How do you do so much in so little time?

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

How do you do so much in so little time?


Recently I was sent an e-mail asking me how I'm able to do some of my detailing projects as fast as I appear to get them done.


Hi Mike,

You stated that you got to detail your Brother-in-laws truck and boat over the weekend and I was wondering what You meant by Detailing. I have a truck almost identical to the black Silverado but it is a 2019 GMC with the split tailgate. It takes me almost three days to detail it doing the inside and outside along with polishing it and applying a nice wax along with a wiper coat to remove dust and streaks at the end.

The boat (if I do the flats boat) would be another day to detail it. With everything I do, it takes 4 days. I must be doing something wrong if you can do both of them in 2 days since I am sure your detailing job is probably better than mine anyway. Could you explain to us novice folks how you can get that done in such a little bit of time? I'm thinking that I must be doing something completely wrong and over doing some steps.

Help please....novice guy is working himself to death and I still have an offshore boat to do along with a car to boot.

thanks,

T.



Below I will do my best to answer each of the questions to the best of my ability.


:cheers:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

First...

Here's the truck and boat detail he's referring to...



PBL Surface Coating over Dr. Beasley's Z1

Dr. Beasley's Z1 - Bass Pro Shops Nitro Z19 Bass Boat - Ceramic Coating Gelcoat

 

[axel06]

:dblthumb2: Mikes the man !

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

More....


And here's a slew of other new content I created while detailing the truck and boat.



SONAX PNS on Black Powder Coating Paint - Bass Shop Pro Boat Trailer


SONAX PNS or Polymer Net Shield

Using Solution Finish to Restore Running Boards - 2018 Chevy Silverado

Review: Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish - Exhaust Tip Polishing - RUPES Nano

BEFORE

AFTER

303 Aerospace Protectant on Bass Shop Pros Bass Boat

303 Multi-Surface Cleaner & 303 Aerospace Protectant

How to waterproof a vinyl tonneau cover!

I think that's it?

7 total pieces of new content from 2 projects.


Not bad...

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

More...


Okay, let me use the "quote" formatting function of a vBulletin forum to breakdown the questions and answer them....

You stated that you got to detail your Brother-in-laws truck and boat over the weekend and I was wondering what You meant by Detailing.

I have a truck almost identical to the black Silverado but it is a 2019 GMC with the split tailgate. It takes me almost three days to detail it doing the inside and outside along with polishing it and applying a nice wax along with a wiper coat to remove dust and streaks at the end.

By the word DETAILING

For the truck,

1. Waterless wash with SONAX Glass Cleaner - PJ did wash it at a Coin-Op before arriving.
2. Clay - Pinnacle Ultra Fine Clay
3. One-step paint correction using Dr. Beasley's Z1
4. Topped with PBL Surface Coating
5. Wheels cleaned and coated PBL Wheel Coating
6. Tires machine scrubbed with Pinnacle Rubber & Vinyl Cleaner and Conditioner
7. Exhaust tips cleaned and polished
8. Plastic trim treated with Solution Finish
9. Tonneau cover cleaned with 303 Multi Surface Cleaner and coated with Cquartz Leather
10. Interior vacuum and cleaned, all vinyl and leather treated with PBL Leather & Vinyl Coating, glass cleaned with SONAX Glass Cleaner

The entire detail took about 8 hours from start to finish on a Sunday. Helping me was my brother-in-law PJ and for the interior, my wife Stacy. Stacy is the BEST interior detailer on Planet Earth. No one compares.

By myself it would have taken another 3-4 hours.

The one thing that cuts down time is using a gear-driven orbital polisher for the paint correction step and also simply working fast. No messing around. No goofing off. No cell phone time except for taking pictures. All the pictures for all of the above write-ups were taken with my iPhone.


All I can say is I work fast. I'm a machine. Once I start I don't stop. I'll stop long enough to get a drink of water, but that's about the only break I take. My mom and dad instilled into me a strong work ethic. I started picking strawberrys and beans in the fields at age 5. I was horribly slow at picking strawberrys and hated it because you're always on your knees moving yourself and your crate along the dirt as you pluck the strawberrys out of the strawberry plants.

I didn't mind picking beans as you only had to get on your knees for the lowest parts. Beans grow up a vine about 5' tall. I think the last year I picked beans the farmer was paying 4.5 cents per pound. If you worked the entire season, didn't miss a day and kept all your tickets you could turn them in for an extra 1/2 cent per pound bringing the total to 5 cents per pound. On most days I could pick about 120 pounds. So without the end of the year bonus, I made about 5 bucks a day. My brother and sister did this with me and we all rode our bikes to and from the fields.

I didn't stop picking beans until I got a work permit at age 15 and got a job at a full service gas station. Back then I made $1.65 an hour. The gas station I worked at was incredibly busy. We had to wash ALL the windows. Check the air in all the tires and also check all the fluids. After I quit when I was senior in High School the gas station hired 2 guys to take over my shift, which was pretty much night shift Monday through Sunday.

My artificial leg does not slow me down. I know it's easy to think it's funny when I say I'm a machine, but I am part machine (my leg), and I've always been a hard worker. I just get in and get the job done.


