Pros, how long do you take to do a "full detail" on a sedan?

I am no pro, I have a camary. For me to do a complete detail, exterior only, no wheels. Rinse, foam, wash, dry, clay, sealant, wax, all with a Flex, 8 hours, allow for drying of products. don't forget to add for yourself, easyup, music, washing the towels and pads, taking down easyup. 10 hours to be safe.
 
I want to get thoughts on how long it would take you to derail a comparable vehicle and what you'd charge. This is what I ran into yesterday. It's a neighbor's Infinty sedan, white exterior, tan and grey leather interior. Driver seat dirty. Child seat in back so sticky fingers and candy. Carpet spots. Exterior dirty (looked like it had not been washed in a year or more. Open the trunk and dirt thickly caked along the jams behind the window and along the sides. Rims and tires dirty. Driver rear panel hit by perhaps a tire or something similar as black lines all along that panel below trunk. Sorry no pics but a challenge. Took it to a car wash to use pressure hose to attack paint, tires and rims (along with Dub tire cleaner and APC). Dried it afterwards and took it home. Wash and clay mit. HD Speed with orange pad. Began on hood then noticed tiny brown dots. Actually hit one and it smeared so I stopped. Looked up info on forum and the used Iron X to solve. Rewashed car. HD speed on car. For panel with black marks I tried buffing with HD speed, Meg's 105 as I thought it would remove it. 3M adhesive did the trick. Re-waxed that area. For the trunk jam I used a thin brush yo remove as much gunk as I could then steamed the areas and wiped them down. Interior seats cleaned, carpets steamed, cup holders and other areas steamed. Meg's Interior detailer used. Glass cleaned inside and out. Tires and rims cleaned and treated with Optimum tire gel and PB wheel sealant. Other than road rash on lower front of car, the car looked great when done. Took me 7 hrs. My wife thought I was crazy and low priced. I would normally charge $280 but since it was a neighbor charge $180 but am also getting his other two cars to do and maintenance cleaning. I know you don't have the benefit of pics but I'm wondering if I was in fact too low priced and did I take too long? Thoughts? Thanks.
 
The first problem I see is that what you call a 'full detail', what I call a 'full detail' and what the next calls it could all be fundamentally different, so trying to get to an average when comparing apples with oranges is already a recipe for disaster.

Perhaps a better way to approach this is to list down all the activities/tasks you intend performing, and then people could chime in with how long it would take them to do that task, and you could then benchmark how much time you need to reasonably allocate to each task...

Here is a very rough idea of the typical sort of time I spend on a 'full' detail - I've done 134 'full details' to date, most of which are on cars in pretty bad shape to start with, but I am not a professional and only detail on weekends from home, so absolute efficiency is not the utmost priority for me, the quality of the work I do is...

Engine bay 0:45 to 1:30
Wheels, fender wells, tires, brake calipers 2:00 to 3:00 depending on condition
Wash 0:30 pressure rinse, foam, tfr, 2bm, dry
Iron removal 0:30
Clay 2:00 (admittedly I am extremely anal about this step - you can do a 80% is good enough type clay in half the time, but I go after every little spec of contamination)
Test spots 0:45
Taping up 1:00
Cut 9:00
Polish 6:00
Seal 0:30
Wax 0:30
Glass 1:00
Exhaust tips 0:30
Rubbers 0:30
Badges 0:15
Interior 4:00

Hope this helps a little
 
I'm the wrong guy to ask this question (I recently spent around 30-40 hours over a 5-day period detailing my truck and it wasn't very bad to begin with) but I'm going to chime in anyways.

I've seen this and similar questions asked a million times about a variety of tasks and here's my take... The better a job you do the more time it takes. Period! Attention-to-Detail takes time.

Although absolute perfection is impossible, many strive for it. I know I do. Every time I do something I try to do it better than the time before and that usually means it takes longer. While there are some time savings that can be realized by working efficiently and developing/improving your processes, quality costs.

