"Am I taking too long to detail a car?"

Blink21Me

Blink21Me

E36 M user
I've always thought that I am taking kind of slow when detailing a car. It generally takes me around 6 hours to detail a car that's in about good condition. Today I detailed a 2000 Volkswagen Beetle Turbo S, and it took me almost 6.5 hours, and that's even without an engine compartment detail.



I would like to hear some tips from you guys so I can do the job faster... Here are the detailed steps I took on the Beetle and the approximate time spent on each of these steps today.



1. Took out the carpets, sprayed and washed them with detergent, air-dryed them.

***~15 minutes



2. Vacuum-brushed the rear driver side part of the interior (there were so much pet hairs that couldn't just be removed that's why it took me longer to vacuum).

***~15 minutes



3. Vacuum-brushed the rear passenger side part of the interior (there were also so much pet hairs that couldn't just be removed that's why it took me longer to vacuum).

***~15 minutes



5. Vacuum-brushed the front driver side part of the interior (there were also so much pet hairs that couldn't just be removed that's why it took me longer to vacuum).

***~15 minutes



6. Cleaned the rear seats with Buttler's Secret Leather Cleaner

***~10 minutes



7. Cleaned the 3 rear windows with Sprayway Glass Cleaner

***~5 minutes



8. Cleaned the rear panels with AutoGlym Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner

***~10 minutes



9. Applied Buttler's Secret Leather Conditioner on the rear seats

***~3 minutes



10. Cleaned the front seats with the same Leather cleaner

***~10 miutes



11. Cleaned the whole center console with AutGlym Vinyl & Rubber Cleaner

***~10 minutes



12. Cleaned the whole dashboard (radio, clusters, steering wheel, steering column, AC vents, knobs, glovebox, etc) with miscellaneous products and materials.

***~15 minutes



13. Applied leather conditioner on the front seats

***~5 minutes



14. Buffed the rear interior (windows, seats, panels, etc.)

***~10 minutes



15. Vaccum-brushed the trunk and cleaned the panels with AutGlym Vinyl & Rubber Cleaner

***~10 minutes



16. Cleaned both the front door panels with AutoGlym Vinyl & Rubber Cleaner

***~15 minutes



17. Cleaned the 3 front windows with Sprayway Glass Cleaner

***~10 minutes



18. Buffed the front interior (dashboard, door panels, seats, windows and windshield, radio buttons, clusters, steering wheel, steering column, AC vents, knobs, glovebox, etc)

***~15 minutes



19. cleaned the Door jams

***~5 minutes



Total Time Spent on the Interior: ~3 hours 47 mins!!!



20. Cleaned the wheels/wheel wells with diluted Simple Green/water and MF towels

***~15 minutes



21. Washed the car

***~10 minutes



22. Clayed the car

***~10 minutes



23. Washed the car again

***~10 minutes



24. Dried the car with MF waffle weave drying towel

***~5 minutes



25. Applied Poorboy's Wheel Sealant on the wheels

***~5 minutes



26. polished the car using a rotary with PB SSR 2.5 on a ight cutting pad

***~10 minutes



27. Applied and buffed Klasse AIO by hand

***~5 minutes



28. Applied and buffed Klasse SG by hand

***~10 minutes



29. Buffed the wheels

***~2 minutes



30. Cleaned/buffed 6 outside windows and side mirrors

***~10 minutes



31. Polished the headlights with Meguiar's ScratchX by hand

***~2 minutes



Total Time Spent on the Exterior: ~1 hour 30 mins



Total labor time: 5:17

I'm not sure where there other minutes went but I know I started around 10:30 am and got completely done 5:00 pm, with short brakes.



I apologize for the long post, but please give me some tips on ANYTHING in order to speed up the process, I hope to hear suggested changes and comments about products I use and/or style/order of process I do to improve my detailing habits. I am pretty organized with all my things so I know I didn't waste time running around and prepping my materials.
 
Here are some before and after pics, well these pics don't justify the real results good enough... but yeah;



BEFORE:

DSC01451.jpg




DSC01450.jpg




DSC01452.jpg




AFTER:

DSC01455.jpg




DSC01456.jpg




DSC01458.jpg




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DSC01462.jpg




DSC01461.jpg
 
Several of your times seem out of line...



Buffing a car in 10 minutes??? No way.



Why wash the car twice? Wash, clay, rinse, dry



Wheelwells and tire dressing?
 
steveo3002 said:
26. polished the car using a rotary with PB SSR 2.5 on a ight cutting pad

***~10 minutes



you rotary polished the whole car in 10 mins?
Click to expand...

