Making money doing production detailing by Mike Phillips

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Making money doing production detailing by Mike Phillips


If you look in the forum group this thread is posted in, you'll see it's in

Pictures & comments from Competition Ready 3-Day Detailing Classes with Mike Phillips


The below car was detailed by the May 2017 Competition Ready Detailing Class. This Acura TSX is 1 of 3 cars this classed detailed as a part of learning how to do high quality production detailing. The results you see were created in ONE-STEP using a one-step cleaner/wax.

These are true results, the swirls and scratches are not merely filled in.

Question: How did the car get so bad?

Answer: The couple that owns this car told me they paid $135.00 to a local detailer to get their car detailed. To me, it looks like the so called detailer used a garden rake to wash the car.​



The first time I saw this car was at our local "Lew's Crew Tuesday Night Cruise-in" car show. After the show, the couple came to the Autogeek booth and showed me the car.


2011 Buick Regal

2011_Buick_Regal_001.JPG




They said they were told "Mike Phillips details cars". I told them "yes" it's true I detail cars but mostly special interest vehicles, like on display at Lew's Crew Cruise-in. I told them I could detail their car and gave them my Package 1 price. They said okay.

Later in the month, I had a car cancel for the May Competition Ready class so I called them and asked them if they would be willing to let me use their car in the class. They would get the detail for free but it would be students training on their car in a classroom setting. They agreed.


At all my classes, the classes we hold here at Autogeek and the Autogeek Roadshow Classes, I teach both

Show Car Detailing

Production Detailing​

It's important to know both styles of car detailing and it's also important to know when to do which type for which customer and the customer's car.


This Buick is a daily driver. I asked the owners how they washed the car. (I always ask people this and teach my students to do the same for very important reasons), they said they took the car to a car wash. I told them after we detail the car their best option for maintaining the car into the future would be to either,

A: Wash the car themselves - I told them I would show them good products for this available at Autogeek.com

B: Take the car to a touchless car wash​



They opted to get the products and do it themselves.



The BIG PICTURE is that not only should you NOT do multiple steps to every car you detail but if you use a high quality one-step cleaner/wax with ANY quality orbital polisher and quality foam buffing pads you can actually turn out incredible results and doing so with only one-step. (besides the washing, drying and claying steps).



Most people, that is most of your customers only want 4 things when they get their car detailed,

1: Shiny paint (this is different than 100% swirls and scratches removed)
2: Black tires
3: Clear glass
4: Clean looking and smelling interior



Most people don't know the difference between a squirrel or a swirl

The difference between a swirl and squirrel




Here's the before and after pictures....

Prod_Detail_001.JPG


Prod_Detail_002.JPG


Prod_Detail_003.JPG


Prod_Detail_004.JPG


Prod_Detail_005.JPG


Prod_Detail_006.JPG


Prod_Detail_007.JPG


Prod_Detail_008.JPG






Next 2-Day Roadshow Class is in August in Wisconsin

Autogeek's 2 Day Roadshow Detailing Class at Lake Country Pads in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin - August 12th & 13th


Autogeek_Roadshow_001.jpg






Next 3-Day Competition Ready Detailing Class here at Autogeek at the end of September


Next Competition Ready Class is September 29th, 30th and October 1st - Click here for more information


watermark.php





Learn the art of balance when it comes to matching your services to your customer and their car.


Product used...

Prod_Detail_000.JPG




Get you some here

3D HD Speed - 32 ounce bottle


3D HD Speed - 16 ounce bottle



I'd recommend going ahead and purchasing the 32 once bottle because

A: It's that good.
B: If you own and drive a car and take care of it yourself you'll end up needing and wanting the 32 ounce bottle.

:)
 
Mike,

have you ever considered offering just your presentations? until a roadshow comes to SoCal or I ever make my way to FL I would still love to and would pay to just see a video presentation of the speaking parts of the classes you give.

also on another note any chance you can find a second to send me the print out for your detailing presentation on your I thin kit was "go through the back door" approach.

lastly great thread as always
 
Cruzscarwash said:
Mike,

have you ever considered offering just your presentations? until a roadshow comes to SoCal or I ever make my way to FL I would still love to and would pay to just see a video presentation of the speaking parts of the classes you give.
Click to expand...


Thank you for your vote of confidence. We actually tried something like this with a ROKU channel, that is online detailing classes but nothing can take the place of the real deal.

No worries my friend, I'll be in California in the future. Lately I just have been to busy testing out new products, writing reviews and also detailing cars and making videos to work on contacting our already established contacts in California.

I'm confident it will happen.


Cruzscarwash said:
also on another note any chance you can find a second to send me the print out for your detailing presentation on your I thin kit was "go through the back door" approach.
Click to expand...

That project is about half done. So many new products being introduced and it's very time consuming to,

  1. Use the products
  2. Take the pictures
  3. Write something




Cruzscarwash said:
lastly great thread as always
Click to expand...


Thank you and have to say, not only was each person present in this class blown away by what a simple one-step cleaner/wax did but I was impressed too.


