and I did his entire car in 15 minutes. It helped that it wasn't real dirty and my Dad already had used QEW so he knew what he was doing. The actual time to wash just the body of his car was around 5 minutes with my following him with the towels.
 
Yeah, a potential customer got his Suburban detailed recently and asked "Can you do my boat?". Um, I had to say no because I have no idea what to use on a huge thing like that :D. Plus I doubt the stuff I use would last very long when the thing is in the ocean.



anyone detailed a boat before? I'm pretty sure QEW is out of the question, hehe.
 
I completely agree with Scottwax, with two people QEW is so fast, one washes the other dries, done. QEW seems to be about the same price as most average car washes. QEW is also good on wheels and doorjams. Guys nice touch with tires not going cheap, this is definitely one part the average joe appreciates and will set your work apart.
 
gnahc79 said:
Yeah, a potential customer got his Suburban detailed recently and asked "Can you do my boat?". Um, I had to say no because I have no idea what to use on a huge thing like that :D. Plus I doubt the stuff I use would last very long when the thing is in the ocean.



anyone detailed a boat before? I'm pretty sure QEW is out of the question, hehe.
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You can use the same products that you use on cars. I use a truck brush to wash them down. Unfortunately no product is going to last very long on a boat that sits in the ocean. I've had good results with Pro Products RV, Boat and Aircraft wax. I've also had good success with polymer paint sealants. On larger boats I use a scaffolding set up with my ladder. This really saves a lot of time.
 
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