questions for detailing a silverado

[Still Learnin]

so i got a detail coming up this weekend... its my friends sisters 1999 chevy silverado 1500. gold in color with black interior. my plan of attack is wash, clay, wash, wax. dress exterior. remove dull and oxidation from headlights and tailights, "shampoo" the interior, dress interior (interior isnt in bad shape)...

my question is should i hit it with some 105/205 to remove some scratches and swirls? i also have 2 of those sample bottles of the cleaner wax that comes with the clay kit, would that work? and when you guys say clean paint, would this be what you guys mean?

what would a job like this cost? im horrible with prices. ive told them 200 but i dont know if thats too much or too little. id like to impress them since the husband has a 65 impala in the garage thats hes building so if i can impress him maybe he will give me more work. the hardest part would probably be the claying process since this truck sits outside for the past 10 yrs. thank you guys for your help... its greatly appreciated

[Murr1525]

Re: questions for detailing a silverado

No need to wash after claying, that will save time.

The best thing to do would be to ask them if they want swirls removed, or if they just want it shined up.

Are you working by PC, etc? Or by hand?

[Still Learnin]

Re: questions for detailing a silverado

yah i dont usually wash after clay but i figured it would get the wax to stick better without any left residue.. they dont really care for the swirls... but i figured id get a better shine out of the car.

do you think just wash clay and wax will be good enough?

ill be doing the wax with my g110.. and if any other polish or whatever that needs to be applied will be done with the g110

$200 a good price? figured he sent some trim for his car and paid $200 for that and i wasnt even impressed still has swirls. so i grabbed my g110 and a 4" pad and went to town and got a better result...

[Bounty]

Re: questions for detailing a silverado

yah i dont usually wash after clay but i figured it would get the wax to stick better without any left residue.. they dont really care for the swirls... but i figured id get a better shine out of the car.

I always wash after claying but it's probably more of a preference thing. Some clay bars leave more residue than others so that may be a factor. Meguiar's white or blue clay haven't left residue in my experience but Mother's yellow clay always leaves horrible streaks. I wash and use the proper technique so it cannot hurt...but it's up to you.

do you think just wash clay and wax will be good enough?

If you're not going to polish the car then using a cleaner wax (like the burgundy bottles you have) or a product like Meguiar's Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner (DC1) which use chemical cleaners versus mechanical abrasives (like a polish) would be a nice step.

ill be doing the wax with my g110.. and if any other polish or whatever that needs to be applied will be done with the g110

Smart man...doing a vehicle of that size by hand would be murder!

$200 a good price? figured he sent some trim for his car and paid $200 for that and i wasnt even impressed still has swirls. so i grabbed my g110 and a 4" pad and went to town and got a better result...

To be honest, for the work you're describing, it might be a little low. I charge $35 an hour so a wash/clay/wax (no interior/no engine bay) is $105 for a regular vehicle. A big truck or SUV typically requires another hour so my price is $140 in that case. An SUV interior is roughly two hours so that's another $70 with $35 more for the engine bay and another $70 to fully restore headlights (wetsand/polish/protect). For me to do that job I'd have to see at least $315 to be worth my time/product expenditure. And that's with no polishing or swirl/defect removal.

You have your eye set on a bigger and better job so $200 is more than fair if you get the full correction work on their classic. If not, I'm afraid you're being underpaid for the time and effort in my opinion.

If you want to do a test spot to show them what a true swirl-free finish looks like and try to upsell a job for the future that's fine. Let them know upfront that paint correction work will be charged on a "per pass" basis. For example if you're going to do a one-step it would be $250...two-step would be $500...three-step would be $750...and so on. This is in addition to the money for the detailing mentioned above. This is really the only way to get into a job and not hit unexpected snags which kill your profitability. You have to prep, tape, polish, finish, wash, and apply LSP for a full paint correction and do so utilizing materials, machinery, and skills not readily available or attainable by your average consumer. Charge accordingly!!

[Murr1525]

Re: questions for detailing a silverado

As mentioned above, I think a godo cleaner/wax, esp applied by G100, would do good.

Something like ColorX would be easy to find quickly, though you could look into something like the D151 Paint Reconditioning Cream, if you can find it quickly.

Than slap on some Nxt 2.0 if you feel like it.

