How long does it take you to detail.

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agtjamesb007

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How long does it take you to detail a car? Im talking wash, clay, polish (however many steps you may need) and last step product. We`ll include glass and wheels, but lets save interior/engine compartment etc for another day.

I am not the fastest at it. Like many, its a battle against the sun, chasing shade, getting ready and finding your products, distractions etc. My cleaning OCD doesn`t help much either. I can get it done within a day. Say maybe lunchtime to just when the sun sets, depending on the time of year, call it 7-7:30. But it sure does exhaust the hell out of me. So much so that it kinda takes the fun out of it.

I wish I could take a few days. Do a wash, a clay bar and maybe a polish, or polish some panels. Put the car in the garage and finish the next day. However 12 hours or so in the garage I feel it can still accumulate dust, and that is going to cause a problem.

So I am just wondering really if anyone takes a couple days to do it and how do you preserve the condition of the car in order to continue without re washing or something, or do we all just cram it into one day?
 
For me, it really depends on what exactly needs to be done. For my newish to me Lexus, I spent 12 hours on day one, and 2 on day two, for a color/gloss enhancement, not even a full correction; I have a GG 6inch. But the M205 I was using was part of a bad batch, so I had to mix it with Ultimate Polish, which slowed things down. Unfortunately we fight a battle with dirt, even when storing the car in the garage between detailing sessions. So, the only way to have clean slate is to wash in between sessions or at least Waterless Wash, for me. My mother wants me to correct her Black Sapphire Metallic X3 (111K). The car is in need of so much love, that as I look at it and see all the intricate detail areas, I realize that this car will probably take at least 25 hours just for the exterior correction (there are many nooks and crannies, and a lot of masking), and it will be a wheels off detail. Detailing is very time consuming!:o

The length of time is honestly subjective, i.e. products being used, weather, location, car condition, etc.
 
It really depends on how bad the vehicle is. Standard sedan in for a thorough exterior with a sealant. If I start in the morning and do a wash, decon, 2 step polishing, sealant, wheels and tires. Probably 5-6hrs maybe less.
 
I`m a DIY`er and I give Linda a spa weekend in the spring. This includes washing, claying, two step polish, and shine. I take a day off and do this over three days on a weekend. For the full exterior it takes 13 - 15 hours. I don`t really "detail" the engine but I do wash and spray shine it. This only takes an hour or so. Actually, the interior is fairly quick and only takes a little less then two hours. I do everything in the garage excepting the washing and engine which I do in the driveway. And I don`t really have a problem with dust. Of course, what I do is to wash Linda initially and then again after polishing before the shine step. What does add a bit of time upfront is going over her with Dr. Colorchip a week or two before which is another hour or two.
 
Depending on the amount of dirt, etc., that needs to be completely removed from every square inch of the vehicle,
a full on Detail will take an average of 20 hours for 1 man..

This includes the entire engine and compartment, the entire trunk, compartment, spare tire removal, everything removed, Detailed, and returned properly to its place..

Also includes properly Washing and Pressure Washing, removing Embedded Contamination, and Correcting the entire Paintwork, Trim, Rubber Seals, Door Jambs (both sides), Steam, Extract, the entire Interior Seats, Headliner, all Leather and Fabric, all Carpeting, Plastic Parts, Door Panels, Dashboard, all Glass inside and out, Wheels,Tires, Fenderwells, applying the proper Conditioners to all Leather, Wood, Cloth, and Plastic inside the vehicle, and applying a good LSP twice to the entire Vehicle`s Paintwork..
Dan F
 
My personal vehicles take little decon to get ready to polish, but some of these cars I see, holy hell, would need a half a day to remove all the sludge on the fenders and whatnot.
 
If I`m going to knock it out in one day I average around 7 hrs for that type of detail, but I`ve been told that`s on the fast side.

If I have it my way, I prefer to start with a wash/wheels/decon on day 1 (4 hour average) and polish/coating on day 2 (6 hour average). After drying the car on day one, I like to leave the car in the garage to have the panels nice and cool and dry to start polishing on the next day. I`ve never had a problem with dust on the start of day 2, but if I did I`d just wipe it down with a waterless wash before polishing.

Now my dream would be to have my own garage. Then I could take even more time :)
 
Took me the better part of a month to do a "real" detail on my garaged Crew Cab Tundra. It`s pretty much retired ( I drive it a couple times a month) so I had the luxury of just having it sit there to work on off and on. But I`d hate to know what my total time on it was. But on the flip side, no more than I`ll drive it, I`ll probably never do that kind of work on it again.
 
4 door sedan,standard one step with LSP I`m looking at 7-9 hrs. I am always blown away when I hear/read <5hrs , and would love to see some video of that to see what I`m doing wrong or differently.
 
Migue said:
4 door sedan,standard one step with LSP I`m looking at 7-9 hrs. I am always blown away when I hear/read <5hrs , and would love to see some video of that to see what I`m doing wrong or differently.
Click to expand...

I think people use a cut way to strong then just have to clean up the haze, but hey , maybe thats how its supposed to be done~
 
JBM said:
I think people use a cut way to strong then just have to clean up the haze, but hey , maybe thats how its supposed to be done~
Click to expand...

I normally find a combo that fits the car on the passenger rear quarter panel, and then I adjust from there for the rest of the car. Some panels need a little more love than the rest. Don`t forget washing pads if are one to have a few of each type, don`t forget masking areas off, there is a long list of prep work on the cars that I have done, simply because they have had over 100k on them. The time it takes is all subjective.
 
Too many variables everywhere. There`s instances where wheels will take 10 minutes each and then there`s those wheels that have cake on brake dust and take up to an hour per wheel. Then you have paint that requires very little clay barring and you can get away with a clay mitt and be done in 15-30 minutes depending on the size of the vehicle, or you have a badly oxidized car that just abount nothing seems to remove the oxidation and you start regretting you took the job. lol You get the point. But anywho, for something of that level Id say anywhere from 8-20 hours.
 
For a full correction with swirls and RIDS, in the dead of summer, I can only polish one panel per night. That`s all I have time for, and after that one panel, my clothes are soaked through with sweat. Not "sweaty" but soaked through. Garages in Florida in summer are a sauna.

in winter, I can get 3X that done.
 
All depends on how much work the car needs. I just spent about 20 hours for a one step on a Hummer H2. Needed a lot of chrome polishing (a good 4 hours including polishing the wheels) and the wheels/tires took me a good 2-3 hours to get clean. That was JUST the exterior. No under the hood or anything extra. Im going back for the interior tomorrow and that will probably take about another 4 hours. When all said and done ill probably have a good 25 hours total in it.

Your typical sedan, on average I do in around 4-5 hours. And that with JUST a quick once over with an AIO. If im just doing a decon wash and seal, probably 2.5-3 hours.
 
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