Charge for a good friend?

basko93

basko93

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I have a buddy that saw my show car after two days of detailing and wants me to do a paint correction,polish,sealant, wax on his show car. Problem I do not do this for a living and not sure what to charge him.His car has very good paint but has swirls and some spots that may need a little wet sand to the clear, base coat clear coat ppg. The car is a 1969 chevelle with vinyl top. What do you think. P.S. just paint work.
 
Well, if he is a close friend, why not do the car together? Teach him the processes and make a day of it. Both of you may get more out of that than a monetary transaction. He buys the beer though.
 
He wants me to do it so I can earn some extra money, he does not want to be bothered with it and would rather be installing a new ls motor in his other car.
 
I don't know if this helps much but yrs. ago I used to paint houses. All my friends at one time or another would want me to paint their houses. Since they were good friends and would help me out if I ever needed it I would give all of them a straight 50% discount on labor. They had to paid for paint and materials but at my contractors' discounted price.
 
With a lot of my friends I tell them if they help me do their car I'll do it for free
 
If I am doing a car for a friend I try to talk them into helping me/learning.

If they are not interested in helping or learning the process, and continue to try and pay me then I charge them. I always try to give a good friend a discounted rate.
 
Since he doesn't really want to mess with it, see if there is something he has of value, or some skill, that he could possibly trade for your services?

If not, giving him a flat % "discount" might not be a bad idea.

On the plus side- you're working on a beautiful car, thats in good condition, for an owner who will appreciate it. Not to mention, you'll also be helping out a friend and getting your name out there. It's really a win-win-win situation!
 
Definitely a discount, but what is a job like that worth? Ya this question is tricky cause he is a friend, but I have to shoot him some kind of number?
 
basko93 said:
Definitely a discount, but what is a job like that worth? Ya this question is tricky cause he is a friend, but I have to shoot him some kind of number?
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Why don't you give him an hourly rate? You need to decide whether you are going to charge him 10 or 20 or 30 an hour though.
 
basko93 said:
Definitely a discount, but what is a job like that worth? Ya this question is tricky cause he is a friend, but I have to shoot him some kind of number?
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Hard to put a number on it. Some pro-detailers charge big bucks for full details. How much would a paint correction and detail cost in your area from a local detailer or car wash?

I did a paint correction, polish and seal on my friends Shelby and charged him 150 and took me 8 hrs.

30 an hour sounds fair.
 
I've detailed many relatives & friends cars for free. Well, almost free. I usually ask them to BBQ while I work or to wine and dine me (burger, fries and a coke). The most I've charged is $40. I told them that was to cover supplies. Difference between your situation and mine may be that I almost always do a one-step correction (using an AIO). Hope this helps.
 
Ya, I was thinking 150.00, 200.00. I guess it depends on how hard it would be to correct his paint. My paint, i thought was soft cause my 3401 either took nothing off the clear or made more scratches, I think it is to hard? Had to go back to rotary as nothing i did worked. My car took me two days to correct and I am still not 100 percent happy.
 
I've charged aprox 1/2 price. Sometimes they will buy a round of golf at a nice course or dinner or etc.
 
I think it also depends on your FRIEND. In my world there are a lot of people that I call friends but not many that I would call TRUE friends...those that I am very close to. If it is a true friend, I would detail it for free but more than likely they will push money onto me or buy whatever polish or compound I mentioned that I wanted or needed more of.

For a friend I would discount them. "The Homie Discount" something like 30-50%. You don't want to charge too little because then he will show up with 10 other cars and want the same price (Once again this depends on the Friend). Or you can just be upfront and tell him I want $$this much, but I am only doing this specially for you...since you're my friend. Basically giving a clause so you don't get abused.

I specialize in car repair, and I've "hooked up" a friend before, and he turned around and told EVERYONE about it, and then all of my friend's wanted the same deal (I gave him a price that I was hardly making a dime). This was very nice of me, but if I spend all day working on FRIENDS' cars for free, I will be out of business shortly.
 
basko93 said:
He wants me to do it so I can earn some extra money, he does not want to be bothered with it and would rather be installing a new ls motor in his other car.
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A gift certificate from Autogeek



p@
 
Generally I charge about half the normal price. Unless the interior is really nasty....I hate nasty interiors! :mad: Or one of my friends does lawn care and we'll swap...I detail, he takes care of my lawn stuff!

*and to address the other people flocking for a cheap detail problem, these are my good friends and understand theyre getting a deal and never tell other people what they paid...or they tell me the normal price*
 
You say you do not do detailing for a living, so I presume this is a hobby for you. I detail as a hobby and at any given time have several friends' cars on my "waiting list." I don't charge, even for products used. I just ask them to donate to a non-profit if they are happy with my work. So far the benefit to a couple of my favorite non-profits is several thousand dollars.
 
just do it for free, and just ask him to spread the word (this pushes you to do a good job as his vehicle will be a showcase of your skills) and basically his car will be your advertisement, and if he has friends then they will be referred to you and you can charge them since they arn't your friends...but as far as your friend, don't charge him...
I've washed/clay/polished/wax/clean wheels and dress tires for family and friends and never charged a penny.
 
AdamsImport said:
For a friend I would discount them. "The Homie Discount" something like 30-50%. You don't want to charge too little because then he will show up with 10 other cars and want the same price (Once again this depends on the Friend). Or you can just be upfront and tell him I want $ much, but I am only doing this specially for you...since you're my friend. Basically giving a clause so you don't get abused.

I specialize in car repair, and I've "hooked up" a friend before, and he turned around and told EVERYONE about it, and then all of my friend's wanted the same deal (I gave him a price that I was hardly making a dime). This was very nice of me, but if I spend all day working on FRIENDS' cars for free, I will be out of business shortly.
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This is what you need to be careful about! ^

I usually charge no more than $80 for families and friends vehicles. I usually only do an AIO or a one step polish. But for a full paint correction I would definitely be charging more.
 
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