How Long Does it Take You?

I

Imatk

New member
I did a whole car finally with my PC the other day. Up to now I've just done sections that needed work.



Anyway it was a friend's '07 Mustang.



It pretty much had marring everywhere. Had some water spot etching on the roof and trunk and also had some pretty bad scratched areas.



So anyway I washed, and then clayed the whole car. Then I started with Optimum polish and a light cutting pad. That wasn't getting it done so I stepped up to the Optimum Compound and that was better but I still wasn't getting some of the deeper scratches out.



So finally I went to a Lake Country Yellow cutting pad and the Optimum Compound and it worked out beautifully.



I started on the car at around 1 and finished at around 7... this was after I applied Zaino Z5 pro and Zaino CS.



I was wondering... does this sound like a long time to polish? I'm just wondering if it gets faster as you get more experienced.



Thanks :)



I should have some pictures today or tomorrow.
 
Sounds about right to me.



It takes me ages to PC the whole of my car, so I generally concentrate on one panel at each visit...



....and here I was thinking it was gonna get quicker :waxing: :D



I think the problem is, I'm too conscientious about the condition of the paintwork now - compared to before I had the PC.
 
Imatk said:
Well cool... I just wondered if maybe I was being TOO slow :)
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I'm with you, except I know i'm slow, no doubt about it. This was confirmed this weekend when I did a friends MB, I started at 8:30am Saturday, washed/clayed and did the paint correction, left his house at about 6pm. Went back on Sunday and put in the same amount of time, I did polished/final polish/waxed/interior/polished and dressed wheels and tires.



I will say that this is the first time it's ever taken me more than a day to detail a car, I can normally knock it out in 8hrs when paint correction is needed.
 
This could just be the difference between the weekend detailers and a full-time professional detailer but 6 hours just to compound/polish seems like an extremely long time. Please don't think I'm being insulting or even boasting. A typical full detail takes me between 3 and 4 hours including interior... up to 6 if I need to pull out the rotary (and they get charged accordingly).



I hardly ever clay the entire car (usually just hood, a-pillar, front fenders, lead edge of the roof and trunk), compound only the really tough spots with a rotary, polish with the cyclo and then apply wax. The longest I have ever spent on just the exterior of a vehicle was a Land Rover last week with horrible tree sap all over. It took me almost 3 hours just to remove the sap, total time spend was about 8 hours.



Take your time at first but you do get faster eventually.
 
My routine if I really put an effort to get done takes about 6 hours(that includes mucking out the inside too).



So im guessing thats a good 4 1/2 hrs on the paint alone. Ive become a little spoiled with OC I must say. This has eliminated an entire step on most cars because it finishes so well !!
 
sQuashed said:
My routine if I really put an effort to get done takes about 6 hours(that includes mucking out the inside too).
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I see I'm not the only one that hates doing interiors... :lol
 
6 hours to one step compound, one step polish, one step wax, and full interior cleaning with seats, carpets, plastics, glass, tires, wheels, wells - on a car



about 7-8 on a full size truck



about 8 on a full size truck



this is working via PC, rotary id imagine it comes down to about 5-7 range for all...
 
The best I've ever done was four hours flat for an interior and exterior......a true pro could likely have done it in two. Worst case was eight hours. These were general clean ups & spot cleaning the interior using clay, Cyclo & PC on the exterior.
 
I must be a retard with my PC then...I have done 3 cars, a 99 Mustang, an 01 Grand Prix GTP, and a 94 Mustang, and I have spent 8-10 hours on each, the 8 hours was on the GTP that had been pretty well taken care of, I guess I dont understand how long I should spend on each panel and how much product to use on each panel.



The Mustangs got the following:

Wash with dawn

dry

clay bar

wash

dry

SFX-1 entire car

hand wipe off

SFX-2 entire car

hand wipe off

P21 wax

hand wipe off

DONE...9 hours later



I always seem to spend the most time on the hood and rear deck lid.
 
i dont think its too long of a time. I usually can never tell how bad a car is going to be sometimes when someone brings me a daily driver that they run kids around in. Sometimes the inside takes me longer then anything elese.
 
How do you guys do all those steps so fast? Am I missing something?



Just to wash and clay an entire car takes me 1.5-3 hours depending on how bad it is. Swirl removal with machine polish on a PC takes me another 5, then there's still a step of finishing polish, Klasse AIO, then subsequent Klasse SG coats, and then wax (optional). This usually takes me a good part of 3 days to complete. What's the secret to the guys doing all these steps in 8 hours? :sadwavey:



Also, what advantage does the rotary have over PC aside from ability to remove bigger problems? Are the pads bigger, does it polish faster than the PC, what? Thanks!
 
the rotary corrects ALOT faster due to the spinning of the pad. The rotary spins in one direction (circular polisher) unlike a "dual action" machine which sorta jiggles. The advantage on the rotary is it creates heat which makes paint correction easier and faster. but also more dangerous as you can burn through the paint if your not careful.



The PC is 99% safe on your paint but takes longer due to less heat being created by the pad.



Hope that helps



Jim
 
clor0x said:
How do you guys do all those steps so fast? Am I missing something?



Just to wash and clay an entire car takes me 1.5-3 hours depending on how bad it is. Swirl removal with machine polish on a PC takes me another 5, then there's still a step of finishing polish, Klasse AIO, then subsequent Klasse SG coats, and then wax (optional). This usually takes me a good part of 3 days to complete. What's the secret to the guys doing all these steps in 8 hours? :sadwavey:



Also, what advantage does the rotary have over PC aside from ability to remove bigger problems? Are the pads bigger, does it polish faster than the PC, what? Thanks!
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Wow, an hour and a half is incredibly long to wash and clay a car. I use the leftover water on the vehicle after washing to clay, using QD when needed, and then dry the vehicle once the claying is done. Do you dry and then clay, then dry again?
 
No, I use the water from the wash. I don't see how a thorough job could take any less than this, especially on a car that hasn't been clayed in awhile?
 
wash

clay without drying

rinse

dry

done



or

wash/clay

rinse

dry



if you are going to compound, there is no need to get the car comletely dry....just the majority of it needs to be toweled up...plus you will instill less marring due to less wiping



then compound and realize you have another step to remove more marring...that was my problem when I started...i tried to get everything out on the first go with the PC...it was taking me about 3 hours to do a light compound when I should have done a heavy then light in the same time...the things you learn with experience....
 
clor0x said:
No, I use the water from the wash. I don't see how a thorough job could take any less than this, especially on a car that hasn't been clayed in awhile?
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When I clay I do the whole car, some people just hit certain spots, it doesn't take a long time to clay because it does it's job quickly. I'd be sprised if it took me more than 20 minutes to clay a vehicle.



When you say thorough, what exactly does that entail? We're talking body/wheels/wells, right?
 
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