[Still Learnin]

Re: questions for detailing a silverado

yah i was just wondering if i should do more to clean the paint.. but there are alot of scratches on the truck and that will prove to be more work than what i will be getting paid for. if i was to remove some scratches, the thing im afraid of is if i hit it by hand and then on the g110, im afraid ill get some spots that look new compared to the area around it that didnt get attention.. thats why i was wondering if i should clean it or not.

what do u guys think.. im getting paid 200 total and some homemade chimichangas... this is maybe like my 10th customer so its not like im pro. im more stoked that this will be my first 200 dollar job but i dont wanna be too underpaid, i try to work on friends/family cars so i can learn before i step it up and actually advertise later on down the road

[Ol' Red]

Re: questions for detailing a silverado

I think $200 is more than enough, but OK if she is willing to pay it. It's for a friends sister, and you are doing this in order to get more business from her father. It doesn't sound like you are doing much- a wash, clay, wax is not a hard procedure. She could do it if she wanted. But, if you get into buffing and polishing with the machine, then yeah, $200 or more would be a fair price. You said the interior was not bad, and didn't mention if she wanted an engine detail, so it doesn't sound like much work.

[Murr1525]

Re: questions for detailing a silverado

The other thing to consider is if you want to practice at removing them.

You can be honest and ask if they mind you spending some extra time trying something gentle to remove them for no charge, but you are worried the spots you work on might stand out.

If they do stand out, then maybe you have to offer a free detail another weekend to fix everything.... but if you want the practice...

[Bounty]

Re: questions for detailing a silverado

I think $200 is more than enough, but OK if she is willing to pay it. It's for a friends sister, and you are doing this in order to get more business from her father. It doesn't sound like you are doing much- a wash, clay, wax is not a hard procedure. She could do it if she wanted.

$200 is more than enough?! You need to move down to Miami, brother. If you'll do all that work to an SUV for $200 you'll have a line of cars outside your place here. He's washing, then claying, then layering two coats of wax...all an a huge SUV. He's reconditioning the interior. He's restoring the headlights. He's detailing the engine bay. That's a full days labor and in my case would estimate out to be about 7 to 8 hours. And what about the specialized materials and tools used? To me it's low but maybe I'm just jaded from what we can charge down here for professional detailing knowledge...

But, if you get into buffing and polishing with the machine, then yeah, $200 or more would be a fair price. You said the interior was not bad, and didn't mention if she wanted an engine detail, so it doesn't sound like much work.

$200 to $250 per step on a machine buffing cycle or paint correction is the standard for high end detailers here. I would never go lower than $100 per pass/step just to be fair to you in expended materials/time/effort and of course to compensate you for the risk we all take when we remove paint on someone else's car.

As I said before, the price is ok because you're trying to snag a bigger, better job from them and get some good word of mouth advertising. The test spot idea is ok to show them what a full correction could do. Once they're ooohhh'ing and aaahhh'ing over the swirl-free area you let them know what it would cost...

[Still Learnin]

Re: questions for detailing a silverado

I think $200 is more than enough, but OK if she is willing to pay it. It's for a friends sister, and you are doing this in order to get more business from her father. It doesn't sound like you are doing much- a wash, clay, wax is not a hard procedure. She could do it if she wanted. But, if you get into buffing and polishing with the machine, then yeah, $200 or more would be a fair price. You said the interior was not bad, and didn't mention if she wanted an engine detail, so it doesn't sound like much work.

yah $200 is worth it.. and it will be a lot of work for me in a day... im trying to realistically knock it out in 8-9 hrs. i will probably throw in an engine detail cause everything else will be cleaned might as well clean that while im at it. im not trying to make big dollars off this job but i dont wanna sell myself short either.

the interior will get its carpet scrubed and extractor of all dirt and what not. so will the seats. will clean dirt spots on the doors etc. then dress em with natural shine or QID. i will remove visible bolts and screws on doors to clean around em and clean seat brackets. im looking to return their car and have em say the magical words " D@@@MN "

[Still Learnin]

Re: questions for detailing a silverado

The other thing to consider is if you want to practice at removing them.

You can be honest and ask if they mind you spending some extra time trying something gentle to remove them for no charge, but you are worried the spots you work on might stand out.

If they do stand out, then maybe you have to offer a free detail another weekend to fix everything.... but if you want the practice...

Yah i was planning on trying to remove/lighten some scratches anyways just to get experience. theyre not picky. but thats why i was thinking of trying an all in one. i called em today cause it sprinkled/rained a little bit here in the inland empire and were thinking if tomorrow doesnt lighten up that it would be next week. if so ill throw in an order at ADS for some goodies and pads.

Her husband has friends from their car club, if i can impress him he will spread the word and hopefully turn into more business for me.

As Bounty stated earlier i will probably clean the paint up a little, nothing too crazy just try to get a better shine with some cleaning. i will probably do a test spot on the roof and show em what it could look like. but i think they'll be good with what im doing for them now.

Thanks for all the info and help guys...

[maikolo]

Re: questions for detailing a silverado

Good luck on this mate, Dont forget to take some before and after shots so the team here can say the word DAMMMMMMM. Its always hard pricing when its for either friends/family.