Time it takes for a full detail...

Oh, two of you would make a difference. Next summer I may hire a helper... this winter I am packed on the days over 40... and the rest I just build up a waiting list. No sense in hiring this time of year.



Josiah
 
detailbarn said:
to many car washes around me to bother , people would rather just drive their new car into the grinder as I call it. I won't even take my Tacoma thru there , it's sick I saw a brand new 911 still had the dealer tag on it , go thru the auto wash yesterday.
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Maybe, but I have a lot of customers who have 3-6 cars and it is much easier for them to pay me to come out to their house and wash/vac their car correctly and pay me more than to spend half the day going to the local car wash, waiting in line and then getting a half-a$$ed job.



Details take me anywhere from 2.5 to 6 hours by myself. Obviously the 2.5 hour ones are cream puffs and definitely not SUVs. I had one interior take me 4 hours to clean because it was so nasty (I swear, every single surface in that van was sticky, even the headliner!).



Washing with Protect Alls QEW saves me about 20-30 minutes of washing time since it only uses a gallon of water and doesn't require rinsing, nor do I have to blow out all the seams with compressed air.





Just remember that Shine Shop is in Canada and their dollar is not worth quite as much as ours, nor are our taxes as high (nothing against Canada, just pointing out some minor differences that can affect your hourly rate), so you can probably take home the same 'value' of money making $30-35 an hour as someone in Canada does making $40 an hour. I do feel that the lowest hourly wage you can make a decent living on is about $30 an hour. Believe me, taxes take a big bite and you need to make sure you are making enough to cover them.
 
Maybe I shouldn't post here,



but I love reading the pro's hourly rates for detailing cars,

being an amateur(sp?) it takes me 2 hours to simply wash my car!

Another 2 hours to vac.,dress inside, wash windows.

Then dress tires

haven't even begun polishing-glazing-waxing

(Z-ing in my case)

I guess working as I work now it would take me all day to "do" 1 car.

But then again , I'm no pro.



Christiaan
 
It takes me anywhere from 2 1/2 hours and up, time varies according to size and condition of vehicle.



You don't tell the customer that you are charging them $40/hour. This a tool to use when you are giving an estimate. I think $40/hour is a good rate, you can make yours more or less. When I give an estimate I determine what needs to be done to the vehicle and how long it will take me to finish, I then multiply that by my hourly rate. Sometimes it take me less time and I make more, other times it takes longer than I estimated. The more cars you detail the better you will get at estimating the amount of time required.



How long does it take you to detail an Explorer by yourself?

Does it take less than 6 hours? You maybe slowing yourself down by having a two man crew.
 
LedZep said:
I wash/dry, clean wheels, tires, wheel wells, clean windows inside and out, mirrors, vacuum entire car/truck, polish the dash, clean the door jams, and shine the tires. Keep in mind there are two of us, and a clean car is easy to clean up again.
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Led Zep even though you are obviously a fan of the best Band ever, I have to question the time you are quoting for the services listed. I have been detailing for 5 years and these services take me 60/75 min for a fairly clean car 90/105min for a pig. The services listed are 2/3 to 3/4 of a full detail. The rest of a detail shampooing the carpets, dressing the interior, claying, polishing and sealing the paint take me another 2.5 /3.5hrs. depending on the size and condition of the vehicle. Compouding would be another hour. Even with 2 guys you must be Bionic.
 
LedZep said:
I wash/dry, clean wheels, tires, wheel wells, clean windows inside and out, mirrors, vacuum entire car/truck, polish the dash, clean the door jams, and shine the tires. Keep in mind there are two of us, and a clean car is easy to clean up again.
Click to expand...



Led Zep even though you are obviously a fan of the best Band ever, I have to question the time you are quoting for the services listed. I have been detailing for 5 years and these services take me 60/75 min for a fairly clean car 90/105min for a pig. The services listed are 2/3 to 3/4 of a full detail. The rest of a detail shampooing the carpets, dressing the interior, claying, polishing and sealing the paint take me another 2.5 /3.5hrs. depending on the size and condition of the vehicle. Compouding would be another hour. Even with 2 guys you must be Bionic.
 
Every Little Detail...the only time we can do that in 20 minutes is on one of our weekly customers cars who barely get them dirty. About 15 minutes is spent washing and drying the outside with two of us, and then in the last 5 one of us runs the vacuum over it, which is very quick in a clean car, and the runs a pad over the dash, and cleans the windows. It comes together really well, we are well coordinated. More often, however, we spend 45-60 minutes doing this due to the poor condition of the customers car.
 
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