Knowing when to hire help

[showtime]

For the guys who have been doing this awhile, at what point did you hire help?

I'm getting to the point where I'm working 7 days a week 10hrs a day, and that's just detailing. I'm also an Xpel dealer and am starting two HUGE accounts next month and I'm hoping to get a Megiuar's distributorship. (I don't screw around)

I can manage everything now just because I'm a workaholic. I'm a little weary of hiring somebody due to all the insurance that's involved with it. Not only that, I need somebody who can produce my quality of work, which also will cost more than your average buffer jockey. But I also realize I can't get bigger without employees. I've only been in business for myself for 3 months and never thought things would take off this fast.

[Chris Nemlich]

I still only do a few cars a month. However, I have help on just about every car I detail. My girlfriend enjoys detailing as well and it pays better than any job she could get around here so she is my helper. She can do just about everything I do only I am usually the one to operate the PC. Since we have done many cars together now we have things down to a system which saves us a ton of time.

Not to mention it makes it more enjoyable to have someone to talk to while detailing.

[toyotacamry99]

about how long does it take you guys to detail a car ??

from washing - claying - polishing - protecting - full detail inside - shampoo carpets - vinyl and rubber the dash.

me and a buddy have detailed a couple of cars together. man it took us up to 6 hrs? too long i think but its sweet in the end.

and were thinking of ways to cut down time.

my ears are open to suggestions from the pros! thanks all

[Chris Nemlich]

Our normal process includes claying, one polish depending on the condition and color, and 2 coats of wax. The polish is generally a cleaner polish so we cover two steps in one. Only on brand new cars do we use pure polishes. Both the polish and the 2 coats of wax are applied using a PC. My girlfriend follows behind to wipe it off. On the exterior, we also dress tires, trim, and wheel wells and polish the wheels and plastic. Glass is cleaned and RainX-ed.

For the interior we do a full vacuuming, clean everything, dress all vinyl/plastic, clean and condition leather, do spot removal by hand using APC and a brush, clean door jams, and some other smaller things. When you say shampooing the carpets, what method do you use? I only ask this because shampooing seems general to me after the numerous things I have seen from people. We generally spray carpets and floormats with a light spray of APC, scrub, and wipe off any dirt with a MF towel.

Our time varies greatly from car to car. We made a trip to Long Island and detailed 2 cars per day and each day lasted about 4.5 hours. We did a Toyota Sequoia in about 2.5 hours. However, it was fairly new, white, and the exterior was in very good shape.

An average car takes anywhere from 2 to 4.5 hours depending mostly on how much polishing is required and on the amount of dirt on the interior.

Sorry I can't be more exact with times. Please let me know your detailed process that you use.

If you would like, I can layout what each person does at each step during the process in order to save time. We also have an order of Meguiar's products coming in this week which will decrease our time dramatically.

Some of the time-savers include:

Water Magnet Drying Towel - Cuts drying time in half, plus avoids any minor water spots left by our previous drying towel.
Ultra Plush Super Terry - Works wonders at removing polishes, takes half the time of a traditional MF IMO.
Hair and Lint Extractor Brush - Will save around 30 minutes of hairy interiors.

Hope this helps.

[mirrorfinishman]

Re: Knowing when to hire help

Originally posted by showtime
I'm getting to the point where I'm working 7 days a week 10hrs a day, and that's just detailing.

If you've got that much work you would be smart to think about drastically raising your prices.

[mike_svt]

Wow! I certainly have some learning to do (that's why I'm here ) . I detailed a 2 year old Dodge Durango this past w/n and I spent 9 hours on it and my wife helped for 5...for a total of 14 people-hours! It was in pretty rough shape though. The interior hadn't been vacuumed in a while (if ever), there was salt build-up in the front carpets and a TON of fresh new paved road crude on the outside. I did the following:
vacuum interior
clean interior w/ a Bissel Green Machine
vinyl treatment
windows
bug + tar remover
wash + dry
#80
NXT wax
tire dressing
exterior glass

That's not too unusal for my time...i normally plan at least 1 entire day for a vehicle.

[rusty bumper]

Re: Re: Knowing when to hire help

Originally posted by mirrorfinishman
If you've got that much work you would be smart to think about drastically raising your prices.

Interesting!.........So you think he's underpricing himself?

[Chris Nemlich]

Here's a better answer for you than before. Today my girlfriend and I detailed her mom's Chrysler Town & Country. This is a fairly good sized van, probably comparable in size to the Durango that mike_svt just detailed. I have included lots of images so that you can see how everything turned out.

