2 Cars that I detailed today

jayincali

jayincali

New member
I received a call from my Father yesterday with two people asking about how his truck looked so good, and who did it and how much. This would be my first real detail for $$$ so I didn't know how much to charge. I just said $100 each. But afterwards I got my confidence built up, so I guess I'm going to raise the price from here. The Acura was in very bad shape, MAJOR swirls and marring throughout the entire car. When I first saw the car, I was thinking that I can't make this car look good, after 2.5 hours of washing, claying, buffing and waxing, it came out looking like it rolled off the dealers lot. I think I was more excited than the customer was. The LHS was in bad shape, but not as bad as the Acura. I used the following steps on both cars since the paint condition was nearly the same.

1. Wash
2. Clay
3. Wash
4. Yellow L/C cutting pad with SSR2.5 W/PC on speed 6
5. White L/C polishing pad with SSR1 W/PC on speed 6
6. White L/C polishing pad with Adams revive with a couple drops of Adams Swirl Remover W/PC on speed 4.5.
7. Black L/C finishing pad with Adams Butter Wax on speed 3
8. LHS car received a coat of Pinnacle Sig paste wax by hand.

Each step had a wipe down of Adams Detail Spray in between. Sorry for the long post, just happy that these cars turned out so well. Each customer said they just take their car through the drive through, then have the guy apply a wax and that’s it. Both cars have never seen a clay bar or polish before. Acura is a 1999 TL, Chrysler LHS is a 2001. OK now for pics.


Having problems uploading pics, will try in a few more minutes. I posted in another forum where I am a member, click the link below for pictures. Mods, you can delete link if I am not allowed to do this, noit sure if I am or not, Sorry.

http://www.dodgetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53095
 
this should do it. next time just right click, click properties. copy the url or whereever its saved at, and paste it here in the img space\


u did a great job tackling those swirls. they looked brutal. i dunt understand how a car can ever get that way.

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Oh ok, Thanks a lot Joyride. I can't understand either. Once I saw it, I picked my jaw up off the ground then got to work. What would you have charged for something like that, just ball park?
 
Well, I can`t see the pics either but I am sure you did a great job. There is no way I could have done that much in 2.5 hrs. I gotta watch someone detail and take some pointers! The steps you took on the Acura would have taken me 8 hours, that`s no exageration. I just did the exterior on a `93 red Celica a couple of days ago. Here`s the steps I did:
wash
yellow pad and Meg`s Compound Power Cleaner
white pad and 3M Perfect-It III
Klasse AIO by hand
That took me 6 hours!
 
Polishing is sweet ain't it! Did you really need SO with the Revive after? Definitely charge more!
 
Thanks Fellas, Not sure if I needed the SO with Revive polish, so I mixed a little in just in case. Next time I think I'm going to charge about 4150 at teh least.
 
Great job on both cars Jay! You way undercharged for your work, it should have been at least $150.00 for each one.

Fr0zen - Check the original post, he did list what he used.

joyriide1113 - Thanks for the second go at the photos. I see your caps lock key is still broken. By the way don't isn't spelled dunt, is this some kind of Miami speak?
 
yes, all swirls were removed with the P/C. Well not all of them. The swirl marks are average looking now, about 70% taken out. I told the owner if I detail it again in 3-4 more months, I could probably get most of them out of the paint. I wouldn't go as aggresive as I did on the first round, probably just use the SSR1 with polish pad. I might try some menzerna products as well. Would Menzerna IP work well? and would I need the second polish after that?
 
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