detailing?

[FUPA]

what goes into a good detailing job? I was just wondering because i am thinkin of detailing peoples cars for a summer job. That way i make a lot more money than waiting tables.

[cassie]

attention to ummmm.... detail
[img]graemlins/slap.gif[/img]

[sac2165]

Originally posted by FUPA:
what goes into a good detailing job? I was just wondering because i am thinkin of detailing peoples cars for a summer job. That way i make a lot more money than waiting tables.

Being a perfectionist helps [img]smile.gif[/img]

[MrCoffee]

Originally posted by cassie:
attention to ummmm.... detail
[img]graemlins/slap.gif[/img]

as sarcastic as that was its 100% true. Gotta get into the spot they would even not think to get, clean parts that arent dirty, and shine everything!

[Dan M]

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[Chrisz24]

My neighbors always see me doing my car nice and just last year started to aske me to do their cars.
I have a hard time sometimes getting into it cuz I'm a perfectionist with mine, but no one has ever complained and I always get compliments on my work.
One time I did my neighbor's Jeep Grand Cherokie Limited, it had tar all over the wheel wells and parts of the body, (mud flaps cought most of it) anyways, I just went at it and used bug/tar and really cleaned up nice (couldnt do much with inner finders) I did wheels/tires twice and it looked great.

[Loochy88]

Originally posted by cassie:
attention to ummmm.... detail

Originally posted by sac2165:
Being a perfectionist helps [img]smile.gif[/img]

thats about it.

well, that and a whole lot of chemicals and cleaners. :D

[crazygrrrl]

Personally I think it's too much work if it isn't your own car. It could easily take the whole day to vacuum, clean the windows, wash, dry, wax, and buff a car. It would only be worthwhile if it's your own car or if you get paid good $$$ to detail someone else's car.

[Loochy88]

Originally posted by crazygrrrl:
Personally I think it's too much work if it isn't your own car. It could easily take the whole day to vacuum, clean the windows, wash, dry, wax, and buff a car. It would only be worthwhile if it's your own car or if you get paid good $$$ to detail someone else's car.

each time i do a detailing job i get paid anywhere between anywhere between 40-80 dollars. at that rate you should probably pay a great amount of attention to detail.

[Ted]

I've detailed jets for a year, and then moved to my friends dad's autobody shop and i've detailed cars there for a year before I moved up the latter. He said that I was THE best detailer he's ever seen and people and their friends came back just to get details for me. (Remember this is an autobody shop where we normally don't do details on a regular basis). Anyway enough small talk. What makes a good detail aside from regular cleaning is....

1). Make sure you scrub all the carpets and seats
2). There can't be any dust or anything between the seats, I usually take a blow off with 100psi behind it and blow everywhere inside the car after i'm done vacuuming it.
3). After your done cleaning the interior with some kind of clenser you want to dress it. Meguires and KarKraft make very nice interior dressers (it gives it a very shinny look)


Onto the washing and waxing

1). You most likely already know how to wash a car, but makesure you scrub inside the wheel wells very nicely, everyone always seems to look over this and it makes the car look horrible.

2). Make sure you degrease the engine. To do this EFFECTIVELY don't listen to all these other bozos on the board. Leave the car running, hose down the engine, then use a degreaser (I would stay away from simple green) as that seems to be the choice of everyone on here, but for years I been trying to tell everyone that over time it will corrode. You don't want customers coming back telling you their battery cables, and their engine is starting to have galvanic corrosion on it. I've gotten into many arguments with people on there to not leave the engine on. Why do you leave the engine running? Because you want the car to start after it's done being washed. By leaving it running the heat will evaporate any water near the spark plugs, therefore not shorting them out. Everyone gives you this fire and ice story where it will crack your block. It is more like if you use liquid nitrogen on a block thats over 1000 degrees. Anyway case rested. I've washed 100s of engines with no problem.

3. You want to compound rub any light scratches you see or touchup if you can. Next step is to wax the whole car really nicely making sure you don't leave any wax anywhere.

4. After your all done you want to get your tiredressing out. Dress all the tires and inside the wheel wells. A nice trick I like to do also is to leave the car run still and tire dress all the black in the engine. This way the tire dressing will heat onto all the black components in the engine bay making it look like it rolled out of the showroom floor.

5. And of course make sure all your windows are squeaky clean, there are no water spots on the rims, if they have tips make sure they're nice and shiny. And that should be it off the top of my head.

Good luck

[massivefirebird]

Thanks Ted, this wasn't my post but I found that advice helpful! I printed that out for future use! I was always scared to degrease my engine and just wiped it with a wet cloth.

So I let it run until all the water is evaporated?

[Ted]

Yea I usually let it run until i'm ready to dry off the car. At our bodyshop we usually use a product called Zep Formula 50 (also works great on wheels) but if you can't find that i've used regular spray nine and foamy engine brite and they worked nice before.