Horrible way to wash a car but.......

mpm

mpm

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I was out drumming up business for myself and I had a general manager from a local new/used car lot ask me about washing every car on his lot. Its about 100 cars and he doesn't expect any miracles. Basically I'll be knocking the dust off the vehicles and drying them a little bit. The price per car is very low but I am considering it just to make a paycheck you know. This is not the kind of work I want to be known for in my area where I live and if I had enough business to skip the offer I would. But, I do need to make a living and my mobile business is still new.

My question is what would be the best product to add to my water tank that will run thru my pressure washer that might protect the paint on the cars a little? I'm thinking some ONR in the tank and I'll use a water blade to remove a majority of the water. Thats really all he is asking for. The price per car is so little that I won't be able to wipe the cars down much if any.

Please don't crucify me. I know this is wrong on so many levels but I gotta earn a living.
 
I don't see anything wrong here.The customer is asking/paying you to do is just perform a basic quick wash. I would just pressure wash the car with soap and rinse.

Can't really give you product advice though.
 
Shiny Lil Detlr said:
This sounds like a job for a foam gun. Something like:

Autogeek Foam Cannon HP, foam lance, foam wash gun, pressure washer foamer

That way you don't have to contaminate the tank or your pressure washer by adding any product to it directly. Just the foam attachment has any product in it, leaving your water source available for other uses beyond just washing duties.
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I agree..

Hit them with the foam gun
Wash with mitt
Rinse
Dry with Leafblower

5-10 min, done!
 
get a foam gun and foam an entire line of cars!! that would look awesome!!! haha.

i say dry with metro vac/blower...

do they need to be dried? the water you are using, does it leave spots? how contaminent (sp?) free and filter'd is your water?

shoot, with a foam gun and very good filtered water, ora metro vac/blower, you could do a car every 10 minutes.
 
I would use production grade car soap (cheap and easy) in a foam cannon to hit multiple cars at a time, follow by a quick rinse then hire a kid to dry the cars for a small price. Give him a water blade and a chamois, it should only take 5 or so minutes per car.

One guy foams and rinses, the other dries. Depending on the price per car, you should come out on top.
 
find a place that will fill up your tanks with distilled water so you dont have to even dry these things off that much. One less step equals more money.
 
JonMiles said:
Give him a water blade and a chamois, it should only take 5 or so minutes per car.
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Yes, but a kid likely won't care/tell you if he accidently "drywiped" a part of the car on accident. The dealership owner will find all the scratches on a area of the car, and then the OP will get blamed for it, and may have to pay for the damages, which may/will likely cost more than he was paid in the first place.
 
This kind of work is normally done by somebody with a pressure washer mounted on a trailer with a water tank and a drying additive in the water. I think 100 cars is quite ambitious.
 
I used to work at a few dealerships, and if you ask me, using ANY soap is a waste of your money. Pressure washing them alone may be enough. You are NOT detailing the lot.
How many cars are on the lot?
How often does the manager want them washed?
 
About 100 cars on lot. 70% new the rest are used. I can take a few days to do the whole lot. Will probably want them washed once a month. They have a lot boy that really doesn't do a good job on the trade ins. I'm thinking I might ask the manager if I can borrow the lot boy to help with drying I will do it.

Would some ONR in the tank help if I do skip the soap part?
 
Most business's that spray car lots use only water and a chamois, thus the DISO is started lol.
 
I also do some car lots and use the trailer/washing unit. Dealers here want nothing more than to rinse & dry the cars as they aren't being driven & need to look good while sitting.

Soaping the cars doesn't make any sense unless the cars are extremely filthy. Typical settled dust is easily removed with the pressure washer and then either chamois or blown dry. In my case I use soft/filtered water for the simple fact that the water will not leave behind hard water spots.

Even with this process to finish a car in 5 minutes isn't likely ........ within 10 is. Besides, the majority of dealer's going prices for this type of work is anywhere from 1.30 - 4 per vehicle depending on the volume and frequency of cleaning. It sounds like a very small amount, but it is indeed what dealers are paying on an average in most cities.

Something to keep in mind about doing these types of jobs is that this mass washing is going to turn out to be your bread & butter when the private detail jobs start to become scarce or infrequent. Do a good job and eventually you'll find that others will want to use your service for their lots and you'll have another completely different venue of detailing available as a source of income with some regularity.
 
