How long does it take you?

97FLAIRSIDE

97FLAIRSIDE

I like blue! :oP
Just wondering how long does it take most of you guys pro/newbies to detail your car/truck/bike?

I did my truck the other day and only did 2 steps on the outside and it took me nearly 5 hours. I was shocked. I didn't even do the interior or engine. Engine kinda hard to do with baked on mud.

How long does it take you to do each part? int/ext/eng.?
 
On a car or truck that is not trashed I can do it in about 5 to 6 hours. If they are really bad then its longer up to 8.

Its taken quite a few years to get my pattern down so I always do the same process's. You will get there maybe someone here can post a check list for you.
 
Took me eight hours in September to do a full detail on my car. My dad's Ford F-150 Supercrew took me almost 20 hours (clay, SSR2.5 x 2, SSR1, AIO, SG, carnauba).

I'm slow.
 
A lot of it depends on how bad it is to start. It would take me no time at all to detail a 2005 car inside and out. A ten year old car that hasn't really been maintained would be a different story... It takes me about 2 hours to do either of my cars inside and out. I put probably 20 hours into it in June durring the car show season. That includes taking parts off and doing things that aren't normally done. If I spend a couple hours every two or three months on it, then it stays pretty clean the rest of the year. Its all about regular maintainance.
 
It takes what it take, unless your doing it for money. I can spend anywhere from 4 to 16 hours on my extended cab pickup.
 
jngrbrdman said:
If I spend a couple hours every two or three months on it, then it stays pretty clean the rest of the year. Its all about regular maintainance.
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No doubt. I find myself spending about half an hour everyday wiping down my van and the bimmer. My van because its my mobile detail vehicle and its got to look its best and the bimmer cause the wife only knows how to turn the key ..LOL.

A full detail takes me about 6 to 8 hrs. depending on size and shape..I start with the engine .
.Simple green diluted w/water .dress w/ PB NL or Meguires # 40 let sit.

Bucket of APC or Sgreen to do rims and fenderwells and mudguards.Pull out the floormats and scrub them .Knockout the doorjams and misc. parts

Scrub inside w/ Woolite and water mix 1:6 dress accordingly

Spot treat carpets and extract.

Polish water spots from windows.

Wash or Spray and Wipe

Clay

Buff w/ PC PB's 2.5 or SSR 1 cutting pad , 5k to 6k

Apply PB's PwC with white pad at 2k or 3k

Hand apply PB's EX or 4*'s UPP. Additional charge of course)

Dress tires and recondition trim and moldings .

Step back and look for anything I missed.

By this time its been 7 hrs with no food or water and I gotta take a leak real bad/.!!LOL..
 
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Takes me between usually 7 and 9 hours depending on the vehicle. Last weekend I did an 03 Porsche Carerra 4S and a new Hummer H2 SUT; they both took about 8 hours for complete engine/interior/exterior (even with the Hummer being brand new).
 
OI812 said:
It takes what it take, unless your doing it for money. I can spend anywhere from 4 to 16 hours on my extended cab pickup.
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Ain't that the truth. I can spend an awful lot of time on my own cars, but when I'm charging $40 per hour I have to go a little faster than that. Customers don't want to see a $1000 bill for detailing their Camry. :lol If the job is going to take longer than 4 to 6 hours then I won't take it unless the client is willing to leave the car with me for a couple days. Generally most of the cars I do are 3 or 4 hour jobs. I do some of them in steps. 2 hours on the interior and then reschedule for another day to start on the exterior. If I can do them in 2 hour appointments then I can get a car up to a show car standard in probably 4 or 5 appointments. Some of my show car clients start that routine in March and come back every two weeks till the show car season officially starts. It all depends on how much money the owner wants to spend on the car. Most of them know me pretty well and know that I'm not wasting any time while I'm working on the car. Some have $400 they can drop on one visit and others want to spread it out over a few appointments. Its all based on what the client wants. I could probably spend hours even on a brand new car right off the line. lol You can always find something to clean on a car.
 
97FLAIRSIDE said:
Just wondering how long does it take most of you guys pro/newbies to detail your car/truck/bike? I did my truck the other day and only did 2 steps on the outside and it took me nearly 5 hours. I was shocked. I didn't even do the interior or engine. Engine kinda hard to do with baked on mud. How long does it take you to do each part? int/ext/eng.?
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I only do the exterior and interior and since my car is new, that isn't that much work.

Exterior only -- wash, clay, polish, and 2 coats of sealant -- can easily take 5 hours. Then you add in cleaning the wheels, and maybe applying sealant to them (let along having to clay them) and you could spend another hour on the wheels alone. The glass? If you want to or need to use a polish and/or special cleaners on it, that can take you another hour easily for inside and out.

I am doing my Winter Detailing this weekend. I got to work from home today so I already did the wash (car is 5 months old and already clayed 3 months ago so I skipped a claying today), then I apllied Klasse AIO and have my 1st coat of SG sitting to be removed later tonite. I will apply the 2nd and 3rd coats of SG Saturday night and Sunday night. Saturday afternoon I will clean the wheels (should be quick: they were cleaned 1 month ago and had EX-P applied and it seems to be keeping the grime from sticking) and Sunday I'll do the glass.

It's alot easier to break up a big job over a few days.
 
A point that should be brought up on time, I think that allot of people see some one saying it takes 3 or 4 hours on a vehicle for a full detail. While this maybe true, it is probably not the same detail you do on your personal vehicle. I am certainly not going to put 3 coats of UPP, and 2 coat of butter wax on a full detail. I also don't believe people are spending 2 or 3 hours polishing a vehicle in step down methods example SSR2.5, then SSR1. Thats something we do on our personal vehicles or something we do when someone is paying on an hourly basis for that type of polishing. So comparing what we do on our personal vehicles, as what is done on time basis for a paying customer is to different things. Its like comparing apples to oranges.

Like Jngrbrdman said, he can take that long on someones vehicle when he is preping it for a show. Thats a 400 dollar or more job. That is not a 125 full detail. Thats my opinion take it for what its worth (probably not much).
 
My mom's 2002 VW Passat that hasn't been detailed in a long time or never took me 7.5 hours. I could easily have spent another 3 hours doing it, but I ran out of gas and was absolutely bushed when done.
 
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