That's the first thing I noticed. There is just no way if cleaning the rear glass also takes 10mins. You are just taking way too long in that interior. I could remove the seats, detail the interior, and re-install the seats in that amount of time, and I am not a pro! (Semi joking here)
 
Scratchx on headlights? that makes no sense. its for paint. Meguiar's makes a product called Plastx and trust me its great on some clouded headlights(if yellowed, its too late) but clouded it cleans em right up. :)
 
Since you had a lot of problems with pet hair here is a thread with some tips:



http://autopia.org/forum/car-detailing/85377-technique-pet-hair-removal.html



1.5 hours for the exterior isn't bad considering all you did, but the 10 minutes to polish with SSR 2.5 also caught my eye. How did those scratches on the back bumper turn out?



It's the interior that killed you on this job and there are a few other times that don't seem right, like 10 minutes to clean the 3 front windows but only 5 minutes to apply/remove AIO to the whole car?



Some tips for the interior would be to get a good vacuum if yours isn't up to snuff. You'd be surprised how much faster it can go with a powerful shop-vac like a Ridgid. An air compressor would also help to dust and blow junk out of nooks and crannies.



It often takes me longer than I think it should to do an interior or an exterior. A trashed interior can be a real time eater, especially if you don't have the right tools and products. Something that saves me time on hard to reach windows is something like the Glass Master.
 
steveo3002 said:
26. polished the car using a rotary with PB SSR 2.5 on a ight cutting pad

***~10 minutes



you rotary polished the whole car in 10 mins?
Click to expand...
I may have been off with some of these times, but consider polishing the car with SSR2.5 took at least 15 minutes. I know it seems it wouldn't make a difference but that's all I spent polishing, that's because I couldn't make the swirls go away more when I worked on the hood (I'm doing more research on that), so I spent not more time to work the other panels than a quick pass because that's all it took to minimize the swirls...
 
dietoremain said:
Scratchx on headlights? that makes no sense. its for paint. Meguiar's makes a product called Plastx and trust me its great on some clouded headlights(if yellowed, its too late) but clouded it cleans em right up. :)
Click to expand...
My mistake!!! I meant to type Meguiar's PLASTX!!! I don't even own a ScratchX :hairpull I don't even own a ScratchX... It's this stuff!



DSC01465.jpg
 
Wow, I knew a rotary would cut down work time, but 10 minutes to polish? Holy cow! It took me that long to do a quarter of the hood with a PC. :waxing:
 
Thanks for the Prt hair removal tip!



I don't see why I would need more than 10 minutes to clay a car.



about applying Klasse AIO, trust me 5 minutes is all it takes to apply it and buff it by hand... I've started using these Klasse twins 2 years ago and I used to take much longer... We know it is a wipe-onwipe off product and very little amount goes a very long way...
 
dietoremain said:
Scratchx on headlights? that makes no sense. its for paint. Meguiar's makes a product called Plastx and trust me its great on some clouded headlights(if yellowed, its too late) but clouded it cleans em right up. :)
Click to expand...



Not too late if yellowed, just hit it with a rubbing compound and an orange pad with the PC.........back to knew again, trust me.:waxing:
 
Wow... well it takes me a good day to half-day depending on what I do to the car... so I would say that you are doing it VERY quickly.
 
If I were to say one thing overall were to increase your speed, it'd be an air gun! It takes a lot of work away from the small things...A LOT of work away.



For myself, I work in a pretty fast environment, and a beetle takes about 2.5-3 hours. top to bottom.
 
Jimmy Buffit said:
Why wash the car twice? Wash, clay, rinse, dry



Wheelwells and tire dressing?
Click to expand...
I noticed that when I don't wash the car after claying, it sometimes leaves some milky residue on the surface, and I don't want to dry the car and proceed to polish without making sure it's completely free of anything... Wheel wells weren't done because the owner didn't have the wheel locks, and no tire dressing done because I left the tire gel in my car which was parked right where I picked up the owner's car...
 
Invigor said:
For myself, I work in a pretty fast environment, and a beetle takes about 2.5-3 hours. top to bottom.
Click to expand...
I'm not an expert yet, infact I recently just started detailing for money... I was shooting for 4 hours with the beetle...
 
Sometimes when Im on summer break or spring break, I will break it up into a two day detail. Ill do the outside and inside then pull it into the garage and work on the paint the next day. :chuckle:
 
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