Anyone ever feel defeated after a detail job?

DETAILROOKIE

DETAILROOKIE

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Today I defeated by a Mini Cooper and a Dodge Ram. My customer is selling both cars and wanted them to look as clean as possible. I tried Mckees APC, 3D Orange degreaser, and Tuff Stuff, nothing helped it come clean. I moved on to Folex and went to town with a brush followed by Mckees APC once more and that was the best combo. 3 hours later, i felt like i made only a small dent fighting these stains. I could not take a lot of after pictures since i lost sun light right before i was done.

What could i have done to make this job a little easier? I do have a carpet brush for my PC and 3D carpet shampoo, but i did not take it since the customer said "it is not that bad". Lol

Anyone else feel defeated after a job?



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You have to love people that abuse their vehicles then seek out a detailer when it comes time to sell it and want it dressed up. Those pictures are exaclty why I have only bought one used car in my entire life.

Even with a hot water extractor their is only so much you could do with that train wreck.

Their is a term called wicking in carpet cleaning. You only really ever get the surface dirt out of badly abused and stained carpet like that and eventually the risidual dirt wicks to the top.
 
I agree, I have one purchased one used car and that is my classic bandit that I am restoring. I was shocked how dirty a car could be and that they told me it was not that bad! I would hate to see what bad looks like to them!

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Before you started you should have set the customers expectations in reality so you would not have felt defeated. If a person lets it get that bad they should replace the carpet to make it look "NEW". Your work looked more than satisfactory.
 
So far, never had to clean anything like that. I am pretty expensive though, so most of my clients have very nice cars and they usually maintain them.

If it were me, I would have explained to the owner that the carpets might be stained and would not clean up completelly. Also, I would have put a variable cost for extra work needed. I normally tell them that if I have to go over the normal time it takes to do the detail (depends on vehicle size) I charge 40$ per hour for the extra time with a maximum of 2 extra hours.

Second, get yourself a brush you can put on a drill. I use the one for Cyclo polishers and simply put it on my battery powered drill. It makes working carpets much easier. As for the carpet itself, if Meguiar's APC is not cutting it, try using a laundry stain product like Shout. It usually does wonder on hard to clean fabrics and carpets.

I don't own a heated water extractor, but that can be very helpful if you have one to remove the dirt from the carpet. I use a very small extrator (Bisell Green Machine) and I put hot water in the tank. But it's not very effective on carpets compared to a real extractor.

I don't think I would quit a job, I would do the best I can and let the owner know that is the best that can be done for the carpets. But that is up to you. If you think someone else can do a better job, and you don't mind wasting your time trying to clean that mess, you can always stop and let the owner take the vehicle elsewhere.

I think the important is to explain what can and cannot be done BEFORE the work starts. If you set expectations too high, you can have a disapointed customer. But if you explain that when the condition is that bad it might not come back to a look like new condition, the owner knows before hand and can't really fault you if you can't get it 100%.
 
Calendyr got it right. I do the same in terms of the $40 charge only I've never thought about putting a 2hr max. Good idea all around though. That car is pretty bad and while I have seen some come out pretty darn nice, that one would be a challenge for anyone unless they want to spend hours upon hours or better yet, pull the seats and carpet completely out of the vehicle.

Honestly, depending on the condition of the car and selling price, as the new owner, I'd simply buy a replacement and install it myself.
 
Carpet cleaning is a lot more in depth than people think. You have to know what the stains are, then attack with a chemical especially for that. Most of the time, people have no idea what the stains are and it's not easy knowing what chemical works on specific soiling. I have a steamer and your basic carpet cleaner. That's the extent I go to when cleaning carpets. If that doesn't work, so be it. I had a car that had heavy white stains that looked to be paint. My steamer would not budge the stains after a couple passes, so I left it. It did bother me, but then again, I'm not a specialized carpet cleaning service. Hang in there.
 
It looks like you gave it hell man. In the third picture, I got a chuckle, owner lets the interior get filthy. But yet has a dash cover.
 
Probably bought the dash cover to hide an even worse dash!
 
Thanks everyone for the support!! Gotta learn that not everything will come out perfect. The customer called me to tell me how thrilled he is with how the cars came out and wants me to do 2 more. I will be jacking up the price and asking for pictures this time! Lol

The dash had a cover because there was no dash! Lol it had all cracked and crumbled he said, so he took it off. Of course it was filthy, so i vacuumed the dust under there too.

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Just have to have the right tools.Picking will occur on those seats.After cleaning crank up the heat and micro rub the excess dampness.
 
Yeah I had one a few weeks ago. Black 2013 G37x coupe in for correction and coating. Turns out most of the car had been repainted from what I could see. The paint was ungodly soft and no matter what I did could not keep from towel marring. Knocked off a bit off the price and explained what was happening. Still came out ok but inside I felt upset and defeated. If you work on cars long enough something will come up.
 
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