The 2 hour "detail"

Dan

Dan

Well-known member
Just curious as to what you guys would do to the "average" car if you had two hours. By average I mean:



-moderately swirled paint

-dirty wheels

-some minor interior staining

-moderate surface contamination



Time break down would be cool...



I would:



Interior vacuum and spot treat - 15 min

Wipe down interior panels and treat with OLC - 15 min

Quick window clean - 5 min

FOAM and powerwash exterior and treat wheels - 15 min

ONR wash and clay the car - 30 min

Polish with Megs D151 - 30 minutes

Dress tires - 5 minutes

Optiseal Paint - 5 minutes
 
Regulars here know that I can seldom even *wash* in just two hours, but I've had to do some really quickie jobs before (for decidedly non-Autopian pals). Can't help with the timeline breakdown as I was simply hustling too much.



Heh heh, I'm the last guy to provide a good answer to this one, just thought I'd post how I *did* handle it since it's soooo out of character for me to do something like this :D



Body/paint:

-Wash with alkaline portion of decontamination system, maybe claying while doing this (yeah, it sure does eat up the clay fast)

-Dry

-One-step with something like Autoglym SRP

-W-O-W-O with Collinite 476S or 845



Wheels/tires/wells:

-Rinse, presoak with APC (used EFHI)

-Acidic wheel cleaner

-Scrub as best I could without getting fancy about it

-Dress tires



Interior:

-Vacuum

-APC on stained (non-leather) surfaces

-Quick steaming of some areas

-Meg's #39 (is that the right number? I mean the cleaner/dressing combo product :think: ) if time permits or Meg

's Interior QD



Glass:

-Whatever you can do fastest (exterior glass should be sorta-OK from the wash)



A recent example: a pal I work dogs with had his white Kennel-van get covered with latex housepaint overspray. He (zero detailing experience/knowledge) and I got it done in just a little more than the hour he had scheduled to work my dogs, but we didn't do the interior. Best that van's ever looked, even if it was really half-@$$ed by Autopian standards.
 
Alexshimshimhae said:
dag...i take forever doing that but kudos to you for getting that done lol
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Yeah, it by no means is a complete detail, but just something I do for friends and family, but I'm always looking to speed it up even more. The above always wows them but I always want to refine the process.
 
Yakky:

What is OCL on the interior??



Can you completely apply Opti-Seal to an car's exterior in 5 minutes??:nervous:
 
I wouldn't Foam, Clay, OLC or Polish it that's for sure.



I'd do a complete exterior wash w/AM Hydro Shine and clean the interior. 2 hours in pretty tough unless you're set up to do high speed volume.
 
zoomzoom mazda5 said:
Wow, it takes me 2 hrs just to wash it. I must be getting old...
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More likely you're just doing it right. When washing vehicles I care about, 2 hours would probably be a new record.
 
Lonnie said:
Yakky:

What is OCL on the interior??



Can you completely apply Opti-Seal to an car's exterior in 5 minutes??:nervous:
Click to expand...



Optimum Leather Care, great stuff, but it stinks. And yeah, Optisealing a car is cake, takes about as much time as drying.
 
zoomzoom mazda5 said:
Wow, it takes me 2 hrs just to wash it. I must be getting old.................:hide:
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Lol. I spend quite a while on my own cars too, but when it comes to bang per buck, or time in this case, I'm curious as to what everyone else is doing. I thought for sure people would have more aggressive routines than mine.
 
David Fermani said:
I wouldn't Foam, Clay, OLC or Polish it that's for sure.
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I find that if I foam and blast the big chunks of dirt off, I can ONR faster and with less fear of marring. When I am done with the powerwash, all that is left on the surface is the oily grime that powerwashing never seems to take off.
 
The auto auction guys do it in an hour or so.



Guess what it looks and smells like. But $85 an hour is good coin.
 
yakky said:
Just curious as to what you guys would do to the "average" car if you had two hours. By average I mean:



-moderately swirled paint

-dirty wheels

-some minor interior staining

-moderate surface contamination



Time break down would be cool...