That's rough! So the max he's going to make is $400 to clean 100 cars? I'd rather be working for the man, sorry. Doing the math, at 10 minutes per car, that's 6 cars per hour. $4 per car times 6 cars an hour is $24 an hour. At that rate, I wouldn't be soaping any of those cars or you'll barely make any profit after the cost of the water, chemicals, gas, tools, Uncle Sam's cut unless you aren't claiming any income, etc... Doing the math at $1.30 per car, those cars can stay dirty before I get insulted with $7.80/hr.

Mark
 
Y2KSVT said:
That's rough! So the max he's going to make is $400 to clean 100 cars? I'd rather be working for the man, sorry. Doing the math, at 10 minutes per car, that's 6 cars per hour. $4 per car times 6 cars an hour is $24 an hour. At that rate, I wouldn't be soaping any of those cars or you'll barely make any profit after the cost of the water, chemicals, gas, tools, Uncle Sam's cut unless you aren't claiming any income, etc... Doing the math at $1.30 per car, those cars can stay dirty before I get insulted with $7.80/hr.

Mark
Click to expand...

As mentioned earlier ........... this type of business survives on volume and nothing else. Still, some money is better than no money however you want to look at it.
 
mpm said:
About 100 cars on lot. 70% new the rest are used. I can take a few days to do the whole lot. Will probably want them washed once a month. They have a lot boy that really doesn't do a good job on the trade ins. I'm thinking I might ask the manager if I can borrow the lot boy to help with drying I will do it.

Would some ONR in the tank help if I do skip the soap part?
Click to expand...


If you ask me, a FEW DAYS to do the lot is a waste of your time and product. Who wants half of their lot washed? Do a quick drive by with the pressure washer and call it a day. This way, if it comes down to it, you could do a few lots a day, not one.
Most dealerships don't care if the lot cars are spotless, they want to move them ASAP. Once the car has been serviced and detailed, most salesmen or managers could care less. I have spent enough years working at dealerships and have learned that the amount of time you spend on a car does not matter, they want as many cleaned up as fast as possible. that is why I no longer work at dealerships.
 
Shade Tree said:
I also do some car lots and use the trailer/washing unit. Dealers here want nothing more than to rinse & dry the cars as they aren't being driven & need to look good while sitting.

Soaping the cars doesn't make any sense unless the cars are extremely filthy. Typical settled dust is easily removed with the pressure washer and then either chamois or blown dry. In my case I use soft/filtered water for the simple fact that the water will not leave behind hard water spots.

Even with this process to finish a car in 5 minutes isn't likely ........ within 10 is. Besides, the majority of dealer's going prices for this type of work is anywhere from 1.30 - 4 per vehicle depending on the volume and frequency of cleaning. It sounds like a very small amount, but it is indeed what dealers are paying on an average in most cities.

Something to keep in mind about doing these types of jobs is that this mass washing is going to turn out to be your bread & butter when the private detail jobs start to become scarce or infrequent. Do a good job and eventually you'll find that others will want to use your service for their lots and you'll have another completely different venue of detailing available as a source of income with some regularity.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info ShadeTree. The dealer mentioned $2.50 per car. I'm going for $3.00/car. Thats averaging $18/hour if I can do one every 10 minutes. My wife actually mentioned she would help me. Thats free labor. Well kinda free because being married isin't free(and certainly not easy) but she was nice to offer the help. My business is so new that my detail jobs are sometimes infrequent but its growning monthly and this job will help.

Thanks to everyone for the input. I really appreciate it.
 
mpm said:
Thanks for the info ShadeTree. The dealer mentioned $2.50 per car. I'm going for $3.00/car. Thats averaging $18/hour if I can do one every 10 minutes. My wife actually mentioned she would help me. Thats free labor. Well kinda free because being married isin't free(and certainly not easy) but she was nice to offer the help. My business is so new that my detail jobs are sometimes infrequent but its growning monthly and this job will help.

Thanks to everyone for the input. I really appreciate it.
Click to expand...

Anytime.

GL! :dblthumb2:
 
In my area dealers want to pay $1.00 per car. People that do it for a $1.00 a car can do a car in 3 minutes.
 
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