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**genes** · Aug 21, 2005, 07:04 PM

This is a great question in that everyone wants to know the same answer.
Personally I start organizing the night before. I get all my buckets, wash, mitts, pads, interior products all organized on my cart ready to go. I have multiple vacuums, (dry, wet), so they are staged. The interior is first so that's what is on the top shelf. When those are done I swap the bottom of the cart to the top. The hoses are already strewn out, soap is in the buckets, mitts are on the cart and drying towels are ready to go.
I have my music ready to go along with water to drink.
Organization cuts down on the running around and frustation.

Making sure to dry the doorjams, blow out the side mirrors, clean the top of the windows then roll them up and clean will solve alot of do overs. I learned the hard way to put a towel on the dash when you clean the inside window. Or you will be reapplying the interior spray on the dash again.
I always apply Final Touch before I return the car to the customer. It has a fantastic final shine to it.

I also have my wife look at the final product before I turn it over to the customer. I hope this helps.

**rusty bumper** · Aug 21, 2005, 08:48 PM

I have been using plastic carry all caddies to hold my products in. They're very cheap and do a good job of organizing my bottles.

Another great idea, is to type out a detailing list on your pc and save it on your desktop, or in your My Documents folder.

When it comes time to do a detail, you can print a copy of your list and use it to make sure you have all of your things on hand before you leave out.

You can always add to, or update the list from time to time.

These 2 ideas have aided me greatly!

**Mini-T** · Aug 22, 2005, 07:42 AM

I have found that you can fit 7 of the Detailer line spray bottles in a 5 Gal bucket. So I use one bucket to hold bottles and stack it into a bucket with a Grit Guard. The Grit Guard only adds about an inch to the hight of two buckets stacked. When you get to the job just pull out the bottle bucket and fill the one that has the Grit Guard with water and your ready to go.

**Big Ben** · Aug 23, 2005, 08:07 AM

RL,
Sounds like you're operating from a car which is probably very cramed with stuff. I don't have your problem because I'm operating from a big 6' x 10' covered trailer. However one thing I find very useful is my white plastic 5 drawers cabinets, they're not very big, 36" high x 16" wide or you can get smaller one and can be found in most chain stores like Home Depot and they are very easy to move around or in and out of the car. Anyway, I like them because they alow me to see what's in the drawers.

On the other hand, if you're thinking of expanding, you will eventually need to get more equipment which will make your life easier but requires space, therefore if you can't efford to buy a truck or a van maybe you should concider buying a small trailer.

Last thing, as far as dog hair goes, as you probably know by now, they're almost impossible to pick up with the vacuum alone so my suggestion is to go to a pet shop and get what they call a hair eraser, it's a block of foam that you use to pull hair from the fabric and makes it alot easyer to vacuum, 'works for me'.

Big Ben
Buff Thech Auto Detailing

**rusty bumper** · Aug 23, 2005, 08:37 AM

Originally posted by Big Ben
On the other hand, if you're thinking of expanding, you will eventually need to get more equipment which will make your life easier but requires space, therefore if you can't efford to buy a truck or a van maybe you should concider buying a small trailer.

That sounds like a good idea to me. A decent trailer shouldn't be too expensive IMO.

**RLdetail** · Aug 28, 2005, 04:29 PM

I thought I posted a reply before but I guess I was mistaken!

I picked up 2 of those caddy things last week and also bought a new shopvac yesterday.

After trying out the shopvac this morning I decided to go over my interior and have to say having all my interior dressings and cleaners right there in the caddy made things tons easier and faster!!

I think that next year I'll invest in a van or maybe a small trailer. The year is winding down and not worth it for me to get something now and have it sit through the winter.

Thanks for the input!!

**rusty bumper** · Aug 28, 2005, 06:46 PM

Originally posted by RLdetail
I picked up 2 of those caddy things last week and also bought a new shopvac yesterday.

After trying out the shopvac this morning I decided to go over my interior and have to say having all my interior dressings and cleaners right there in the caddy made things tons easier and faster!!

Thanks for the input!!

Best $2.00 I ever spent on detailing helpers!

**Dragpakmach** · Aug 29, 2005, 03:43 AM

If youre like me a trailer is out of the question right now.Meguiars makes a crate with their logo on it with a shoulder strap to put all of your product in.Its about 25.00 dollars and has little pouches for each bottle.And you can hang the spray bottles off the side.Ive forgotten enough stuff to justify buying this crate.

**mirrorfinishman** · Sep 1, 2005, 10:21 AM

Re: Cut time down??

Originally posted by RLdetail
I did an Acura MDX yesterday that was not in bad shape but the interior was a mess.

Total I spent about 10 hours working on this suv.

How do you go about cutting time down without sacraficing quality of work?

Unless the owner of this Acura MDX was willing to pay the $500 I would have had to charge for 10 hours of work (at $50 per hr), I would have walked away from this job.

