How long should it take?

8

89GTA

New member
HI,
I wanted to see from some of the pros here about what is the average time it should take to say do 1 polish step with PP or SSR1. Say the vehicle is average size like a nissan maxima or BMW 5 series. I ask this because I did a fairly new car the other day with PP and it took about 1.25 hours. I think that is tooooo long and I just am not used to my PC 7424 and these products yet and how long they should be worked before moving on.
PLease give any advice if you could. Thanks!!
 
If you are talking about start to finish 1.25 hours for a single step is long!
I'd say what si slowing you down is the PC since you are not use to it. That will improve with time. I go over the car by hand to start and get the areas that I can not hit with the PC then. Load up the PC and go to work, while doing tor sides of the car have you polish in the other hand squirt a small dab of product on the side of the car. Then yo can move teh PC over that quicky and keep moving. I also wear a apron so I can put the boittle in my pocket with ease. Hope that helps!
 
Thanks for the reply beemerboy. An apron is a good idea. I usually put the bottle on the ground and kick it around all day. I think that I take to long for each pass. I wanted to make sure that I was giving the product enough time to work in that area. As an example:
if I was moving in the
_
_
_
Pattern, then one pass
_
on a 3 X 2 area would last about 5 seconds. To Long?
I figure it is. If some one could give me an idea of the minimal time needed for one pass so that the product is still getting worked enough I would appreciate it. That should help me get my timing down. Thanks everyone for your help & knowledge.
 
With the PC I work on a door panel as an example. Work the product up and down the door then work the oppsite direction, or back and forth. That should be enough to work the product and get the break down.
 
89GTA said:
Thanks for the reply beemerboy. An apron is a good idea. I usually put the bottle on the ground and kick it around all day. I think that I take to long for each pass. I wanted to make sure that I was giving the product enough time to work in that area. As an example:
if I was moving in the
_
_
_
Pattern, then one pass
_
on a 3 X 2 area would last about 5 seconds. To Long?
I figure it is. If some one could give me an idea of the minimal time needed for one pass so that the product is still getting worked enough I would appreciate it. That should help me get my timing down. Thanks everyone for your help & knowledge.
Click to expand...

HEY!! What's the hurry??!!

Don't worry about time. Quality is what counts. Charge a little more if you're doing work for others and take your time. Hurry and you'll miss spots and if there is potential for doing damage it'll happen when you're hurrying.

Just my $ .02 worth. ;)
 
Thanks Jims
I am trying to find that happy median between time and quality. The quality of my work is my #1 priority but I also would like to hear from the experienced guys and gals around here to give me a rough guess on the time it takes to do a car. Then it will give me something to work for.

I'm not concerned with missing spots just that I am unfamiliar with these products and really do not know how long they need to be worked for the breakdown.

Thanks again beemerboy. I will try that out and see how things turn out.
 
It's hard to put a specific time limit on how long it should take because there so many variables:

some procucts break down faster than others, what speead is the PC setting, how fast are your passes, what's the weather/humidity, how much buffing do you do after each pass, how much time does it take you yo inspect after each pass?? All this may factor in to the amount of time you spend on a car.

One thing I would suggest is to make sure you have a process that works for you. Once you have the process work on perfecting the process and becoming very efficient. Beemerboy gave a really good example on being efficient by having the apron and polish ready to go.

Good Luck !!!!
 
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