Why so many hours?

I know someone who owns a 66 GTO. I was told that between sanding, paint, wetsanding and buffing he had about 600 hours in it. I`m sure that he block sanded after primer and then between multiple coats of clear. I`ve seen the car in person and the paint is spectacular. That`s overkill for any car other than a true show car.
 
wannafbody said:
I know someone who owns a 66 GTO. I was told that between sanding, paint, wetsanding and buffing he had about 600 hours in it. I`m sure that he block sanded after primer and then between multiple coats of clear. I`ve seen the car in person and the paint is spectacular. That`s overkill for any car other than a true show car.
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I would consider a restored ‘66 GTO a “show car”... especially if someone spent 600 hours on the paintwork.
 
Yamabob- I apparently started doing this stuff around the same time you did. Doing ss white by hand, or even by v1.0 PC could indeed take a long time (I thought the PC was broken since my Cyclo did the work so much faster). And I`ve spend entire afternoons removing fingernail scratches from behind Audi door handles. But those situations were back in the days of old-tech products. Today, M101/etc. can do those behind-doorhandle jobs in a few minutes.

I can take weeks to do a whole vehicle, but that`s not continuous effort. I still take a lot longer than many people, but I`m constantly stopping to check my results/inspect/etc. if only because on most of my vehicles I don`t want to waste a single unnecessary micron of clear. And if I spend six hours doing inaccessible areas by hand...well, you can spend a long time on stuff nobody else ever sees :o

BUT..

When a *Pro* says "XXX Hours" I absolutely agree that something`s wrong. That reminds me of how [a well-known Detailing "personality"] would talk about "getting the clearcoat uniformly level to within one micron" or somesuch. [sarcasm] yeah, right [/sarcasm] Or when people do the Burnishing thing on daily drivers that`re gonna get marred up again anyhow :rolleyes:

Now when Mike Phillips does a M07-restore job on old ss, that`s different! Jobs like that can indeed take countless hours, at least the first time. But cases like that aren`t the norm.

I suspect a lot of "I spent XXX hours on this one!" is just posturing, trying to sound all "meticulous". But heh heh, gee...it occurs to me that I`ve checked out so few C&B/etc. threads that I dunno if I`ve ever actually seen somebody claim that more than a few times.
 
I saw a comment by someone elsewhere where he was talking about doing 20 passes per panel. To me, if your doing that many passes you need a more aggressive product, pad or machine. Seems like a waste of time.
 
I don`t see how some of you professionals can do this detailing for a living. I am just an amateur that does his own vehicle. This spring I think I spent a total of 8 hours doing a cleaning, polishing and a wax, but that includes 5 minute breaks every 15 to 20 minutes(arms and hands get tired holding the polisher and or rags wiping). If I remember I spent about 6+ hours the first day doing a wipe down, a polish and another wipe down and then I applied wax. Arms, and me, were so tired I left the wax on overnight and removed it the following morning, that was another 1+ hour with a few breaks to relax. Wasn`t the best job I have done on my vehicle but good enough for a pickup and it looked better than it did when I bought it from the dealership used 2 years ago. If I would have had to spend 20-50 hours to do it I would have drove it to a dealership and traded it off.
 
Heh heh...wonder if anybody else is in the same boat I am with my New Normal Vision; inspections that used to take me literally *seconds* now can take, again *literally*, minutes. It`s a huge PIA/consumer of my time...and not just with auto Detailing either [whine whine whine :o ]. But hey, it sure beats blindness.

wannafbody- That whole "wasting time with all those passes", which can also equal wasting *clear* in areas that don`t need the abrading, is one reason why I believe that wetsanding can actually *save* both time and clear in some cases...if the Detailer knows what he`s doing.

OTOH...when I absolutely *must* polish it, I do a gazillion uber-gentle passes on that `93 Audi of mine because I can`t spare a fraction of the tiny bit of paint it has left. Same with the Jag, but those are such oddball situations that IMO they don`t really apply to Real Life for most people.
 
skibik said:
If I would have had to spend 20-50 hours to do it I would have drove it to a dealership and traded it off.
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I`ve sold off a number of vehicles that I otherwise liked because I simply decided I wasn`t gonna bother giving them the required Detailing :o Eh, life`s too short to waste on such stuff if the desire isn`t there..or at least *mine* is.

E.g., I sold the Yukon XLD because keeping that huge black thing perfect was gonna drive me nuts and that wasn`t appropriate for a dog-hauler.

Oh, and...

I don`t see how some of you professionals can do this detailing for a living.
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Agree! And that`s one more reason why I`d never make it as a Pro Detailer!
 
Mike lambert said:
If you’re working on factory paint with car wash damage and swirl marks, what in the world takes so long?
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I read the OP a few times, between last night and today. That part up there^ is key.

As slow as I am, and I`m quite slow, I haven`t taken THAT long on factory paint. Factory.

The few times I`ve taken upwards of 40 hours, 2 were resprays that looked similar to the Porsche mentioned in the Whites Details in another post. The other car was also a respray, but it was a single stage paint that I "polished" out by hand. That was not a fun time.

Also, I don`t consider myself a pro. More than an enthusiast, but definitely not a pro.
 