Let's face it, time is money and there is no way you are going to make a profit and stay in business unless you charge accordingly for the time you spend on detailing a vehicle.

It really should not be about how you are going to cut down time. It's about estimating the job correctly so that the owner fully understands what's involved in order for you to properly clean, polish and wax their vehicle.

High quality is remembered long after a low price is forgotten.

**the other pc** · Sep 1, 2005, 02:32 PM

Originally posted by RLdetail
...Total I spent about 10 hours working on this suv. I wasn't happy with the results or the time it took but the owner was surely happy(I hope). There were still spots I missed/couldn't really get to and I want to get it a little better when I go to do his wife's car...

Originally posted by mirrorfinishman
Unless the owner of this Acura MDX was willing to pay the $500 I would have had to charge for 10 hours of work (at $50 per hr), I would have walked away from this job.

Let's face it, time is money and there is no way you are going to make a profit and stay in business unless you charge accordingly for the time you spend on detailing a vehicle....

We all take pride in the quality of our work and want to do a great job. But Frank's absolutely right, nobody can stay in business giving clients Rolls Royces when they're paying for Buicks.

At some point you need to know when to say thanks, but no thanks. (Or charge a lot more.)

On the other hand, if you understand the principles of efficiency, productivity and added-value, you may be able to deliver a Mercedes for the same price some other guy down the street charges for a Hyundai. Whatever you deliver you must charge enough to make it worth your time.

Luckily we're online, if we were face to face I'd bore you to tears with some unbearably tedious diatribe on production planning, process design and supply chain management. Trust me, it isn't pretty.

So the short version is; it's all about how much bang you get for your buck. When you can get the same bang for less buck (in your case time is money) you're ahead. When you can get 90% of the bang for 50% of the buck you're ahead, especially when your customer would be thrilled with 50% bang. You want to be looking for anywhere you can get the same or nearly the same output for less input.

For example, you mentioned;

Originally posted by RLdetail
...About 4-5 hours of this was interior and I didn't get anything on the leather besides cleaner as I forgot my leather conditioner....

Had you been using a one-step cleaner/conditioner like; or you'd be saving time every time. Maybe the end result is only 80% as good as using; and but you'd spend less than half the time and the results are still excellent.

Saving time rummaging through your boxes is a good thing and by all means you should work to improve that. But where are you really spending the bulk of your time? If you spent three hours polishing, an hour waxing and fifteen minutes fumbling for bottles cutting your digging time to zero, a 100% reduction (which isn't even possible), wouldn't save as much as reducing polishing by only 15%. That's usually as simple as changing the polish or pad.

If you were using #80 followed by #26 you could probably use #66 instead. Even if polishing took the same three hours, waxing is now zero and rummaging is cut in half.

Meguiar's has products for both maximum performance and products for maximum productivity, with very high performance. The trick is to strike a balance that that gives both you and your customers the best value.

PC.

**rusty bumper** · Sep 1, 2005, 03:57 PM

Re: Re: Cut time down??

Originally posted by mirrorfinishman
High quality is remembered long after a low price is forgotten.

How true!

There was an Italian immigrant that made it big here in town, making & selling ice cream years ago.

One day, someone was asking him why he didn't make a cheaper product, and he said..."People can understand an increase in price, but they can never understand a decrease in quality".

He's long gone, but his company is still thriving today.

tonysicecream.com

**Tim Lingor** · Sep 1, 2005, 04:04 PM

Hey,

I have to agree with Frank and the other PC.

If I feel that a detail job is far more extensive than what the customer thinks or wants, I will turn it down. The plain fact is, I will not compromise quality for speed! If that is more than what a person is wanting, I turned them down. In the end, your quality will speak for itself and will attract those that only want the best, period!

Tim

**Big Ben** · Sep 1, 2005, 07:52 PM

Frank, Other PC, Mirrorman,
What you say all make alot of sense, however some of us have to work in blue colar areas where people will not pay $500.00 to get a full detail, alot of my clients are used car dealers. and as you all know there is no way in hell that used car dealers will pay $300.00 to get a car detailed unless you're detailing very high end vehicle.

I agree that people should pay for quality and not speed and you can try to explain that to some people until your face turns blue but the truth is, a very small portion of my client pool have alot of money and drives a high end car, most of my clients are regular Joes who wants their cars done once a year and if you tell these people that a full detail will cost $400-$500 they will say thank you and go see one of my 8 other competitors who will charge them half that price.

I am very proud of my work and I know that I should charge alot more for what I do, and I envy all of you who can manage to do so , however I'd rather charge less and survive than charge more and die!

This is only my opinion!

Big Ben

**rusty bumper** · Sep 1, 2005, 08:02 PM

If you're doing a lot of work for used car dealers, then it might pay to look into the #66 product that PC mentioned above.

I've never used it yet, but there have been some recent postings about how great this product is, and some have even compared it to #80 for looks & ease of application.......All in one step.

Just a thought anyway.

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