How many hours does it take you to detail?

Took me nearly 7 hours today for a Mach1 with moderate swirling.



Time really just depends on what needs to be done.
 
Four to five hours for an exterior detail with a light interior cleaning.

Six to eight for a complete inside and out detailing.
 
You can clay, Klasse AIO and P21S in 3 hours. Polish can add over an hour depending how deep you get into it and experience.

Basically a evening.
 
Wash, clay, machine polish and wax, 3 hours. Then interior, wipe down, clean some stains here and there, apply leather conditioner and vacuum carpet/matts, another hour. I do this in the spring before summer, it's just too hot to get that kind of time before the heat comes on. I find you can split it by washing, claying and polishing one day. Then wash the next day (helps get any polish residue off) and then wax 2 coats.



For the summer I just wash and do a hand quick wax, takes an hour.
 
On my own car, weeks, in fact its an on going process.



Other peoples cars again depending on the severity as little as an hour to as much as 7/8 on some finishes.
 
7-8 hours for moderate swirling on my Tahoe

Process Includes

Wash

Clay

Wash Door Seals

AIO/#20 Door Seals

SSR2.5/DACP

SSR1/SFP

RMG/VM

LSP

Dress Tires and Wheel Wells

Polish Chrome

Apply Rubber/Vinyl/Plastic Dressings

Windows inside/out

Clean Plastics/Dash w/ MCME

Protect Plastics

Clean/Condition Leather

Vacuum
 
About 6 hours for the exterior of my PT, which I really do about every 6 months. Add to that another 3 or 4 hours for a complete interior treatment!



I usually spend the better part of a weekend on it!
 
As some one stated earlier it depends on what needs to be done. What has happened to me as i become more Autopian the details take longer and longer because my eye has become more decerning.



An example would be it took five hours to do My Bravada in November. this was only an exterior job. The last detail job i did was on a 76 Chevy pickup in bad shape and I spent 11 hours using a rotary to get the job done and i had the owner wiping behind me.



What i know is that the last detail was more enjoyable than the first detail. I can only hope that that attitude remains with me as I continue to strive for the perfect shine.
 
I could easily spend 5 hours just washing, spot clay,light polish, LSP, clean glass, dress tires, dress trim, clean nooks and crannies.
 
6-8 hours for a full in/out detail. Outside only takes maybe 3-4, interior 2 to 4 hours depending on the size and condition.
 
Well, it takes me longer than anybody has posted so far :o I can do a quick refresh of my LSP about as quickly as anybody, but a real *detail*, every millimeter done properly, takes a long time.



When I did the black rent-a-Suburban it took me about 12 hours- good enough for that (and enough to wow most anybody), but not *close* to good enough for one of my vehicles. Doing the S8 or the Jag takes *MUCH* longer than that, as in days.



Example: I'll spend a *long* time on the little slots of a grill (dozens of slots, at least four surfaces and four seams for each slot: clean, AIO, then SG or whatever x however many coats). Heh heh, I'm always griping about those grills...they must bug me.



With silver, just *inspecting* for light marring when I polish can take a very long time. Consider that you need different types of light sources and varying viewing angles.



Today I spent over two hours on the S8's already-cleaned interior, and I still haven't treated the seats yet. The way the wood (wax) and the vinyl (dressing) are adjacent makes it tough to keep the respective treatments from overlapping. Had to use small brushes and swabs. Ditto for the rubber bits that are next to painted surfaces, especially deep in the doorjambs.
 
Accumulator said:
Well, it takes me longer than anybody has posted so far :o I can do a quick refresh of my LSP about as quickly as anybody, but a real *detail*, every millimeter done properly, takes a long time.



When I did the black rent-a-Suburban it took me about 12 hours- good enough for that (and enough to wow most anybody), but not *close* to good enough for one of my vehicles. Doing the S8 or the Jag takes *MUCH* longer than that, as in days.



Example: I'll spend a *long* time on the little slots of a grill (dozens of slots, at least four surfaces and four seams for each slot: clean, AIO, then SG or whatever x however many coats). Heh heh, I'm always griping about those grills...they must bug me.



With silver, just *inspecting* for light marring when I polish can take a very long time. Consider that you need different types of light sources and varying viewing angles.



Today I spent over two hours on the S8's already-cleaned interior, and I still haven't treated the seats yet. The way the wood (wax) and the vinyl (dressing) are adjacent makes it tough to keep the respective treatments from overlapping. Had to use small brushes and swabs. Ditto for the rubber bits that are next to painted surfaces, especially deep in the doorjambs.
Click to expand...



:lol well yeah... don't get me started on the crazy things I've been known to do to my own vehicles; my above estimates were for customer vehicles. With those, it gets to a point and I say "the hell with it, I know they're not going to KEEP it this nice...." :wall
 
Shiny Lil Detlr said:
With [customer vehicles], it gets to a point and I say "the hell with it, I know they're not going to KEEP it this nice...."
Click to expand...



While I'd probably still be a fanatic about getting them clean, I sure agree with you when it comes to marring removal on paint. If a customer's gonna mess it up again anyhow, I don't see any point in repeatedly cutting the paint. At some point you're gonna have to say "sorry, no more clear to spare" anyhow. Since nobody (except me and my wife) ever notices the "little things" I do, I can't help but wonder if you pros would need to bother with them unless the customer made it clear that such things were expected (and was willing to pay accordingly).



When I did cars for friends/family (note past tense ;) ) they never seemed to notice a difference whether I put in 2 hours or 22, but I didn't like doing the quickie jobs. Back when I was doing it for pay I kept getting told "don't bother with that, nobody cares", and when I did it for *my* dealership nobody noticed either :(
 
I think the question can be answered many ways. Is it a show car? Is it a daily driven vehicle? What color is it? How long has it been since it's been done before? What kind of coating does it have? Clearcoat? Lacquer? One stage paint? What size vehicle? Does it have alot of trim or is it mostly paint? Last, but not least, what condition is it in and what results are you looking for? If perfection is what your after, be prepared to spent many, many hours. For everything else, you can do a vehicle in roughly 3 hours depending on the factors I listed above.
 
I take as little as 1 1/2 hours on a moderately swirled/contaminated car if it's a customer car and I'm really busting my chops. If it's one of my parents' cars there is no telling how long I take. Usually I take my sweet time and pay a rediculous amount of attention to detail. I'd say that would take me about 3 hours for just paint work on a well maintained finish.
 
I find it takes me at least 6 hrs for a car with light swirling, and up to 9 for heavier swirling [ exterior only ]. I spent 12 hrs on a Vette once :wall .
 
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