Do you "cheat" when detailing the roof of SUVs?

When doing the roof of any SUV beast I will do the following:

1) Wash

2) Clay

3) AIO type product



Now if its REALLY bad I will 2 step maybe 3 step the top, but if its not I will only do the AIO.



I think its great he did those for free. :) Good job and very kind to do.



I do not think he lied, pulled the wool over eyes, or anything else. Now if he had said ... yea I did the top :) and really didnt, then that is more in the lines of the replies here.
 
Quickstrike said:
"Do you professionals take shortcuts on SUV roofs? It seems senseless to use your best "show car" products on a roof."



This led to believe he does this on all the cars he details.. friend or foe.. free or with charge...
Click to expand...



You sure jump to conclusions easily. I certainly don't do this to all cars I detail ... I specifically stated SUV's and in this case an SUV with a luggage rack.



It still seem senseless to me to use a "show car" product on a roof of an SUV. Can't imagine the logical of applying Pinnacle Souveran wax around a luggage rack of a mammoth SUV.
 
Quickstrike said:
"Do you professionals take shortcuts on SUV roofs? It seems senseless to use your best "show car" products on a roof."



This led to believe he does this on all the cars he details.. friend or foe.. free or with charge...
Click to expand...



Quickstrike,



That's the same thought I had when I read his original post. That's why I made the comment about my replies being based on the original post. Not the excuses now being posted.
 
Arrrgh! I' staying with the thread, not the arguement...



Today I did (via Gift Certificate redemption) an '88 BMW 3 series, 181,000 miles. The horizontal surfaces were so bad that they would not reflect my overhead fluorescent lights! Not to mention the heavy scratche...



Heavy cutting compound with a wool pad, and a 'pro' 1 step gave an acceptable mirror finish (hi, Frank), but I still put a coat of AIO on (time constraints and all) because this car will continue to be abused.



No doubt about it, the top of any vehicle gets the most abuse/UV damage.



Maybe get a taller ladder? And, oh, read my sig...
 
The man just posed a rhetorical question to professional detailers.

Let's face it there is a wide spectrum of ability and quality of the practice of detailing and like most any vocation everyone is not on the moral "high" ground. With the stated here is NHBFAN's question again.



Do you professionals take shortcuts on SUV roofs? It seems senseless to use your best "show car" products on a roof.



Re-read the question. He never stated or ask about the morals of how he detailed a "friend's" pair of SUV's or set himself up for character assasination. He was just asking if there are any shortcuts ( technique, variance of products used, etc.) that professionals use to do these types of difficult areas. Some of us have answered his question and some have gone off on a morality tangent. :nono:

If you are a professional detailer just answer how you deal with the stated difficult areas on vehicles and product usage. Do not infer that NHBFAN is stating that this would be his standing practice if he were doing a professional job. Maybe if he were contemplating using such a mode-of-operation we can instruct him in ways that can make these difficult tasks a little easier without cutting corners or using potentially inferior products. :cool:
 
Thanks blkZ28Conv.



I sure didn’t expect many of these responses.



To the question, Do you take shortcuts on SUV roofs? I was expecting responses like:



“No, if the customer paid for a 3 step exterior detail with a carnauba topper that’s what they get including the roof.�



OR



Yes, the roof of an SUV doesn’t aesthetically warrant “show car� polishes and waxes. It’s more important to provide protection, e.g. AIO or Collinite�.



mirrorfinishman,



Not sure what "excuses" you're talking about.
 
Yea, sure, I wouldn't use $70 Souveran on the part of I car most of us have trouble seeing. It saves money, the roof still is detailed, and the customer is happy.
 
Jee whiz ppl, a roof with a rack on top is the hardest thing to detail. My dads taurus wagon is hell to detail on top, and i use a one steper besides the clay or paint cleaner. It be one thing if the roof was flat and had no things in between, but at the same time, the smaller areas make it harder to get things out.
 
NHBFAN, I tought your question was a fair one and that it did not deserve the criticism that it got :nixweiss



I also think you did a friend a great favor, after all it was free:xyxthumbs



Now to your question, I own a Explorer and a XL7, two SUV'S, and I'll be honest doing the roof is not my favorite task, I do wax them but not every time I wax the car, maybe once every three months.

Both SUV'S have the rack on top which makes it a PITA to work on, and to top it up my roof is not flat but has groves right across running front to back and to make matters worse I am only a little taller than 5', with all this working for me it is unfortunate but I have no short cut tips to offer you:nixweiss



Best of luck to you on your search, and have a wonderfull new Year's day:wavey
 
Some people in this thread need to calm down. (You know who you are). It's just detailing!



Yeah, I do skimp on my Jeep. I do not buff out the swirls up top. Still use the Zaino though. :)
 
Whatever I do to the rest of the vehicle, I do to the roof of an SUV.



Of course, if I was going a freebie (which I no longer do anyway) and to save time, if the person didn't mind, I'd probably use a one step on the roof.
 
blkZ28Conv said:
The man just posed a rhetorical question to professional detailers.

Let's face it there is a wide spectrum of ability and quality of the practice of detailing and like most any vocation everyone is not on the moral "high" ground. With the stated here is NHBFAN's question again.



