General Questions

[Polished Detail]

Hey folks, I need your opinions/guidance on the following:

(1) When doing an engine detail, if you encounter a battery with excessive corrosion, do you unscrew and take off the lug to remove all the corrosion or do you simply address as much as possible without unscrewing the lug.

(2) If a customer purchases an interior detail, do you clean and dress the door jambs also or is that considered a part of an exterior package?

(3) On collection/receipt of a customer's vehicle, do you complete an inspection involving lowering and raising of all door windows or do you simply enquire of any existing issues from the customer?

Any advice and guidance is surely welcomed!

[HD.Detailing]

1. I don't do engine detail (do not want the liability) Now I will wipe and dress but no water only if asked.
2. I wipe the jambs with either interior or exterior. (deep cleaning extra)
3. I don't do much just glance over and ask. Do not have time to do a complete inspection. Ido mention, that when I clean things will appear more noticeable now that the dirt has been removed (scratches, knicks, etc.)

[Paul A.]

I don't unscrew battery terminals but do clean as much crud around the lugs as possible. Disconnecting batteries cause more headaches with scrambled codes, lost radio presets etc.

I do dress door jambs with my interior package.

I ask the customer to point out any issues they know of. I do a walk around the vehicle inside and out and note not only what they mention but other things i see and point out to the customer.

[Flash Gordon]

Hey folks, I need your opinions/guidance on the following:

(1) When doing an engine detail, if you encounter a battery with excessive corrosion, do you unscrew and take off the lug to remove all the corrosion or do you simply address as much as possible without unscrewing the lug.

(2) If a customer purchases an interior detail, do you clean and dress the door jambs also or is that considered a part of an exterior package?

(3) On collection/receipt of a customer's vehicle, do you complete an inspection involving lowering and raising of all door windows or do you simply enquire of any existing issues from the customer?

Any advice and guidance is surely welcomed!

1) Battery Corrosion is easily removed with a blast of water

2) According to my scientific survey doorjams are a part of the exterior:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/41028-doorjams.html

3) Some swear by using a vehicle inspection form. IMO tho you are setting yourself up for a lawsuit if you happen to miss a defect

I've never used such a form and NEVER will

[Polished Detail]

Thanks for all your input. I completed an engine and interior detail yesterday and the customer experienced starting issues later in the afternoon. On reaching their location I unscrewed the lug to find a reasonable amount of corrosion still around the pole; once cleaned off everything ran smoothly from there on in. That made me question if I should repeat this on similar state batteries or just focus on the outter bit.

I will follow your suggestions regarding the other two points.

[solman]

I would leave the battery work to the mechanic. No it's not very technical but not part of a detailers responsibilities. Why invite technical problems in a detail job.

[BillE]

One thing about pulling the batt cables off is ALL of the customer pre-set go kaput. Mess with 'the radio' just seems to really tick a lot of folks off.

Just an added thought...if there is a lot of corrosion on the cable/post area, there is good chance that the area under the cable clamp is also somewhat compromised. To clean that area properly you will need a battery terminal cleaning tool (only cost a few$). Then when you remove the cable, one may very well find that the cable itself has corroded inside the terminal clamp...now the customer needs a new cable assembly.

It ain't worth it for detailers to get that involved with battery 'detailing.'

Bill