Our Process

INTERIOR:

She vacuums the entire interior while I work my way around cleaning all panels, door jams, plastic, vinyl, and any leather seats. When she finishes vacuuming she works on the floormats, first vacuuming they spray with APC and scrubbing. Every once in a while she blasts them with a pressure washer then dries them using the wet/dry shop vac. She then proceeds to clean interior glass, dress panels, and spray odor eliminator on carpets. After we both finish we spray and scrub any stains in the carpet.

Products used:
- All Purpose Cleaner - 2 Bottles so both can work at the same time.
- Hyper-Dressing
- Gold Class Rich Leather Aloe Cleaner
- Gold Class Rich Leather Aloe Conditioner
- NEW NXT Generation Glass Cleaner
- Car Odor Eliminator
- All-Surface Interior Brush

Pictures

Before:





After:






EXTERIOR:

On the exterior, we start by washing the car together. She rinses the car first, then I scrub the car with two wash mitts (One for upper body panels, one from under the trim and for the wheel wells at the end) using the two bucket method. I scrub a panel, then she hoses it down while I rinse out my mitts in a seperate bucket with a Grit Guard.

After the washing is complete, she starts to dry the car while I spray the wheels with a wheel cleaner and then follow with a hose to spray them off. I then wipe down each wheel by hand to remove any loose dirt. She uses the Water Magnet to dry the car. This took about 5 minutes on this van.

Next, she does one of two things. She either helps me with the claying process, or proceeds to do what we refer to as "the small things". On this particular, I clayed by myself while she dressed the tires, polished the plastic (headlights, tail lights, mirrors in this case), polished the chrome trim, dressed the black trim, dressed the wheel wells, cleaned the glass, and applied RainX to the windshield.

In the meantime, I clayed the entire front half on the car and select sections on the rear end, mainly on the rear bumper right behind the wheels. The best thing about working with two people is being able to spend time on things such as claying to get it done properly. Without a helper, I wouldn't have the luxury of behing able to take an hour claying. I also applied one coat of wax to the entire vehicle and removed it. She helped apply the second coat and remove it.

Products Used:
- NXT Generation Car Wash
- Professional Detailing Clay
- NXT Generation Tech Wax
- NEW NXT Generation Speed Detailer
- PlastX
- NEW Exterior Trim Detailer
- NEW NXT Generation Insane Shine Tire Spray
- Hot Rims/Cool Care All Wheel Cleaner
- NEW NXT Generation Glass Cleaner
- Hyper-Dressing
- Water Magnet Drying Towel
- Ultra Plush Super Terry
- High-Tech Applicator Pad
- Ultimate Wipe
- Grit Guard Insert

Pictures

Before:



After:



More Before:







More After:












After-Thoughts:

Certainly isn't the most drastic car we have done, although the interior was hugely improved. The entire car, inside and out, took about 4 hours, so 8 man-hours. We didn't polish for three reason: this car lives on dirt roads, it is a light color, this was a freebie job. Even without polish, I thought the van shined quite nicely when done, as can be seen in one or two of the reflection photos.

Let me know what you think.

[mike_svt]

Did you remove the rear seats, or was the van delivered that way? Rear seats (especially 3rd row seats) are quite cumbersome to get into and work around. The van looks great, BTW.

[Tom Weed]

Chris,
nice work on that van and great detailed post too on your steps. I bet your girlfriends mother was happy!

Tom

[Chris Nemlich]

Originally posted by mike_svt
Did you remove the rear seats, or was the van delivered that way? Rear seats (especially 3rd row seats) are quite cumbersome to get into and work around. The van looks great, BTW.

We remove all seats that can be. It makes it much easier to work and it is certainly faster to remove them and put them back in than trying to work around them. This way we get every inch of the seats and carpet cleaned, not just the visible area.

[rusty bumper]

Originally posted by Chris Nemlich
We remove all seats that can be. It makes it much easier to work and it is certainly faster to remove them and put them back in than trying to work around them. This way we get every inch of the seats and carpet cleaned, not just the visible area.

That's a toughy for me!

The rear seat in our Caravan is all one piece, and it weighs about 100lbs. !

I just clean around it as best as I can.

[Chris Nemlich]

The rear seat in this van is split in two and removes fairly easily. It is a great help when detailing!

[GTScott]

Looking at the van there appears to be a dramatic change in the shine on the headlights. Were they just dirty before hand or did you put something on them? They look great!

-GT

[Chris Nemlich]

Originally posted by GTScott
Looking at the van there appears to be a dramatic change in the shine on the headlights. Were they just dirty before hand or did you put something on them? They look great!

-GT

We clayed them then polished them with PlastX. PlastX creates a dramatic improvement on all lights, new and old. I love using this product because it always amazes the owners afterwards!