Mobile Detailers?

C

clnfrk

New member
For those of you who are strictly mobile, I am wondering how you go about performing a full detail including exterior wash, clay, swirl/scratch removal, paint protectant, engine cleaning and interior all within 8 hours of a typical work day?



I just completed my first official detail under my business name, which included all of the above mentioned services and it took me 2 days to do it. It was a black Cadillac Escalade ESV (long version) that belonged to a friend of my sister so I was able to take it back to her house to work on it. The car was very filthy outside, but the interior was not bad at all. The reason it took me so long was the paint correction process. Lots of micromarring evident with the halogens shining on it. I found that I had to make several applications and passes with polish to get virtually perfect results. I did a 2 stage polish.



The good news is that the finish came out looking absolutely great, but at the expense of way too much time invested. So, I would just like to know how all of you go about such a job? Am I just trying to be too perfect?
 
Two days, that's a bit much, I'm not even sure how you can drag a process out that long.



How slow were you going?
 
I've not started for my business yet, but have done a few vehicles to try and get a rythm down. For larger vehicles and full detail, I'm shooting for absolutely no more than 6 hours.

I can do everything but paint correction in about 1.5 hours.



I think the biggest key is organization and your sequence. Meaning, try and get a pattern going where you go in the exact same order everytime.
 
Over time you will get faster. Perfection is great but if you are running a business consider what it is costing you. It seems most charge $30-$60 an hour so if the SUV took you 10 hours and you charged $300-$600 then you'd be in that range.
 
The two people I know for sure are totally mobile detailers are Scottwax and Justin. You may check some of their posts if they dont chime in here.
 
I'm also totally mobile. As Josh noted, performing paint correction is a time consuming process and probably the bottleneck in a full-detail, especially if you're using only a PC. A rotary buffer might speed up the swirl removal process.



It would probably take me about 10 hrs to ultra detail an Escalade like you describe. Otherwise, the paint correction can be performed sepatately from a regular detail.
 
Danase said:
If you don't mind me asking...what machine and products where you uses for the paint?
Click to expand...



I started out using the an orange LC pad to apply Sonus SFX 1 with a rotary. While this helped somewhat on the marring, I found that the polish or pad combo wasn't quite aggressive enough. I then switched to 3M Perfect It II rubbing compound with an orange pad and results were better, but I found that I had to make several applications and passes with this combo to eliminate all of the swirls/scratches. I pretty much kept polishing each area until all or pretty much all of the original scratches were gone replaced by the micro scratches of hazing.



I actually ended up switching to the PC using the same 3M, but with a 3 inch spot buffing orange pad instead and found that this seemed to work better, but at the expense of time. I tried it with what I believe was a 5.5-6" pad also, but found the 3" pad was more effective. After a while I even switched to a yellow pad for even greater cut. I would have tried a more aggressive polish, but the 3M is the most aggressive one I have so far.



I then proceeded to final polish with Menzerna FP II with a white LC pad with a rotary and also ended up switching to the same size pad using a PC. I also had to make several passes with this to remove all of the hazing. Under the halogens, pretty much there was not a defect to be seen. Under strong sunlight I could still make out the very slightest bit of residual hazing marks, but I'm talking almost imperceptible. I would have used the Blackfire SRC, but I ran out of that. I absolutely love that polish.



Lastly, I topped off with UPP sealant. At least now I know what I did wrong so that I can save alot of time in the future. Instead of experimenting on a single section to find out which products/pads and machine worked best, I completed a large portion of the car only to be unsatisfied with the results and going back over the entire area again and several times at that. I also need to stock up on some polishes with more cut to them.
 
3Dog said:
The two people I know for sure are totally mobile detailers are Scottwax and Justin. You may check some of their posts if they dont chime in here.
Click to expand...



I am a full time mobile detailer too....:buffing:





You'll need to get a system down, like others have said. You need to find a system you can do where you are not going over yourself time after time. Like if you clean the windows, then polish. You will get dust on the glass, there for, having to do the glass again. Doing something twice is a no-no.

It is like a combination. You'll have to see what works for you.

Process is another thing. Know your products, what they do, and learn to use them efficiently. You don't want to use 2 different products that do the same thing.



I am still refining my processes, but here is my routine....



Interior first...

clean all vinyl, leather, and plastic

dress all "" "" ""

clean inside windows

vac

hot water extractor

air freshener



Exterior second....

wheels, tires, wells

wash car

dry

clay

dress tires and wells

polish

wax/seal

while the wax or sealer is on the paint, I apply polish to chrome etc.....

remove wax/sealer

windows



I probably forgot something in there....lol
 
There really isn't much you can do to speed up major paint correction on a black vehicle the size of an Escalade ESV, other than to do enough of them to find the right pad/polish combination that works in each situation. Even the same colored, same year vehicles do not have the same exact paint, although you can usually find a similar starting point.
 
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