Do friends ask you to detail their cars?

tenblade2001 said:
I have some friends with REALLY nice cars. They see my car detailed and have either hinted or straight out asked me to detail theirs. I enjoy detailing as a hobby and would like to do some of the cars, but I wonder about a couple of things:
(1) should I get a liability release form?
(2) if the paints needs correction, should just glaze it and be done? I really don't like doing a half-a$$ job...maybe an AIO ( 3 in 1 or Speed).

Thoughts?
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I wouldn't worry too much about this. They are your friends so IMO the liability insurance thing is something I would not do. Are you charging them for a detail? If not, I would not worry unless you have a sue happy friend. If he is, do not detail his ride. I detail many of my friends care for free. Just practicing technique or trying out new product and their cars are the guinea pigs.

Usually I will get a nice dinner out of it.
 
Most REALLY nice cars are REALLY expensive to repair, so I don't think you're wrong to be wondering about the liability release. I don't agree with other posts saying that because they are friends you don't need it. If something should happen when you are working on the car they are going to expect you to make good on it.
 
I have one friend who is a regular customer. I detail his car every spring. I have 2 co-workers at my part time job that are also regular customers. I charge people i know half price.
 
Just do it for a hobby but yes friends ask if I will detail their vehicles. Most of the time say sure no problem, but you have to help. It's almost 50/50 those who jump at it and those who just never bring it up again.

As far as getting a release, just explain what the products do and leave it up to them how deep they want to get into it. Almost to a person we end up with a paint cleanser or a mild polish followed by a sealant. People hate hearing the phrase takes the clear down a little.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
If you feel you have to do that...are they really "friends"?
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In an ideal world...no. But we don't live in an ideal world. One of the ladies I work with was sued by a "friend" (someone she had known for 15yrs) when their kid "hurt" her back on a trampoline. You just never know.
 
MIsnowman said:
Most REALLY nice cars are REALLY expensive to repair, so I don't think you're wrong to be wondering about the liability release. I don't agree with other posts saying that because they are friends you don't need it. If something should happen when you are working on the car they are going to expect you to make good on it.
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That was my thought process.
 
I like the idea of 50/50 help and no charge. I am a hobbyist, but people do ask or I volunteer to help. When I mention that they must participate they normally don't proceed. The odd one does and a new detailer addict is born (not sure that is legal 😉.
 
People know I detail (meaning friends, family, coworkers, etc) and unless I explicitly offer to do it for them I never provide a discount of any kind.

You can run into a situation where a friend will tell another friend what you charged, and get stuck in a never ending cycle of being low balled OR seeming like a bad guy when you don't want to sell yourself short.

Usually the people that suggest I "detail" their car often have no clue what they want, nor do they understand that a "detail" is not a blanket statement. My typical response to this is "Sure I can always use the extra money", and if they are serious the conversation continues and gets more detailed (no pun intended). If not they just laugh it off and it's no big deal because I'm not touching their car!
 
I dont feel with friends you need a business license or liability of any sort to work on their car. I just get asked and make it as nice as I can for them. I guess they envy my clean vehicle or someone else and they start to like it and ask me.

I usually would like them to help since its friends but sometimes they dont and ill do it for them with getting paid.
 
I did the same thing at first. I said you have two choices: We do it together and you provide the products and I won't charge you anything... or I do it for you, I provide the products and I charge you half my normal rate. Everyone took the second option except for one guy. Then then following years he took option 2, detailing is hard work and most people don't like hard work LOL
 
I tell guys at work I'll let them sit there and mostly drink beer, help here and there, but basically just sit... But no one wants to give up 8 hours of their Saturday to detail their car when "the car wash down the street does it in 30 minutes for $20" or something like that. I've had zero takers in 20 years.

If someone wants to simply drop the car off and have me do all the work, they'd better be a hot girl with better than 50/50 intentions of ending up in the sack with me....
 
[SS]Shooter said:
I tell guys at work I'll let them sit there and mostly drink beer, help here and there, but basically just sit... But no one wants to give up 8 hours of their Saturday to detail their car when "the car wash down the street does it in 30 minutes for $20" or something like that. I've had zero takers in 20 years.

If someone wants to simply drop the car off and have me do all the work, they'd better be a hot girl with better than 50/50 intentions of ending up in the sack with me....
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One of my friends is like that. When he purchased his new Toyota Matrix 2 years ago, I told him it would be the best time to seal his paint while the car was new. He answered that there were advantages and disadvantages of doing that and he wasn't really interested. Puzzled, I asked him what possible disadvantages there were sealing his paint... he said "You have to take the time to do it and I have better things to do" LOL
 
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