heckhole
10-05-2015, 08:07 PM
I've recently taken my 'hobby' of buffing on a couple week nights & every weekend a bit more serious and opened my own shop.
I have a full time employee running the daily operations, primarily cleaning interiors. I saw what he was doing in his own driveway, with store bought materials and a 15 year old shop vac. A little elbow grease will go a LONG way. Granted a full interior detail with seat & carpet cleaning would take 8 hours, but with some professional equipment went a long ways for him and he can churn out top notch quality fast.
I own and operate another business and I can't start buffing cars until late afternoon. I'm working 80 hour weeks and then spending my time at home cleaning my pads, microfibers & ordering supplies.
I'd like to slow down with the time I spend buffing and delegate some of that work. I have a contract with a few dealerships for their cars and I'm constantly battling cars with an absurd amount of rock chips and unrepairable scratches. There is a guy from out of town who comes in once a month and uses the F.A.S.T touch up kit, where you wipe paint on the car, use their 'special compound' to remove the excess paint and your left with a not so great paint match, uneven chip filling and most of all, an unsatisfactory result. However every dealership uses him. I've seen him at work while picking up and dropping off my completed cars and spied a little on his system. When I learned that he charges $75 PER PANEL for about 15 minutes of work per panel and often does 5-10 cars just on one lot, my jaw dropped.
I've since been looking at the Applied Colors touch up kit. Retail for the kit is roughly 1300 and I've been tempted to purchase it. The videos make it look like a great system and I know I could absolutely make a killing in my area. This system appears to be a great alternative to my perception of the hacky F.A.S.T system.
Right now my business is easily 90% dealer cars, that all need these paint repairs. They've asked if I can do touch up and I keep saying no...and I don't want to anymore. There appears to be a ton of money left on the table. I've been told they spend on average $150 per car and sometimes up to 300 to repair bumper scuffs for the FAST touch up & I feel if I do a car or two free, I can show them a quality end result and charge as much, if not more.
Has anyone had experience with the Applied Colors kit or any others that use the filler/paint/leveler technique? I'm ready to invest and take off to the dealers.
I have a full time employee running the daily operations, primarily cleaning interiors. I saw what he was doing in his own driveway, with store bought materials and a 15 year old shop vac. A little elbow grease will go a LONG way. Granted a full interior detail with seat & carpet cleaning would take 8 hours, but with some professional equipment went a long ways for him and he can churn out top notch quality fast.
I own and operate another business and I can't start buffing cars until late afternoon. I'm working 80 hour weeks and then spending my time at home cleaning my pads, microfibers & ordering supplies.
I'd like to slow down with the time I spend buffing and delegate some of that work. I have a contract with a few dealerships for their cars and I'm constantly battling cars with an absurd amount of rock chips and unrepairable scratches. There is a guy from out of town who comes in once a month and uses the F.A.S.T touch up kit, where you wipe paint on the car, use their 'special compound' to remove the excess paint and your left with a not so great paint match, uneven chip filling and most of all, an unsatisfactory result. However every dealership uses him. I've seen him at work while picking up and dropping off my completed cars and spied a little on his system. When I learned that he charges $75 PER PANEL for about 15 minutes of work per panel and often does 5-10 cars just on one lot, my jaw dropped.
I've since been looking at the Applied Colors touch up kit. Retail for the kit is roughly 1300 and I've been tempted to purchase it. The videos make it look like a great system and I know I could absolutely make a killing in my area. This system appears to be a great alternative to my perception of the hacky F.A.S.T system.
Right now my business is easily 90% dealer cars, that all need these paint repairs. They've asked if I can do touch up and I keep saying no...and I don't want to anymore. There appears to be a ton of money left on the table. I've been told they spend on average $150 per car and sometimes up to 300 to repair bumper scuffs for the FAST touch up & I feel if I do a car or two free, I can show them a quality end result and charge as much, if not more.
Has anyone had experience with the Applied Colors kit or any others that use the filler/paint/leveler technique? I'm ready to invest and take off to the dealers.