I would:



Interior vacuum and spot treat - 15 min

Wipe down interior panels and treat with OLC - 15 min

Quick window clean - 5 min

FOAM and powerwash exterior and treat wheels - 15 min

ONR wash and clay the car - 30 min

Polish with Megs D151 - 30 minutes

Dress tires - 5 minutes

Optiseal Paint - 5 minutes
Click to expand...



I wish i could move that quick. Some vehicles take me a good 45 minutes or so just to do the wheels. If i could move that fast i could charge a little less and maybe have a little more work. How do you move so quick LoL.



David Fermani said:
I wouldn't Foam, Clay, OLC or Polish it that's for sure.



I'd do a complete exterior wash w/AM Hydro Shine and clean the interior. 2 hours in pretty tough unless you're set up to do high speed volume.
Click to expand...



David you are the first person i have heard of that uses AM Hydro Shine. What is your process for that and does it have any sort of protection in it? I have that in my arsenal and have used it for a while but not lately.
 
This would be the way I would do it if I had 2 hours, medium size vehicles. I allow 3 hours for large vehicles. I like to keep it simple. I do the same to all vehicles unless the customer requests polish and wax or clean leather, cloth, interior, ect. My prices are for small, medium and large vehicles, 3 separate prices. I do this to all vehicles in this order. Hope I've not left any step out. To do this much in this amount of time will work your a** off. Sometime the customer don't want inside cleaned so we discount from my price.

#1. I remove mat, floor mats, vacuum and wash them first, they may need more time to dry if the are carpet type rather that vinyl.

#2. I vacuum inside, and trunk and all carpeted area.

#3. Wipe inside down with damp microfiber that's been treated with cleaner, dash, door panels, seats, console, every sq inch of inside. I clean door jams here also while I have all doors and hood, trunk open.

#4 Treat inside with dressing and trim restorer, dash, door panels, console and all vinyl areas.

#5. Close all doors and wash complete exterior, doing tires first and then they are last to final rinse.

#6. Completely dry down exterior, wipe down door jams wiping excess water out, trunk, hood and gas lid.

#7 use detail spray on all exterior, and trim restorer on exterior vinyl, and tire shine to tires.

#8 clean all windows, inside and out, doing the outside first

#9 put floor mats back in and I'm done.
 
Perhaps I should refine my technique a bit...It took me 2 hours (dismissing drying time) to detail my WHEELS this weekend...hmmm
 
This thread reminds me of that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer is trying to figure out how everyone else can possibly get by with only 10-15 minutes in the shower...



I think my average maintenace wash runs about 1.5 to 2 hours. In that time I can usually do a nice wheel wash, carwash, exterior dressing of tires and plastic ground effects, followed by a quick interior vacuum and wipedown. Nothing fancy, but enough to keep the car looking presentable on a weekly or biweekly basis.



My full wash/wax detail usually takes me on the order of 5-6 hours. That includes all the above steps plus, cleaning the glass, dressing of exterior rubber/plastic, clay and wax exterior (usually 2 coats of NXT for complete coverage). The interior also gets a much more complete going over as compared to the weekly routine. I usually try and do this at least once every 2-3 months.



Then I usually do one of two "mega" details per year which include all of the previous stuff plus carpet cleaning and polishing the exterior with the PC, and that usually ends up being a full day and a half of work, or one really long day.



...and I just realized that between my wife's car and mine I spend a crap ton of time washing vehicles...
 
87ninefiveone said:
...and I just realized that between my wife's car and mine I spend a crap ton of time washing vehicles...
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And that (says the guy who does ~3 hour maintenance washes) is something worth thinking about :think:



I used to spend a huge chunk of my life on this stuff, but there's only so much time, and I want to do more than keep my car clean.
 
david been reading some of you replys and seeing to be well educated ,can you please tell me(i'm new in business) how much I should charge to a 250+ cars dealership for just a wash and dry outside? just to clean dirt,they are next to expressway and cars get dirty really fast,they will used me like twice a month .Thanks in advance for you help,hhmonge at hotmail.com thanks again
 
Not that I could do it. The only suggestion I could make is during the ONR wash, spray the panel with OCW (while wet) then dry. Skip the Optiseal step. OCW will work effectively on wet or dry panels.
 
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