I have another mind-blowing before and after that you'll see in the near future. I posted videos last Friday to my FB page.

https://www.facebook.com/Mike.Phillips.Autogeek/


:)
 
I'm blown away from the before/after pics and knowing it was a 1-step. AMAZING results.

That hood pic made me cringe, it was so bad.
 
To quote Mike's Post


Mike Phillips said:
"Learn the art of balance when it comes to matching your services to your customer and their car."

Wiser words were never spoken when it comes to the detailing profession :dblthumb2:


Product used...

Prod_Detail_000.JPG
Click to expand...



HD Speed, all killer, no fillers, amazing turn around Mike.



:)
 
JustJesus said:
I'm blown away from the before/after pics and knowing it was a 1-step. AMAZING results.
Click to expand...


So was I. So was the class. Keep in mind, some of the students that worked on this car and ALL 16 cars in this 3-day class - this was their first time ever machine polishing.

May and even most thought the after results looked as good as the results from doing three steps, (compound, polish and seal), for the 10 SIV or Special Interest Vehicles we buffed out during the class session on Show Car Detailing, which we cover before we cover Production Detailing. And there's a reason why I cover show car detailing before production detailing and I'm pretty sure I'm the only guy that calls himself an "instructor" does this in our industry. At least I don't know of anyone that does this but then I only know of a few guys that are "real" instructors. Seems like every day I see someone pop-up calming to be an instructor and teaching classes.


JustJesus said:
That hood pic made me cringe, it was so bad.
Click to expand...

Me too.

In fact, I wasn't sure it could be fixed as in some lighting it looked to have beginning clearcoat failure. This was truly an amazing restoration and the owners knew it and were blown away too.




custmsprty said:
HD Speed, all killer, no filler,
Click to expand...

Now that's a slogan.

If I use the above in the future I'll give you due credit. I'm going to share this on my Facebook Page and I'll tag Tunch and 3D. They should snag that slogan and also say thanks...

Only type it like this,


HD Speed - All Killer! No Filler!




custmsprty said:
amazing turn around Mike.
Click to expand...


I did the Test Spot to demonstrate the correct technique when using cleaner/waxes and then turned the students loose...


:)
 
What would have been total cost for product detail and cost for show car detail (you can includes steps and products I understand every market is different but a general view may be helpful.


(Answer: The couple that owns this car told me they paid $135.00 to a local detailer to get their car detailed. To me, it looks like the so called detailer used a garden rake to wash the car.)
 
215Detailing said:
What would have been total cost for production detail and cost for show car detail

(you can includes steps and products I understand every market is different but a general view may be helpful)
Click to expand...


Good question.

To figure out total costs you have to capture data at the time of the detail. This car was detailed a month ago and because it was at my class I did not capture data. I have before and shared it on this forum but not this time.

Basically,

Weigh your bottles before and after the detail and then do the math to figure out how much product you used and the cost per ounce.

Add wear-n-tear to your foam pads. Besides that each person can decide if they also want to factor in wear-n-tear n towels and tools. Most don't.


Good question Antti


:)
 
Mike, this was great, short demonstration on cleaner wax application, that still stands today.

I actually bought a bunch of these black pads, but in the flat version - because of this video. Thanks!




:D
 
Mike Phillips said:
Most people, that is most of your customers only want 4 things when they get their car detailed,

1: Shiny paint (this is different than 100% swirls and scratches removed)
2: Black tires
3: Clear glass
4: Clean looking and smelling interior
Click to expand...


This, more than anything, is what most people who want to detail for a living need to understand. A few years back I had a kid just getting into detailing who kept pestering me to "correct the paint" on my 20,000 mile 12 year old Porsche Carrera. I told him the car didn't need correcting. He continued to argue with me, pointing out some minor swirls and marks in the paint. Finally, I told him that I was well aware of the flaws in the paint, but I was unwilling to give up any amount of clearcoat just to correct them. (The car was Mirage Metallic; they didn't show unless you were specifically looking for them.) I did let him do a basic wash on my turbo Beetle and Z3, but he missed lots of basics and really didn't seem to be happy to have the work. I never used his services again.
 
As a user of the Flex 3401 and HD Speed I was still blown away by how good this car turned out. I had a great time in the class and hope to take it again some day.
 
KevinR said:
This, more than anything, is what most people who want to detail for a living need to understand.

A few years back I had a kid just getting into detailing who kept pestering me to "correct the paint" on my 20,000 mile 12 year old Porsche Carrera. I told him the car didn't need correcting. He continued to argue with me, pointing out some minor swirls and marks in the paint.

Finally, I told him that I was well aware of the flaws in the paint, but I was unwilling to give up any amount of clearcoat just to correct them. (The car was Mirage Metallic; they didn't show unless you were specifically looking for them.)

I did let him do a basic wash on my turbo Beetle and Z3, but he missed lots of basics and really didn't seem to be happy to have the work.

I never used his services again.
Click to expand...


Good story.

I teach in my class that when detailing for money, often times a new customer will TEST you with their "other" car to see how you do.

If you do a great job then they will let you detail their cool car. :)


If you fail their test... buh-by


:)
 
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