detailed a Lesabre today

A

airjames

New member
Today I detailed a 1992 Buick Lesabre, sorry no pics because I need a camera of some sort and the shine wasn't anything to really show off not write mama about so don't feel bad:o It belongs to an older lady I work with, has over 100K miles on it, runs great but filthy as hell and looked like it's only been waxed a couple times, it was dk green in color. Today I was frustrated with it. All the crap and baked on!!!!, caked on!!!!! brake dust and other foriegn objects on the rocker panels, :( The front wheels looked like they had undercoating on the rims the brake dust was so bad, I kid you not. The paint was very badly neglected and I was on a time frame of about 5 hrs to get it done. Needless to say, mothernature wasn't helping me out much either because it was raining :mad:



Ok so I get started with my store bought stuff. I start off with vaccuming,,,,,,,,,well let's make life east here, here's the rundown



1.) Vaccum with Oreck



2.) Pre-spot with a bottle of shout gel cleaner



3.) Scrub time



4.) Vaccum,,,,,,,,,,stains are still there, ok running out of time, good enough but I wasn't happy



5.) Clean and dress dash, some sort of black residue stuck on the vinyl, used Pro Cherry Suds and water to clean it with and old rag - didn't all come off, good enough losing time



6.) Wash car with Cherry Suds and old wash mitt of ab out 4 beaters that I have this one was the best. Made of wool



7.) Discover stuck on road grime, tar, and road grime on rocker panels. Tried elbow grease, P21S total Auto Wash, no budge



At this point I am getting somewhat pissed and the car looks better, but I really wish I had the right tools. Not to mention after 11 yrs of neglect sucks to make it look nice



8.) Discover I have no wheel cleaner - go bye some E1 A-Z All wheel Cleaner, and used a toothbrush no work on these wheels, looks better but more like a half a$$ job



9.):angry



10.) Discover I only have an hr and half yet to wax, clean windows and do engine and door jambs



11.):mad:



12.) Discover front grill and headlights are nicely decorated with bugs and paint chips



13.):grrr



14.) So I book on this thing, I know it's not going to look like some of your guys rides but I did my best with it with my consumer level supplies



15.) Dry car with chamois from Autobone (aka Autozone)



At this point The car is still somewhat neglected looking but I needed to do something to it that made it look good, to make me look good too



16.) Bust out #7 and S100 which I think saved my a$$



17.) Get it all shined up, looks great - no I don't have a clay bar



18) 1/2 hr left



19.) rip it up on the windows, slap on the tire dressing and ran outta time doing the engine so I never got to it



She loved it when she saw it, I was unhappy but I got my $60 and all is good. Bottom line, take care of your car and keep it waxed please :xyxthumbs ,,,,,,,91
 
The car sounds awful! You mean you prepped the surface of that car with no clay and started with #7!? :shocked



Must have been fun to remove! :p



From the sound of it, you should have started with the likes of DACP (if not stronger), move to #9, THEN #7 and s100.



Oh, yeah......:showpics
 
$60 for all that!!! The head fry guy at McDonalds is making more money per hour than you. If you were going to only use a polish and a wax, you should have thought about a polish with some cleaners. Seems like a claybar would have helped you on those wheels also. It is very important to have some tar remover on hand at all times, you never know when you will have a car with alot of tar, with the right product these things are no big deal and save you time.
 
well no phucking sh!t this thread sucks without pics.



Thing is I would like some detailing lessons. I have ****** stuff, and would love some hands on training. I don't have stuff like DACP, a PC, or any of that. Yet, here I am sitting here drooling over Pinnacle Souveran, and Zaino:rolleyes: This is why I'm here, so I can learn something and I have. Hell, when I started out detailing I had some Turtle Wax, couple halfway decent towels, Simple Green, and some Armor All charging $45 - $50 a car. That was for exterior, interior, and that was it. Oh well, when I get a camera I'll post some pics of whatever, for now I remain poor :D ;) ,,,,,,91
 
Maybe you should invest some of that $60 into better supplies. If you just get store-bought stuff, then how about buying a cleaner/wax? A $5 bottle would probably do a much better job on neglected paint than $25 worth of #7/S100. It would sure as heck be better than Pinnacle Souveran or Z... I'd suggest 3M's Tar, Wax, & Adhesive remover as well. A $5 spray can at Wal-Mart, and it took off 8 year-old tar in a snap. It seems to dull the paint a tad, but a cleaner/wax would fix that right up. Maybe get a cheapo orbital just to speed things up a tad. 1800-2000 opm is still faster than your hands can do.



