Swirled up Carrera price

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imported_pdsterns

New member
Customer has a perfect Carrera but mild swirls are visible uniformly all over the car in the sun. He would like to get them removed and I quoted him $100 for a wash, clay, polish and spray wax. I'm thinking 4 to 5 hrs, does that seem about right?
 
Sounds low to me...I would want to up-sell to something more than a spray wax after polishing. Maybe $200 for a quick two step and quality LSP???
 
Swirls or holograms? Holograms can easily be dealt with via a solid 1 stepper. Seal with whatever, but you're looking at 6'ish hours.



Real deal swirl marks? 4~5 hours start to finish isn't gonna cut it. Literally or metaphorically.



Either way I would charge at least $200. But only you know what your day is worth.
 
MuttGrunt said:
Wash, decontamination, polish, and spray wax in 4 or 5 hours eh? Care to share your secret?
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Mutt, when I say this car is near perfect I really mean it, I think I can ONR wash and clay in about 30 mins, no windows to do then I'll have 3 hrs to polish out. I was going to use a green pad and Sonus Paintwork cleanser. It's a Carrera not very big, I could be wrong, just my guess.



Jean-Claude, very light swirl almost imperceptible, well I'll see how tough it is after I get started.
 
A green LC pad will not finish down properly on a 911. Sounds more like a nice two-step, and at least six-eight or so hours. Even so, the price seems very low unless after product cost and wear on equipment, you feel $10 or so an hour is a good enough amount to work for.

There are a lot of volume shops and car washes that charge $80-150 for a wash and wax, let alone for decontamination and polishing.
 
MuttGrunt said:
A green LC pad will not finish down properly on a 911. Sounds more like a nice two-step, and at least six-eight or so hours. Even so, the price seems very low unless after product cost and wear on equipment, you feel $10 or so an hour is a good enough amount to work for.

There are a lot of volume shops and car washes that charge $80-150 for a wash and wax, let alone for decontamination and polishing.
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Thanks Mutt, I had no idea some volume shops charged that much, I guess I did sell my self a bit short. I though I could do it with a green pad and Sonus paintwork cleanser since I've had really great results with it. How and what would you suggest for this car?
 
I would never work for $25 per hour on a Porsche- especially when removing swirls. I guess if it's worth your time and that is a livable wage, then go for it.



For removing swirls, you have to test at least one area and see what is going to work best..I never quote a job like this without testing an area- there are too many variables (previous work) that you do not have control over.



Tell the customer that you need to test an area and that will dictate time and price.



Rob
 
pdsterns said:
Thanks Mutt, I had no idea some volume shops charged that much, I guess I did sell my self a bit short. I though I could do it with a green pad and Sonus paintwork cleanser since I've had really great results with it. How and what would you suggest for this car?
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Rob above has some great advice and I agree with him to a point. First I'd recommend figuring out what you want to make per hour, and then calculating product cost (estimate how much of various products you use over a detail, divide that number by the amount of time you worked, and you'll get a rough product cost per hour) and add that cost onto what you want to make. That becomes your hourly rate should you choose to charge by the hour.

If you want to charge by the job in place (some clients like this; knowing upfront their total cost), then estimate what your process would cost when you add in your per-hour rate. Chances are you'll be looking around at least $250-300 for such in-depth and lengthy work.



If you're getting great results with what you're using, then by all means you should be good to go. My personal experience would have me trying something like Menzerna 106 on black or blue if I wanted to polish a Porsche with a single step.

G/L and let us know how things go!
 
Well the Carrera hasn't showed up yet due to the NJ weather but other Porsche's have come along, (I am working in a Porsche repair shop). I've got a lot of good products on the shelf, Megs 3 machine glaze, Megs 9 swirl remover, Megs 80 speed glaze, Megs 83 DACP, 3M Perfect-It III Rubbing compound and Poorboys Professional Polish to name a few but I haven't found the right formula without 3 or 4 passes of the DA. I usually start with an orange Sonus pad and the Megs DACP or the 3M rubbing compound and was wondering if this seems normal or if there is a better product for swirls or is just this the nature of swirls, ie they take plenty of effort to eliminate them?
 
