How to use a one-step cleaner/wax to maximize profits

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

How to use a one-step cleaner/wax to maximize profits


All too often I see people new to detailing get all caught up into performing elaborate, multi-step procedures to create show car finishes on daily drivers. Nothing wrong with this if you need experience or you're trying to showcase your talents. The problem however is that all too often you end up working for peanuts by the time you divide your time into your profits.


Below is an example of reducing your steps to a minimum while still creating dramatic improvement that will blow your customer away with the simple approach of using a one-step cleaner/wax.


Process

Step 1: Machine polish all exterior glass to remove road film and water spots.

Step 2: Clean and dress tires.

Step 3: Wipe vinyl top down and apply dressing.

Step 4: Wipe paint clean using clay lube.

Step 5: Clay paint.

Step 6: Clean, polish and protect paint using a one-step, cleaner/wax applied by machine.

Step 7: Machine clean and polish chrome at end of paint polishing process using same pad and one-step cleaner/wax.

Step 8: Wipe down door, hood and trunk jambs with a little cleaner/wax on a microfiber towel.
​

Done.
Less than 4 hours and I didn't rush. I didn't work slow but instead worked methodically through the above steps with each step building and/or adding to the forward progress of the previous step.


Car: 1970 Oldsmobile 442 Convertible W30


Before
This car is in good condition but the paint was oxidized and thus dull and lifeless. It was rough to the feel with contamination as was the exterior glass. A greasy tire dressing was used and it smeared over the white letters staining them black and brown. The chrome was stained with some type of film causing them to look dull instead of bright and shiny.

Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay formed into a patty ready to clay the hood...

The contaminants you see here are off just the hood. After claying the hood I clayed the trunk lid and then all of the vertical panels.

Paint machine polished using a polishing pad and a one-step, cleaner/wax...

After

Photography 101 - The low down front grill shot

The real deal
Yes, this is an authentic Oldsmobile 442 with the W30 package as you can see by the orange inner fender wells.

Tip: Have a detailing package for everyone
Regardless of how much this car is worth on the market, the owner doesn't know the difference between a squirrel or a swirl and didn't want to pay a lot to have it cleaned up. As a detailer you need to have a package for everyone to suit their needs, not yours. Or walk away and move onto greener pastures.


Newbie Mistakes
I see a lot of people new to car detailing that perform multiple step procedures to create a show car finish but at the end of the day have so much time, labor and materials into the job that they end up working for peanuts.

So work smarter, not harder and to do this start by evaluating your customer first and match your services to their needs, not yours. For more information on this topic, see tis article...

A few tips on starting a part-time detailing business
Match your services to your customer





On Autogeek.net
Below are the products I used for the above car...

Pinnacle GlassWork Water Spot Remover
Machine polished all exterior glass.

Pinnacle Signature All Purpose Cleaner
Cleaned old tire dressing off tires.

Pinnacle Clay Lubricant
Wiped exterior paint clean before starting and also used with detailing clay.

Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay
Decontaminated paint.

XMT 360 Corrects, Cleans, Seals
Cleaned, polished and protected exterior paint by machine, door, hood and trunk jambs by hand and chrome trim and bumpers.

Flex XC 3401 VRG Dual Action Orbital Polisher
For all machine polishing steps .

CCS 6.5 inch Pink Cutting/Polishing Foam Pad
For all machine polishing steps.

Optimum Opti-Bond Tire Gel 32 oz
To dress tires and vinyl top.

 

[Marc Hufnagel]

Timely article, gives thought to the concept! Thank you.

 

[Hoytman]

Sounds like the car was relatively clean to start with if you used the clay lubricant as a wipe-down wash before claying.

Of course, a person needs to make an evaluation on how to wash/clean the paint and in this instance the clay lube was your method/choice. I suppose you arrived at this determination by:

1. The age of the vehicle. (In this case a classic car; not really wanting to introduce an excessive amount of liquid that could drain into inaccessable areas and could potentially cause rust.)

2. Level of dirt on the paint.

Is this correct?

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Sounds like the car was relatively clean to start with if you used the clay lubricant as a wipe-down wash before claying.

Of course, a person needs to make an evaluation on how to wash/clean the paint and in this instance the clay lube was your method/choice. I suppose you arrived at this determination by:

1. The age of the vehicle. (In this case a classic car; not really wanting to introduce an excessive amount of liquid that could drain into inaccessable areas and could potentially cause rust.)

2. Level of dirt on the paint.

Is this correct?

You're correct.


This car was garage kept but neglected for years. I don't normally wash classics but instead wipe them down. Don't want to introduce water into places where rust can form.

Remember, this wasn't a show car detail, it was a one-step production detail. The fact that it's rare wasn't the primary consideration, I would do this same type of thing to a Toyota Camry or a Ford Focus.


:dblthumb2:

 

[Bamafire]

Mike good Information, this is something I have to keep in mind, thank you for the information. I have been using your audio set "the art of detailing". I'm refining my approach to a detail job.

 

[AeroCleanse]

Remember you don't have to take every job. If you learn how to use a rotary polisher you can probably cut down the time. I have used D151 with a wool pad over the whole car which took a couple of hours. The results were perfect.

Now if you want a show car shine on a daily driver, go for it.

 

[Sunshyne]

good info Mike, I recently added 360 to my arsenal

 

[gamagreen]

Mike always great & helpful

JAZAKALLAH

 

[jwellsii]

Thanks for the write up Mike, great info!!!!:buffing:

 

[Dougw4355]

I have been considering using cleaner wax's more often to maximize my profits as well..Instead of all the extra steps

 

[Dougw4355]

Your process mentioned using cleaner wax and same pad as used for applying wax,,to buff the chrome?

