Middle Detail: 2003? Chrysler 300M

[Whitethunder46]

Package: Deluxe

Price: $90

Time: 3.5 hours

Interior:
APC+ 10:1 for general cleaning
Wg's leather cleaner in spots
Optimum Protectant plus
Stoners IG
Megs leather cleaner/conditioner
303 on weather stripping

Exterior:
Megs NXT Wash w/ 2 ounces of APC+ w/ 3 gal water
Tarminator/APC+ 10:1/Megs Body Solvent for bug/tar removal
PP 1:1 for tires and fenderwell cleaning
DP Gel Wheel cleaner
Megs Non-Silicone tire dressing
Stoners More shine for fenderwell dressing
Mother's chrome polish
303 on trim
DP Plex-All on headlights/taillights
Klasse AIO and WG's fingerpockets for trim between windows

LSP:
DG AW

Pictures Before:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/carolinaheels42/300mBefore2.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/carolinaheels42/300mBefore.jpg
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http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/carolinaheels42/300mBefore5.jpg

Pictures After:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/carolinaheels42/300mAfter2.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/carolinaheels42/300mAfter.jpg
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http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/carolinaheels42/300mAfter7.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/carolinaheels42/300mAfter8.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/carolinaheels42/300mAfter9.jpg

[01SVTvert]

Nice job but to me you underprice yourself IMO. I love the way the carpet striping looks, just is the finishing detail to me

[D]

I dont think hes under pricing himself. He made what, $25 an hour for that. Plus this is his first time doing it.

[Whitethunder46]

Yep, this is my first year and I'm still getting my name out there. Plus, this package is the most appealing to customers because of the price, so it should bring in a lot of money.
Also, I'm getting quicker and quicker, so this shouldn't take more than 3 hours once I get a good system down.

This package was priced $70-$90, but I went ahead and raised it to $90-$110.

[01SVTvert]

Meant it as a compliment more than as a criticism, many car washes around me run about $100 for a job that would not be as nice and not include some of the smaller "details" that he does like the headlight treatment. If the price is bringing you clients and it is your start then I understand. Hopefully they come back and then you can "upsell" them a couple of items that take little time but add a decent profit.

Guess it is pricing yourself into the market and getting established. Good luck

[alban61]

Very nice job! That car looks slick. Interior looks great too, and always love 'em carpet stripes!
Looks likes your business is doing pretty well. As you continue to impress your customers, more work will come thru "word of mouth", which is the best kind of referral. Congrats, and all the best to you as your business steadily grows. :cheers:

[bambo2888]

Before even reading what the others wrote, I serisouly think you need to bump up your pricing. You should be aiming for $40+ an hour for the great job that you do. Whether youre new or not, if you do work that deserves it, then go for the money. You will very discouraged in this line of work if youre not making your potential.

Just my .02

Like I said though, AWESOME detail man!

[Nimble]

Great work Greg, and I think the pricing is fair, maybe a tad low, but fair nonetheless. In the midwest, you'll be hardpressed to get $40 an hour for detailing. Shoot, a full interior/exterior with a PC takes a good 6-8 hours, and no way would customer's pay $240-$320 for that, not a chance. Greg is nearing $30 an hour, which, to me, is a great spot to be in when mobile detailing. No overhead, low expenses, etc. Depending on how slow/fast I get a car done, I'm as low as $20 an hour, to an inteiro detail I did at about $40 an hour. Avg would be no more than $25 for me though.

Besides, if he can whip that car out in 3 hours and make $90 bucks, who can say that's not a well run business, where the owner is both making good money as well as offering competitive prices. Just imo of course.

[paradog]

You charge what the market allows and what your service can provide. Greg if you are happy with what you do and the income you make to do it...its great! Nice work BTW...and I also like the carpet striping too!

[Nica]

Very nice job! That car looks slick. Interior looks great too, and always love 'em carpet stripes!
Looks likes your business is doing pretty well. As you continue to impress your customers, more work will come thru "word of mouth", which is the best kind of referral. Congrats, and all the best to you as your business steadily grows. :cheers:

You said it alban61, that is so true. You guys should see the number of people at work that have come up to me saying could you please detail my vehicle...oh get this a girl at work just purchased a vehicle and remember that brand new Pontiac G5 that I detailed well the owner told a bunch of her friends and I'll be busy for a wile hehehehe. Any who, a girl at work just purchased a new BMW (I think it's a 325i??) and she want's to sell her old vehicle, so she want's me to detail her old vehicle so she can get more money out of it and detail her brand new BMW....sweet...all by "word of mouth". Well just thought I'd share the power of word of mouth. When you do good work people notice it and share it oh and if you do a bad job people notice that too and express the disapointment too.

I really like the way the carpet looks, very nice work you do buddy. I enjoy all your details.

Thanks for sharing.

[pirex]

Good work as always! The interior is sweet! Can`t get any cleaner!

[supercharged]

Great job! Chrysler 300M sure is a beautiful car! Love it's interior!

[DavidJ021]

Damn I just did one of those too! You did way better on the carpets. What did you do? IMHO you charged too low, but I guess in Ohio thats the going rate. I got $220 for the detail I did on the 300M.

[P1et]

Beautiful work as usual. You know your pricing strategy better than anyone, keep up the good work!

You should do a P&L and see what you can come up with...

[Whitethunder46]

Beautiful work as usual. You know your pricing strategy better than anyone, keep up the good work!

You should do a P&L and see what you can come up with...
What's P&L?

David... for the carpets (and upholstery) my technique is this.

1. Vacuum
2. Spray entire carpet area w/ APC+ 10:1
3. Spray spot stains w/ Folex
4. Agitate spot stains w/ fingers very well
5. Scrub entire carpet area w/ Megs carpet/upholstery brush (love this brush)
6. Vacuum

For floormats, my technique is the same exept for the following:
After step 5, I then scrub the entire floormat one way w/ the brush so that the carpet hairs are all facing one way

If the floormat feels almost dried out, I spray a few squirts of water onto the mat.

I then vacuum the entire floormat in the SAME direction as I scrubbed it with the brush.

Now that the entire mat is perfect and the carpet hairs are facing one way, I then go back and make stripes for pure cosmetic purposes. Since the mat is already vacuumed one way, I can make the lines as thick/thin as I want, however I usually just make them as thick as the wet/dry vac attachment.

I'm going to tinker w/ an idea. I'm going to get a piece of aluminum or something, and stamp my logo "Hart's Auto Detailing" w/ the oval out of the aluminum. Now I have a template. After vacuuming the floormat in the one direction as stated above, I'll place the template on the floormat. Then I'll vacuum over the template in the opposite direction of the carpet hairs.

End Result: Instead of stripes, I'll have my logo vacuumed into the floormat! So, what do you think?