pdsterns said:
Well the Carrera hasn't showed up yet due to the NJ weather but other Porsche's have come along, (I am working in a Porsche repair shop). I've got a lot of good products on the shelf, Megs 3 machine glaze, Megs 9 swirl remover, Megs 80 speed glaze, Megs 83 DACP, 3M Perfect-It III Rubbing compound and Poorboys Professional Polish to name a few but I haven't found the right formula without 3 or 4 passes of the DA. I usually start with an orange Sonus pad and the Megs DACP or the 3M rubbing compound and was wondering if this seems normal or if there is a better product for swirls or is just this the nature of swirls, ie they take plenty of effort to eliminate them?
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It's extremely paint dependent so no one can really give you an answer to that. If the Porsche is non-metallic black you won't finish it well with anything more aggressive than M80 speed glaze and a black Lake Country pad. Unless you have some sort of magic touch that I haven't been able to find in 4+ years of continuously working on black Porsches, the paint is simply going to be too soft and will marr/dull easily with anything more than a very low cutting polish and a finishing pad. Some combinations that have worked great for me in the past, most recent first... Meguiar's 205 and LC crimson finishing pad, Meguiar's M205 and LC Black pad, 106ff and LC white pad. Other combos (eg. Meg's 205 with meg's 9006 finishing pad) have worked good but only on some occasions.
 
Well I just did some silver boxster experiments. With megs dhcp it took about 3 passes and with the 3m compound it took 1 and there was no noticeable gloss difference. I made one pass then with megs 3 and it all looks good. I would say I got about 95% of the marring out. I tried megs 9 first with it's fillers and saw no noticeable difference.
 
pdsterns said:
Well I just did some silver boxster experiments. With megs dhcp it took about 3 passes and with the 3m compound it took 1 and there was no noticeable gloss difference. I made one pass then with megs 3 and it all looks good. I would say I got about 95% of the marring out. I tried megs 9 first with it's fillers and saw no noticeable difference.
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Porsche black vs Porsche silver is night vs. day difference (probably more!). You should be able to get much more correction with even fewer steps on the black paint, but finishing it well will be the challenge.
 
Well it's 7 months now and the Carrera is finally going to arrive. The owner had issues with his parents and a nursing home etc and the car was not the most important thing on his list. He is bringing it in to have the IMS (Intermediate Shaft bearing) replaced as a precautionary measure so it will be in the shop for several days waiting for parts. This Artic silver car wasn't used all winter so it looks the same, very nice but has a rough feel as I doubt that it has been washed. Washing and claying with be a breeze and I will go at the hood first with an orange pad and some Optimum hyper compound and see what it will take. He has one small scratch on the hood and I will use that as a test area.
 
I figure on $40/hr where I live.



I would personally use an AIO product, then $100 would be fine. If your doing a polish and wax separately charge more. 4-5hrs would depend on how quickly the paint corrects. I've done a VW Jetta wash, clay and D151 in about 4 hrs, on a rotary.



I'd also explain to your client, its an estimate (esp on time).
 
Have to agree with what a lot of others are saying. For what you're looking at, minimum 2 step correction on top of all the normal prep work....will normally take me the better part of 8-10 hours. If I were to quote that job they would be looking at $495.
 
AeroCleanse said:
I figure on $40/hr where I live.



I would personally use an AIO product, then $100 would be fine. If your doing a polish and wax separately charge more. 4-5hrs would depend on how quickly the paint corrects. I've done a VW Jetta wash, clay and D151 in about 4 hrs, on a rotary.



I'd also explain to your client, its an estimate (esp on time).
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Do you top the D151 with anything? How long does it last all by itself?
 
pdsterns said:
Well the Carrera hasn't showed up yet due to the NJ weather but other Porsche's have come along, (I am working in a Porsche repair shop). I've got a lot of good products on the shelf, Megs 3 machine glaze, Megs 9 swirl remover, Megs 80 speed glaze, Megs 83 DACP, 3M Perfect-It III Rubbing compound and Poorboys Professional Polish to name a few but I haven't found the right formula without 3 or 4 passes of the DA. I usually start with an orange Sonus pad and the Megs DACP or the 3M rubbing compound and was wondering if this seems normal or if there is a better product for swirls or is just this the nature of swirls, ie they take plenty of effort to eliminate them?
Click to expand...



If you're using glazes to 'correct' then you're doing it wrong.
 
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