This post initially originated from a previous email I sent. There was a lot of positive feedback from it so I decided to turn it into a blog post for others to read 🙂
Let’s dive in…
A frequent question I get is, “How long does it take you to complete XYZ?”
Whether that be cleaning leather seats, cleaning the engine bay, or polishing paint, people want to know how your methods compare to theirs..
Although I document plenty of my details on my YouTube channel, I don’t really provide a thorough breakdown of everything we do.
I’ll do my best to make these numbers accurate, but I am primarily working off of memory. So bare with me 🙂
Both of these vehicles were at the same location and there were two of us working. So most of this process was done simultaneously.
Oh, and I’m using my Samsung S7 for photos. So please excuse the low quality photos, ha.
Here’s the breakdown
Vehicle #1: Cadillac Escalade
Service #1: One-step exterior polish
- Clean wheels and tires (15 mins)
- Wash car (10 mins)
- Clay car (15 mins)
- Dry car (10 mins)
- Polish paint (2 hours)
- Apply/remove wax (15 mins)
- Dress tires (5 minutes)
- Clean door jambs (15 mins)
- Clean exterior/interior glass (15 mins)
Service #2: Interior maintenance cleaning
- Wipe down interior (25 mins)
- Vacuum (25 mins)
Price: $290
Budgeted time: 9am to 12:30pm (3.5 hours)
Actual time: 9am to 1:30pm (4.5 hours)
I know a lot of people struggle with prepping the vehicle when it comes to paint polishing. We finished the entire prepping process within an hour.
Of course, this comes with the service you’re performing. This was just a one-step polish to give some increased gloss to the paint. We weren’t going for a showroom finish.
ALSO, we were moving with purpose on this detail the entire time. We knew this was going to be a lot of work and if we didn’t move faster, we’d be there much longer.
So if you’re surprised that we wash completed the prepping phase in an hour, it probably means you’re taking way too long on your prep 🙂
This goes back to have a clear understanding of what the customer wants and what you’re going to deliver.
Don’t try and perform a show car level detail when the customer is only actually paying for something far less than that.
Vehicle #2: BMW M5
Service #1: Interior maintenance cleaning
- Wipe down interior (15 mins)
- Vacuum (10 mins)
- Service #2: Exterior maintenance wash
- Clean wheels and tires (15 mins)
- Wash/dry car (15 mins)
Price: $30
Budgeted time: 1pm to 2pm (1 hour)
Actual time: 1:30pm to 2:30pm 1-hour
It actually took longer than expected just because the car was parking in the garage and we could only get to half the vehicle while we worked on the Escalade.
I would have charged an additional $20 for the interior, but since it wasn’t that bad, I didn’t charge him more (and because we expect to get more work from him later).
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! Leave them in the comments below.