Opportunity ? or nightmare

T

turbomangt

New member
I got a phone call the other day from the director of a high profile golf club that I occassionally detail members cars. In Oct they are having a fund raising golf outing. part of the service for this event is they want to provide a hand car wash to all that attend. They expect 70 cars, my fee would be $700. That seems like allot, but its only 10 bucks a car. I would have to set up an assembly line wash. NO InTERIOR work. I would like to know if anyone has done anyting like this. Your thoughts on how many people I'd need to hire for the day. and how long you think it would take to do per car. I need to plan this out. thanks appreciate the help, Gary
 
Gary

That sounds like a job for SUPERMAN!! I'll fly out to help:D

The thing that stricks me is how well will you be able to clean the cars and dry them. The local schools here have cars washes all the time, most of the cars need work even after they are done, water spots, drips, etc.

If it is a fund rasier then the customers should be a bit easier on you about the jops.
Hardest part is going to find 3 to 4 people to help, some washing some drying and some running the back in for dry towels, new soap water, etc.
 
Well let's see 70 cars....one 5 gallon bucket of Spray and Wipe could do that....it would definitely be faster....you would need a lot of mf or cotton towels ....I would say about 5-6 people...charge double that and include dressing for tires and trim
these people can afford it and donate 10% to their charity..

"A portion of today's proceeds will be donated to........."

Have done a smaller version by myself and man was I tired afterwards...also surcharge for SUV's :eek: too much time for those suckers...lol
 
Need more odds

4-1 he makes it
2-1 he doesnt
1-1 he gets more buisness if he leaves buisness cards.

Come on, step right up and place your bets!
 
I love challanges like this!!

Quick and sloppy is the name of the game here.

$10 IS TOO CHEAP!!!

How long will you have to wash them all?

You are going to need to wash about 9 vehicles and hour to do all 70 in about 9 - 9 1/2 hours. I would use their water and filter it onsite with DI tanks. Have one guy as the hose man and two soapers, two others as dryers and window guys.

Best I can figure is you are going to put about $300 (or less) in your pocket for one busy arse day and turn out less than satisfactory work. I rather do two high quality details than this mad SPLASH AND DASH!!
 
Yeah, but if you build a clientel by saying you are donating to charities, then you could have better results than normal buisness.
 
Seems like it is worth the effort just for the potential to add new clients to your list. Along with the business card I would inlcude a flyer of available services and the likely result of a full detail, etc(no prices). Make sure these folks know that you can do much more than simple car washes. And I agree with PB, charge $20, dress the tires and let it stand at that!

That spray and wipe is not a bad idea....if you have 150 or better MFs! :D

One question though: how would you have access to all the cars? These people are going to arrive all in a 30 minute timeframe for the golf tournament and when they are finshed they will all leave within an hours time. I doubt you can do an assembly line for that many cars in such a short time. Since the club is paying fo rthe detail, the participants are not going to want to sit in line. My opinion. Although, if the course pays up front for the service I would guess that 30% of the participants will bypass or simply leave instead of waiting on their "free" car wash. Less work for you, but you may miss a potential future client. Can you wash the cars as they are parked in the parking lot? You might need a mobile tank or a long a$$ed water hose.
 
rt ...exactly why spray and wipe comes into play here...they just park the cars and you can do them where ever they are without the owner needing to stay or the responsibility of moving them or having even the keys, which could get dropped or lost .:D
 
Thanks for all the responses. Hear are some answers to a few questions. I would be using thier water on location. An assigned spot would be set up, and I would have access to all keys so the plan is to wash the cars while they golf. The down side about the business cards is most of the people from what I understand will be coming from a farther diatance, not local. So potential business if questionable. The golf director though who asked me to do this event, does pass members on to me. The club is Medinah Country Club, they host the US OPen often. Michael Jordan was spotted their last week, so its a high profile club, when I go to pick up a car, rarely do I see a "Normal" car in the lot. All high end stuff. I was hoping Larry A would respond to this, I heard he lives close by. How about it Larry, I'll pay you $6.00 an hour to help. (kidding) :D
 
High volume sucks. No other way to put it. I'll have to do a good wash on 10-12 cars some days and that's not just a quick exterior wash! That's cleaning up after a painter and bodymen! Overspray removal and filler that dripped on the tires and all that crap. Pluss interiors. I have a hard time doing that in 9 hours! Man you are going to need some serious help. Good luck. If you need help look me up. I"m only a 2.5 hour drive away.
 