Accumulator said:
I`ve sold off a number of vehicles that I otherwise liked because I simply decided I wasn`t gonna bother giving them the required Detailing :o Eh, life`s too short to waste on such stuff if the desire isn`t there..or at least *mine* is.

E.g., I sold the Yukon XLD because keeping that huge black thing perfect was gonna drive me nuts and that wasn`t appropriate for a dog-hauler.

Oh, and...



Agree! And that`s one more reason why I`d never make it as a Pro Detailer!
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2 years ago today I got rid of my black headache, I do miss the fun of driving that car though, don`t miss trying to keep it looking nice. A day or two before driving it down the road for a new vehicle I think I did a record time detail job on it(if you could actually call it that). It was a rush job, paint was in nice shape for not touching it for 2-3 years other than washing it regularly and waxing it a handful of times during that period. No polishing, just did a walk around with a big bottle of Ultima Paint Guard Plus that I think I won on this forum. I didn`t think I was putting it on that heavy until I was on the road to the first dealership, I had stop at a convenience store, sun was out and man it looked bad in the sun. Luckily it started raining by the time I got to the dealership so it wasn`t so noticeable wet. That first dealership was the only one I made it to. I did take a look into it after they posted the car for sale and they did a pretty good job cleaning it up, although they ruined it by putting there big dealership lettering in white on the trunk lid.
 
skibik- At least you enjoyed that car! I...sigh...simply cannot drive something that`s not basically marring-free :( Seeing anything I can correct simply means it doesn`t leave the garage until I have :o

I did let things go back in the day when I decided to get serious about my education, but even then I had a "good" car I could drive that was really nice.

These days, I could no more drive a correctibly marred car than wear a stained or wrinkled shirt...and no I`m not saying that as if it`s a good thing.
 
Sometimes you need to realize that if everything in life needs to be absolutely perfect, you are really just making life more difficult at times.
 
I think if they get a car that is in bad shape instead of using a rotary with wool or flex they make pass after pass with a long throw and chase. I still have some of the old fashion twisted wool pads if there is a bad panel and I load the pad up with an compound it cuts so fast
 
Accumulator said:
skibik- At least you enjoyed that car! I...sigh...simply cannot drive something that`s not basically marring-free :( Seeing anything I can correct simply means it doesn`t leave the garage until I have :o

I did let things go back in the day when I decided to get serious about my education, but even then I had a "good" car I could drive that was really nice.

These days, I could no more drive a correctibly marred car than wear a stained or wrinkled shirt...and no I`m not saying that as if it`s a good thing.
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I did enjoy driving it. I was the same about driving it unless it was clean, but I got burnt out detailing it at mid-point of ownership. I reverted to my old ways and it never bothered as much to driving it a little dirty as did in the beginning.

Kudos to those that do this for a living. I know it is a career I could not do. Not after owning a black car, that was a job in itself.
 
skibik said:
.....Kudos to those that do this for a living. I know it is a career I could not do. Not after owning a black car, that was a job in itself.[/QUOTE]

Which is WHY most professional detailers do not own a black car. Some detailers may drive around in a vehicle that is less-than detailed to perfection. It`s related to the adage of, "The local shoemaker`s kid`s go bare-foot." They are too busy detailing everybody else`s vehicles they have no time for their own.
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wannafbody said:
Sometimes you need to realize that if everything in life needs to be absolutely perfect, you are really just making life more difficult at times.
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This reminds me of the R.B. Perry quote that "A man can be his best only by constantly striving for, and perpetually missing, an unobtainable perfection". Guess he wasn`t trying to maintain Jet Black on a year-round Daily :D

But seriously, there`s "absolutely perfect" and then there`s "as good as can be done under the circumstances". I simply couldn`t respect myself if I fell sort of the latter, in Detaling or anything else..BTDT and regretted it, so no more. But how one defines "the circumstances" is, uhm...subjective, and every subject is a little bit different.
 
Lonnie said:
Which is WHY most professional detailers do not own a black car...
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Heh heh, yeah, that`s a clue :D

Some detailers may drive around in a vehicle that is less-than detailed to perfection...[because].. They are too busy detailing everybody else`s vehicles they have no time for their own.
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But to me, a Detailer`s vehicle is his reputation. I myself would never hire a Detailer whose personal vehicles weren`t basically perfect. Hey, *MINE* are, and I`m no Pro, nor is it even a big priority to me. It`s just not *that* hard...if you prioritize it. That`s one mighty big "if" though, you`d have to really love something to do it some more after you`re off the clock.

Eh, sorry..guess I`m knee-jerking again and now I`m thinking "Lonnie probably thinks I`m disagreeing with him again" :o But I always hated that adage about the Shoemaker...I figure "then his priorities are [screwed] up". Ya see, IRL, I`ve known lots of tailors, and a few cobblers, and every one of `em kept himself and his family`s stuff as close to perfect as humanly possible...like, "blow-me-away close to perfect", and *all the time*. One glance told me "this person is competent".
 
You hit the nail on the head. Most vehicles are done in under 10hrs with correction and coating work. Of course there`s exceptions but if I can start my day at 8am and by end of the day have all the correction done and leave the coating work and interior work for the next half day im good with that.

Now on the other hand im finishing up a full repaint on my gto and I will guarantee ill have a good amount of time doing the finish work.
 
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