Over this last weekend, I machine sanded a 1963 Porsche 356SC Cabriolet. Sure it didn't have a roof, but from start to finish I knocked it out in less than 10 hours.

Click here to see a video

The boat (if I do the flats boat) would be another day to detail it.

The boat was easy. First - it's brand new. The astro turf carpet was clean for the most part so nothing to do. The gelcoat finish was stained and swirled-out. There were also DA Sanding marks on the trailer. I used the Dr. Beasley's Z1 and the Supa BEAST - a GEAR-DRIVEN orbital polisher and just ATTACKED the boat with it.

If you click to my write-up, here's what I said about the time it took.

Fast and Easy

So this last Saturday, I coated the boat. I wanted to do a GREAT job for my brother-in-law because he's such a cool dude and has been such great friend to Autogeek over the years BUT I also wanted to make the job (work), as fast and easy as possible. While there's not a ton of real-estate like you would find with a Center Console boat like this one we coated recently, it is a somewhat complicated design to machine correct. The trailer fenders are also gelcoat and very curvy. Then there's the motor and also the front of the console as well as the driver's side of the console with all of it's gauges, switches and buttons.


8 hours

It took me roughly 8 hours to machine correct and then coat this boat working non-stop. And this was the fast and easy approach.

Looking back that seems like a long time but including the trailer, the fenders, the engine and seats - that's a lot to do. One thing for sure, it would have taken me longer if I would have goofed-off or got on my phone or even stopped working to talk to people.

With everything I do, it takes 4 days. I must be doing something wrong if you can do both of them in 2 days since I am sure your detailing job is probably better than mine anyway. Could you explain to us novice folks how you can get that done in such a little bit of time? I'm thinking that I must be doing something completely wrong and over doing some steps.

Help please....novice guy is working himself to death and I still have an offshore boat to do along with a car to boot.

thanks,

T.[/COLOR]


How long it takes to do any type of detailing job comes down to you and your tools. Also - having "processes" in place that cut out wasted time and wasted steps.


For what it's worth, when I teach my car and boat detailing classes - I do what I always call a,

Brain Dump


I share everything I know. This includes how to do things fast.

Over the weekend I shared how I turned 6" 3M Trizact #3000 grit sanding discs into 5" sanding discs by tracing around a 5" backing plate and then SIMPLY cutting the 5" disc out using a pair of scissors.

2 different people commented on my Facebook page about how they could do it better and make the "cuts" perfect for a perfect CIRCLE cut. Me? I don't waste that kind of time. It doesn't matter if your sanding disc is perfectly round. Duh. you're going to sand with it and throw it away. This is just one tiny example of how I do things fast, not perfect but still get great results.


Video - cutting 5" discs out of 6" discs


I PLOWED through the Porsche at break-neck speed. No mistakes. Everything came out exactly like I expected. Lots of short videos on the below on both my Facebook page and for those of you that HATE Facebook, also on my Instagram Page, (owned by Facebook) Links to my Facebook and Instagram pages are in my Signature Line. The Signature Line on a forum is the stuff at the bottom of every post.

So take heart, my guess is you're doing everything right and in a timely manner at a pace that works for you.


Thank you for asking these questions and I hope my answers shed some light on how I get things done as fast as humanly possible while maintaining pro grade results.



:cheers:

 

[John U]

Nicely done!

Wait until you retire and try to figure out how you ever got done as much as you did in a day!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Also....


If I don't appear to reply right away, I'm in the garage setting up for the big 3-day detailing class coming up in February.

This class will detail at least 15 cars including wetsanding at least 2 cars, maybe 3 cars. And the ONLY way we can get through this many cars, all the tools, products and techniques is if the classroom is set-up for


SPEED


MORE TOOLS THAN ANY OTHER CAR DETAILING CLASS


:buffing:

 

[Jacob Harrod AUTOCLEAN]

I can totally relate to this thread. It takes me forever and a daylight as well.

I usually spend all day just washing and decontaminating the vehicles I detail, and then I have to come back for the polishing step the next day. For me, blowing out emblems, cracks, crevices, door jambs, etc. definitely takes a lot of time. Then typically things like the wheel wells don't come clean despite my best efforts to be thorough I usually have to come back with APC and touch up the wheel wells, as well as small areas of the wheels that don't come clean with a waterless wash.

One thing I hate is to see a trickle of water coming out of a side mirror on the vehicle when I'm trying to apply LSP. That is super annoying to me, so I really try to make sure the car is mega dry. I need the more powerful blower such as the Master Blaster 8HP Revolution with the 30 foot hose.

Metro Master Blaster 8hp Revolution with 30 foot hose

In the case of heavier contaminated vehicle which is most of them I have to wash the car or truck twice to make sure its really clean. As I've had too many instances holidays especially on the lower panels and the underside of the side skirts, bottom lip, etc.

I find that rushing through invites in more problems in the future. I wish I could get a car washed in an hour. My only success with this has been when I do a waterless wash on a lightly soiled vehicle and only clean the face of the wheel.

Cleaning the barrel of the wheel definitely takes up a bunch of time as well.

