To clay or not to clay ?

[Jngrbrdman]

As a professional I would not even think of buffing out a car before it has been properly clayed. I realize that clay is not cheap, but even compounding and polishing does not alway get out all of the minute evironmental contaniments. I know a few detailing operation near me that only offer claying as an upcharge.

What do you think to clay or not to clay? Should it be an upcharge? Should you build it into your price (I do)?

BTW... If you get away with exterior detailing without claying and still get your price more power to you. I just believe that claying is now a mandatory step in a complete exterior detail.

I don't have a specific service list that they choose what they want. I look at their car and tell them how much it will cost to get it done properly and what will be done to it. Typically clay is part of that estimate unless I know it doesn't need it. For example, I did a job last summer where the guy clayed the car himself but managed to drop the clay a few times in the process. He put some nice scratches in the paint that he wanted me to remove. I didn't need to clay it again since he already did it, so I just polished out the scratches and sold him on a sealant treatment and sent him on his way.

I'm all about educating them how to do it themselves. Since this isn't my full time job, I can afford to lose customers because they learned how to do it and don't need me anymore. That is why I created OCDetails.com in the first place. I love it when a customer is truely interested in the process and want to get their hands dirty. I don't keep secrets from them on what products or processes that I use. However, since the jobs I look for are usually the ones that require clay anyway, its a given that clay is part of the job. A wash, clay, and paint cleaner is about as basic as I get on a detail. I'm not wasting my time on someone who doesn't want to take at least that good of care of their car. If all they want is a wash then they can do it themselves. lol I'm not starving and I don't need the work that badly. Again, if this were my full time job then I might not be so discriminating, but its not so I can be.