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Mike good Information, this is something I have to keep in mind, thank you for the information. I have been using your audio set "the art of detailing". I'm refining my approach to a detail job.

Good to hear, getting both head knowledge plus time behind the buffer is the best way to grow...

Mike always great & helpful

JAZAKALLAH

Thank you sir...

Thanks for the write up Mike, great info!!!!:buffing:

Thank you sir!

I have been considering using cleaner wax's more often to maximize my profits as well..Instead of all the extra steps

The key is to use both quality products and try to use foam pads to finish down nicer instead of cutting pads either foam or fiber PLUS don't promise the moon for doing production work with one-steps.

Your process mentioned using cleaner wax and same pad as used for applying wax,,to buff the chrome?

Yes. Think about it... the paint on this car was neglected, oxidized, contaminated and stained with dirt. Paint gets dirty, that is dirt embedded "on" the paint and "in" the paint, see my article here,

How to remove stains and embedded dirt out of paint



Paint Staining
Sometimes you'll hear the word stain or staining when talking about the condition of the paint. Another term would be embedded dirt.

So where does the dirt come from? It's embedded in the microscopic surface imperfections of the paint. Here's a brand new white foam polishing pad next to the single pad I used to machine apply the Optimum GPS.

By the time I buffed out all the paint the single pink foam polishing pad I was using was toast. It was a torn up and dirty, perfect for buffing out chrome. I should have taken a picture of it.


Tatty Pads for Rough Work
Point being, safe your tatty pads for doing rough work like polishing old chrome bumpers like this car had, in places the chrome was pitting, for sure the pitted areas would chew up a NEW, NICE foam pad so don't waste a good pad for doing rough work.

Chrome on Classic Cars
If you haven't buffed out lots of classic cars with chrome bumpers, here's a little insight, often times the chrome on the lower side will become rough with pitting or the beginning of pitting and this will chew up foam. Wool pads are great for buffing out old dirty, stained chrome and because the fibers that make up a wool cutting pad are COARSE (as compared to foam), they do a great job of abrading the chrome surface to clean it up.

Wool Fibers Cut (there's supposed to)
I didn't want to do a one-step using a rotary buffer or a wool pad because there were already some thin spots on high points from the other guys that have buffed this car out in the past and wool fibers by themselves are a type of abrasive and can remove a lot of paint very quickly. For the same reason a wool pad offers greater and faster defect removal, (it's aggressive and abrasive), these characteristics also tend to leave cuts in the paint, that is each of the individual fibers that make up a wool pad will cut the paint and the wool pad by itself can leave holograms in the finish.

This article is to share with you the "idea" of,

• Reducing time by only doing one thing to the paint after normal protocols.
• Use a softer "polishing" foam pad instead of a cutting pad, (foam or fiber).
• Reduce the risk of instilling holograms from the fibers of a wool pad.
• In this specific example, reduce the risk of burning through thin paint on raised body lines.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

One of the classes I'm teaching at this year's Mobil Tech Expo is titled,


Detail Faster with the Flex XC3401


One of the key points Ill be going over is the importance of reducing your time on the paint polishing aspect of any job.

While it's fun to do multiple step procedures for show car results you need to match your services to your customer's needs.

See this article for more information...


A few tips on starting a part-time detailing business
Match your services to your customer

 

[zckid]

thanks for sharing Mike :dblthumb2: most appreciated.

i've been struggling to find a pricing strategy for detailing services in our small island. Most people here are unaware of what detailing is. The best for me is to take the one-step cleaner/wax route. :iagree:

i've created my facebook page. Here it goes.

Got some inquiries, they all ask about price, not waht can be done to their cars.


Thanks again for your invaluable help. God bless u. rops:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

thanks for sharing Mike :dblthumb2: most appreciated.

No problemo...

I would recommend reading this article too...

A few tips on starting a part-time detailing business
Match your services to your customer



If you get and read Renny Doyle's book on how to start a detailing business you'll find Renny, Jason Rose and myself all say the same thing in this book and to paraphrase what we say is to NOT get all caught up into doing multiple step show car detailing work for people that own daily drivers as it's not going to be profitable for you and it's really a disservice to the customer as most people don't know the difference between a squirrel and a swirl.

The difference between a swirl and squirrel

 

[TundraPower]

I agree with this 100%. I would say almost all of my customers are thrilled with a car that looks "really nice". They don't know and can't see the difference between "really nice" and "off the charts". Even if they did they wouldn't want to pay for it. All-In-One products rock. Everyone wins!

 

[zckid]

yea u r right :iagree:

 

[DaC]

I'm having a hard time learning this lesson, anyway... already got some D151 here with me, and now I guess it's just meet my work to my client....
I can say some people won't consider giving their cars to me because they think I'm trying to sell the same job the guy on the corner does for 1/4 of the price.

 

[Mike Burke]

Mike ,

just qureouse about your choice to use the CCS pad.

Is there an advantage useing these pads ?

Thanks

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Mike ,

just qureouse about your choice to use the CCS pad.

Is there an advantage useing these pads ?

Thanks

I used the CCS because at this time this foam formula is not available in a flat surface design. If it were available in a flat surface or flat pad design I would have opted for it over the CCS but that' just because I'm a flat pad guy...

Both work. If you go to the CCS page on the AG store it lists many benefits to the CCS design.


:xyxthumbs: