How long should it take to properly wash a car?

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Silverhorse84

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Hi Everyone,

I am planning out the launch of the mobile wash and detail business. I am thinking about offering a basic and a slightly better than basic wash in addition to my regular detailing options at different price points. For those that have been doing this for a while, I have a couple how long should it take to wash a far and dry it off. I washed my own car by hand in the past, but wasn't really concerned about time. In a production environment, time equals money.

Two questions:
- How long should it take to wash a car, clean the wheels, and dress tires?
- What kinds of car wash shampoo and wheel cleaners yield the fastest and best results

I don't want to price myself out of the market, but I still want to be able to make a profit. I'm starting to see that supplies and chemicals can add up pretty quickly especially wheel cleaner chemicals.

Feed back please

Thanks,

Silverhorse84
 
if you really push it, you can turn a car round in twenty minutes. personally, my most basic valet is 1-2 hours and i charge accordingly. I'm not looking to compete with the guys up the road doing it for less than half what i charge. quality takes time and my clients appreciate that. you also need to take a look at your competition locally and offer something better.
 
Niblick said:
if you really push it, you can turn a car round in twenty minutes. personally, my most basic valet is 1-2 hours and i charge accordingly. I'm not looking to compete with the guys up the road doing it for less than half what i charge. quality takes time and my clients appreciate that. you also need to take a look at your competition locally and offer something better.
Click to expand...

Great advice. Don't be the low baller who will work for pennies. Show ATTENTION TO DETAIL and PROFESSIONAL SERVICE, and you will attract the kinds of clients you will actually want to work with, not the cheapskates who want you to do everything for nothing. Know what your service is worth, and charge for it.
 
For a basic wash here are some cheap products that work great.
-Wash: Megs Hyper Wash
-Dressing: Chemical Guys New Car Shine
-Wax: Your choice but colinite 845 lasts forever as a little bit goes a long way. But a spray wax like Megs D156 is also a great choice.
-Wheel cleaner: IronX on bad wheels Megs APC on normal wheels

A basic wash should take about 30min to an hour. However, every one is different. Im sure there are guys in here that can whip one out in 15 min and others might say 2 hours. To determine where you stand wash your own car and see how long it takes.
 
brondondolon said:
For a basic wash here are some cheap products that work great.
-Wash: Megs Hyper Wash
-Dressing: Chemical Guys New Car Shine
-Wax: Your choice but colinite 845 lasts forever as a little bit goes a long way. But a spray wax like Megs D156 is also a great choice.
-Wheel cleaner: IronX on bad wheels Megs APC on normal wheels

A basic wash should take about 30min to an hour. However, every one is different. Im sure there are guys in here that can whip one out in 15 min and others might say 2 hours. To determine where you stand wash your own car and see how long it takes.
Click to expand...


Thanks, I was thinking 30 to 60 minutes for the basic wash with more of an emphasis on being closer to the lower end of the range considering that I am doing just the exterior only as part of the basic service. The concern that I have is that for the market area that I am planning to go into, it seems that it is saturated with guys that are doing to many services in a basic level wash for dirt cheap prices when the services should be included in the higher level detail packages. Not to mention that they are also driving very far to deliver those basic level services. With fuel prices and poorer fuel economy when pulling a fully loaded trailer, I'm not sure how I'd would be able to follow suit and charge the same prices.

On another note, I actually got some of the Hyper Wash, but haven't used it yet. I bought it because the product description said that it only takes like 1 ounce to a 5 gallon bucket of water. It seems a bit unreal to me, but I bought some to give it a shot. Any truth in those ratios? Sounds awesome and like it could save me a lot of money on my variable expenses for running the business.
 
Silverhorse84 said:
Thanks, I was thinking 30 to 60 minutes for the basic wash with more of an emphasis on being closer to the lower end of the range considering that I am doing just the exterior only as part of the basic service. The concern that I have is that for the market area that I am planning to go into, it seems that it is saturated with guys that are doing to many services in a basic level wash for dirt cheap prices when the services should be included in the higher level detail packages. Not to mention that they are also driving very far to deliver those basic level services. With fuel prices and poorer fuel economy when pulling a fully loaded trailer, I'm not sure how I'd would be able to follow suit and charge the same prices.

On another note, I actually got some of the Hyper Wash, but haven't used it yet. I bought it because the product description said that it only takes like 1 ounce to a 5 gallon bucket of water. It seems a bit unreal to me, but I bought some to give it a shot. Any truth in those ratios? Sounds awesome and like it could save me a lot of money on my variable expenses for running the business.
Click to expand...

I am awful when it comes to measuring lol. I never do it. I will say this though a little bit does go a long way.

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using AG Online
 
Just used hyper wash today, best soap I've used yet! The suds are amazing
 
All of my soaps are no more than 1 oz per 5 gallons, unless it's paint cleansing time.

Do you mean 30-60min spent washing? Don't forget about set up and clean time.

Always quality over quanity. Someone who bangs out a car in 15 minutes, is doing it too fast. I can't WW or RW and dress a car that fast. I'd be too worried about micro scratching. Let alone, set/clean up times.
 