The door jambs also take up a great deal of time as I clean them 3 times during the whole detailing process. First I usually clean them out with a foaming waterless wash, which tends to be a little messy, so I'm going to switch it up to a non foaming waterless wash like ONR, or the Wolfgang Uber waterless wash.

If they are really dirty then I have to carefully spray them out with water first, then do the waterless wash.

Then I come back with a guzzler during the drying process and wipe them out again. So this is cleaning number 2, and also at this time I touch up any areas such as the hinges and corrugated wiring insulation with steam as these areas are always a pain to get clean for me. Not to mention the time I spend inspecting with my swirl finder light.

The final step would be applying the protection to the door jambs. I like to use the 303 Touchless Sealant and then spread it out with my Tornador Black and distilled water, then blowing dry with my Metro Air Force Express. For my customers that purchace my higher level packages I do the protection phase with the Hybrid Solutions Ceramic 3 in 1 Detailer.

The wheels take up a lot of time too. I spent 3 hours on a lady's wheels one day as they were extremely contaminated and I had an under powered wheel cleaner for the task. I need to invest in some better wheel brushes for sure.

One other thing that I think would help to speed up my operation would be a warm water pressure washer, and also a nice water filtration system for a spot free rinse, and cleaning as well.

Maybe a light degreaser on hand for those wheel wells.

I call it plugging holes in the ship. You have to keep plugging those holes until your boat stays afloat! For me that usually means spending $300 - $500 at a time.

My operation gets a little easier as time passes and I refine my process, and get better tools.

Lighting is very important as well. I think that if you can get the car lit up enough that you don't have to move around lights all of the time that this also saves a great deal of time.

Also if you can run your cords and hoses in a way that you won't always have to be moving, untangling, or tripping over them I think this helps as well. I can remember I learned this lesson the hard way on my last detail. We'll see how many more times I have to learn it the hard way.

 

[2black1s]

From my experience it's the small details that comprise much of the total time.

Obviously, the more you have refined your process, have the right tool/product/set-up for the specific task, and the less "goof-off" time you engage in, the more efficient you will be.

But I still believe to this day, and probably always will, that it is "attention-to-detail" (ATD) that is the biggest driver of time. Defining the "fine-line" of when and where that "attention-to-detail" is warranted is key to making efficient use of your time.

I tend to be pretty high on the totem pole when it comes to "ATD", certainly higher than most but maybe not as high as some, and the result is that it will typically take me longer to do the same job than the next guy. Now you have to ask yourself, is the same job really the same job if the "ATD" you applied higher than the other guys? Then you also have to ask whether all of the applied "ATD" was necessary? Or was it wasted time on insignificant/non-critical details?

On a little side note - I have previously visited Jacob's facebook page and website and have seen some of his work along with his general philosophy regarding "detailing" there. I can say with near certainty that he understands the "ATD" that I'm talking about. He may even have me beat in that respect.

 

[Billy Baldone]

If you have never been in a class with Mike, let me tell you something, This man, flat boogies!!!! he moves like a Britney Spears backup dancer. Mike has 13 years on me and it looked at most times throughout the weekend, like 20 the other way. Definitely something everyone on this board should do before Mike wakes up one day and decides he wants to sail off to an island somewhere :dblthumb2:

 

[Jacob Harrod AUTOCLEAN]

From my experience it's the small details that comprise much of the total time.

Obviously, the more you have refined your process, have the right tool/product/set-up for the specific task, and the less "goof-off" time you engage in, the more efficient you will be.

But I still believe to this day, and probably always will, that it is "attention-to-detail" (ATD) that is the biggest driver of time. Defining the "fine-line" of when and where that "attention-to-detail" is warranted is key to making efficient use of your time.

I think this is some really good perspective!

I tend to be pretty high on the totem pole when it comes to "ATD", certainly higher than most but maybe not as high as some, and the result is that it will typically take me longer to do the same job than the next guy. Now you have to ask yourself, is the same job really the same job if the "ATD" you applied higher than the other guys? Then you also have to ask whether all of the applied "ATD" was necessary? Or was it wasted time on insignificant/non-critical details?

I hope you don't mind if I use your words to help to educate customers. I actually have a ring of fire event coming up on Thursday that I think this will be helpful with!

On a little side note - I have previously visited Jacob's facebook page and website and have seen some of his work along with his general philosophy regarding "detailing" there. I can say with near certainty that he understands the "ATD" that I'm talking about. He may even have me beat in that respect.

Brother, thank you so much for the compliments! Man I can't even begin to describe how much that means to me! Everything else you've written here has been very helpful as well!

Check out my slogan on my business card. I tie this in to every aspect of my business.

View attachment 72442

 

[2black1s]

I think this is some really good perspective!

I hope you don't mind if I use your words to help to educate customers. I actually have a ring of fire event coming up on Thursday that I think this will be helpful with!

Don't mind at all.

Brother, thank you so much for the compliments! Man I can't even begin to describe how much that means to me! Everything else you've written here has been very helpful as well!

Check out my slogan on my business card. I tie this in to every aspect of my business.

View attachment 72442

I knew you'd get it.