How Long Do You Detail?

[FinalTouchDetail]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

Ah, and to also add on to "price according to what you want to make"...

I don't feed my family from detailing. I "technically" have three jobs right now. One is a full-time M-F corporate position, the other is managing 20 rental properties that my parents own, and detailing is what I do on the weekends and in my free time because I am passionate about doing it and love it.

But I assure you that I am certainly not giving my work away when compared to the other detailers in the area. I am very competitive because I maintain an essentially non-existant overhead and very low general expenses, but I am generally right in the middle of the pack on pricing.

[sunday joe]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

I don't really detail like most of you do. I just like to have the car shiny. I might do a little each day for about three days. It's seldom I finish it in one day. I do it all by hand. I have a 6" rotary buffer that cost about $12.00 about ten years ago. I rarely use it. Present car is a 2000 Grand Prix I've had for nine years. It has 102,000 Km on it now. It had 42,000 Km on it when I bought it. It's parked in the garage most of the time.

[SATracker]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

The last car I did outside of the family was my neighbor's BMW; it took about 24 hours. It had never been detailed, took some serious work, but I also did the wheels (which were disastrous) & engine (which was not disastrous but real close). He was on vacation for 3 weeks, gave me the keys to the car, and I didn't work at a very quick pace; I took the time to learn as much as I could about BMW detailing.

[ocdetail]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

1/2 the (work) day. Although the black '03 viper that booked my thursday will probably get ALL of my thursday.

[aerogt01]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

Usually the customers that I get won't pay for a full correction detail, so for an intermediate detail it takes me approximately 6 hours.

A full correction detail would be over the course of about 2 days, 8-12 hours each.

[Albert87]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

sometimes 5 hours!

but if its a first time car. mostly a full work day
from 8.00 till 18.00!

after that the usual 2 hours

Mine get more Care since i can do that! and ill spend 5 + hours on it!
(ofcourse customers get it to if they have the time and willing to pay for it + be Car less in that time)

[buda]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

May I ask those of you who spend more than 3 to 4 man-hours on a car do your customers pay you $500 or more for the detail?

[ProAutoImage]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

To answer you question buda, I just returned from VA where I have a client (I live in Fl) and spent 4 days working 12 hours a day on 3 Clasic porsche's. The client bought the plain ticket and paid my lodging and I charged them $4k for the 3 cars and 48 hours of work..

[buda]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

That is wonderful to be able to get that kind of money to service a customer's vehicle.

Can you tell us exactly what you do to 3 cars that merits $4,000?

Certainly it is more than a wash; engine and wheel clean; trunk clean & shampoo; interior clean & shampoo and a buff, polish and wax?

As well, I would suspect that anyone who would pay you that kind of money would have vehicles that are in pretty good condition to begin with.

Please share with us the type of work vehicles like these would require.

Thank you

bud Abraham

[ProAutoImage]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

That is wonderful to be able to get that kind of money to service a customer's vehicle.

Can you tell us exactly what you do to 3 cars that merits $4,000?

Certainly it is more than a wash; engine and wheel clean; trunk clean & shampoo; interior clean & shampoo and a buff, polish and wax?

As well, I would suspect that anyone who would pay you that kind of money would have vehicles that are in pretty good condition to begin with.

Please share with us the type of work vehicles like these would require.

Thank you

bud Abraham

Sorry to take so long to get back to you buda.. To be honest and forthright the higher class customers I have get charged more for my service but the quality of work they get is the best.. To go through the trouble of packing my equipment and flying, being away from home to do these cars the customer will pay for my time but the cars get my best products as the client insists. Adams is what I use on these cars. The owner know's Meg's and feels it a less than stellar product mearly because it can be bought at walmart.. I tryed to teach him different but he wasn't having it.. 2 of the cars are concourse d'elegance cars so they are not driven very much and are in better than new condition. The cars go through a wash like many other cars I do and get the vacuum and windows done like any other. The cars are then put on stands and the wheels removed and polished, They are wire wheels, every inch of the engine is cleaned and polished, suspension components are cleaned and polished as well as the full exhaust system. Seats and some of the int panels are removed for a better clean and treated. Paint goes through a 5 step process to remove imperfections and get the best depth and shine possible..

[buda]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

Thanks for the reply.

Suspected you do a great deal more than a normal detail.

Plus, as you say, the travel time, etc is worth money too.

I know a detailer in Florida who is flown to Canada by a customer who paid him $4,000 plus expenses to detail, not even as extensively as you do, his three black cars. He wants flawless finishes.

By the way, he uses the BUFFPRO drum polishing tool to get the flawless finish.

Are you familiar with it? If not let me know and I will send you a video

Bud ABraham

[ProAutoImage]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

never heard of the buffpro and i would like to see the vid.. i have a rotary but it never sees paint on these cars, i stick with my megs da..

[buda]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

SEND ME YOUR EMAIL buda@detailplus.com

[RobFern]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

And I thought 7.5 hours was way too long for my first time with a GG6 unit...good to know I am not the only one that takes all day...

[ProAutoImage]

Re: How Long Do You Detail?

And I thought 7.5 hours was way too long for my first time with a GG6 unit...good to know I am not the only one that takes all day...

Its an art my man and 7.5 hours to completly correct paint is kinda quick for the perfectionest. When I bought my mustang I spent 2, 12 hour days correcting JUST the paint... Another full day was spent on the wheels, brake roters and engine and convt top.. 6 more hours on the int.. My cars MUST look their best as my customers expect to see my rides clean when they see them at my shop!!!