Going back to the basics!

T

The Total Pro

New member
More and more detailers are starting to see that, you can spend all the time in the world on a detail, making cars look amazing restoring paint to perfection but, are you getting the paycheck that covers your time and efforts? Are you able to reflect back to your bank account each month with a smile? Are you paying your bills on time and have money left over? Are you growing financially? If not, then its time to re-evaluate what you are doing. The definition of Insanity is: Doing the same things over and over again, year in and year out but expecting a different result!



Detailing Made Simple; those three words should mean a lot to you!



Just food for thought...
 
I agree with your mindset. Detailing is a great experience as a profession, but it still has to pay the bills. This is why I am greatly considering as I roll out my business full time whether I want to be a autopian or volume guy.
 
I think I reached that stage a lil while back. Not by choice, however. Even before the economy had its minor collapse, Id started gettin less and less calls for perfection. Now, its just, 'make it shiny!" Kinda bugs the heck outta me because while Im no true autopian, I always believed how i delivered a car to someone was a reflection of my work. But nowadays, folks seem happy if the paint feels slick, and it has alil gloss to it ("nevermind the compunding and the polishing, thats takes too much time and costs too much money"). So, in that time, ive become more and more reliant on the one-steps, and glazes have become my new-old friends again.



Oh sure, I do get that occassional person that wants the power of m105, uno, or the menz, but for the rest- its been poliseal, srp, and very soon, d151, and, maybe hdspeed.



At this rate, its no longer really about perfection for me. Ratther its about looking better than when I first got the car.



Detailing made simple, indeed.
 
usdm said:
But nowadays, folks seem happy if the paint feels slick, and it has alil gloss to it
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I think a lot of this has to do with the economy; we're still not out of the woods in terms of recession, so people are still being a bit guarded with their money when it comes to luxury services. It's all a matter of cycles, I'm fairly confident things will swing back in the other direction eventually on a wider scale.



In the meantime, the most noteworthy point here is that as a business owner, it is imperative to price yourself properly to cover overhead expenditures and aim for profitability. That doesn't necessarily mean just low-buck express jobs, nor does it necessarily mean opting for different equipment/products/processes as long as what you have works and allows you to work efficiently.



Using the "WAG" method can get businesses in trouble easily; it's important to actually sit down and figure out what you're really doing.
 
The "just make it clean and shiny" crowd pays my bills. I do some corrections but mostly basic, 1 polishing step details. They are helping me have my best year ever. Plus, my basic 1 polishing step details are far superior to what people can get at a car wash or other detailers.
 
Scottwax said:
The "just make it clean and shiny" crowd pays my bills. I do some corrections but mostly basic, 1 polishing step details. They are helping me have my best year ever. Plus, my basic 1 polishing step details are far superior to what people can get at a car wash or other detailers.
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What exactly do you do in your 1 polishing step detail Scott, and what do you charge? I'll be focusing on my smaller packages this year as well as the big spenders just aren't around like before. Heck, even Polished Bliss and Paul Dalton offer wash and vac packages now!
 
I'm booked out for like 3 weeks on just wash/wax packages. There's a couple clay/polish cars tied in there, but that's not what 99% of the people out there are looking for. I'd rather have 99% of the business that brings in quick cash rather than bust my back on the 8-16 hour corrections that only pay a couple $100 more.



I still wash the cars correctly, still clean the wheels, tires and wells correctly and still clean the interior correctly. Every once in a while I'll apply D301 as my LSP and give the customer a little more gloss if the finish is a little oxidized.



Just keeping it simple and profitable right.



-Kody-
 
my one step polish is DA or RO with Microfibre polishing pads - 50 to 85% correction and one hell of an improvement in paint quality.

two step is DA then RO. rotary or dynabrade on rotary doesnt come out until three step and the rotary will be the second step of the three in that situation



Many people say - get it shiny. well there are only two ways to do that

Remove all or alot of the defects and make it awesome or use silicone/resin/oil based products to fill the defects



I dont know of any other ways.



I am in a lucky situation where I work part time for someone else doing anything from top quality volume work but also plenty of exotic 20 to 50 hour paint corrections



that pays the bills easily and then I go back to my shop and do the same thing, with one or two cars per year given to me

for up to two weeks and I'll spend up to 100 hours on the paint alone pushing the boundaries of whats possible

with paint and getting $75 to 90 per hour doing it



in Australia paint correction with both shops starts at $1200 and goes up as far as you want to go

might be plenty doing cut and polishes in the hundreds but that aint paint correction level work



so I reckon just cater for everyone. from $50-100 dollar nanoskin autoscrub and permanon supershine paint tidy ups to 6 step decontamination and 5 to 10 step paint resurfacing work. do it all
 
detailfanatic said:
What exactly do you do in your 1 polishing step detail Scott, and what do you charge? I'll be focusing on my smaller packages this year as well as the big spenders just aren't around like before. Heck, even Polished Bliss and Paul Dalton offer wash and vac packages now!
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Wash, clay, DA polishing step usually with Optimum Hyper Polish and an Optimum MF polishing pad, then Opti-Seal most of the time. Sometimes I will use HD Poxy, Carnauba Moose or Collinite 476. Interior is fully cleaned and protected as well.
 
I'm glad I stumbled on this thread. I've only been a member for a few weeks but I'm impressed by the quality of people and the posts on this forum. I'm a member on several other car forums where ego's and attitudes ruin the quality of the posts.



I picked up my PC 7424XP about a month ago, some pads and M105/M205. The first couple cars I did I spent way too much time on. I wanted to see what could be fixed and what couldn't. I have a background in body work as well as high end restorations. I'm pretty anal when doing paint/body work and find myself spending more time than I probably should when refinishing a car. If my name is going to be on it I want the car perfect if not damn near.



I have found that I am really passionate about detailing and paint correction. It's been several years that something has grabbed my attention like this. I see posts from senior members here who have been doing it for a long time and I tell myself, I'll be that good one day. I have lost countless hours of sleep reading everything I can about detailing and paint correction on this site and a few others. There are so many products out there its easy to get overwhelmed. I'm old enough and have enough experience to know not go out and by every product out there. IMO its the technique and the knowledge of the person doing it more so than the products that are being used. Currently I am limiting myself to M105, M205, LC orange and white pads, which I already have. I am also looking into SIP or a few of the products from 3D to get a deeper/more glossy finish some of the sports cars I'm going to do. I am also looking at the Meguiars MF system for the really bad spots.



I have a few questions and hopefully someone can give me some good advice.

1. How much do you guys charge for a wash(two bucket method)clay and a paint correction using M205/white pad along with cleaning the interior and applying a wax or sealant?

2. How much more do you guys charge if I have to use two steps, i.e. M105/orange pad and then the M205/white pad?

3. I feel that I have a good grasp of paint correction and I'm decently good at it.(Please don't take that as arrogance because that is not my intent)but I also feel I can't charge what someone that has been doing it for ten years charges. Does that make sense?



Sorry this was so long. I've been doing a lot of searching on here as I don't want to be THAT newb that makes a new post everyday asking something that could be answered using the search function. I just have a few questions that I didn't know how to search for.



Thank you for your time and I'm very happy to be a member on this forum.



Jason
 
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