I'm surprised A2Z didn't cut it. It's some pretty tough stuff.



Oh, and thanks for censoring yourself this time by using "ph" instead of "f" and "!" instead of "i". That was very considerate to the rest of the folks here... Perhaps if you didn't swear at everyone, you could charge a bit more...
 
Yeah $60 is way too little. I won't touch a car under $150 anymore. One guy called me the other day about his 1987 Trans Am. Guy drives it everyday during nicer months. He wanted it done for $80. He said other detailers will do it for that. But he liked my pics from my craigslist ad. I told him if he wanted his car to look like my pics it was going to be $175. Which is what I charge anyway. I told him you get what you pay for man.
 
I detail for friends, and myself. I am just getting into detailing classics for car shows. Some important lessons I learned years ago (but re-learned for detailing).



1. Proper tools earn you money because they need less time.



2. If you don't have time to do the job correctly, you don't have time to do it at all.



3. Under promise and over deliver. Manage people's expectations.



4. Get your techniques down before taking people's money.





Now that I am moving into detailing for money (from friends), I am VERY careful to tell them what I am going to be doing. I am not charging them much money, and thus I get to tell them what I am going to do for them. When the customer get's to dictate the work, then I get to dictate the price.



I buy my supplies on an as-needed basis. As I started to do more work to my car, I started buying more supplies. Now that I am at the point of doing a solid detail on my own cars, I have a good selection of things to use on other people's cars. It takes time to get there.



When I am going to be working on details, I ask for the car Friday night for a Sunday afternoon delivery. Maybe I don't need all that time. Maybe I do. But having that time lets me experiment with new products, new techniques, etc. And my friends get more than they are paying for if they agree to let me keep the car that long. I don't charge them for my experimentation..



One other thing. Don't sell yourself short. You charged $60, but by your own admission, you did a half-assed job. If you had the correct tools and supplies you could have done better work, much faster. And you should charge for that.



In the meantime, bite off less. Evaluate the cars before you offer a quote. If I had agreed to do that Buick, I would have offered to do it in parts. Maybe just the interior. The exterior sounds like it needed a wash/clay/multi-step polish/wax to get nice results. That's an 8-10 hour day with a machine.



By the way, you can get some nice things over the counter. Many of my detailing products have been bought over the counter. Wheel cleaners, mitts, buckets, Folex, Stoners, clay, Ultimate Compound, etc. Nothing wrong with that. Just learn the better stuff to purchase.
 
Scott, since the OP will not mind a little thread crapping I thought I would mention baby brother Jack was very happy with the detail you did on his car. He had the Volvo SUV with Florida plates. He said his car didn't look that good two years ago when he bought it. Thought I would share.
 
I love when we raise the dead every once and a while around here! Oldie but a goodie! I love his response to no pics :LOLOL
 
Sludge said:
Scott, since the OP will not mind a little thread crapping I thought I would mention baby brother Jack was very happy with the detail you did on his car. He had the Volvo SUV with Florida plates. He said his car didn't look that good two years ago when he bought it. Thought I would share.
Click to expand...



Glad to hear it. I definitely appreciate the referral. :)



He didn't know what your user name was here, so I figured when I posted the detail (still need to resize the pictures), once the pictures of an Ocean Race Vovlo XC90 was posted, you'd pop up and I could thank you then.
 
Holy cow!



I only detail for friends, relatives and the occasional coworker (friends too). I would never consider charging less than $250 (brother and parents excluded). Further I want the vehicle for no less than two to three full days.



Given the above, I still deliver an excellent value for the cost.



I am not trying to be snooty. I limit the amount of work to an enjoyable hobby rather than a business.
 
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