A plea to all professional detailers!!

[FloridaNative]

As some of you know I just spent 6 days (too long) on a detail. Granted the car was an absolute mess and I had my work cut out for me, but 6 days is a completely impractical number of days to spend cleaning a vehicle so my question to you pros is this....

Can you describe your process and how much time you spend on each step so that people like me can learn ways to cut the time down?

What do you start with? what tools/products do you use and how long does it take you to complete it. What do you move on to next, tools/procuct, length of time? etc. Do you get my meaning?

I know that it would help me tremendously as I only do cars on the side from time to time and I knwo I could learn alot from you all and I'm sure that many of our other members could benefit too.

Thank you so much!

[Surfer]

6 days to detail holy sh!t. They better have paid you overtime, I do only our vehicles, no patience for others

[Grimm]

Wow, was that like a full day's work every day? I feel your pain though. When I first got into this and saw that people spend 6-10 hours on a detail I never thought it would take that long. So now after 14 hours of detailing mine, which still isn't perfect and requires a couple more hours to finish the interior and engine, I can see it. Of course having to restart the project every night rather than a continuous Saturday doesn't help.

[joe.p]

So what it took you 4 1/2 days more then it should detail was beautiful it shows you did a quality job. i have spent as much time on clients vehicles but this is when they leave there car and go on vacation so i do there cars after work...

This will be good informational thread to help speed up the process for all of us

[FloridaNative]

Yes he left the car for me to do while he was out of the country, but that is not feasible for most people. I'll be doing his wife's car at some point in the future and her's is in pretty much the same shape as his was. I really want to get it done in 2 days at the most. She works so I won't be able to keep her car all that long.

[Grimm]

I know one step I found reduced some time is to limit the time of "inspecting" the paint. I would polish a section, buff it clean, then inspect it. I did this on a couple of panels, then realized it was stupid because I ended up doing two passes each section anyway, so I was just wasting time inspecting after the first pass. So I just quick buffed, then went right to doing a second pass before I took a closer look.

[FloridaNative]

yeah I did a test panel too with the XMT 3 and 1 and then continued with the XMT 3 on the whole thing.

[Excessive Detail]

The longest I have ever spent on a car was 8 hrs in one day on a customers car. I started at about 8 in the morning and ended around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. I basically started inside with a vacumm in one hand and a detail brush in the other. After cleaning out all the dust and debris on the inside, I dressed all the interior, I had two bottle with me and 4 mf at all times protecting leather and vinyl, basically I move from one door opening to another, also carried around with was glass cleaner and mf. Its a lot quicker to have all your stuff right there with, just bring what you know your gonna need. I found this way is a lot quicker than doing each step individually. Oh yea, while I was vacuuming I cleaned the carpets, let one area soak while I vac another. For the finishing touch I spray a deoderizer and/or scotchgard all over the dcarpets.
Once I get to the outside, I first presoak the entire car, while its soaking I set up wash stuff so its right there and in an orderly fashion so I don't spend time looking for stuff. Two six gallon buckets, wash mitt, scrub pad, foam gun, and brushes. I have a quick disconnet setup that helps out a lot so I can switch from foam gun to a good spray nozzle quickly, it also allows me to free flow water without having to turn off the hose and remove attachments. Starting at the top, I work my way done. Wheels last to prvent contaminating my wash water. Once the car is clean, I use the remaining solution in the foam gun to clay the car. I rewash each clayed section then do a final rinse down. Start to dry using one or two ww. I usually do a rough dry if I'm going to polish it out, meaning not going all out to make it perfect, cause I gonna wind up polishing it any way. Then I start polishing, again I prepostion all my stuff, put some mf in one pocket and hang some qd from another, and in my back pocket I keep my xmt pad cond. I polish the car just like everyone else, top to bottom, small sections, you know. This of course is the longest process, taking 4 to 6 hrs, depending on paint condtion. Once I get like one whole panel done, I give it as final polish and a fianl buff. I always wait till the entire car is polished to apply wax or sealant, and also apply dressing, I usually do the rims and tires while I'm drying to give the dressing enough time to dry, so if the customer leaves right after i'm done it doesn't go everywhere, then I'm done. This process seems to work the best for me, but i"m always finding new ways and tech to make it faster cause as we all know no two cars are the same.

[killrwheels@autogeek]

theres one step that I follow religiously .... add beer after each step. Before long you dont count the hours, just the minutes to next beer. (you can substitute for sangria or other beverage of choice)

[Excessive Detail]

Originally Posted by killrwheels@autogeek

theres one step that I follow religiously .... add beer after each step. Before long you dont count the hours, just the minutes to next beer. (you can substitute for sangria or other beverage of choice)

I pay to see you that, I had friend who tried something like that. He was drinking his as off and cleaning his car when I showed up. At one point he went to clean a wheel on the other side of the car, I turned around for a second and when I turned back around he was passed out next to the wheel with the wash mitt still in his hands, I laughed my ass of then sprayed with the hose, it was so funny.