Fastest job in detailing?

K

Knight

New member
Anyone ever timed themselves to see how fast they did a FULL detail job? Quality job and a yet fast? I am always interested in hearing how fast someone can do a job. Any tips for a certain area or areas that they speed up time on and have found time savers. This should be a number one goal. I am formulating my entire process and will try it out soon and time myself. I want to be as fast/careful as possible. With unmatched results while going fast. Just curious the amount of time for a FULL detail job, start to finish?













:up
 
haha... all I know is that if I ever started a business in detailing i'll declare bankrupcy probably the next day.





I discovered autopia not long ago, recently I preped my Matrix and it took me all day (from 11:00am till 8:30pm.. with only a lunch break).



What I did..



1) Wash car

2) remove, clean all rims, at the same time, switched to snow tires

3) stripped all wax/glaze off the car using 50/50 IPA/water

4) Washed car again

5) clay (mothers kit....... had "heavy" overspray on half the car due to a repaint of the front quarter pannel).

6) wash car again.

7) glaze (meg #7)

8) Wax (1x S100)

9) clean windows (50:50 vinigar/water mixture. first with towel, then blew off lint with compressor, then got out the newspaper.)

10) Gave the engine compartment a quick wipe down (damp cloth)





BTW.. I did this all by hand (no PC)..... the results were very impressive. The paint was smooth as a baby's butt and much more reflective than I expected (car's silver)........ it was all worth it in the end :)



now on to the interior........
 
Someone just mentioned it took 6 hours to do a Suburban. Check out the Professionaly Detailers section.



Most of us non-comercial people usually set aside with a whole day, or do it is stages over a week or two as time allows.
 
I timed myself on my last big detail. I hand washed, dried, and cleaned the windows and rims of 4 cars in a about 3.5 hours.



Granted I didnt do a full out detail, but by 5:00 (I got there at noon)... each car had a coat of wax and a clean interior as well. That is working with no break, quickly.... very quickly.
 
When I was detailing cars daily I could do a decent detail in about 4 hours on a average sized car. But there were plenty of time when a detail took lots longer.



I used to help a guy detail his Ferrari for concours shows. We'd work on it daily for TWO WEEKS.



So, 4 hours to two weeks is a good range of detail times. :p :D
 
Shiny Lil Detlr said:
holy cow Bret... what took two full weeks to do on that car??
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Not Bret But i can relate to that, when I have a big indoor show it is nothing to put in days of work cleaning. You have to take off everything and clean everything, takes a lot of time.



I know it is all worth it in the end though :)
 
As an aficionado, I would think that speed would be irrelevant. Just do the right thing.



Assuming one has a comfortable working environment, the process itself should be the reward. Being alone in the garage, music of your preference, merlot (?) and a chance to reflect? Priceless.



Why look at the clock?:nixweiss

Frankly, longer may be better.



(I don't usually care for puns, but that 'reflect' thing WAS intentional.)



Jim
 
I'm barely starting out myself(started the business this past December), but so far I've averaged 3-4 hours on most full details. Although to be truthfull all this cars have been subcompacts with the exception of my full size truck.



I use QEW, it really speeds up the washing process. At times when I dawn wash the cars I use an electric blower to dry the car. Really speeds up the drying process. Although I want to experiment with just keeping the car wet and start to clay immediately. I remember reading that the QDs are an American invention and that the inventors of clay(japanese) only used soapy water.
 
Shiny Lil Detlr said:
holy cow Bret... what took two full weeks to do on that car??
Click to expand...



First, this was after work and at night, not like we were working 12 hours a day for 2 weeks.



Second, when prepping a car for a national or regional concours event the amount of work is amazing. This particular car was street driven to shows so all the work had to be done prior to the event. There are articles written about concours detailing; search for them on the web to see what kind of work needs to be done. Things like cleaning wheelwells can take many hours.
 
jimamary, Time is definetely not irrelevant. I don't know about you, but I would liked to get the entire detail done in a max of 5 hours and spend the rest of the day waxing 15 coats on. LOL Joking aside, time is definetely an issue when in a business especially. Also for an enthusiast it is a big deal, why wouldn't you want to save 1 more hour of time and get the same results? Thats an hour for 3 more coats lol or time to drive it and show it off.

So from the people that posted a time it looks to be without using any stat, about average of 3-4.5 hours for a full detail; interior and engine along with the rest.



Any more that want to add their times are welcome. Thanks for the posts.





:up
 
NY detailer said:
The average for me is around 3-4 hrs
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Same for me. SUVs take 4-6 hours because on a lot of them, the interior is completely trashed.



I detailed a Thunderbird once in just over 2 hours-it really didn't need a detail, it was pretty spotless to begin with, but the customer insisted. Hey, the customer is always right. :nixweiss
 
Full engine, interior and paint detail



http://www.autopia.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18025



started 130pm to 11pm... no breaks... phew



I guess it all depends on how soiled the engine/interior is and how bad the paint is... You really can't say how fast you can go coz it depends on the car itself... I have done a full detail (with paint, engine and interior) for less than 3-5hrs but those are MAINTENANCE detailing... which are so much easier than RESTORATION detailing which most of my customers hand out to me...
 
I was just wondering about the run of the mill type of car. clay, swirl removing at most. I understand for certain cars that have been neglected it could take wayyy longer. Nice engine detail. Looks great.





:up
 
Personally, quickest i've done is 3.5 hours. Average is about 5 hours. I did production (hack) detailing about 8-10 years ago. 2 people could do an entire detail (shampoo carpets, leather cleaned and dressed, interior dusted includinng vents and all nooks and crannies, exterior washed, wheels cleaned and sealed, tire shine, 1 step polish/wax, windows inside and out) in about an hour for a standard sedan. Trucks took about 1.5 hours and cars like a vette would take under an hour.
 
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