Clean inside of wheels and face, exterior cleaning with 2 buckets, hose down then dry and spray wax your looking at 45 minutes for me. That's after I completely detailed the outside and water completely sheets off. Haha

45-50 for me

-Jordan
 
Pretend you're in a rush. That's what I did on a 2014 Civic I washed the other day.

Except I actually WAS in a rush, lol!
 
I did a white 2002 Honda Odyssey last Saturday and it was filthy. The wheels were black from brake dust and there was tar and bugs all over the front and down the rocker panels/lower doors.

Took me 2-3hours just to wash.

I'm just not very fast. I think I pay too much attention to details and work myself right out of profit.

It ended up a total of 7-8hrs because I clayed and used D151 just to "wax".

I was beat afterwards...
 
Dereksdtail said:
Just used hyper wash today, best soap I've used yet! The suds are amazing
Click to expand...

:xyxthumbs:

Good to hear. I will likely keep this a my go to wash for my entry level wash service just to keep my margins high and work on getting my speed up so that can do more basic washes per day.
 
Grifffx4 said:
I did a white 2002 Honda Odyssey last Saturday and it was filthy. The wheels were black from brake dust and there was tar and bugs all over the front and down the rocker panels/lower doors.

Took me 2-3hours just to wash.

I'm just not very fast. I think I pay too much attention to details and work myself right out of profit.

It ended up a total of 7-8hrs because I clayed and used D151 just to "wax".

I was beat afterwards...
Click to expand...

Ouch! Those are the kinds of things that I worry about running into when I start washing and detailing at the beginning of next year. Are your customers pretty receptive to being a charged a fee for excessively dirty vehicles? I see that a lot with some most of the competitors' websites that I check out. I plan to do the same if there is a good chance that my basic fee won't cover my time to address the extra filth on a customer's car, but I know that people don't like fee of any kind in most situations in life.
 
Niblick said:
if you really push it, you can turn a car round in twenty minutes. personally, my most basic valet is 1-2 hours and i charge accordingly. I'm not looking to compete with the guys up the road doing it for less than half what i charge. quality takes time and my clients appreciate that. you also need to take a look at your competition locally and offer something better.
Click to expand...

:iagree:

Good advice. I'll definitely keep it in mind. My concern is that sometimes I can be a bit of a perfectionist and don't want overwork and price myself out of profitability as a result. I think it will just take some time while working smarter with good chemicals that clean effectively.

Thanks for the tips.
 
KMdef9 said:
All of my soaps are no more than 1 oz per 5 gallons, unless it's paint cleansing time.

Do you mean 30-60min spent washing? Don't forget about set up and clean time.

Always quality over quanity. Someone who bangs out a car in 15 minutes, is doing it too fast. I can't WW or RW and dress a car that fast. I'd be too worried about micro scratching. Let alone, set/clean up times.
Click to expand...

I agree with your train of thought. I definitely want to do a good job so that I can earn the business of repeat customers. I was thinking 30-60 minutes total time to get set up, perform the service, and clean up any messes that I've made.

Since you mention micro scratching, do you have a technique to avoid it? Or, does it just come down to taking your time and using high quality microfiber towels that don't scratch the paint?
 
brondondolon said:
For a basic wash here are some cheap products that work great.
-Wash: Megs Hyper Wash
-Dressing: Chemical Guys New Car Shine
-Wax: Your choice but colinite 845 lasts forever as a little bit goes a long way. But a spray wax like Megs D156 is also a great choice.
-Wheel cleaner: IronX on bad wheels Megs APC on normal wheels

A basic wash should take about 30min to an hour. However, every one is different. Im sure there are guys in here that can whip one out in 15 min and others might say 2 hours. To determine where you stand wash your own car and see how long it takes.
Click to expand...

Is the IronX cleaner safe if you get it on your hands or arms? Also, does it stain concrete driveways? I was looking at buying the Meguiar's wheel brightener since it is so cheap for 2 gallon-sized containers, but noticed in one of the reviews that it was pretty aggressive, can stain concrete, and not environmentally friendly which is a big deal in some local areas and communities.
 
I rarely look at time and how long a certain stage takes me, ive had a car properly washed on 20 mins. But ive also had the vehicles that take 2 hours to wash and dry.. depends on how extensive your wanting to go.

Sent from my PC36100 using AG Online
 
FOCUS.FREAK said:
Clean inside of wheels and face, exterior cleaning with 2 buckets, hose down then dry and spray wax your looking at 45 minutes for me. That's after I completely detailed the outside and water completely sheets off. Haha

45-50 for me

-Jordan
Click to expand...

Thanks. Good to know.
 
On my 2012 Chevrolet Cruze it takes me right at 2.5 hours from setup to teardown. The car is washed weekly so it's dirty but not terribly filthy.

Here's what is included in the detail:
Vacuum interior
Wipe interior with quick detailer
Clean and apply protectant to leather seats
Clean wheel faces and barrels, wheel wells
Clean and dress tires
Rinseless wash
Clean door jambs, hood and trunk jambs
Spray wax
Clean all glass inside and out
 
I have a Fiat 500 Abarth, so its a small car but a tallish car, so it may not take me as long as some others here. I always do a rinseless wash, clean the tires, wheels and wheelwells out and ofcoarse dry and wipe down the jams. The time it takes me, about 45 minutes from start to finish.

Sent from my SPH-M930 using AG Online
 
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