Do you professionals take shortcuts on SUV roofs? It seems senseless to use your best "show car" products on a roof.



Re-read the question. He never stated or ask about the morals of how he detailed a "friend's" pair of SUV's or set himself up for character assasination. He was just asking if there are any shortcuts ( technique, variance of products used, etc.) that professionals use to do these types of difficult areas. Some of us have answered his question and some have gone off on a morality tangent. :nono:

If you are a professional detailer just answer how you deal with the stated difficult areas on vehicles and product usage. Do not infer that NHBFAN is stating that this would be his standing practice if he were doing a professional job. Maybe if he were contemplating using such a mode-of-operation we can instruct him in ways that can make these difficult tasks a little easier without cutting corners or using potentially inferior products.
Click to expand...





What he said!

:xyxthumbs
 
There is another, I think more important, point to this thread. All areas of a car DO NOT merit the same attention! (Outside of concours, of course).



The hood of a car is the most important, the lower rocker panels the least important. In the real world of limited time/resources, you are actually serving the customer better by spending extra time on the things they will see. Instead of wasting time on the roof of an SUV, spend a little more time on the hood, etc. Of course protect it, but why bother with that extra Nth of effort?



Of course, this should be explained to the customer. 9 times out of 10, you can bet they will understand and agree with this practicality. If it takes 40 hours to do a concours job and you have 8 to work with, you are the expert and should decide what to focus on.
 
NHBFAN,

I’m glad to see some measured responses to your original question. As someone new to the forum I was interested because I have a 95 Volvo 960 wagon with a huge roof with rack I find very hard to work on. I took your post as a question to professionals to see if there are other ways to approach such a difficult area. As a businessperson (not a professional detailer), I sometimes offer my services to friends for materials only or in exchange for something they do. I often run into circumstances where I’ll tell them I normally use product A, but in this circumstance we could use product B as it costs half-much. I think it a reasonable approach.



I was amazed to see you get flamed in all caps by someone who said what you’re doing is called fraud and then get called a liar. That poster seems to have made other comments of a negative form or ones that seem pretty darn arrogant on this and other threads.



I’m with you as I thought I’d perhaps see responses like, “As a professional I wouldn’t take a shortcut�, or “I might use a different product, like XYZ�, “Professionals would need to be careful to not even hint at something someone might misconstrue, so I’d be sure to discuss it before hand�. It’s nice to see helpful responses in that vein showing up.



Took my Volvo, worked on using tools and techniques learned at Autopia, for state inspection yesterday. When I picked up the car, the shop owner came out and asked what I did to take care of it. After I told him, he said when I got around to selling it be sure to give him first shot because he was way impressed. I'm certainly a believer in what I've learned here and give thanks to Autopia and those contributors who offer great advice or opinions in a positive way. Happy New Years!



Cheers, Jim
 
Wow, this seems like a pretty heated thread :scared , but I'll throw my two cents in anyway. To me, if I don't do part of the car, even if nobody will see it, it bugs me because I know about it. However, I know quite a few people who hardly touch the roof of their SUVs, my father included. His Tahoe's roof is only really cleaned when I do it myself. It's the same with most SUV owners I know. When I work on Cayennes at work, I'm the same way. I use a step ladder to clean the roof because I feel that when someone is buying a new Porsche, they deserve perfection.
 
Scottwax said:
Whatever I do to the rest of the vehicle, I do to the roof of an SUV.



Click to expand...



I was thinking the same thing..?

It is like saying "well you never see the top so why wash it?" I try not to take any short cuts, I think that I give 120% let the "other Guy" cut corners. If I put on the receipt that I "polished and waxed the car" that’s what I did.. I would hate to put " I polished and waxed the lower panels and just waxed the top ones and "you the customer" will never see that anyway".... I am not talking just to NHBFAN.. I an thinking outloud..:wavey
 
I'm not going to join the "fraud" discussion coz I think it's waay off the topic....



As a pro (with workers)... We never take shortcuts on SUV/Van roofs not because of "morals" or anything like that. In my experience, people with large, tall cars rarely clean the roof, let alone wax it or protect it.... So they're really beaten up when they arrive at our shop. The roof is usually the most laborious section that we do on SUV/Vans so we go straight to the "tough stuff" such as compounds and wool pads when working on roofs rather than experimenting which polishes would work before we move on to more aggressive compounds.



As for protection, we usually apply the same stuff we use on the rest of the car since it's a waste of time grabbing a different product and applicator just for that particular section...



Side note: On personal cars or freebie jobs, yes, I (not our shop), do hit the roof with a one step product, especially if I know that the owner will not take care of the car afterwards anyway...
 
theveed said:
I'm not going to join the "fraud" discussion coz I think it's waay off the topic....
Click to expand...



Please note the ORIGINAL TOPIC of this thread remains; 'Do you "cheat" when detailing the roof of SUVs?"



*Definition:

CHEAT, v. 1.defraud; deceive. -n.2 fraud. 3. one who defrauds. -cheat'er, n



*source- American Dictionary
 
An attention grabbing thread title or word in a title is not unusual. :nixweiss

His question to professionals, I repeat again contained the word "shortcuts".



Do you professionals take "shortcuts" on SUV roofs? It seems senseless to use your best "show car" products on a roof.
 
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