$ How Much Would You Charge ? $

[SuperGlide]

Just curious how much you would charge to polish a wet sanded
metallic gray fiberglass tonneau cover back to a showroom shine ?
It was shot about 4 days ago.

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Allot of factors come into play. Was it shot smooth or with heavy orange peel, is the paint hard, are there paint defects like debris, runs, etc.. in the paint?

Assuming it was a top notch paint job with min defects to remove and it is for a full size long bed truck, I'd estimate about 5 man hours / $350.

This panel for the Alpine show boat took me about an hour to an hour and 1/2 to wet sand and polish.

[Marc08EX]

^^ wow $350 for just the bed cover?

[Joe@Superior Shine]

I'm doing a BMW B7 soon for $1400. Whats your time and experience worth?

[Marc08EX]

^^ Congrats Joe!! I wish it was worth that much but the market says otherwise.

[C. Charles Hahn]

Just curious how much you would charge to polish a wet sanded
metallic gray fiberglass tonneau cover back to a showroom shine ?
It was shot about 4 days ago.

Just to be clear, are you saying someone else already sanded it, and you're just going to be buffing? Or are you going to be doing the sanding as well?

If you're doing the sanding as well it also makes a difference whether you're going to do the whole thing by hand, or if you're going to damp sand with a DA (for a long, flat surface like a hard tonneau cover machine damp sanding will save you a TON of time, though the abrasives are a bit more expensive up front). And, like Joe said, you'll want to take into account the types of defects you need to remove, the paint hardness, etc.

[SuperGlide]

The cover is already wet sanded in decent
condition. Here's what I want to do........
1.Compound with wool pad
2.Polish
3.Finish Polish

Just wondering a ball park figure what you would
charge someone.

[Joe@Superior Shine]

I mis-read sorry. 2 - 2.5 HOURS/ $150-175

[Mike Phillips]

The cover is already wet sanded in decent
condition. Here's what I want to do........
1.Compound with wool pad
2.Polish
3.Finish Polish

Just wondering a ball park figure what you would
charge someone.

I mis-read sorry. 2 - 2.5 HOURS/ $150-175

I'm with Joe...

The longest part will be the compounding step, do a great job here and the polishing work will go real fast..

Hit it with M105 a wool pad and a rotary buffer and you can finish out to about 95% perfection then do your finish polishing with a rotary buffer and a light polish and if you want to insure there's no residual swirls down the road do a second step finish polish with a DA Polisher.

Since this is fresh paint, technically you're not supposed to seal it with a wax or a paint sealant for an average of 30 days...

What tools and products do you have or normally use?


Sounds like a fun job! Be sure to work clean, clean your buffing pads really well, clean work area, clean hands, clean clothes, etc.

Also, before and after pictures especially if there's any graphics. If you do a great job you might make the rest of paint on the truck look bad and that would be a good thing, then you'll get the truck to buff out.

[C. Charles Hahn]

Since this is fresh paint, technically you're not supposed to seal it with a wax or a paint sealant for an average of 30 days...

Indeed. Didn't Meguiar's used to recommend finishing with M80 Speed Glaze on fresh paint since it contains polishing oils that would leave at least some degree of sacrificial protection (albeit extremely short-lived) without interfering with the off-gassing of the curing process?

Of course that being the case 3M Ultrafina SE or Menzerna PO85RD would probably be good options as well, as would M03, M05, or M07 to add to the fresh-paint-safe sacrificial layer of protection...