Average time to polish a car (2wice) with 3401?

m4gician

m4gician

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Hey guys,

For the purpose of giving an estimate, how long would it take to polish a medium sized car (nissan maxima/toyota camry) twice over with menz sip and 106ff with the flex 3401?

I have LC and Sonus pads.
 
m4gician said:
Hey guys,

For the purpose of giving an estimate, how long would it take to polish a medium sized car (nissan maxima/toyota camry) twice over with menz sip and 106ff with the flex 3401?

I have LC and Sonus pads.
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Time will vary so it can average anywhere from 4 hours to 8 hours to polish a car that size. The amount of time spent polishing will depend on machine speed, pressure, outside temp. humidity, condition of the car, etc....
 
I was thinking 4 hours minimum with Flex, thats about what my Vette takes with SIP/106FF. With PC it took about 6 hours to do correctly.
 
I did a Honda Civic yesterday with the 3401 and 106ff. It took about 4.5 hours for polishing (1x with white pad, and 1x with gray). I probably could have been done sooner if I was using SIP as there were quite a few areas I had to go over twice/three times to remove swirls.
 
Really depends on the condition of the paint 4+ hours
 
4+ hours eh? Okay, that sounds reasonable.
 
Hell, I'd block off a whole Saturday and Sunday...you never know what you'll run into. Of course, I'm frikkin slow so take that with a grain of salt.
 
Wow, unless you have very nice paint to start off with that easily cleans up I would be hard pressed to finish a 2 step polishing job in under 10 hrs. 4-5 hours is flying! how do you guys break down your polish that fast and yet still remove the swirls.
 
conan777 said:
Wow, unless you have very nice paint to start off with that easily cleans up I would be hard pressed to finish a 2 step polishing job in under 10 hrs. 4-5 hours is flying! how do you guys break down your polish that fast and yet still remove the swirls.
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I agree, but then again it shows you who knows how to actually detail a vehicle correctly.
 
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WOW 4-5 hours , but then that is on a cured paint job . Last time I did my show car (black ) spent nearly a week . But as one person mentioned that he is slow , so am I and I would have to take breaks to calm down and diagnose what step to do next .
 
This is a hard one to say, without knowing the condition of the paint. I would say 6-9 hrs and that's if everything is working out fine, and if the customer wants a perfect finish then i say see you in a couple of days.........
 
ASPHALT ROCKET said:
I agree, but then again it shows you who knows how to actually detail a vehicle correctly.
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I may not have the experience of many on this forum but I've certainly detailed enough cars to say I know what I am doing. I have tried speeding up my process many times and tried different polishes,pads, and amounts of polish all in different combos and always found that when I tried going too fast the end result was less than stellar correction. Now if a customer just wants a quick turn around and isn't looking for a perfect finish then fine but in that case why bother with a 2 step? you could get away with just doing something like SIP and go LSP???

zoomzoom mazda5 said:
This is a hard one to say, without knowing the condition of the paint. I would say 6-9 hrs and that's if everything is working out fine, and if the customer wants a perfect finish then i say see you in a couple of days.........
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:whs:absolutely
 
conan777 said:
I may not have the experience of many on this forum but I've certainly detailed enough cars to say I know what I am doing. I have tried speeding up my process many times and tried different polishes,pads, and amounts of polish all in different combos and always found that when I tried going too fast the end result was less than stellar correction. Now if a customer just wants a quick turn around and isn't looking for a perfect finish then fine but in that case why bother with a 2 step? you could get away with just doing something like SIP and go LSP???


:whs:absolutely
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I think you took my post wrong, I was agreeing with you as far as needing more than 4-5 hours for a two step polishing. Was commenting on others, once again I agree with this post also.
 
2 stage takes so long for me to do. how much do you guys charge for a two stage polish that goes over 10 hours?
 
haha...i'm right there with you on the slow part. Actually I think I'm too particular. Hey if your gonna do it do it right.
MadOzodi said:
Hell, I'd block off a whole Saturday and Sunday...you never know what you'll run into. Of course, I'm frikkin slow so take that with a grain of salt.
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BoredBuffer said:
2 stage takes so long for me to do. how much do you guys charge for a two stage polish that goes over 10 hours?
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Typically $400-$500 (give or take). Depending on how much over the 10 hours I go.
 
BoredBuffer said:
2 stage takes so long for me to do. how much do you guys charge for a two stage polish that goes over 10 hours?
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I can't charge over 10 hours if I'm doing it with the 3401, just because it's not a TRUE rotary. I can imagine with a rotary it would take what, 25% less time with a rotary? Or am I wrong to say that?
 
i would agree that you could allow for a whole weekend. i just spent 3 hours on the hood and fenders of a small passenger car!
 
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