This is an easy job, of course it is what I do. I wash up to 350 cars a day, and do it with 3 or 4 guys, but we are used to it. You will need 5 or 6 guys and will need to check the work.
Odds are that the cars that are coming in will be fairly clean. That will make it a ton easier. Here is how I am set up. I know it will curl the hair on the necks of some of you guys, but like I said we do 350 cars a day, without sweating it, averaging 50 cars an hour on an average day.
You will need to have the following equipment:
A pressure washer
A set of DI tanks
3 or 4 Chenille wash mits
A couple of 5 gallon buckets
a couple of NEW california water blades.
Some Microfiber towels, not a ton, just a few.
Some soap. For this I prefer Mequiars Gold Blend, or Zymol. They are both relatively inexpensive, and easy to get at a discount club.

The Method:
Have the trigger man rinse off three or four cars to get the dust off, if it is a regular fleet we will skip this step, because they really don't care other than the car is clean.
Have two guys with wash mits start washing the cars with the wash mits. You will want the soap to be two or three times heavier than recommended so that it will stay wet.
Have the trigger man go back and rinse the vehicles off, using DI water.
Have a GIRL (Has to be a girl, they are pickier about this kind of stuff) go through after the rinse, and using the California Water blade, squeegee the windows off.
You can walk around and rub shoulders with potential customers, and hand out business cards.
After they have been through the first section of cars, you can go through with a MF towel, and hit the spots that were missed. It happens, and this will help to improve the quality.
Remember this is a charity car wash, and that there is some room for error. If it was me, I would plan about 3 hours from start to finish.
With the DI water, the cars should dry spot free, and so you are just hitting the spots on the windows, and the few areas that did not get hit with a mit. You might want to rotate out the mit guys, because that is hard work, at this type of speed.
 
That sounds like a heck of a method. Getting the girl in a bikini would be even better, unless all the other guys that you hired are spending more time trying to get some from her, than working.
 
Well, yeah, it also works as a distraction for some of the more homronally active among us:rolleyes: She also can be good for customer relations. It is amazing how much nicer a customer canbe about a complaint when a female of any ilk is present. The only problem is that sometimes, the customer likes the girl to bend over a get a low spot that was missed. :eek:
 
Scooter, thanks much, sounds like you have some operation. how many gallons of soap are you thinking? I want to see if I can use the clubs power washer. I don't want mine to blow up from heat exhaustion. As far as the DI Tanks, that might be a problem. Since I'm not a moble guy, Idon't gave access to tanks, and to rent would not make sense for one job. I hope they have good clean water.
 
Okay, you are going to puke and die. We do not use a new bucket for every car, so usually we can get by with a half gallon of soap really easily. A 5 gallon bucket will last 15 to 20 cars. You might want to cut that down some becaue you are not doing fleets of cars.
As for the DI bottles, they are always rented anyway, so that all you would have to do is get someone to rent them to you. I use Ionics, Culligan is also usually a good source. For me, it would cost about $35 to rent a mixed bed tank for this type of thing. Since you would not be a regular customer, it might be a little higher.
Be careful with the DI tanks, once you use them, it could become addicting because of additional ease in washing the cars.
 
I agree with others that this is an opportunity to increase business, especially with a flyer and business card. I would put together something special a 30 day special - a package with a decent price should work. It seems like time is going to be a concern. Seriously the Spray and Wash idea would work, although you would need alot of MF's, also check out Protect All's - Quick and Easy Wash, you put this special soap (full of lubricants) in a bucket with water no need to even use a hose, you wash and then dry. One person washes, one dries, with two people I can do a car this way in 5 minutes, washed and dried. I use the Big Blue to dry, but whatever you prefer will work fine.
 
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