I think the key here is "what are your expectations" for the finished product? Assuming "perfect" to be 100%, are you looking for 75%, 80%, 90%, or 99.9%? The time it takes to meet expectations goes up exponentially the higher your expectations are. Getting from 80% to 90% might take longer than the initial 0% to 80%. And then from 90% to 99.9% will take even more time and effort. Only you (and/or your customer) can determine what the expectation level is going to be and how much time/money is reasonable to achieve it.

In a nutshell, whether the answer to the original question is 4 hours or 4 days, they are both correct. It just depends on your own level of attention-to-detail, your own definition of perfection, your own expectations, and your own definition of what constitutes a "full detail" as those can vary quite a bit from person to person.
 
4 hours. Pressure wash, foam, 2 bucket, MF dried, clay, glaze, seal, carnauba, windows sealed, interior vacuum and door panels and dash treated, any black trim treated, tires and wheels dressed and sealed, door jams clayed and sealed.

Everything applied with Flex 3401.
 
2black1s said:
I'm the wrong guy to ask this question (I recently spent around 30-40 hours over a 5-day period detailing my truck and it wasn't very bad to begin with) but I'm going to chime in anyways.

I've seen this and similar questions asked a million times about a variety of tasks and here's my take... The better a job you do the more time it takes. Period! Attention-to-Detail takes time.

Although absolute perfection is impossible, many strive for it. I know I do. Every time I do something I try to do it better than the time before and that usually means it takes longer. While there are some time savings that can be realized by working efficiently and developing/improving your processes, quality costs.

I think the key here is "what are your expectations" for the finished product? Assuming "perfect" to be 100%, are you looking for 75%, 80%, 90%, or 99.9%? The time it takes to meet expectations goes up exponentially the higher your expectations are. Getting from 80% to 90% might take longer than the initial 0% to 80%. And then from 90% to 99.9% will take even more time and effort. Only you (and/or your customer) can determine what the expectation level is going to be and how much time/money is reasonable to achieve it.

In a nutshell, whether the answer to the original question is 4 hours or 4 days, they are both correct. It just depends on your own level of attention-to-detail, your own definition of perfection, your own expectations, and your own definition of what constitutes a "full detail" as those can vary quite a bit from person to person.
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Well said!!!
 
Bill1234 said:
I have a very good friend who got a sedan for a method of transport. Hyundai sonata I think (not familiar with Hyundai). It gets little care but it is not totally hammered. I will probably go with a foam soak with a gun, two bucket wash with grit guards and mitt/maxi suds, rinse and then clay with onr or car soap.

Polishing will probably be needed but lightly. Want to try out HD adapt on a red meguiars microfiber pad.

Eventually I might want to ipa wipe down but dont know how to do this in terms of ipa strength.

Probably will put meguiars paint protect on then collinite 476s.

Interior should just need a vaccum and light cleaning and 303 protectant.

I dont know how long this should take and payment from the friend would be zero so no wage is really needed. Just how much time should a full detail take roughly?
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The big variable is how much correction you'd to achieve? Adapt can take you anywhere between 2 hours to 25 hours depending.

Personally, I'd try HD Speed. You'll get great correction and gloss with a decent amount of protection. Then, top it with 476 and you're done. Forget the IPA wipedown unless you're going to full correction. Rest assured knowing that the finish it leaves is the finish that will remain.

Because you're doing correction, it's a bit excessive to foam and 2 bucket a car. Any marring that *might* be created will be removed within the 1st pass with your polisher. You'll create more marring claying the car.

Typical times for a competent pro should take about 2-3 hours tops. Time for an internet detailer could take 4-5 times that amount due to the lack of real world experience.
 
As a noob doing my first detail, it took me 7 hours with some breaks in between to:

1. Wash (2 buckets)
2. Clay
3. Rinse
4. Dry
5. Polish (One step w/ HD Speed -- 4 passes)
 
I spend 2 days on my customers cars. I don't make a lot of profit but the end result show the difference as I touch up Nick's and chips if they supply paint and paint frames and hitches etc. A lot of guys just cover things up with dressings. Not my style.
 
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